Redeeming Vows (22 page)

What is happening with me? I’m going to have to wear a lead vest before going outside.”

He wasn’t going to point out that she’d kept his 188

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weight in the air as well. A heavy object wasn’t likely to keep her grounded.

“You need to channel your gift, Liz,” Selma told her. “Pretending it isn’t there or denying it will result in what just happened.”

“Floating without cause?”

“Or worse.”

The palm of Liz’s hand grew damp. Fin patted her fingers with his free hand. “You should spend some time trying to control this new power.”

“We don’t have time right now, Fin. We have to get back.”

He felt her panic and added his own. “I’m working on the how, now. Why don’t you and Selma work together to force your power into submission.”

She opened her mouth to argue.

He cut her off. “I’ll work on this.” He picked up the paper and waved it at her. “You work on that.

Flying above the heads of people here or back home would be difficult to explain. ’Tis best you master things soon.”

She ran a shaky hand through her hair. “You’re right.”

Fin smiled. “Would you mind saying that again, love?”

Liz snatched her hand away from his, the fire returned to her eyes. “Don’t press your luck.”

He chuckled at the retreating backs of the women as they left the room.

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The large metal cylinder held enough wood to keep the fire going for several hours. They’d watched the amber glow of the horizon fade into a deep blue over the ocean. The only people left on the beach were those surrounding bonfires and enjoying a few adult beverages.

Selma sat beside Jake and Fin held Liz between his legs, her back against his strong chest. He drew lazy circles on her jean-clad thigh and listened to Selma talk of her life.

They were running out of time, Lizzy knew it.

She’d worked with Selma for hours with her new gift. The more frustrated she became, the quicker Liz was to find her ass floating above the ground.

Luckily, with a little focus she could manage to plant her feet back to earth. If everything didn’t feel so dire, Liz would be happy to explore her new power.

How high could she go? How fast?

They’d exhausted their theories on how to get back. The tapestry had to hold some answers, but the answers eluded them. Maybe after a good night’s rest the answers would come.

The waves crashed on the beach. The nearly full moon cascaded light on the white-capped water giving it a silver glow. Something inside Liz’s mind clicked. She stilled and sat forward.

“What is it?” Fin asked sitting up along with her. She wasn’t sure. Like a word sitting on the tip of your tongue, Liz reached for awareness. “Something 190

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about the water, the glow of the moon.”

“There’s a lot to be said about the lunar pull.

Legends have been built on full moons for centuries,”

Selma pointed over to a group of people who’d set up a telescope nearby. “I wonder if anything is happening in the sky that may give us a clue.”

“Oh, man. Next you’re going to ask everyone their sign.” Jake rolled his eyes.

“You’re a real killjoy, Jake. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Yeah, my ex-wife. Right before the divorce.”

“She and I would get along great.”

Liz blocked out their squabbling and stared at the moon. The answer was there, she could taste it.

“Sometimes when I’m trying to solve a problem, focusing on another one allows my brain to rest enough to see the solution for the first.” Selma stood and placed her back to the fire searching for warmth. “Has your family considered what to do to destroy Grainna?”

“We’re in constant debate on the subject,” Fin told her.

“How can you kill someone who’s immortal?”

Jake chuckled. “For someone who claims to be up on legends, you don’t pay much attention to pop culture.”

“Meaning?”

“All the vampire flicks on TV right now.”

“I don’t think a stake through Grainna’s black heart is going to destroy her. Besides, she’d be impossible to get that close to.”

Fin agreed. “Still, the Ancients said to consider this time when finding a way to destroy her.”

Liz remembered the visit from Elise well. She appeared like a goddess in gold light, her voice was like a thousand voices of a choir. She’d told them they were the chosen, the only ones who could destroy Grainna. Her cryptic riddle didn’t give them 191

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a lot to go on and frustrated them more than helped.

“If a stake isn’t going to do it, then cremation or beheading should do the trick.”

“It’s a good thing you’re talking about someone who doesn’t exist in this time, or I’d have to haul you all in,” Jake took a swig from his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“You’re all talk, Jake.”

