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One word slammed into me — ‘bloodlust.’ I grabbed his arm and clung to it. “Stop!”

He swung my hands away.

Tyler said, “I saved your life, Katie — get this fucking barbarian off me.”

Magnus turned on him again, past the point of stopping, “What did ye call⁠—”

I threw myself back onto Tyler, my body between him and Magnus’s fist and I begged, “Stop, please, Magnus. Stop.”

He dropped Tyler’s shirt with a shove to the ground, causing me to fall backward on top of him.

With his chest heaving and an expression of shock in his eyes, he shook his head and stepped backwards. He took another step backwards, watching me try to pick myself up off of Tyler.

I asked, “Tyler are you okay, also what are you doing here?”

He brushed himself off. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. Where even is here? Why does my whole body hurt? Why the fuck is it so cold and you need to tell your husband...” He glared at Magnus. “To never lay a hand on me again.”

“He won’t. Right, Magnus? He won’t.”

Magnus was glowering, his chest rising and falling in heaves. I pulled the blanket around my shoulders. “And to the other stuff, you’ve just time-traveled with us to the 18th century. Seriously. I don’t know the mechanics of it, but Magnus is from 1703.”

“Bullshit.”

“No, it’s not.” I shook my head. “It’s too cold out here to explain what I barely understand myself, but it’s the truth and you’ll know once you’re here for longer than ten minutes. For now, let me get you a blanket and Magnus and I will discuss getting you back home.” I limped, stiff from cold and fear, over to our pile.

There was a dead body on our blankets. I pushed its shoulder trying to move it but it was way heavier than it looked. Magnus came to my side and pushed the body off. I carried a blanket to Tyler. “Wrap in this, it will help.”

“There’s blood all over it. There are dead people. We might catch some⁠—”

“You know, there’s blood on all of them. We were lucky we weren’t killed. Wrap up in the freaking blanket.”

“Is it dark to you? Really dark?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s very dark.”

I returned to Magnus. He was standing staring at the ground, incapable of speaking, trying to pull himself back from the edge. I pulled a blanket around his shoulders. And looked up into his eyes. “Come back, Magnus.”

“I canna trust him.”

I pushed a lock of his hair back behind his ear. “But you can’t kill him. He’s here accidentally and we’re responsible for it. We have to get him back.”

“He called me a barbarian.” He glanced at Tyler and shook his head.

I smoothed down his chest. “I’ve used that against you before. I know—” I took a deep breath. “You aren’t. You can’t let him get to you.” Magnus was looking everywhere but at me — “Magnus.”

He looked into my eyes.

“I need you to get on top of it and listen to me⁠—”

“What if he is here tae kill me? He could be a brother, or — he could be here tae take my throne, and I daena have a way tae stop⁠—”

“He had many opportunities before, right? He didn’t. He’s just a know-it-all and a control-freak who’s bordering on a death wish. We have to get out of the cold, into the castle. We have to decide what to do about Tyler. Not killing him.”

Magnus scowled. Then nodded. “Will ye be careful around him? I daena what he is up tae but I think he is of a danger tae⁠—”

I shook my head. “He’s not a danger to me, but I’ll be careful.”

“I was goin’ tae say a danger tae me.”