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What if the old Magnus in the castle was a Magnus from my future and by seeing him I was removing a whole chunk out of the middle of our lives?

The more I thought about it the more confused I got, the more uncertain and weirded out.

He promised me he was always coming home.

So why wasn’t he here?

Emma helped me get dressed. My shift was washed, the woolen outer layers had been spot-cleaned and seriously Febreezed.

Zach and I spent the morning with the computer out, the ancestry website open while we figured out what year I should travel to. Lizbeth had told me she remembered Old Magnus from when she was little. Like maybe the age of three?

She was two years younger than Sean, five years older than Magnus. He was born in 1681. So if I went to Scotland two years before Magnus was born...

I chose the summer. Lammas Day, because that was his favorite holiday. If he was in the past-past for some reason, it would make sense that he would want to be there for his favorite day.

Lastly the question was where? The castle at Balloch? At one point Magnus mentioned that when he was very young he lived at a castle in the Argyll region, but how would I know how to find him there? And why would Old Magnus go to a castle I had never been to before? Unless he was trying to hide from me and that didn’t make sense.

The only thing that made sense was that Magnus for some reason was stuck in 1679. Lost. And if he wanted me to come, if he wanted there to be a possibility of me finding him, he would go to Balloch. Definitely.

We strapped another handbag to my waist with leather strips and filled it: beeswax candles, matches, a basic first aid kit, and a few protein bars unwrapped and folded in waxed cloth. I had knives strapped to my body in three different places. Last minute, I realized, there might be a chance, a slim possibility, that the timeline might have made it so Magnus wouldn’t recognize me. That he might not remember me.

I printed out a small photo of us together, cut it down smaller, and placed it in my bag, too.

Like if I had proof I could solve anything.

Quentin drove me to the south end of the island again.

When he let me out to walk across the sand he said, “You know, you don’t have to do this. I can go. I will. I’ll go get him and bring him home⁠—”

“Nope this is for me to do.” I straightened my skirts and pushed the hair from my face. “I’m the one, I’m going to go get Magnus.”

“You might be one of the bravest people I know.”

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, well I’m the one that needs to take care of shit.” I put my hand on his cheek. “Speaking of which, fellow person who takes care of shit, take care of Zach and Emma and especially Ben, okay? Don’t let anything happen to them.” I clicked open the handbag wrapped around my waist and checked inside, it was all there. I had checked already eight times. “And Hayley needs someone to take her to a meeting. She quit drinking, but she can’t seem to totally quit it, maybe you can, I don’t know, be her buddy system or something. Would you do that for me?”

“Aye,” he joked, “but I never took her for a quitter.”

“Well this she ought to quit. And she can do anything she sets her mind too, she just needs a little help.”

He smiled.

I asked, “What?”

“You. Going three hundred years in the past to rescue a warrior. It’s pretty bad ass of you.”

“A whole different century too. Technically it’s four hundred years. By myself. Magnus called me a terrible arse. He got the words all wrong.”

“Go get him. And don’t get in any dark back rooms with any of the other Campbell men, trust me. They are not the modern men you’re used to.”

“Yeah, I figured that out pretty early on.”

He said, “See ya.” And turned to walk back to the car.

I wiggled out all my arms and legs and rolled my head around on my shoulders.

I was doing this. I was going to time-jump by myself to a forest in the 17th century.

I had been doing the 18th century, but this was — the 1600s sounded really really far back there. I pulled the vessel from my pocket and twisted the ends. I took a deep breath and shook out my right hand, passed the vessel to my other hand, and shook that out too.