Redeeming Vows (18 page)

“You left me a note, but I’m not sure how much good it’s going to do.” Selma retrieved the tattered book and fingered through the pages until she found what she searched for.

The paper used was from the supply Myra brought back with her, the ink difficult to decipher.

In several places, holes wore into the parchment and it appeared as if some had been burned deliberately.

The script was in Lizzy’s hand.

Selma,

You don’t know us, but we need your help.

A large space followed with only a few words readable. The letter gave the date and instructions to hold Elizabeth’s apartment with the money obtained by the contents in the box. Anything left over was hers to keep. This part was clear and obviously followed by Ms. Mayfair.

Here the letter fell into disrepair and left only a sprinkling of words that held no meaning.

To…home… Observe the stars…only days…use
the energy of…all around. Soar above…

Ancients…vows…death and sorrow… Redemption.

152

Redeeming Vows

Liz lifted the paper to the air and tilted it to the light shining in from the window. “This can’t be all.”

“That’s all there is,” Selma told them. “I hope it means something to you, because I couldn’t make any sense of it.”

Liz’s gaze met his as a wave of panic swept up his spine.

“What else was in the crate?” he asked.

“Not a lot. Todd’s cell phone, which Jake has.

There was a ruby the size of my thumb that I sold to pay for this place like you asked. Some cloth used to preserve the book and a strange rock.”

Fin shot to his feet. “Where’s the rock?”

Selma retrieved her bag once again. She dug inside, removed aged cloth, and uncovered the stone, one of the six sacred stones that moved them through time. She handed the Ancient’s gift to him.

Once his fingers touched the surface, a soft pale light glowed from deep inside.

Selma gasped and reached for it again. With her touch, the light pulsed. Liz stood and added her hand. Waves of blue hummed and pulsed along with the beat of their hearts.

Hope spread inside Fin’s chest.

All was not lost.

****

They had tons to do, but Liz would be damned if she wasn’t going to take advantage of the indoor plumbing with a hot shower and a working toilet. As the steaming water cascaded off her skin and the strawberry scent of the shampoo penetrated into her scalp, Liz wondered about the words left in her own handwriting to a person she didn’t even know.

The entire passage started with the word
home
, which obviously meant the sixteenth century keep.

Because in truth, the place her feet were planted now might have been familiar, but it no longer felt right. Simon wasn’t going to barge in the door. Myra 153

Catherine Bybee

wasn’t hiding her laugh behind her hand and Tara wasn’t stand beside her husband holding her son.

Where was Amber holding one of the keep’s cats or Cian teaching Simon how to ride a horse at breakneck speed? Not here! No, this no longer felt like home. Home, at least while the threat of Grainna hung over all of them, was in the sixteenth century. Home was where Liz was needed, where she belonged to a gaggle of family destined to destroy the wicked witch of Scotland.

Observe the stars
.

What the hell did that mean? Why on earth would she have been so cryptic in a note to herself?

Then again, half the message was unreadable.

Maybe she hadn’t been such a putz in the past, or future? Or whatever the hell she was going to be.

Liz’s head started to pound.

The water grew cold causing a shiver to run down her spine. Slipping from the shower, Liz toweled herself off and dripped dry on the mat covering the linoleum floor. The room felt chilled.

She lifted her hand to bring the flame of the fireplace higher and stopped. She wasn’t in her room in the MacCoinnich keep. There wasn’t a fireplace keeping her room warm.

Liz studied her hand and realized how much she’d changed since the last time she’d emerged from the plastic curtain surrounding the porcelain tub.

Soar above.

The words haunted her. She’d thought them endlessly since the day Simon shifted into a bird and took to the sky.

She’d elevated from the ground without the aid of wings. Deep down, she knew she was the reason she and the sisters hovered above the earth each time they cast a circle and attempted a spell.

She couldn’t control it. Then again, she hadn’t tried.

154

Redeeming Vows

Shaking the thoughts from her mind, Liz wrapped a towel over her wet hair and secured another towel around her bare body.

Voices met her ears as she slipped into her room and opened the chest by her bed. She reached inside and found a bra and panties.

