One floor beneath them, men roared for Circenn.
Ignoring the summons, he said, “I would not have had it come out like this—not now, when I have no choice but to race off to battle. You must believe that I have never lied to you, Lisa. Believe in me and await my return. I promise we will speak of it all then. I will answer any questions you have, explain everything.” He sighed, rubbing his jaw. His eyes were dark with emotion. “I love you, lass.”
“I know. I can feel it.” She inclined her head stiffly. “You do love me. If I hadn’t blown up so quickly, I would have sensed your feelings and realized that all this aside, you harbored no intent to harm me.”
He heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank Dagda for our bond.”
“Go on,” she said, encouraging him to reveal the dark secret that was yet untold. As Circenn moved toward the entrance she realized he’d misunderstood her words.
He looked askance when she didn’t step aside. “I must reseal the chamber, lass, before I can ride out. I promise to let you examine it to your fill upon my return.” He moved toward her, edging her back into his chamber.
“No,” Lisa said quickly. “I meant go on and tell me the rest.”
He stopped moving reluctantly. “I thought you meant that I should join my men and we would speak of this upon my return.” He noted her tense jaw, her unyielding gaze. “What else do you sense?” he evaded.
“Something that terrifies me, because it scares you, and I suspect that anything that causes you fear would crush me. There is something you aren’t telling me that your fear cloaks. You must tell me, Circenn. Now. The quicker you tell me, the more quickly you may go. What are you hiding from me?”
He drew a deep breath. “Adam, who gave me these oddities”—he gestured sweepingly—“could return you to your time. I did not tell you that because it was pointless. Recall that I swore an oath to kill the bearer of the flask?”
She nodded.
“Adam is the one I swore the oath to.”
Lisa closed her eyes. “In other words, the only person who could return me would kill me first. All right. What is the other thing?”
He looked at her with an expression of innocence she didn’t buy for a moment. “I can still feel it, Circenn. You haven’t told me the biggest thing.”
“Lisa, I will tell you all, but now I must get to Stirling.”
Conveniently—it must be part of a male timing conspiracy, Lisa thought—Duncan bellowed Circenn’s name with obvious frustration.
“You see?” Circenn said. “The men await me. It will be a near race, Lisa. I must go.”
“Tell me,” she repeated evenly.
“Doona make me do this now.”
“Circenn, do you really think I could bear sitting here for weeks wondering what other fantastic fact you’ve been concealing? It would be torture for me.”
Circenn’s hands clenched around the gun.
“I will follow you on horse, if I must, right into battle.”
A pregnant, tense silence filled the space between them.
The continued bellows of the men below heightened her tension. Whom would he heed? His men or her? Lisa felt her heart pounding. He licked his lips and started to speak several times, then stopped, averting his gaze. When he finally spoke, his voice was tight and weary.
“My mother was a Brude queen who was born five hundred and seventy-odd years ago. I am immortal.”
Lisa went as still as the stone walls around her. She blinked rapidly, deciding she must have misunderstood. “Say that again.”
He knew which word she needed repeated. “Immortal. I am immortal.”
Lisa stepped back. “As in live forever, like Duncan McLeod—the Highlander?”
“I doona know this Duncan McLeod, lass. I was unaware there was another like me. The McLeod have never spoken of such a man.”
Lisa could not speak for a moment. “Im-immortal?” she managed in a dry whisper.
He nodded. He thumped the stock of the gun on the floor in response to a particularly furious summons.
Rejecting the absurd possibility, Lisa reached for him emotionally. Her incredulity was squashed with one firm draw on their bond.
He was telling the truth. He was immortal.
Or at least he believed he was.
Could he be deluded? After a moment of reflection, she discarded that possibility. A person would know if he had lived five hundred years—it wasn’t exactly something one could overlook.
Not looking at her, he continued, “I discovered I was immortal when I was forty-one.”