Prologue

Clan Mackintosh, Highlands, 1682

16 Years Earlier

“Run!” Alec bellowed the word.

Bran ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Only thirteen, he was still the tallest out of all his brothers, even Alec, who was a year older than him. Bran’s legs covered the grounds of the castle fast. He darted from the open lawn, across the furrows and ridges in the earth, toward the outer battlements of the castle and a crown of trees that banked along the edges of the grounds. He launched towards the furthest tree.

Scurrying around the back, he scrambled up the open trunk. Rotten and aging, there was a perfect cavity inside, allowing him to clamber up to a great height and hide from the world.

Nay one ever finds me here.

Panting to catch his breath, Bran flattened his back to the bark and listened for the sounds of anyone nearby. At a distance across the lawn, he could hear Alec counting.

“Forty-five… forty-six… forty-seven…”

They didn’t have long left before Alec would start to search for them all.

Bran brushed his short blond hair back from his forehead and peered around the edge of the trunk, his fingers clutching the bark so tightly that the grains dirtied the palm of his hand.

Across the grounds, he caught brief glimpses of everyone playing their game.

His other two brothers, Dunn and Evander, were currently arguing over who got to hide in the stable this time. Dunn, the youngest with his twin Catreena, found himself unceremoniously tipped out of the stables by Evander, who was already surprisingly strong, despite being one year younger than Bran. Unfortunately for Evander, however, Dunn was so quick on his feet that he dived back into the stable before Evander could tackle him again.

Bran chuckled and looked away, searching elsewhere.

His sister, Catreena, easy to spot with her nearly white hair gleaming in the sunshine was currently trying to hide down by the loch that met the castle battlements. Her hiding place was somewhat given away by the much older Tad, walking past her.

Tad, heir to the lairdship of Clan MacBean, was one of the Mackintosh brothers’ closest friends. If he was not visiting them at this castle, then they were invariably visiting him and playing hide and seek in the wild grounds of his father’s castle. He was the oldest of them all by far, Bran’s senior by seven years, yet he always spent time with them. Bran suspected that Tad played along just to keep an eye on them all and make sure they didn’t end up in too much trouble.

Now, Tad chuckled dismissively at Catreena’s failure to hide convincingly and ran on somewhere else, disappearing expertly behind a nearby wall.

Then a squeak caught Bran’s attention.

He looked around, knowing that whimper well. He’d heard it many times before when they played hide and seek, or when Ilyssa knew she would be caught for bending the rules, as she so often liked to do. Angling his head the other way, he caught sight of her.

Ilyssa, Tad’s younger sister, and Catreena’s dearest friend, was never very good at this game.

She did not have his strength to climb trees and had merely placed herself behind the nearest trunk to him. She was breathing heavily, her dark hair half flung across her face. Five years his junior, she looked small and petite against the tree, rather vulnerable.

Something ached in Bran’s chest as he looked at her.

“Sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four.” Alec’s counting was getting faster and faster, showing he was impatient to start searching for them all.

Bran shook his head as he looked at Ilyssa. In her hiding place, she would be caught in seconds.

Och, every time she’s caught first. Every time!

Ilyssa clearly knew this too, for she sank down onto her haunches behind the tree, pulling at the skirt of her gown that had become frayed in all their games and running across the land.

“Psst,” Bran hissed. She didn’t look up at first, breathing too heavily, clearly lost to her fears of being found first. He didn’t blame her. Today, they had agreed that whoever was found first would have to face a dare – they would have to steal bannocks from the kitchen. Ilyssa, who had already been in trouble with both of their fathers that morning for causing a ruckus at the breakfast table by throwing her food, clearly did not want to face getting in trouble twice in a single day. “Psst!” Bran hissed louder.

Ilyssa looked up now. Her dark eyes were wide, glistening in fear.

Bran pressed a finger to his lips and winked at her, then dived back down into the crevice of the tree where he was hiding.

“I’m coming!” Alec’s voice suddenly bellowed across the land.

Bran acted fast. He reached for a branch that had fallen off the tree, nestled between him and the hollowed-out trunk, weighing it up in the palm of his hand, then he craned his neck around the tree once again.

Alec was now hastening toward the tree where Ilyssa was hiding, clearly accustomed to checking this spot first. Bran made sure his elder brother wasn’t glancing his way when he lobbed the branch away. It arched through the air perfectly then splashed into the loch nearby.

Alec at once whipped his head around, now sprinting in the direction of the loch.

“I heard ye!” he cried to whoever he thought might be hiding there. “I’ll find ye.”

Bran clambered down from his place in the tree, still trying his best not to make a sound, then tiptoed around the trunk toward Ilyssa and held out his hand. She didn’t take it at first. She looked too small and scared at the base of her own tree, but Bran persisted in waving a hand at her.

“Trust me,” he urged.

This time, she raised her trembling fingers. He clasped hold of them and pulled her toward his own tree.

“I cannae climb up there, ye eejit,” she muttered angrily. He chuckled, for this was a name she had so often called him over the years.

“Then ye’ll have tae hold on tight.”

