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EVEN AS SHE told Aidan that Maeve waited in the beyond for him, something felt off about it. Yet when she saw hope flare in his thickly lashed pale turquoise eyes, she kept from voicing her concern. While one part of her felt crushing pressure in her chest at the immense love he felt for another woman, she didn’t have the heart to dissuade him.
Suddenly free of the bizarre words she’d uttered, she tried to gather herself. She was caught somewhere between immense curiosity and the incredible sensation of being in his presence. It wasn’t just his gorgeous good looks but the—what should she call it?—the sheer power coming off of him.
“What is that?” she whispered, peering at him. “What am I feeling?”
Was it simply being near someone with such a tall, broad-shouldered frame? Was it the confidence radiating off him though she sensed he was at his most vulnerable? She frowned at his jeans and winter jacket and shook her head, speaking before she gave it much thought. “You’re not even dressed right.”
She swallowed hard and kept shaking her head. What the hell did she mean by that? He was dressed fine.
Yet it seemed all wrong.
His lovesick-for-another-woman gaze stayed on her as he sought more information about Maeve without uttering a word. He went to speak but stopped and blinked several times as if caught in the same strange place as her.
Because it was definitely strange.
Almost otherworldly.
“We will talk more,” he finally managed, gesturing in the direction of the Stonehenge. “After we...return to Julie.”
“Julie?” She frowned, vaguely wondering why she wasn’t more baffled by all this, but she wasn’t. Rather, her mind brimmed with more questions. Where had he come from? How did he know Tiernan? Where was Julie? Yet, instead of asking all those questions, she glanced in the direction of Mystery Hill then back to him before she nodded and started toward the Stonehenge. “Yeah, okay, we’ll talk then.”
Talk then? When? And about what precisely? She knew deep down, though, in a place that made no sense, yet she somehow understood. That was the only way to put it. There was plenty to talk about. Lots to learn. Perhaps even recall. As though the answers lie within her, but she couldn’t quite remember. It wasn’t just her instincts as a journalist at work either but...something else. Something made up of her dreams. Her ring. Him. Even Maeve.
It all tied together somehow.
Rather than answer her previous questions or continue asking about Maeve, Aidan remained silent as they walked through the woods, crossing from North Salem into Salem. Strangely enough, she remained uncharacteristically silent too. Mainly because she couldn’t make sense of things. She was out in the middle of nowhere with a strange man she'd met in a dream. Something should be said about that. But no, she remained silent, her thoughts going in a million directions.
Not to say she wasn’t wholly aware of him.
It wasn't every day she came across a Scotsman never mind one that looked like him. His thick, tousled hair was dark chocolate brown, almost black, and his chiseled features were striking. He had well-sculptured lips, prominent cheekbones, a strong jaw, and a straight nose. Normally, his sort of looks would have stopped her in her tracks.
But none of this was normal.
Eventually, they closed in on the Stonehenge, and her curiosity finally took over. Something her ex had found tiresome and likely Aidan would too. All men did. But that never stopped her from pursuing the truth. Then moving on to the next truth. And the next. Because there was always more out there. Always more to be revealed.
“Why am I here, Aidan?” She slowed as they approached the rocks, drawn to a certain location. “Why are you here?” Though tempted to look at him, she wasn’t ready to see the pain in his eyes again. So she checked out the cluster of stones toward the center of the site. The supposed sacrificial table that had been vandalized a few months back. “Please tell me all you know.”
Because he knew a lot and she had no idea why she felt that.
She slipped on gloves and brushed snow off the sacrificial rock the best she could before crouching beside it. Why would anyone think this was legit? That it dated back thousands of years?
Yet as she touched it, such strong curiosity overcame her, it took her breath away.
“I am here to get you, lass,” Aidan said softly, crouching beside her. He didn’t look at her but kept his eyes firmly on the stone. “You are drawn to this, aye?”
“Aren’t you?” she whispered before nausea swelled, and she stood. “Or maybe not.”
“What is it, Chloe?” He stood as well and frowned at her. “What just happened?”
“Don't you feel it?” she whispered, not sure what it was. “First something good, then something bad...really bad.”
She'd read the police report about what had been done to this stone in October, so maybe her imagination was just getting the best of her. According to the land owners, it looked like power tools had been used to mar the rock, but she wasn't so sure. Law enforcement claimed a cross had been left at the site. It looked like some sort of ritual had been performed. A logical conclusion she supposed.
The truth was she wouldn’t have cared either way because she hadn't thought this place was legit. Yet now, she felt differently, and she wasn't sure why. Aidan did, though, didn't he? She met his eyes, wishing she hadn’t because they made concentrating difficult. But she needed answers, so she focused on what he had said. “What do you mean you’re here to get me?”
Some women might be alarmed by a strange man saying that. Especially one who could easily overpower her. But she felt safe. Protected. If she were thinking clearly, she would have rolled her eyes at that. Honestly, in every handbook ever written, she had already catastrophically failed at how-not-to-get-kidnapped 101. Yet here she stood minus self-defense skills and nothing to defend herself with. The icing on top? She didn't even have her cell phone to call for help.
“I've come to take you,” he began, then stopped and frowned.
Uh oh, that didn’t sound good. But did she flee in the opposite direction like any woman in their right mind would? God no. She acted like a bumbling idiot instead.
“Take me?” she whispered, interpreting that all wrong. Her mind went one place and one place only. And it had nothing to do with running from him but getting a whole lot closer. As intimate as two people could get.
What the hell was the matter with her?