“I took the liberty of washing a few things last week, just in case you two actually showed up.”

Selma spoke from the doorway. An easy smile played on her lips.

“Thank you.” Liz ran her fingers over her underwear. “You have no idea what it’s like to live without the simplest of clothing.” Liz could hear the longing in her own voice.

“No, no I don’t. I hope to hear more about it, though.”

Liz pulled on a pair of panties under the terry cloth towel and turned away from the door to put on a bra. “I’m not sure how much time we’ll have, but I’ll fill you in as much as I can. Seems only fair. I can’t believe you’re here. I don’t know if I would have been, if I were in your shoes.”

Selma laughed. “And pass over the opportunity to meet a real life time traveler? I’m the one who’s lucky. Lucky you found my book and believed what I’d written.”

“Your book, your knowledge, has helped us more than once.”

Selma turned away, her voice grew dim. “I’m glad it helped you. It didn’t sell, and I’ll never publish another book again.”

Liz wiggled into a fitted T-shirt and zipped up her capris. “Your book, no,
you
have already saved many lives. Don’t sell yourself short, Selma.” Liz stepped into the other woman’s personal space and placed a hand on her arm. “You and I, Fin, we’re all family, in a way. Druids. We have a connection, goals that are bigger than any number of books sold 155

Catherine Bybee

in a bookstore. You help people with your gift, right?”

“Yes,” she said, green eyes staring into hers.

“Then that’s all that matters. Because this—”

Liz tossed her hands in the air. “This is only stuff.

Helping others, keeping witches like Grainna from taking control, that’s more important than stuff.”

The sound of a door bouncing off its frame rattled every nerve ending in Liz’s body.

“Don’t move or I’ll shoot.” The male voice boomed in the room and brought a second wave of alarm over her.

In the time it took to leap into the living room, the walls started to rattle and the floor shook. The frame of Todd’s ex-partner Jake filled the entrance to the apartment. The cold, black steel of a gun was aimed at Fin’s chest.

Fin’s jaw went taut under the strain of his teeth, his expression deadly.

Jake’s gaze wavered as the tremor beneath their feet grew.

With his hand in the air, Fin brought a golf ball-size orb of flame to light. With a toss of his fingers, the ball soared through the air, knocking the gun from Jake’s hand. The flame burned out with a small trail of smoke.

“Holy cow,” Selma exclaimed.

Jake recovered and lunged for his weapon.

Fin cut off the cop’s path and laid the tip of his claymore to his throat.

Pictures on the wall started to fall.

“Finlay?”

“Not now, lass.” Fin stared into Jake’s eyes, daring him to move.

“Fin! Can you stop the earthquake before the walls crumble and take us all out?”

In a heartbeat, the earth stilled and the room grew quiet.

156

Redeeming Vows

“Wow!” Selma breathed the word with excitement.

Jake wasn’t impressed.

“Elizabeth, remove the second weapon on his leg.” Liz fell to her knees, searching for Jake’s backup gun. She and Fin both saw Todd arm himself anytime he left the keep. For good measure, Liz patted down the cop, found a taser tucked at the small of his back, and removed it.

“Until you realize we’re aren’t here to hurt you, and we haven’t done anything wrong, I’ll hold on to these.” Liz picked up the small arsenal and dumped them in her room.

Fin still held the sword to Jake’s neck, neither of them moved.

“Where’s Todd?”

Selma shoved herself between Fin and Jake, her hands met her hips, her voice edged on pissed.

“Where the hell do you think he is, Jake? He’s in the past. Five hundred years in the past. Or haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve said?”

Fin fastened his sword to his side but didn’t move far behind the two arguing.

“I don’t believe in time travel.”

“Did you believe in the fireball that just whizzed by your head?”

Jake shifted his eyes to Liz.

“What about the earthquake? Did you feel that?”

Liz heard his words in her head before they left his mouth.

“We live in Southern California. Earthquakes happen.”

Rolling her eyes, she motioned to Fin. “Help him believe.”

The smirk flirted across his face sending a strange level of excitement through her. Most of the time his smartassness annoyed the hell out of her.

