Highlander's Beloved 02 - A Highlander's Passion Read Free Page A

tried so hard to suppress.
    “Just as I thought.” Effie set her cup down and settled back against a pile of cushions. “You need me as much as I need you. I’m going to help you to stop blaming yourself for your husband’s death.”
    “ ’Tis craziness. I was in the hospital when Duncan was killed. I’d just miscarried.”
    “True, but his abuse toward you had caused you to miscarry and you wanted him to pay. So you recited a chant you’d heard growing up with a witch, a spell your aunt Una often used.”
    Kenzie swallowed. A buzzing started in her ears and numbness tingled in her hands. “How…how could ye ken that?”
    “What I’m about to show you involves a great deal of trust. Yet I’ve been told you possess excellent qualities.” She shook a bony finger at Kenzie. “Don’t you disappoint me.” She placed her thumb and index finger against one of her eyes and popped a contact lens onto the finger of her other hand. “Look at me, Sparrow.”
    The American had one blue eye and one brown eye, just like Kenzie.
    A startled gasp escaped her lips.
It canna be.
In an almost unconscious gesture, her left hand trembled as it extended so her fingertips touched Effie’s. In unison, they recited an ancient rhyme.
“With one blue eye to rule the sky,
    An eye of brown controls the ground;
    Magic swirls within our souls,
    Cryptic, mystic, spiritualistic.
    To protect the weak from evil’s effect,
    Elements guide us, ever bind us.
    A band of witches scattered wide
    From Warlock Morpheus we must hide.”

Chapter 2
    Effie kissed Kenzie’s cheek. “Sparrow, my little sister. The elements have brought us together. I’m not sure why yet, but the reasons will be revealed when the timing’s right.” She popped the contact back into her eye and blinked it into place. “I’ve been directed to lead you on the journey into your calling. To enlighten you by sharing what I know.”
    Kenzie pressed her fingertips to her temples. “I need a few minutes to absorb this. Believe me, yer being Wiccan was the verra last thing I expected.”
    Effie held her teacup to her lips, ready to sip its contents. “Take your time, dear. I was almost your age when I floated into otherworldly consciousness, although it was more of a slamming than a gentle drift. We’d just gotten home from Woodstock and everything was groovy, until I realized the responsibilities that came with my powers. Sometimes I was called to heal, and at others to protect. I recall it as being damn scary.”
    Kenzie stood, her mind swirling as her feet propelled her to the bank of windows overlooking the wooded hills behind the house. She needed some distance. The pink-haired American—the one everyone laughingly called a “bit teched in the head”—was a witch just like her, from the same coven. The Protectors. Guardians chosen to protect and serve those too young or weak to care for themselves.
    Hadna she spent a good deal of the previous night at the hospital guarding a little asthmatic boy, Paden? The four-year-old could barely catch his next breath, his thin cheeks hollowing with each labored effort. His lips tinging blue like the sky on a spring morn. How her heart had gone out to him. Once visiting hours were over, she’d used the back stairs to reach Paden’s room again, telling him Scottish tales and sifting her fingers through his dark hair until he’d fallen asleep. Using her powers, she’d touched his frail lungs, healing them with strength harvested from her own until his lungs normalized. The gift of her powers always astounded her…and now this.
    The fingertips that had touched Effie’s seconds earlier still tingled from the arc of electricity that zigged and zagged between the two women as they recited the aged words. She rubbed her fingers together to ease the heat pulsing within. Kenzie glanced over her shoulder at Effie sipping her tea. A witch. The old woman, with her sweet, wide-eyed goodness, didna look any more like one