Reluctant (Heroes of the Highlands) (The MacKays #3) by Kerrigan Byrne Page B

had exacted his own revenge by killing the previous cruel Banshee Queen, thereby installing her handmaiden, Tah Liah, as the new sovereign.
    In order to keep and maintain the happiness of her sisters, their mates, and her beloved Clan, Kamdyn had pledged her immortal soul to the Banshee Queen as sacrifice so Kylah could live with the Druid she loved.
    It was all a kind of strange, interwoven knot of destiny. Kamdyn had a distinct impression that the knot was completing itself to form something eternal.
    “Keep yer coin.” Rory tossed it back. “This Soren, Laird of Shadows, is indiscriminate in his plunder and destruction. He’s raided the MacKays and MacLauchlans alike, along with the McLeods, Keiths, Ross, Munroe, even as far south as Clan MacKenzie. He’s created twice the problem for me, because every time he raids a Sutherland, I get blamed for it.”
    Rory was currently embroiled in the flare of a centuries-long dispute with the neighboring Sutherland clan. It seemed every time conditions with the English improved, the Sutherlands turned their war-like ways back toward the MacKay, lusting after their fertile lands and bounteous ocean.
    “It is our fault Soren was unleashed upon the Highlands,” Finn insisted. “In fact, the fault mostly lies with me.”
    “How so?” Daroch’s hazel eyes sharpened with interest.
    “To shorten a long story, I came here from the Berserker temple of Freya in the Northlands to join my brothers,” Finn explained. “The others believed that the blessing of the Berserker should not abide in Scotland, and so they sailed here to slaughter us and our mates, ensuring that they’d eliminate our line.”
    Kylah gasped. Kill the women, too? Just for loving one of these extraordinary men?
    “We defeated those who would not submit to us, and have had the Berserker temple under our control all this time. Though during the battle on the long boat, Soren was knocked into the sea, and somehow he survived.”
    “And has been a thorn in Scotland’s arse ever since,” Connor groused.
    The Banshee Queen held up her hand. “So to mitigate more bloodshed, you request that I send a Banshee to kill this man, Soren?” Her white robes glistened with her movement, sending a shower of tiny frost flakes to the floor. Her crystal eyes took in each of the men. “What do you offer in return for this life?”
    Roderick stepped forward. “We figured you’d be interested in reclaiming the Fae relic he has plundered, though if you require aught else, we should be able to provide it.”
    The queen seemed to take longer than necessary to consider, though the frost about her aura began to swirl in excited flurries. The men started shifting with impatience, but none of them dared to speak. Kamdyn knew that Tah Liah measured everything very carefully with the unhurried manner of an immortal. So she settled in for the wait, wondering who would be chosen to kill the villain.
    “I am very much interested in regaining this relic,” the queen stated in a voice that conveyed little to no interest at all. “I will send my own handmaiden to procure it, and rid you of this Lord of Shadows.”
    “It’s Laird of Shadows,” Daroch corrected the Banshee Queen in a voice full of derision. He held little fear or respect for the Fae and was therefore unable to help himself.
    Kamdyn felt like a fish pulled from the sea. Her eyes bulged and her mouth opened and closed without drawing any air or making any sound. She couldn’t remember once ever taking a life. She had always been the sort to take a spider out of doors to save it from her sister’s boot. She’d cried for days when they’d had to eat one of their hens during a particularly long winter. In fact, she’d refused to eat meat for months in protest of the senseless slaughter. As a Banshee, it was understood that she’d been supposed to kill an evil MacKay Laird, but she’d always been secretly thankful she didn’t end up having to. Now the queen was