Page 37
The sound of the falls was getting louder now, and when they finally turned a corner and the source came into view, Hannah could hardy sit still.
“This is it!”
She wanted to jump off the horse, and would have if Tristan had not reached back and stayed her.
“Easy.” He held her in place and navigated through the dense woods toward the clearing beneath the falls. He finally dismounted and helped her down from the horse.
As soon as she landed on her feet, Hannah ran through the remaining trees. Just beyond the tree line, a wall of rocks framed the water tumbling from above. It looked, unbelievably, just as it had the last time she was here. Frantic now, Hannah rushed down to the spot where she and her sisters had stood before deciding to jump. The dry rock outcropping afforded a spectacular view of the entire falls.
She felt Tristan fall in behind her as she scanned the majestic sight before her. According to the innkeeper who had suggested the day trip, some said Leannan Falls was Scotland’s best-kept secret. As ethereal as the more well-known faerie pools on Isle of Skye but tucked away in a wooded and otherwise secluded area, the falls attracted more serious climbers and cliff jumpers than it did casual tourists.
But her relief quickly faded. “Nothing,” she said, turning to Tristan. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Do you?” she asked, aware of the desperation creeping into her voice.
The last time Hannah had stood here, she’d been laughing and joking with her sisters, feet firmly planted in the twenty-first century. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but she’d hoped to find something, anything to indicate what had happened here—and how she could reverse it. Like maybe some fantasy-type portal back to the future . . . or her sisters. Had she really let herself believe they’d be waiting for her?
Before Tristan could respond, Hannah ran to a spot closer to the lower falls. Still nothing.
She shook her head, unable to think.
“No,” she said. “No, no.”
Hannah looked back up and knew what she had to do. She started climbing.
“Hannah, where are you going?”
She ascended the same path Caroline had pointed out just two days ago. This was the path “non-jumpers” used, leading to an outcropping above a particularly deep spot in the pool beneath.
“Hannah?”
She should say goodbye in case it worked. Thank him for bringing her here. Ignoring the pang in her chest at the thought of never seeing Tristan again, she looked down to where her future, and past, awaited. Most importantly, to where her sisters awaited.
“I have to know,” she said, positioning herself in the very same spot she’d jumped from before. Fear bubbled up in her gut as she looked down on the pool so far beneath her, but she’d made the jump once and could do it again.
Relief flooded through Hannah when she saw Tristan approaching, navigating the wet rocks to the spot where she stood. He held out his hand, and she took it without hesitation.
“You intend to jump?”
Hannah wanted to do more than squeeze his hand back. She wanted to kiss him, to feel his arms around her once more. But it wouldn’t do them any good. She didn’t belong here.
“I don’t have any choice,” she said.
Tristan peered over the falls. The distance wasn’t dangerous. The more experienced jumpers, the daredevils, jumped from the higher perch above them.
He nodded, letting go of her hand. “You’re scared.”
“Damn right,” she said. Delaying the inevitable was actually making it worse . . . both her fear and her reluctance to leave him. She leaned up, placed a kiss on Tristan’s cheek, and turned back to the falls. “Thank you for everything,” she said. Then she gathered her courage and stepped off the ledge before she clung to him and never let go.
And for the second time that week, Hannah fell through the air and plunged into the frigid waters of Leannan Falls.
* * *
She was gone.
Tristan had seen the look on her face as they rode here. Hannah had been to this place before, but not like this—the Leannan Falls she’d visited had featured “roads and highways” that would not exist for years. If he had harbored any remaining doubts before, he didn’t now. She truly had come from another time, and now it appeared she’d gone back to that place.
Or not.
When her head bobbed out of the water, Tristan didn’t think. He tossed aside his sword and jumped in after her. When the cold water pulled him under, he swam to the surface.