"Maggie," Shaw coughs, wet and painful. "I'm sorry, mo stor," he gasps trying to draw air into is fluid filled lungs. His body has betrayed him. He is drowning in this godforsaken room, his wolf abandoned him. His family surely convinced that he was already dead. He shivered uncontrollably the fever raging through his body. A cool cloth wiped his brow, a gentle touch.
"Maggie, my darling, I will join you soon."
"Shaw, open your eyes and look at me!" She demanded. He complied he would do anything for her.
His eyes opened and he stared into her once again beautiful face. Alabaster skin framed with raven black hair.
He reached out one unsteady hand and cupped the side of her face, to his surprise she leaned in.
"Shaw, you must wake up. This isn't real. Open your eyes and see, believe!"
"I believe, my love."
"If you believed, your wolf would come, you don't believe, you have given up!" Her eyes seemed to glow with green fire. "You need to fight, dammit Shaw. Fight for me!"
"Aye, I will fight to the ends of the earth for you."
Gasping he sat up and looked around the room. Still in the dark dungeon, but no Maggie, and curiously no fever. Shaw shook his head and stood, confused. There was no pain in his leg, or any of his wounds for that matter. Bloody hell, how long had he been down here!
"Only a few hours," Came the answer to his question. Had he spoken it out loud?
"Aye, ye did." The voice spoke again followed by a rustle of fabric and Angus emerged from the corner of the room, out of nowhere it seemed.
"Angus," Shaw spoke his name, voice filled with confusion. "Where did you come from?"
"I have been here the whole time Shaw, I never left." Angus explained snapping his fingers a chair materialized from the air and Angus plopped into it, clearly exhausted. "This was supposed to be your punishment, but bloody hell, I don't know if it's the magic bloodlines or something else, but it seems to have been more punishment for me than for you."
Shaw sat down on the floor at his feet and looked up at Angus.
"Sir, I am not sure what you mean?"
Angus barked out a short, humorless laugh.
"Of course, you don't," he sighed. "Let me explain what happened in the last few hours."
"I had sent my best warlock in here, to cast a delusion spell. To make you think you were slowly dying alone and in pain. It didn't work, it was like the spell bounced right off you. He called me down, and together we cast it using blood magic, which shouldn't have been necessary, but it was. Still, you broke through, and your wolf started to come forward. You did have wounds, my men beat you, but your wolf came through enough to heal them. It wasn't until you spoke with Maggie, that I suspected what was happening. My own daughter was blocking us from the grave, protecting you. So now young Shaw, you will tell me what happened and why she would do this?"
"To be honest sir, I don't know why she would want to protect me, it's my fault she's dead. I failed to protect her and now she's gone."
"That isn't an explanation."
"It was my plan to kidnap her, to make you suffer for what you clan did to Cailean."
"That lowly dog..." Angus shouted but stopped when Shaw held up his hand.
"Sir, Maggie told us what he did, it explains why the charm on the peace treaty wasn't enacted, what I can't figure out is why it wasn't when we took Maggie or for that matter when Cailean took that girl's innocence."
"It wasn't designed to punish the many for the act of the one, it should have when you took Maggie though, I am not sure why it didn't, finish the story and perhaps it will tell me."
"Every time I got near Maggie my wolf would go crazy, it started at the peace meeting and the more time I spent with her the worse it got. Until I couldn't control myself or my wolf and I marked her." Shaw finished quietly and looked down at his hands. "Cailean, took her and burned her before I could get to her. With her dying breath, she tasked me with bringing you this." Shaw reached up and loosed the leather strands from around his neck and passed Angus his daughters' medallion.
The minute that Angus touched the medallion there was a flash of white light and Angus became rigid. Shaw watched as the man's eyes rolled back to show only the whites glowing eerily. It was but a moment and all was as it was before as though it never happened, and Shaw had imagined it all.
"She was your mate," Angus spoke softly as a single tear slid down his weathered cheek. "And you were hers." He looked up at Shaw, eyes full of unknow emotion.
"Aye, she was my mate, I didn't realize you also had mates."
"We do, not quite like the wolves, more like a mixing of the blood magic and a joining of souls." He chuckled. "Explains why it was so difficult to cast against you."
"Blood magic?" Shaw asked, confused again. "Joined souls?"
"Aye, when Maggie made this medallion," Angus paused. "And Hecate only knows how she did it without coming into her full powers, she put a piece of her soul in it and because you had marked her, she could join it with a piece of your soul, by placing your blood on it, you were injured yes?"
"Aye, bastard tipped his sword with silver."
"And yet you heal already with no scar? Is that usual for a werewolf?"
"No, it isn't, at the very least I should carry a nasty scar from it." Shaw rubbed his side where there should have been a wound yet, to find it healed and painless.
"That would be your blood magic, Shaw." Angus stood preparing to leave.
"What good does it do, she's lost to me now, by my own fault."
Angus slowly turned and stared at Shaw with a perplexed look on his face.
"Shaw, you recall we are a clan that is reincarnated?"
"Aye, I recall, but I am a werewolf, I am not reincarnated, and I will eventually die."
"Oh, my we do have a lot of work to do, first, you and Maggie are linked by this medallion," He walked over and tied it around Shaw's neck again. "Second, this medallion is infused with a very potent protection spell, that would take very powerful magic to break, as long as you wear this you will be safe. Third, Maggie will be reborn, she may not know who she is because of this magic that she has done in our time, but she will be reborn. Can wolves not go into a sort of stasis, like a hibernation for centuries at a time?"
"Aye, we can but there's only been a handful who have come out of it without being a feral and mindless beast."
"I believe, Shaw that you would be one of the handful. With your bloodlines, God, and witch, as well as the protection of the medallion, you could sleep. When Maggie is born you would awake, her soul would call to yours."
"Okay, for how long?"
"There's no certainty, but around 300 years."
Shaw blew out a breath, would it work? Would his pack survive all that time? Werewolves were long lived and very hard to kill, but they could die. What would happen to Bran, and Fiona? If there was a chance though he had to try, werewolves that lost their mates, mostly went feral or just died.
"Alright, I will do it."
"Excellent, let us get you some witch training first though before you leave, and I would like to see if we can determine the parentage of your blood magic."
Shaw shuddered, a witch and a werewolf, but not just a normal werewolf a descendant of the gods. It made him wonder just how much magic and power he could have, a frankly it scared the shite out of him.
"Nial, why does the medallion glow?
"I've no idea," Nial answered. "Shaw, we have to break the spell the medallion holds on you."
"I thought you said you couldn't break it?" Coll asked.
"Not with these spells," Nial answered. "There is a way, but you aren't going to like it."
"Whatever it is, just do it." Coll demanded. "We need him back, Bran is a mess with reliving Syn's death all over again, thanks to my bastard brother."
"Coll, it's blood magic, boosted with sex magic, it's potent and I don't know what it will do to Shaw or the medallion."
He could hear the voices, he felt an urgent need to return but something still held him here, as though he must learn something. But he felt as though his time was running short.