"Shaw, what the hell do you mean she's burning in her own mind?" Coll asked gripping Fiona tighter.
Shaw could hear his brother-in-law in, but he couldn't answer. He was still trapped in the image in Fiona's mind. His sister had been suspended in mid air with flames all around her. There were black phantoms flying all around her and whenever one of them touched her it burned her skin. She was being tortured inside her own mind. He had to find a way to rescue her before it was too late. Before there was nothing left of his beautiful sister.
"Shaw, dammit snap out of it and answer me!"
"Cailean's trapped her in hell, or at least what all the stories depict hell as. It's a burning fiery pit, with black phantoms flying every where, burning her wherever they touch her." Shaw stood on wobbly legs.
"I don't know if it's a spell or if he's somehow really sent her soul to hell, either way she believes she is there."
"Oh God," Coll choked out. "He's taken everything from me, my wife and my baby girl."
Shaw watched as Coll gently lifted Fiona from the floor and held her close. He looked imploringly at Shaw.
"We need to stop him, I don't care if I die trying, but I will get our baby girl back and kill my brother if it's the last thing I do."
With that vow, Coll left the room, Shaw assumed to take Fiona to their chambers.
"Uhhh," Bran groaned behind him.
"Shit, Bran," Shaw stumbled over to his brother, angry with himself he had forgotten his brother was injured as well. Who knows what Cailean had done to him?
"What happened? Jesus, my bloody head hurts." He reached up to help his brother sit up and Bran jolted eyes wide in surprise.
"Am I dreaming then?" The surprise slowly leaving his brother's eyes replaced with caution. "Or is this some sort of dark magic?" Bran stood then and backed away.
"Syn!" Bran yelled. "Where the hell are you?"
"Bran, what the hell is wrong with you? It's me Shaw, your brother." Shaw tried to move towards his brother and was met with the point of Bran's sword.
"No, you can't be, my brother is in hibernation until his mate is reborn to him, you must be an evil changeling! Coll!"
Shaw heard steps running towards them. Coll burst into the room only to stop short and look at Shaw confused.
"Bran?" Asked Coll. "Why are you holding your brother at sword point?"
"That is not my brother!" he yelled back. "Dammit Coll, you know very well Shaw is gone until Maggie is reborn, where is Syn? We need her help to dispatch this cretin!"
"Shaw, what the hell is wrong with him?"
"I don't know, he just woke up this way." Shaw watched with as Bran's gaze flitted back and forth between him and Coll. "Bran, what year is it?"
"It's the year of our lord, 1744 of course."
"Oh no," Coll groaned. "Shaw this is bad, really bad."
Shaw slowly moved towards Coll and leaned towards him. He already knew what Coll was going to tell him, but the news still felt like a sucker punch. That bastard Cailean had wiped all memories of the last 270 years so Bran had no idea his mate was dead. No knowledge that hunters had destroyed the entire Valkyrie race. How in the hell was he so powerful and was this mentor of Cailean's really the devil? Was that really who he was taking his niece to meet?
Shaw felt as though he was failing his clan and his family all over again, just like in the past when he'd killed his father. It was Bran that had saved him, it was always Bran…
Scottish Highlands in the year 1710…
He'd been fighting a savage beast and so sure that he didn't need any help. He'd thought he was so wise at the ripe old age of sixteen. He had been young and stupid, and this fact became apparent when the feral beast tore off his sword arm. The loss of that arm had nearly gotten him gutted. His arrogance had killed his father.
His father, Duncan, had tracked Shaw to protect him knowing that he was too young and no match for the feral wolf.
The monstrosity plucked Duncan's head from his shoulders with the ease and the sound of a cork as it's removed from a bottle.
He had watched helpless as his father's body fell limply to the ground in a pool of blood. The beast callously tossing away the head. It had settled facing him, so he'd stared into his sire's lifeless eyes.
The last thing he remembered, ere the black void overcame him, and agony woke him, was the beast's claws buried deep in his neck and his brother appearing out of nowhere to strike the creature down, before it could part his head completely from his body.
"Shaw!" Coll sounded panicked. "Jesus Christ comeback I can't deal with this colossal shit show on my own."
He slowly returned to the present to realize he was sitting on the floor again. What had happened?
"You did that white eye thing again." Coll explained. "Only you were talking the whole time. Your father wasn't your fault."
Had he spoken aloud?
"Yes, and you still are?"
Shaw stood. These visions or whatever they were, they were fraying his iron chains. These were memories that had almost destroyed him. That night and the ones that followed were the reason that he kept his feelings in a vault. It was the knowing he was at fault, that he didn't deserve to be Laird, which was so unbearable. Sometimes he thought Bran should have let it kill him and taken over as Laird.
"Shaw, you can't think that way." Coll said with sympathy.
"Coll, I bloody well told you that isn't Shaw, I would be able to read his mind if it was!"
"Bran, bloody hell, you don't need to read his mind he's telling you everything that's in there anyway!"
"Coll are you daft!" Bran shouted. "He isn't saying a bloody thing, he's just standing there like he's touched in the head!"
"Bran, what are you talking about brother?" Shaw asked.
"It speaks!" Bran quipped. "I thought maybe you were a golem and your master just abandoned you."
"Bran, he wasn't speaking truly?"
"No Coll he truly wasn't speaking."
"Shaw, what is going on?" Coll asked. "I know exactly where your mind was, it was like I was there with you the night your father was killed."
"Coll, I have been in the dark about everything since the moment I woke up."
Shaw had a burning sensation in the middle of his chest and reached up to rub it away. He touched a hard circle in the centre of his chest. He grasped it and his world spun and went black. He heard a shout and strong arms held him before he could hit the floor again.