Page 80 of Dark Lover

“You know what? He’s got some redeeming value after all, so I’m not going to say another word.” Nick walked past her.

A moment later, Sam heard the front door slam closed.

SAM REMAINED SEATED on the stairs as the line in Edinburgh rang. Unbelievably, she was nervous. She and Brie had been far closer than mere cousins, more like sisters, really. They’d been best friends, even if they were radically opposite in every possible way. They’d confronted and survived so much evil together. Sam realized she was nervous because she simply didn’t know what to expect when Brie picked up the phone.

It really wasn’t all that surprising that Aidan and Brie were living in modern-day Edinburgh. That would make her cousin hundreds of years old. So the old family joke was true—the Rose women got better and wiser with age.

Of course, Sam had thought about time travel and the new reality it engendered, a lot. When Allie had gone back in time, she’d changed her life entirely. She’d been Allie Monroe up until that day, more commonly known as the Monroe Heiress. But once she’d vanished, the records had changed. It was as if Allie Monroe had never existed. She’d never been born, never gone to school, never had a driver’s license…

But that was because Fate had been interrupted and it had been corrected. It was a Wisdom in the Book of Roses that Sam was very familiar with. Fate was always written. When it went awry, which it rarely did, it either stayed awry or the universe fixed it.

Allie had actually been conceived in the thirteenth century. Her being born in modern times had been Fate going awry. Her destiny was the past, not the present. Sam was aware that a really, really ancient Allie lived today at Carrick Castle with the earl of Morvern—a Master of Time. She’d never seen the point in visiting her. For Allie, who’d gone back in time to the fifteenth century, hundreds of years had elapsed since they’d been buddies fighting evil together. For Sam, it had only been two years. She couldn’t imagine what a reunion with present-day Allie would be like.

But it had begged the question—could Tabby be out there somewhere? Could Brie?

Well, apparently Brie was on the other side of the ocean right now. She could understand why Brie might not get in touch with her—there were all kinds of rules—but her sister would surely do so, unless something dire had stopped her or she hadn’t lived into the twenty-first century. Of course, Tabby had a different Fate than Allie or Brie. She’d been born in 1979 and all her records remained, even after her disappearance. Tabby was officially listed as a missing person, but the truth was that she was a modern woman who’d been meant to connect with a medieval man and go back in time with him to fight evil.

Sam wanted her sister back, not some five-hundred-year-old woman who was by now a great-great-great-grandmother, at least. It would be weird sitting down with her sister if they’d been apart for centuries. But it was worth looking into, because it would be better than nothing at all.

But Nick had given her Brie’s number—not Tabby’s.

She was afraid to make the inference.

“The Maclean residence,” a very Scottish voice answered.

Sam inhaled. She wasn’t even sure how she should address Brie now. “Lady Maclean, please,” she said after a moment of hesitation. Her heart was pounding now.

“May I ask who’s calling?”

“Sam Rose.”

An interminable moment went by. Sam didn’t know if it was sixty seconds or a few minutes; it felt like an hour. Then an older woman said, “Sam? Is that really you?”

She inhaled. Brie sounded as if she was well into late middle age. A few months ago, she’d been twenty-six years old. “Yeah, Brie, it’s me.” To her dismay, tears filled her eyes.

“It’s been so long!” Brie cried. “No one has called me Brie in hundreds of years.”

When Aidan had taken Brie hostage, he’d taken her back to 1502. Sam was certain that Brie’s life in the past had begun then. If Brie had lived through five centuries, she was well over five hundred years old. “I’m sort of shaken that we’re really speaking…like this. How are you?”

She felt Brie smile. “You know Allie is at Carrick with Royce, and she’s been there for centuries.”

“Yeah, I know. I never called her because of the years that have passed. It just seemed like it would be awkward as all hell.”

“Is this too awkward?” Brie asked softly.

“Yes…and no. Brie, you left here last September. For me, it hasn’t been that long. You sound like a grandmother. I’m still twenty-seven.”

Brie laughed. “I am a grandmother—and a great-great-great-grandmother, too. And I am fine. I’m happy. It’s been such a good life. I love Aidan as much as I ever did—impossibly.”

Sam thought about the last time she’d seen Aidan, when he was dark and dangerous and furious with the gods. “How’s Aidan, anyway?”

“Fine. Perfect. My other half…my best half.”

Sam didn’t know what to say to that. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the dark Highlander as Brie’s better half.

“He’s spent the past centuries protecting children, Sam. It’s what the gods asked of him.”

Sam tensed. Aidan hadn’t been able to protect his own son, but his Fate, apparently, was protecting all the other innocent children of the world. “I’m glad,” she somehow said. She wondered if Ian knew what his father’s duty was.