Redeemed (Heroes of the Highlands) (The MacKays #2) by Kerrigan Byrne Page B

picked up a bowl. “This is the first year I’ve really been able to cultivate enough of it to be useful.”
    “What’s it for?”
    Daroch took a tightly worked leather bag from his robes and a smooth wooden scoop, and began to patiently transfer the contents from bowl to bag. “Look,” he murmured, holding up the substance that ran from the scoop a touch slower than honey. “It’s a rather complex polymer emulsion that’s made of the tree’s sugars, proteins, starches, tannins, and resin. Mixed with other elements, it can do a vast number of things, not the least of which is protecting other substances from water and erosion.” He moved to the next bowl where she crouched. “It could be of great use to me.”
    Bending toward her, he reached for the bowl, bringing their faces dangerously close.
    Kylah stumbled backward, as though to avoid the contact and the bowl beneath the tree behind her tipped over, the contents spilling onto the ground. She snatched her hand away and hissed, cradling it to her body.
    Their gazes collided. She began to tremble.
    “What just happened?” he asked very slowly, his heart rate flaring along with the fear in her eyes.
    “I-It burned me,” she whispered, very slowly extending the quivering hand out to him. “It burns still.”
    Daroch barely heard her for all the roaring in his ears. He knelt beside her and reached for her injured hand. He turned it over in his palm studying the effects of the substance. The soft blue glow was nearly indistinguishable now and the pink, irritated flesh of her dainty hand was as corporeal as his own. It seemed as though she’d immersed the entire thing in the Arborlatix . On any other matter, the substance would have stuck like a glove, but not Kylah. When she’d snatched it away, none of the stuff adhered to her hand, but the result was extraordinary.
    He could feel her skin. It was as soft as he imagined it to be. He ran a thumb across her palm and, though it was cold, it was real .
    She gasped and tried to jerk it away.
    “How bad does it pain ye, lass?” he asked.
    “I-It’s not like fire, but it burns and stings fiercely… and itches.” She flexed her palm and affixed her worried gaze on him. “What will it do to me?”
    Daroch had no idea, and he tried to keep the concern from his features. “Is it getting worse or better?”
    She waited, wiggling her fingers. “Better, I think.” Her mouth was touched by a tremulous smile. “You touched me.” Kneeling closer to him, she lifted her hand to his face, brushing her feather-light fingers over that tattoos on his cheek. “I can touch you.”
    Daroch closed his eyes. He’d thought any touch from Kylah MacKay would go straight to his cock, but it didn’t. It settled in the empty chamber of his chest and lodged there.
    “Do you know what this means?” she whispered.
    He knew what he wished it meant. “But wouldn’t dipping ye in the entire lot be exquisitely painful? I very much doubt ye’d like—”
    “Nay, Daroch.” Her eyes glimmered with bleak sadness and unshed tears. Her chin quivered and her breath caught on a silent sob. Not one of wonder, but of dread.
    The knowledge knifed through his lungs, rendering them useless. This discovery changed everything.
    “It means that now you can kill me.” Her trembling intensified. “You may claim your vengeance.”
    “Stay here,” he gently commanded. “I’m going to get ye something that might soothe yer skin.” Daroch’s mind raced through the possibilities and his blood thrummed with excitement as he turned and followed the line of the hill to the mossy swamp where he would find what he needed.
    After all these years.
    Kylah wasn’t exactly a full blown Fae creature yet, only a specter of their magic. If the Arborlatix had this strong of an effect on her, then he could only imagine what it would do to an actual Faerie. If contact with the stuff created such a reaction, then a weapon coated in it could do incredible