“What – ah!” she squeaked in surprise, and he hissed at her to be quiet again as he started to climb, pulling her up behind him. She did well, staying close behind him, though he could feel just how tightly her small hand clung onto his. She didn’t dare let go.

They pressed themselves into the crevice of the tree, their feet pressed on makeshift ledges within the trunk, neither one of them daring to say anything as they heard Alec’s footsteps come past them again.

“Damn ye,” Alec muttered, clearly angered to think that someone by the loch had escaped him. “I’ve usually found Ilyssa by now. Where are ye?”

Ilyssa flinched at Bran’s side. He raised a finger to his lips, urging her to stay as quiet as possible. Alec was now searching the trees, going first to the very spot where Ilyssa had been hiding moments ago.

“Why?” she whispered, barely moving her lips with the words.

Bran jerked his head toward her, looking away from Alec, to see that Ilyssa was blushing a deep shade of red.

“Why help me?”

He shrugged, for he had no answer for her. All he knew was that as she smiled at him in this way, blushing so red, he felt like some sort of hero, the kind that he had read about in his father’s books in his library. It was a thrill to feel her hand holding tightly onto his own. It was a habit of his, trying to protect Ilyssa. It was something that Tad had pointed out more than once and liked to jest about, but Bran ignored him.

Aye, someone has tae protect her.

“We’ll be found,” she murmured in great panic, her face turning redder than before.

Bran realized she was right. Alec was now getting closer to their hiding spot, and if he saw them at the same time, Alec would no doubt expect Ilyssa to steal the bannocks along with Bran.

I cannae let that happen.

“Hold ontae the tree.” Bran steered Ilyssa’s hand to the tree, forcing her to release his own palm. She looked most reluctant to do as he asked, but he urged her to do it fast.

“What are ye doing? Bran!”

Then he was gone. He jumped down from the tree and straight into his brother’s path.

“In the name of the wee man,” Alec abruptly cried, stumbling back in alarm. “Bran! I found ye first. That means – hey!”

Bran took off, sprinting away across the lawn.

“Ye have tae catch me first,” he barked back at his brother, intending to draw him as far as possible from Ilyssa’s hiding place.

He created a mad path across the lawn, heading first to the stables where Alec followed him inside. They practically ran straight into Dunn and Evander who ended up running with Bran, each one of them making it increasingly difficult for Alec to catch any of them by sprinting off in different directions across the lawn.

By the time Alec had caught them all, and found Catreena and Tag in their hiding places, he was so exhausted from all the running that he had quite given up trying to find Ilyssa. She was announced the winner, and Bran went to help her down from the trunk.

The rest of them all collapsed on the lawn, making fun of Alec for not being able to keep up with the rest of them. Bran stepped around the trunk and reached up to Ilyssa, who was now beaming at him widely from her position up in the tree.

“I won?” she said in disbelief.

“Aye, ye did.” He reached up toward her. Uncertainly, shifting her feet against the trunk, she placed her hands on his shoulders and allowed him to lift her down onto the ground.

“Why did ye dae it, Bran?” she asked, her hand moving to his as he led her out from behind the tree. “Ye will get in trouble now. If they catch ye stealing from the kitchens…”

“Nay, they willnae tell me off too badly. Besides, I didnae want tae see ye in trouble again,” he whispered to her. “Ye’d had enough of shouting fer one day, hadnae ye?”

She nodded, her eyes glistening with unshed tears that she now blinked away.

“Thank ye,” she whispered, still not pulling her hand out of his.

Bran smiled and led her across the lawn toward where the others sat. Catreena was now poking Alec in the side to make fun of his inability to run far, and Tad guffawed loudly at Alec’s look of outrage. Strangely, Bran had no wish to join in the laughter. He sat on the edge of the group, with Ilyssa sitting down at his side. She pulled on the edge of his shirt now, trying to get his attention again.

“We’ll be friends forever, will we nae?” she asked suddenly, her voice tense.

Something in Bran’s chest ached again. He had no idea what it meant. He couldn’t understand either why Ilyssa staring up at him in this way mattered to him, but it did. It all mattered, very much indeed.

“Aye, forever and beyond,” he whispered, a little dramatically, though he knew he wouldn’t take back the words when he saw her smile.

“I ken!” Evander suddenly cried, jumping to his feet amongst the others. “I ken what game we’ll play next. A race. Last one to the loch has tae help Bran steal from the kitchen.”

Everyone was on their feet and hurrying to the loch. Evander and Dunn each tried to throw one another down. Evander won this time, only to be tripped up by Dunn putting out his foot at the right moment. Alec streaked ahead with his long legs, and Catreena complained loudly she was too short to possibly win this game. Tad loped around her with ease, teasing her that he could run so much faster than her, much to her annoyance, for she shouted back at him.

In the midst of it all, Bran was up, dragging Ilyssa behind him to make sure she didn’t fall behind. She giggled lightly, with her hand clasped tightly in his own.

Have nay fear, Ilyssa. He glanced back at the way their palms were tightly pressed together. I have nay intention of letting go.