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She closed the door and started the car, but before she could press on the pedal, David opened the passenger door and flopped onto the seat next to her.

“Let me at least make sure you’re safe,” he said.

Something warmed in her heart, and tears blurred her vision. She was so hormonal and emotional, damn her. “Okay. Thank you,” she said.

He nodded and looked in front of him. She tapped the address into the GPS and drove.

After hours of driving, they stopped for dinner, then for a coffee at midnight, after which David told her he’d drive and she could rest.

He stopped to rest during the night, too, and they arrived at the castle in the early morning. They were the first in line for tickets to visit the castle. She bought two tickets and they went inside.

When there were no museum workers around, she sneaked past the rope blocking the stairway to the underground rooms, and David followed her. She had no idea if this would work. Would Sìneag even come? Would the rock work again?

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To the rock.”

“I must be out of my goddamn mind to go along with this,” he mumbled.

When she opened the door to the cave-like room with the rock, her heart beat in her chest like a drum. Was she too late? Was the wedding already happening?

Oh God! What if the rock didn’t work?

She stood before the pile of rocks, in the middle of which was the one with the carving and the hand. David frowned at it. “So it does exist…” he said thoughtfully.

“It does.”

He looked around. “And where’s the guy?”

“Back in time. Through the rock.”

The scent of lavender and freshly cut grass reached her nostrils. Sìneag?

Rogene’s palms broke out in cold sweat. David squinted in the dim light, looking around. Then Rogene blinked, and Sìneag appeared. David jumped back a little. Rogene beamed.

“Whoa!” David cried. “Who the hell are you?”

Sìneag studied him with wide eyes and the curiosity of a child.

“I’m Sìneag,” she said. “And who are ye, young and handsome man?”

“My brother,” Rogene said.

“Oh!” Sìneag beamed. “Right! Is he coming with ye?”

Rogene’s smile fell. “What? No, of course not.”

Sìneag cocked her head with a mysterious smile. “Well…”

“No!” Rogene exclaimed. She thought of all the dangers, and bloodshed, and sickness, and cold, and she didn’t want him to go there.

Sìneag kept smiling and staring at David.

“What?” David said.

“Nothing,” Sìneag said. “Yer sister does oppose ye going.”

Then David’s face fell. “Wait. I had thought it was that Angus guy who abused Rory and lured her back here, but are you involved in that plan, too?”