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Owen hemmed. “Things in yer life,” he muttered.
Was he daring to judge her? “Yes, things in my life,” she said. “Things you have no idea about.”
“Aye. I havna. Because ye dinna tell me.”
He slid the needle in her again, and she felt every excruciating detail of that pain.
“Mhhhhhh,” she released a half scream, half moan into her hand.
He finished quickly and then covered her with the cloak and sat on the floor by her side, crossing his legs.
“’Tis done,” he said. “Now my turn for yer game.”
Amber exhaled. She didn’t have any energy to play anymore, but she needed some distraction from the throbbing, burning mess that was her back.
“Okay, champ. Bring it on.”
He looked at her intensely. “My cock was once hard for a whole day. I shot a squirrel in the eye. And you were born in my time.”
His words didn’t quite register at first. “What was that last one?” she mumbled.
“Ye were born in my time. Which one is the lie?”
Well, the good news was, she didn’t feel any pain anymore. Instinctively, she shifted her arm to push herself up and try to sit, but she felt like the stitches would explode at any moment.
Owen glared at her. “I told ye nae to move.”
“You know?” she whispered.
“That ye are from the future? Aye. I ken.”
Had Muireach’s potion caused her to lose her mind? Did it induce hallucinations? She’d accepted the idea that she’d traveled in time, but hearing it from him like it was the most normal thing in the world… Once, in Afghanistan, a bomb exploded next to the Humvee she was in. The butt of her gun had hit her in the solar plexus, and she’d been unable to breathe for a moment. She hadn’t been able to hear anything beyond the ringing in her ears. That was how she felt now.
“How do you know?”
“Yer clothes. Yer accent. Yer words. Yer fighting. Everything about ye. I realized it from the beginning.”
“But—”
“I ken others who’ve came from the future. I’ve heard an accent like yers before. United States of America, aye?”
She felt the blood drain from her face, and cold tingles covered her skin.
“Did you say the United States of America?”
“Aye. I dinna feel at liberty to say who those people are. ’Tis nae my secret to tell.”
“So there are more…”
“Aye. There are more.”
What was this? This crazy reality where people from the States had traveled back in time to medieval Scotland? Was this her life now?
“And were they all sent by Sìneag?” she asked. “She said she’s a Highland faerie, and that she loves matchmaking people through time.”
Owen chuckled and shook his head. “The Highlands are full of superstitions and legends. I was raised on those stories. Some people see faeries, kelpies, and magical folk behind every boulder and tree. I dinna. I havena heard of a faerie that matchmakes through time, but I have heard stories of another world—the faerie world. They have a kingdom of sorts that we people canna see. They’re invisible to us unless they want to be seen and heard. But ’tis all legends.”
Amber bit the inside of her cheek. “Looks like a legend came to life. What about that Pictish magic she talked about?”
