Faces turned in her direction, but her words did not penetrate the crowd or the trees. She could see Hannah and Merida riding off to the side. “Cain,” Hannah yelled, but her voice hardly moved through the heavy air that smelled of rain and sea. Keenan, who rode partway to the trees, cupped his hands, standing in his stirrups. “Cain Sinclair,” he repeated, facing forward.

Hamish, the elderly man whom she had helped guide the horses at Midsummer, pushed up in his stirrups. He cupped a hand and faced the forest. “Cain Sinclair!”

Thomas waved to Ella from the other side, a grin on his round face. He looked toward the forest. “Cain Sinclair!” Next to him, several of the guards who had stood below her when she’d foolishly climbed out her window did the same.

The wind blew and thunder rumbled. Would their words be blown away? Cain had gone against everything he had been taught. Conquest was his world, and yet he had given. Love requires giving. Ella’s heart thudded, and her knees felt weak as they held her there above her saddle. Gilla knew the feel of her standing and kept still, and Ella cupped her hands again. “Cain Sinclair!”

As one massive unit, the warriors before her cupped their hands around their mouths and yelled. “Cain Sinclair!” His name crashed through the air like the thunder overhead, making her breath catch in her throat. She blinked back tears of gratitude and watched the tree line. Horses began to spread out, filling all the space between them as the warriors opened a path.

“Cain,” she whispered as he emerged from the darkness of the forest, the sun having been covered by fast-moving clouds. Sitting straight and proud on his white stallion, even without the crown, he looked like a mighty messenger from God. Strength evident in the set of his shoulders and the lines of his face, he moved closer, his three brothers following.

“Come along,” she heard Merida yell as she beckoned to Hannah to maneuver closer to Ella. “Move aside,” she ordered the men.

Ella continued to stand on Gilla’s back, frozen by her hope, her breaths shallow as he approached. Cain stopped Seraph and swung down off his back to stride through the crowd of mounted warriors. She was reminded of the first time she’d seen the ferocity in his face. She’d been standing on Gilla’s back to order her men to fire upon the Sinclair armies in the west, and then he’d charged across the field and up the bank after her. She’d been desperate then to escape. Now…she was desperate for him to reach her.

Cain stopped beside her horse, his face tipping back to look up at her. “Ella?”

She wet her dry lips and swallowed, standing high above all four armies, who sat silent. “You said I have a choice.”

“Ye have all the choices,” he answered.