Their eyes held, and it felt like the ground slipped out from beneath her. Despite the biting wind, heat flared under her skin. Why had she gone there when she knew he hadn’t meant it that way? Because her breathy way-too-girly response definitely sounded like an invitation to hop in the sack.
Then again, if she didn’t know better, she’d swear primal interest flared in his gaze as well. Or was that something else? His eyes suddenly seemed a little different. Brighter, if possible.
“Aye, take ye,” he murmured, his brogue thickening. His words strange. While she thought for a moment, he would say one thing he said something else. “Back in time.”
Right, not kidnapped, but say what? Had she heard him correctly? But of course, she had.
“Back in time,” she whispered, not nearly as baffled by that statement as she should be.
In fact, with it came memories of a dream.
Or was it reality?
“It turns out you’re on a bit of an adventure,” Julie had said to Chloe. “You’ve sort of...well...have you ever watched Dr. Who?”
“Can’t say I have.” She kept her eyes narrowed, still trying to figure things out. How she had gone from dreaming of exploring the Stonehenge in New Hampshire to this foggy place. This foreign Stonehenge. “I’ve heard of it though...time travel show, right?”
“Yup.” Julie was about to say more, but Chloe shook her head and blinked several times again, understanding more by the moment.
“Wait...right....” She peered at her new Claddagh ring. Understanding dawned out of nowhere. “Time travel...this.” She looked at Tiernan, taking in his medieval attire before she did the same to Julie’s dress and whispered, “Holy hell, the dream...”
The dream.
Not precisely the one with Aidan through the fog but one remarkably similar.
“Ireland,” she whispered, her eyes still with his. “I was there...so were you...” Nausea swelled again. “So was someone else.” She inhaled deeply, certain she was right. “More than one someone.” Her gaze fell to the sacrificial table again. “And it’s all connected to this.”
Holy crazy revelations overload, but she was right. She just knew it.
“We must go, Chloe.” Aidan sounded concerned. “We need to get back to—”
“The past,” she said softly, again certain she was right. Certain she hadn’t dreamt about Julie at that foreign Stonehenge but had lived it somehow. “We need to return to...” She gazed at her ring and understood at least a small bit. “Medieval Scotland.” Then she understood more when she met his eyes again. “Specifically, thirteen thirty-two.”
“Aye,” he replied. “’Tis the year to which we must travel.”
“’Tis,” she whispered, noting how he sounded more medieval by the moment. “Rather than it is.” She cocked her head, curious instead of terrified. She needed to fill in the blanks. To understand what was just out of her reach. “Tell me everything, Aidan. Help me to understand.”
“I will,” he replied. “After—”
“No.” She shook her head, standing her ground. In a rush though clueless why. “Not until you tell me everything.” While she sort of knew already, she needed to hear him say it. Then she needed him to tell her so much more. “Tell me where Julie is. Who Tiernan really is. What our role is in all this.”
Because they had a role.
Him and her.
She had never been so sure of anything.
His gaze lingered on her eyes for a moment before he nodded once and shared so much more than she could have anticipated. He urged her to walk with him further into the Stonehenge and spun a fantastical tale beyond her wildest imagination. Everything faded away as she listened. The darkening sky and gusty wind. The snow covered stones and creaking trees.
He spoke of six Stonehenges, including this one. An ancient Irish brotherhood determined to end his lineage and perhaps even Scotland itself. He talked of witches, wizards and dragon shifters. Of fated love and Claddagh rings.
How it all tied in with the history of Scotland.
Normally she would have found this nonsensical, yet, she didn’t doubt it, just believed. His words spun a faerytale that was as real to her as here and now, and she had no idea why. All she knew was that he told the truth.
Scotland was in trouble, and it lay in their hands to save it.
She leaned against a tree, letting everything sink in. From Robert the Bruce’s son, King David needing her help to Balliol’s disinherited nobles being possessed by evil monks. Monsters that were not only determined to kill little David but wanted to end Clan MacLomain before their conception. If all that weren't enough, Julie was a Guardian Witch who saw helpful ley-lines, and not just the Stone of Destiny was aiding in their cause but an actual unicorn.
“Yet it all comes down to this somehow,” she said softly, eyeing her Claddagh ring. More so, the colorless stone at its heart’s center. She forced herself to meet Aidan's eyes. Forced herself to see the love he felt for Maeve. “It all comes down to the stone in my ring shining the color of your eyes when...” Just say it no matter how crazy it sounds. Because you know it’s true. “When you and I connect the way destiny says we’re supposed to.”
“Fate,” he corrected. “But aye, only true love can ignite the power of the Claddagh ring.”
“Right,” she whispered. “And I'll know I'm with the right person because it’ll eventually shine the color of the wizard’s eyes I'm meant for.”
“Aye,” he said so softly the words nearly vanished on the wind. Though his eyes remained with hers, she got the sense he wasn’t really looking at her. That he was seeing someone else. A ghost from the past.
Maeve.
“How is this ever going to happen if,” she started to say but trailed off before finishing her sentence. Whatever was destined to happen between them, she wasn’t interested in trying to push aside or overcome the love he felt for Maeve. She certainly wasn’t in the market for a man anyway. So perhaps there was a way around the Claddagh ring.
Either way, right now, she was more worried about what he'd shared in regards to King David. What a sad life the eight-year old had lived. No kid, let alone one with his backstory, deserved everything coming at him.
So she pushed the words past her lips no matter how strange they sounded.
“You’re right, Aidan, we do need to go back.” She set aside fear even as it bubbled up. “We need to—”
That’s all she got out before fog swept in out of nowhere, and everything shifted.
Changed.
Morphed around her.
Yet she was only aware of one thing.
Aidan had pulled her into his arms.