Liz leaned back into Fin’s arms. “We’d have to hold Grainna down to set her on fire. She would just shift into a raven and fly away.”

Fin’s breath fanned her ear when he spoke.

“Maybe now that you’ve found your gift, you could catch her.”

She shivered. Fin held her closer.

“I’d love to get my hands on her neck, but at the same time, I’d be petrified.” Considering the amount of power the woman had, touching her might be like staring into the eyes of Medusa. Although Grainna may be in the body of a goddess, she had the soul of a snake-haired demon.

“You’d have to have some mighty powerful protection, that’s for sure.”

“Do you have any idea how to conjure that kind of protection?”

“Didn’t you say Grainna holds the power of hundreds of Druids that she’s killed?”

“Yeah.”

Selma swatted a bug on her bare arm. “Then it would take the strength of hundreds to combat her.”

“Hundreds of Druids?” Fin asked.

“That would be impossible,” Liz sighed.

“Maybe not Druids, but souls. Decent, spiritual people working toward the same goal.”

“How would we obtain that without exposing who we are?”

Selma shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe if this Ancient came down like an angel and guided the 192

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masses to listen to you to defeat her, the people would listen.”

“Like that’s gonna happen. Elise hasn’t even appeared to us since before the last showdown.”

Fin ran his hand down her arm, instantly calming her. Feeling helpless never weighed on her like it did now.

“We must find a way to render her powerless in order to destroy her.” Fin mused, his voice distant.

“We need to find our way back first.”

“I know, lass. We will.”

Liz wanted to be more confident, but as the hours ticked on, hope faded.

Selma let out a deep sigh and pushed herself away from the heat of the fire. “I’m going to see what our celestial friends over there are looking at.”

Jake snorted and tipped his beer back for another long pull as Selma sauntered away. Her hips swung in step with her hands attracting Jake’s eye. Liz let a smile slip past her lips.

Jake caught her grin and stuck out a defiant chin. “So, my buddy Todd finally settled down?”

Liz shivered as a gust of cold air blew off the ocean. Fin held her closer. When had she grown so comfortable being surrounded by his arms? His scent?

“He and Myra are very happy,” Liz told him.

“Does he wear a kilt like you do?” he asked Fin.

“No. He refuses. I think his exact words were,

‘There’s no way in hell I’m going to wear a skirt.’”

Jake choked on his beer. “Now that sounds like Todd.”

“’Tisn’t a skirt,” Fin defended the garment he’d grown up wearing.

“The hell it isn’t.”

Fin snorted, the roped muscles on his arm flexed with irritation. “Women wear skirts.”

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Jake opened his mouth to air his retort, and Liz cut him off. Fin had already voiced his concern about Jake’s lack of trust in them. The cop’s continual threat to turn them in hung in the air like thick fog.

Although he’d seemed to ease into believing their stories, Liz knew firsthand that blindly accepting time travel, Druids, and witches was impossible without proof. When Myra had come to her with the tale of Tara’s disappearance and subsequent travel through time, she didn’t believe her at all. Or at least not much anyway. Even when Myra proved she held the power to move objects with her mind, Liz really didn’t believe she traveled through time. Not until she stood on the snow-dusted hills of Scotland did she truly believe.

“It’s a kilt. And it’s sexy as hell.” Liz hoped her comment would disperse Fin’s temper. She didn’t want to see him and Jake come to blows.

Lifting a brow in her direction, the hard lines on Fin’s face softened. “Sexy, is it?”

Sometimes men were so easy. “Easy access, too.”

Fin’s hand stroked her waist under her arms and allowed his thumb to trace the outline of her breast, his touch hidden from Jake by the sweater she wore. Chills of pleasure and something else drifted in her mind.

A soft moan rumbled low in his chest as his lips descended on hers. She reached for him just as Selma strode up to the campfire chatting. “I think I know the date that you two are going home.”

