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Why was I speaking out of turns? Again. And I wasn’t even part of the conversation, not really. I was just one of the choices.

“You can’t make this choice, Magnus. Don’t.”

“I have⁠—”

I turned to Lady Mairead. “He can’t make this choice.”

“He has tae.”

I turned on the arm of his chair and spoke directly to him. “You can’t make it. How can you? You can’t. And I can’t watch you make it. No matter what you choose I can’t let you make that choice — whatever you choose it won’t be the right one. It will kill me to see you choose it. You can’t. But I can, okay?” His brow drew down even more.

“Magnus, you have to let me make this choice for you. It has to be mine.” I clutched his hand. “I know the man you are, you can’t make it.”

“But I⁠—”

“I’m serious, if you choose me, what becomes of us? It’s us, alone, hiding forever? Could we even have children? What if I can’t? How long before you hate me for having chosen me?” I pulled his hand closer to my heart and held it against my chest.

“And if you choose her, if you choose your son... I can’t ever forgive you for that. There isn’t a choice here for you to make, but there is a choice for me to make. Let me.”

“Kaitlyn, ye canna leave me.”

I stroked down his jawline. “I can’t leave you. I won’t. But let me decide for you. Trust me in this. I’m the only one who can do it without tearing us apart — if you’ll let me.”

He searched my face for a long moment then nodded. “Okay, mo reul-iuil, okay ye decide.”

Lady Mairead asked, “Ye would live by Kaitlyn’s wishes?”

“Aye, I live by my wife’s wishes, I serve as she decides.”

I took a deep fortifying breath. “Magnus will fight for his throne. He will come to the future and he will be the king. He will protect his—” The word caught in my throat. “Son. And... Yeah. He will.”

“Ye heard your wife, Magnus, do ye agree?”

His pause was long and worrisome. He stared down at the carpet before him, then said, “Aye.”

“Good. I do need tae rest before we go tae your kingdom⁠—”

Magnus said, “I have made a promise tae Quentin that I will bring him home. I must do that afore anythin’ else.”

Lady Mairead sighed. “Fine, I suppose it can’t be helped, you can handle that first, though I will need a gesture from ye tae prove ye will comply with your wife’s decision. A promise that you will come tae the future ready tae fight.”

“Ye have my word.”

“Your word isna good enough.”

I stood. “What do you want then?”

Magnus said, “Daena, Kaitlyn.”

“It’s fine, Magnus, really. I’ll agree to just about anything to Get. This. Bitch. Out of our lives.”

Lady Mairead pulled a small leather-covered book from her pocket. She placed it on the side table, opened to a blank page, and placed a ball-point pen across the pages. The pen was printed with, “Loving Amelia Island!” down the side.

“I would like ye tae write here, Kaitlyn, where ye were on — let’s see, the mornin’ of the third day of November, the year 2019?”

I said, “That was a couple of weeks ago. I woke up at home⁠—”

“Please write there the time you woke up and the address of your bedroom.”