Faith is Fallen (Broken Fantasies Series)

Chapter 6

The next time Cara woke, it was to someone moving around in the room behind her. Her stomach turned, and with a sick sense of dread, she knew something bad was about to happen.

She tensed, but gasped, biting down on the fabric in front of her face to silence the sound. Even flinching made her back hurt.

The person moved slowly across the room, then sat down on the side of the bed, the side she couldn't see as her head faced the other direction, and she couldn't move enough to change it.

Rustling fabric reached her ears, then a large hand, a man's hand, entered her visual field just before shoving some sort of gag in her mouth. She shrieked as the movement jarred her injuries, but almost no sound came out past the wadded fabric.

Tears poured from her eyes as he moved onto the bed further, shifting her body weight and upsetting her sensitive injuries.

Then, he pressed down hard on her back, as if putting all his weight down on it. She screamed through the gag, but only the smallest of sounds came out. The edges of her vision turned black, and the pain focused her mind to a blade's edge. Cara screamed into the gag until her voice went hoarse and her vision turned completely black and she passed out.

#

Conall hadn't gone more than a few hours without checking in on the injured woman since he brought her to his keep. And no matter how many times Raghnaid told him the woman was fine, that he didn't need to go up to her room, but he did anyway.

He still couldn't believe how far she had come along. It was remarkable. Raghnaid called it a miracle. Conall didn't know what to think, except to be grateful. He couldn't wait to see her open her eyes. He wondered what color they would be.

Conall opened the door and froze, locked in place by a mixture of disbelief and rage. For a moment, the disbelief flooded out of him, leaving him cold, but it was quickly replaced by the rage, an all consuming rage that burned him up inside, leaving nothing but ashes. He roared, his voice echoing off the walls, traveling through the entire keep, but he knew none of that.

His entire focus rested on his brother, currently with one hand planted down on her back, the other on her hip, and thrusting his hips in vicious rhythm that turned Conall's vision red. He crossed the room in two strides, grabbed Duncan by the collar, and ripped him off the bed. Duncan hit the floor hard, and skidded into the opposite wall.

Conall turned, his rage a living beast inside him that would not be appeased. No words sufficed. Only actions. He crossed to Duncan's slumped form, and lifted him to his feet before hitting him hard over and over again.

After a small eternity, his rage dulled enough to allow words to come through. "This is the last straw, Duncan. How could you? She is my guest! A noblewoman! I am done with you. You are no longer welcome on these lands. You are no longer my brother. Be gone. You're lucky you're not dead."

Conall shoved him at the door. Duncan stumbled, grabbing onto the doorframe to keep himself upright, before slipping out of sight. After Duncan's stumbling dwindled out of earshot, Conall walked to the door, not surprised to find his first, Niall, waiting on the other side.

"So you're finally done it?" Never one to pull his punches, Niall got right to the heart of everything, which made him a great first.

"Yes, I finally did. Make sure he leaves my lands. If I so much as see his face again, there will be hell to pay." Conall's anger started leaking back as he spoke, but she pushed it down. It was done. Now was time to move on.

Niall paused, as if wanting to ask more, but he only nodded and walked away. Another thing he could count on Niall for, he never stuck his nose where it didn't belong.

Conall turned back to the room to check on his guest. His mouth went dry as he took in the bloodstained bandages from where his brother had pressed down on her, probably tearing open her stitches.

He resisted the urge to punch something. How could he? Never mind the fact that she was brutally injured, she was Conall's guest, under his protection. That should have left her untouchable, sacred, but clearly nothing was sacred to the man who had once been his brother.

"Raghnaid!" he called down the stairs from the doorway. Her wounds would need tending again.

The healer's light steps tapped up the stairs and nearly collided with his back in her haste to answer his call. "Is she alright, my lord? Has she come down with ague?"

"No, Duncan attacked her." He stepped out of the doorway, and Raghnaid gasped behind him.

"Mary, mother of God! Who could do such a thing?" She turned on Conall with a glare. "You need to do something with him, my lord. This is unacceptable! How could he attack a guest of yours like that?"

"I have," he said, interrupting her rant.

"Oh," she bowed her head in some semblance of embarrassment. "Well... I... I'll just get to seeing to my lady."

Conall smiled at Raghnaid's wording. At some point, she had come to start calling the woman "my lady," as if her heritage was a foregone conclusion, almost as if she were now an established member of their clan.

She performed a shallow curtsy, then got to it, gently removing the bloodied bandages, and sighing in relief when the stitches she'd put in days ago didn't need to be replaced.

Though he didn't know the woman, didn't know what she was like or how he would get along with her, he very much wished that she would become a permanent fixture here on McKay lands. And after what his brother had done, he realized with growing alarm, honor required that he do so.

After all, she could become pregnant, and it was his own blood who had ruined her. His brother couldn't and wouldn't take responsibility, and so Conall would. Looking down at her, he didn't see it as a great sacrifice.

Author's Note: If Faith is Fallen receives 2 additional votes by 9pm EST today, I will post Chapter 6 today as well. That's 16 total votes for the book. 

Are you liking the story so far?  Don't hate me if I'm evil to my characters.  It's sort of a certainty that I will be.  I can't help myself.  And trust me, there will be more, much much more, in the future.  Mwahahaha!