“For ye all to withdraw to leave my bride and me alone to raise her brother to be the chief of the Sutherland clan.”

Cain knew that would never happen. The boy would die by Mackay’s hand, if not today, then another day under the bastard’s regency. And what of Ella? He had signaled her not to act, but she had no other choice to keep her brother’s blood within his thin body.

“Ye will release Ella and her brother to me,” Cain said. “And I will not destroy your castle and village.”

“Bloody hell, Cain,” Joshua said.

“Otherwise, ye will be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Mackays.” He paused as the emotionless guise of certain slaughter hardened his face. He stared Randolph Mackay dead in the eyes. “And I will cut your randy cod off and shove it down your throat so that ye will choke on it.”

“Quite a picture,” Randolph said, adjusting himself. Obviously, the promise of violence against Ella and her brother had inflamed the tolla-thon.

“A promise,” Cain replied.

The quiet conviction in his tone muted Randolph’s foolish smile. “If I die, she dies,” he said.

“Ye die either way, Mackay,” Cain replied. He took a step forward.

“No!” Ella called. “Stop!”

He heard nothing from the boy but did not turn to look at him. His first target was Randolph and freeing Ella, even if that was not what she wanted.

“Stop,” Ella repeated. “Cain, I swore just now to be wed to Randolph Mackay, and I will honor my oath.”

“Ella—”

“No,” she said, and Cain could see that her words made Randolph relax his blade so that it did not sit against her neck but hovered before it.

“I will stay with Randolph Mackay as his wife, from this day forward…” she said, her voice dropping and her hand slowly rising next to her. Her eyes stared at Cain, and he could see so much in them. Goodbye. Hope. Determination. And maybe something that he never actually believed in. “From this day forward,” she repeated. “until death do us part.”

Death.

With the last word she slammed her hand into Randolph’s arm enough to dislodge it, dropping down, her right hand whipping from the side to let loose a dagger. Before Cain could draw breath, the blade thrust point first directly into the forehead of the Mackay guard who held her brother.

“Go!” Cain yelled the order, knowing Joshua would leap past him to the boy.

Cain’s muscles contracted, time seeming to move slowly as he threw all his power behind the thrust that sent his short sword flying across the distance. It was like an arrow, his arm a bow. Thwack. The steel cut through the flesh and bone of the devil’s chest. Randolph Mackay’s eyes went wide, the blade he held that was edged with Ella’s blood clattering to the stone walkway next to where she crouched.