Then up to the landing beyond. Her heart lodged in her throat.

Cian was still there, too!

How could that be? The glass was shattered—it was after midnight on Samhain—and the tithe hadn’t been paid.

They should both be dead!

They should be dust. Little piles of it. Why weren’t they? Not that she wanted them to be. At least not one of them.

“Oh, God,” Jessi breathed, “who cares? You’re still there! Oh, God, Cian!” Inhaling sharply, she broke into a sprint for the stairs, for her beloved, living, breathing husband!

“Jessica, love, watch out!” Cian roared.

Lucan had spun around and was heading straight for her, slipping and sliding over slivers of glass.

“Blethering hell, Cian, he’s mortal now,” Dageus roared. “Doona kill him. We need to know where the Dark Book is!”

But his warning came too late. For both of them.

As Lucan lunged for her, she slid the blade that Dageus had given her down her sleeve, into her palm.

She raised her hands to fend him off, and the blade slid into the front of Lucan’s chest at the same moment the tip of a jeweled dirk pierced through him from behind, driven straight through his heart by the force of Cian’s throw.

Then she was backpedaling away from the falling sorcerer and Cian was racing down the stairs toward her and taking her in his arms, turning her away from the gruesome sight.

She heard Dageus shouting down at Lucan, “Where’s the Dark Book, Trevayne? Blethering hell, tell us what you know of it!”

Lucan Trevayne whispered, “Fuck you, Keltar.”

And died.

“Oh, my God, you’re alive. I can’t believe you’re alive!” Jessi couldn’t seem to stop saying. Nor could she stop touching Cian, kissing him frantically, desperate to assure herself he was really there and wasn’t going to disappear, or turn to dust at any moment.

“Aye, love, I’m alive.” A string of curses spilled from his lips and he scowled down at her. “You tried to barter with the devil himself for me, you crazy woman. Bloody hell, doona you ever risk your life for mine. Ever! Do you hear me?” Burying his hands in her dark curls, he pulled her against him, slanted his mouth over hers, and kissed her hungrily.

“You would have done the same for me,” she said breathlessly when he let her breathe again. As a matter of fact, he’d said so much on the day of their wedding. Should death come anon, he’d said, ’twill be my life for yours. So what if he’d refused to let her say the same. She made identical promises in her heart. I am Given.

“Not the point,” he growled. “‘Tis what a man does for his mate.”

His mate. Jessi stared up at him, a sudden, stunning realization dawning. “Oh! The wedding vows you said that day were the binding vows you told me about, weren’t they? You gave me the binding vows and wouldn’t let me give them back! Didn’t you?” She thumped him in the chest with her palm. “You tricked me!”

“I refused to let you be bound to a dead man, lass,” he said grimly. “Nor was I willing to miss the chance to pledge my heart to you forever. Even if it meant I would have to be reborn again and again, and serve as naught but your protector from afar, while you loved another. To ken you were alive and well would have been enough.” He paused a moment. “Not that I wouldn’t have done all in my power to steal your heart from whoever the bloody bastard was,” he added in a fierce growl. “I would have.”

Tears of joy misted her eyes and she laughed aloud. Oh, yes, she could see her ferocious Highlander doing battle for her heart. He’d easily have won it in any lifetime. “But you didn’t die, so don’t try to stop me now,” she said softly, taking his hand and putting it over her heart, pressing her palm to his. Speaking with quiet reverence, she echoed the words he’d given her that day in the chapel.

The moment the vow was said, the final pledge echoing in the stone hall, emotion crashed over her so intensely, her knees buckled. Love for him filled every ounce of her being. It was the most incredible sensation she’d ever felt. They were inextricably linked now, for all eternity. Cian caught her and crushed his mouth to hers, kissing her passionately. She clung to him, savoring the strength of his hard, powerful body against hers, the raw, carnal heat of his kiss.

“But wait a minute,” she said, frowning up at him a few minutes later, “how are you still alive? I don’t get it. What just happened?”

It was Dageus who replied. While she and Cian had been otherwise occupied, he and the other MacKeltars had hurried down the stairs and joined them in the great hall.