Spellbound

"Spellbound" was originally published in the 1998 anthology Once Upon a Castle before being released as a standalone novella. It is a paranormal romance blending a modern-day setting with Celtic legend and witchcraft.

The story opens with a dream. Calin Farrell, a successful 30-year-old photographer in New York, sees himself as Caelan of Farrell, a medieval warrior riding through mist-shrouded Irish hills toward a silver castle on a cliff. A red-haired, blue-eyed woman named Bryna waits there, radiating power. They embrace, but Bryna warns that a dark witch named Alasdair grows stronger while her own power fades. The castle vanishes, replaced by ruins and a flower-covered cottage. Bryna pleads with Cal to find her, or she is lost.

Cal visits his parents, Sylvia and John Farrell, in Brooklyn Heights. They notice his pale, exhausted appearance and urge him to vacation. They exchange uneasy glances, recalling how Cal as a child talked to shadows, walked in his sleep, and dreamed of witches, prompting visits to numerous psychiatrists. Cal impulsively announces he is going to Ireland, unable to explain why beyond a need "to see" (7).

At Shannon Airport, Cal drives along the Irish coast, reflecting on childhood dreams of a red-haired girl who aged alongside him in his visions. As a teenager, disturbed by increasingly romantic feelings toward this figure, he shut her out and chose normality. Now, driving through the hills, he is seized by a vivid hallucination of medieval battle and feels a phantom wound on his thigh. Shaken, he attributes the episode to jet lag.

He spots a ruined castle on a cliff with a white cottage beside it. A woman appears in the rain: red hair, blue eyes swimming with emotion. She says she knew he would come and kisses him before he can respond.

Inside the cottage, Cal meets Bryna Torrence, who introduces herself as a descendant of Bryna the Wise and guardian of the Castle of Secrets. She admits she has waited for him all her life and a thousand years before it began. When Cal resists believing her, she uses a calming spell to send him into dreamless sleep. He wakes hours later refreshed and begins photographing the landscape.

Cal finds Bryna chanting in a circle of flowers within the castle ruins, bolstering her fading powers. She tells him the legend: A thousand years ago, the witch Bryna the Wise loved the warrior Caelan of Farrell. A dark witch named Alasdair lusted for Bryna, and when she spurned him, he planted false visions of infidelity in Caelan's mind, provoking a bitter quarrel. When Caelan tore off the protective cloak Bryna had woven for him, Alasdair struck him with a mortal wound. Grief-stricken, Bryna cast a final spell: They would be reborn in a thousand years to face Alasdair, but if Caelan did not believe and stand with her, her power would die and she would belong to Alasdair for a thousand years. Cal dismisses the story. Bryna conjures fire from thin air to prove her power, then collapses from the effort. Cal carries her to the cottage, where she reveals the solstice is the following night.

Alasdair appears: a golden-haired, black-eyed figure in dark robes who offers Bryna power if she submits, then threatens to kill Cal as Caelan died before. Though Alasdair inflicts searing phantom pain in Cal's belly, Cal instinctively shoves Bryna behind him and faces the dark witch down. Alasdair vanishes with taunting laughter.

Bryna confesses that Alasdair has invaded her dreams and assaulted her there. Cal vows to protect her, and their mutual desire overwhelms them. Their first intimate encounter deepens the bond between them. That evening, Bryna leads Cal to a hidden chamber containing an ancient crystal globe, the most precious treasure of the Castle of Secrets. When Cal holds it, he sees visions of all human experience and feels its living power. Bryna tells him her heart is in the globe and she is in his hands. Before they leave, she secretly casts a protective charm on Cal, causing him to forget the spell.

That night, Bryna silently recites the prophecy: The warrior must bring his heart and sword of his own free will on the shortest night. If he does, Alasdair will be destroyed. She resolves not to tell Cal, since the choice must be freely made.

The next morning, the solstice, Alasdair whispers doubts into Cal's mind: Bryna manipulates him, has trapped other men. At breakfast, Cal presses Bryna on whether she compelled him to come. She insists the choice was his, then confesses she was born loving him and will die loving him. She flees to the castle ruins and seals herself inside with invisible barriers, determined to face the night alone rather than risk Cal's life. She carries an amulet of poison as a final escape.

Cal discovers a storm-gray sweater Bryna wove for him, echoing the protective cloak from the legend, and puts it on. While wandering the countryside, Alasdair traps him in an illusion of his parents' kitchen, urging him to forget everything. Cal senses the deception and breaks free. A woman who reveals herself as Bryna's mother tells him that without him, Bryna will die.

Cal wakes on the grass at nightfall. He cries out that he loves Bryna and races through a forest that resists him with slashing branches and thorns. A white stag leads him to a clearing where a saddled black horse waits. As Cal rides, a cloak snaps behind him and a sword materializes in his hand. He has become the warrior.

Inside the magically restored castle, Bryna faces Alasdair alone. She fights with bolts of white light, but he drives her to her knees. As midnight approaches, she reaches for the poison. Cal bursts into the great hall on horseback, sword drawn, and stops her. Alasdair attacks with black lightning and arrows of flame, but the sword and cloak protect Cal. Bryna calls rain and feels her power surge. When Alasdair inflicts a phantom wound that forces Cal to drop his sword, Bryna leaves her protective circle to shield him and is struck down. Alasdair seizes her and begins binding her with icy magic, but Cal wrenches her free, locks his fingers with hers, and brings the sword down on Alasdair. An explosion of sulphur, lightning, and heaving earth hurls them into darkness.

They wake at dawn outside the ruins. Alasdair is destroyed. Bryna heals Cal's wounds with her restored magic, and they return to the cottage to tend her own injuries. She formally declares Cal free of all obligations and offers him any boon within her power. Cal steps into the flower circle and declares his boon: He wants her, all of her, for better or worse. He tells her he was born loving her and will die loving her, echoing her confession. Bryna recognizes this as true magic: love freely given, without spells or compulsion. Cal says it is time they made a home together. Bryna grants his boon.