Fire's Ice Read Free

images his mind would never let go, he ran across the empty battlefield toward ruins of the high stone walls of Glen McLoch.
     

 
    Chapter 2
     
    Scotland–Glen McLoch, three years later
    Devin slipped his keys into the pocket of work-worn blue jeans. Three years. Three long years it had taken to build the new McLoch keep on the grounds of the original castle. Magic would have shortened the time frame some, but he’d wanted to have a hand in building his home. His hands, nimble with long fingers, a thief’s hands, both clever and quick, were covered in tiny scars and calluses. He’d watched every stone, every brick set into place, nursed blisters and bruises.
    He stood in the front hall, a little disoriented at first. Devin had designed the home to mirror the one he’d lost so many years ago, but now looking around at the finished result, a new heartache reached out and snared him. Finally home, but it was like a ghost surrounding him. His father and mother, sisters, even the servants lost to the battlefield and time. Maybe he should have died in battle alongside his father.
    No. Not true, just a melancholy thought. He would never have met his dear friend Serena–another lost soul–or Jack, never have found Liv and the others. Funny, he hadn’t minded being alone before, craved it sometimes. Now the silence drove him mad.
    Empty. Alone. “Well, not completely alone. I still have you, Tessa.” Bending down, he picked up the fat, spoiled black cat meowing at his feet and scratched behind her ears. “Dinner time for you, is it?”
    Tessa batted his shoulder twice, meowing her impatience loudly in his ear.
    “Salmon it is, then.” Walking into the kitchen, Devin took a piece of fresh salmon out of the fridge for the feline and laid it in her food dish. “Enjoy, kitty. Last one you get this week. It’s diet kibble for you.”
    The cat stuck out her tongue, gave him her back and began to wash her feet. Typical, but he loved the little diva. Tessa had found him on the same snowy day he’d returned to the ruins of his keep. The scrawny little kitten roaming around the rubble couldn’t have been weaned from her mother more than a couple of weeks. Figuring she’d either been abandoned or wandered away, he’d planned to find her a home. Perhaps with Allie, but then she’d climbed up his shirt with tiny claws, snuggled into the groove of his neck and purred her way into his heart.
    Leaving her to her dinner, Devin waved a hand as he walked down the hall, setting all the lights blazing, allowing their warmth to fill the empty spaces. He passed the door to the kitchen and made his way into the great hall, up the stone staircase leading to the second floor. The original castle steps didn’t have handrails, just an open fall to the slate below. Remembering the littlest members of his new clan, Devin began to conjure a rail of iron twisted into the shape of draping ivy as he climbed the stairs, keeping the bars only a couple of inches apart. Couldn’t have one of the kids or the kitty taking a fall.
    Turning left off the second floor landing into his bedroom, he sat down on the bed, slid off his work boots, and left them on the floor beside the nightstand. He’d done as he pleased here too, adding modern conveniences to mix with the old style of the home. Dark blue drapes covered energy efficient windows and blocked out the night sky. The dresser and wardrobe were ornately carved works of art, even a little feminine, but mixed with the bold chocolates, reds and navy colors of the bedding and rugs they worked and suited him perfectly.
    Moving into the en suite, Devin loosened the buttons of his shirt and walked across the heated tile floor to turn on the shower. He stripped off his filthy work clothes, thankful he could finally retire them, stepped under the hot stream of water and closed the frosted glass doors. Turning another knob, he let the hot water pound his aching muscles from every direction, glad he’d