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eyes widened. “But you said you stayed behind for Druids.”
    “I stayed behind to learn all I could and relate it to Ramsey. Deirdre didna trust me for many years, and in all that time I never saw Ramsey. But I continued to listen, to watch and learn. I gathered the information I hoped would end Deirdre.”
    “Did it?”
    “In a way. You see, one day I was sent to destroy a village of Druids. I was to capture all of them and return them to Deirdre. There were twenty wyrran with me, and soon things got out of control. Fires were started, and a few Druids were killed by the wyrran in their attempts to capture the Druids.”
    Sonya turned away. “I don’t want to hear any more.”
    “You have to,” Broc said. “As I walked down the middle of the small village, I heard a child crying. I doona know what drew me to the child, but I went. I found her sitting beside a cradle that held a baby. The cottage was burning down around them, but the child wouldna leave her sister.”
    Broc paused and wound a curl of Sonya’s red hair around his finger. “I knew if the wyrran found the girls they would be brought to Deirdre. They would be raised by her and her evil, but in the end she would kill them and drain them of their magic.”
    “What did you do with them?”
    “I gathered them in my arms and flew away. I hid them with an elderly couple while I went back to the village and finished the job Deirdre had sent me to do. Then I began my search for a group of Druids who could raise the girls. It took me weeks, but in the end I finally found them.”
    Broc stopped, unsure if he could go on, but he had begun the tale. He had to finish it.
    “I left the girls with the Druids and returned as often as I could to check on them. I watched the youngest take her first steps. I watched the oldest the first time she did magic. They were happy, content. But most importantly, they were safe from Deirdre.”
    “Those girls were me and Anice?”
    “Aye.”
    “So much makes sense now,” Sonya said softly. “All those times Anice would run off into the woods as if she were looking for someone. Then the time she mentioned your name. All that time I thought Anice’s mind wasn’t there.”
    “It wasna.” Broc hadn’t wanted to tell her, but Sonya needed to know just how sick Anice had been. “The Druids knew it no’ long after I brought you to them. They said something wasna quite right with your sister.”
    Sonya raised her brow as she turned to look at him. “Did they know what you were?”
    “They suspected. They never asked. I never told.”
    “But you met my sister in the woods, didn’t you?”
    Broc rubbed his jaw, hating himself for what he had done. “Anice caught me watching you one day. I kept to myself in Cairn Toul, never speaking to anyone unless I had to. Anice was so happy, so alive that I couldna help but talk to her.”
    “You did more than that.”
    Broc searched Sonya’s amber gaze but found no compassion. Not that he expected any. “To my shame, aye. I knew as soon as it happened it was a mistake. I told Anice I couldna see her again, but she somehow knew when I would come. She was always there. I’d like to say I was strong enough to turn her away, but I’m just a man.”
    Sonya rose to her feet. When she swayed, Broc hastened to aid her, but she jerked away from him. “You let Anice believe there was a future with you.”
    “Nay, I didna.” Broc stood quickly. The flush on Sonya’s face had nothing to do with the fire and everything to do with her anger. “It had been years since I touched Anice. I would talk to her, warn her about things if I could. I never led her to believe there was any sort of future with me.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why didn’t you tell me you knew Anice? And why didn’t you talk to me as you did Anice?”
    He felt as if each word were a stab in his heart. The anguish twisting her face, the shaking of her voice. All of it told him how much he had hurt