Her words registered to both her and Fin at the same time. Their kiss forgotten, they snapped their attention to her.

“When?”

“There’s a full moon in two days.”

“So?”

“There’s also going to be a total eclipse of the moon starting at eleven-fifteen.”

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“That has to be it.” Liz turned in Fin’s arms and looked him in the eye. “On the tapestry, there’s a spot with a dark circle surrounded by a thin line. It has to be what Lora wanted to portray.”

“What are you saying, Selma? The stars are going to align and throw these two back in time?”

Jake’s sarcasm grew thicker with each word.

“Your skepticism is getting old, Jake.”

“So is all this mystical, magical bullshit.” He stood and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Why are you here, again?”

“To keep an eye on all of you.”

“Oh, yeah, so you can what? Turn them in, keep them from going back, and help their family survive.

Help Todd survive? Nice way to show your friend you care.”

“Todd knew I would do anything for him. He was like a brother to me.”

“Is. Is like a brother. Todd isn’t dead,” Liz spoke up, trying in vain to remind Jake that no harm had come to Todd.

“Was,” he corrected. “If you want me to believe your story, then Todd is long since dead.”

“Not where we’ve come from. But there’s no guarantee he’ll stay whole and healthy if we don’t get back there.” Their shouts were drawing attention to them from the other people on the beach. Liz pushed herself out of Fin’s lap and lowered her voice.

“Todd would want you to help. We’ve already gone over this.”

Jake turned his back to them and took a few steps toward the water’s edge. He ran a hand through his hair; the dew from the ocean spray had the short strands standing on end. “I don’t know what the hell to believe with you guys. About the time I started to move on, get used to the fact that Todd wasn’t coming home, you guys show up and offer some hope he’s alive.”

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The hurt in his voice rang strong in Lizzy’s heart. She understood his pain more than most. Six months of not knowing if Tara was dead or alive stretched into eternity for her and Simon.

Selma slowly advanced on Jake until she placed her fingers on his shoulders. He flinched, but didn’t move away. “At one time, you believed in me on some level. You called me, remember?”

He graced her with a nod.

“Believe in me again. Who knows? Maybe Todd will find a way to leave a personal note or word for you to read so you’ll know the truth.”

“If he did, wouldn’t there be something from him in that trunk?”

“He left his cell phone in there.”

“With no way to power it up after centuries of decay.”

“Centuries of decay. Listen to yourself. If Todd didn’t travel back in time, how could the phone have been placed in that trunk?”

The doubt in Jake’s eyes started to fade, but shadows flickered in the back of his eyes.
If only we
could open a window and glimpse back into time for
him to see.

“Wait,” Liz said a little too loud, making all of them jump at her voice. An idea formed in her head and reminded her of all she’d accomplished with Tara, Mayra and Amber before being whisked away.

She may have stumbled upon the power of defying gravity, but she’d been practicing harvesting power and energy for the use of spells for well over a year.

Liz glanced over to the spot the star gazers had been. They’d retreated from their fire when they ran out of wood. Only a few other parties gathered on the beach but they were far enough away to afford Liz’s party some privacy.

“I have an idea.” She summoned Selma to her side.

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“Fin I need you to make a ball of flame. Make it about this big.” She circled her hands to indicate the size of a basketball.

“What are ye going to do?”

“I’m going to try and see what’s going on back home.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

Liz reached over and picked up the backpack that held the sacred stone and removed it. “With a little help from this and the Ancients.”

After setting the stone to the side of the fire pit, she motioned to Fin. “Place the ball of flame over the stone and come and take mine and Selma’s hand.”

“Should we sit?”

“No, if we start to levitate, it won’t be as obvious to anyone watching if we’re standing.”

“Levitate?” Selma sent her a worried frown.

“Side effect,” Liz said as if she’d answered the woman’s question. “Don’t worry, we won’t fly south for the winter.”

Fin motioned with his hand and gathered a flame from the existing fire until it wrapped around itself in a neat wispy ball. The flame hovered in the air until it sat over the stone, only inches above it.