157

Catherine Bybee

Not this time.

Fin backed up four steps. “Walk toward me, Jake.”

Instead of moving, he glared. A jolt from beneath his feet urged Jake forward. Each time the man picked up a foot, Fin shook the earth. With each step, Jake’s expression shifted from its early hard edge to one of indecisiveness.

“I told you.” Selma stood before the cop, placed both hands on his shoulders, and pushed him down into the nearest chair.

Liz could still see the worry and hurt expression on the man’s face. Not knowing what happened to his friend obviously ate at him. She knew the look well. She’d worn one herself for half a year when Tara disappeared.

“Todd is alive, well, and happy, Jake.”

“Five hundred years in the past?”

Fin positioned himself by her side, his hand rested on his sword.

“Yes. He wouldn’t want you to mourn him. And he’d appreciate any help you can lend us.”

“You—” he pointed a finger at Finlay “—are wanted for the disappearance of Tara. And you—” he said, waving his hand at her “—are wanted for questioning in regards to a missing police officer. I could have you both in jail within the hour.”

Fin edged closer. Liz placed a hand on his thigh, hoping to keep him seated. She said, “Yes, you could.

But if you hear us out, I don’t think you’ll do that.

Todd is fine, living happily, back in Fin’s time, but that could change if we don’t make our way back there.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember the woman you both interviewed in the hospital shortly before we left?”

Jake nodded.

“She makes Osama look like a choir boy. She’s 158

Redeeming Vows

why we ended up here now, and the reason we need to hurry back. We need your help, Jake. Todd needs your help. Selma tells me you retrieved his cell phone, the one he locked in a trunk dating back five hundred years. Todd put it there to prove he had traveled back in time, and he wanted you to know he was okay.”

“I don’t know.” Jake ran his fingers over his jean-clad thighs.

“I didn’t either, at first. We need you to take a leap of faith. You haven’t found bodies because no one is dead.”

“We found blood in this apartment.”

“Yes.” Liz cringed, remembering. “My son’s. Not Todd’s. Simon survived because of Todd. He wouldn’t want to see him hurt now because we can’t get back to where we need to be. If we’re forced to spend time in jail or answering questions no one will believe, we may get back too late.”

Jake settled back in his chair and listened.

159

Catherine Bybee

Chapter Seventeen

Tatiana stood on the edge of the ridge and witnessed the chaos unfolding before her eyes.

Clans separated from the others, each claiming a patch of land as their own. Knights stood guard, ready for battle. Where was the quiet harmony that met her only hours before?

The wedding that brought all the people together was called off because the bride “wished”

she’d never heard of Lord Brisbane. And as a result, didn’t.

Grainna held her hands in her lap. A small lift in her eyelids was the only indication of her pleasure at the pain of those who scrambled below them.

“What have ye done?”

“I’ve done nothing. This is of their making, their desires, their wants. I simply gave it to them.”

Something cold and dreadful filled the bottom half of Tatiana’s heart. An image flashed in her mind and brought with it a glimmer of hope. A premonition? Desire?

Cian.

A child cried in the distance. The sound scratched her soul.

“Go. Go find the young MacCoinnich. Console him.” Grainna’s view never faltered. Her eyes stayed on the destruction before her.

“Why?”

With a slow thoughtful movement, Grainna tilted her head in Tatiana’s direction, her eyes black with evil. “Is that not your desire? I’ll allow your 160

Redeeming Vows

heart to have this.” She turned back to the field.

“Go.”

Without turning her back on Grainna, Tatiana stepped away, forcing her body to keep from running. She tripped on a fallen branch, righted herself, and continued her backward walk.

Only when Grainna was well out of sight did she turn on her heel, lift her skirts, and run.

Laughter followed her.

Night started to fall on the encampment but none inside were seeking their rest.

The MacCoinnichs had pulled their tents to the west, their men sat in arms, waiting to take on any threat.

Tatiana stood beyond their perimeter and watched the movement of the MacCoinnichs and their men.

The masses of people around them thinned. At least two traveling parties had already departed.