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Stunned, David blinked, looking like a young boy again—open, and vulnerable, and sweet. The boy she’d known all her life. The boy who had grown into a young man but still was only her little brother. Rogene wanted to take him into her arms and shield him and keep protecting him. Was she right to leave him here by himself? Was she right to leave him period? He was such a big guy, but he was still so young.

She had to, she told herself. She had to.

And he’d be all right. He must be. He had his whole life to live.

“So,” Rogene said. “Is this enough, Sìneag? I have a wedding to crash.”

“Aye,” Sìneag said. “But are ye sure? Ye wilna get another chance to return to yer time.”

The carving on the rock began glowing, and David stared at it, narrowing his eyes with a WTF expression.

This was it. She fingered the straps of her backpack on her shoulders. Was she really ready? Had she really thought everything through? If it wasn’t for David, she’d already be on the other side of that rock.

“Rory…” he said in a warning.

She reached out to him for the last time and squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry, David. I have to.” He grasped her palm and didn’t let go.

“Rory, this looks fishy as hell.”

“Bye, David.” She kissed him on the cheek and with an effort, freed her hand.

Moving her heavy feet, she walked to the pile of rubble and sank to her knees before the stone, her backpack heavy. She threw a last glance at Sìneag and David, and her brother’s eyes were huge and fixed on her face. He breathed heavily, clenching and unclenching his fists.

She smiled at him and put her hand into the cool surface of the handprint. There it was, the familiar vibration, the sense of falling and of water, and darkness started consuming her—

“Rory!” came a distant cry, as if from another world.

Someone grabbed her by the elbow of her other arm, the sensation foreign and strange.

And she was falling and falling through the darkness until she blacked out.

Chapter 36

She jerked upright. Inky darkness surrounded her. And that smell—the mold, the water, the wet dust… It smelled differently from where she’d been a moment ago—or, rather, hundreds of years ago.

In 2021, electrical lamps had illuminated the cave-like room. The time-travel rock must have worked and she was back in 1310. Of course, she couldn’t be sure until she asked someone who knew what date it was.

But this time she was prepared. She had a flashlight in her messenger bag. Her backpack was still on her shoulders and she let it slide to the ground. Searching around herself for the bag, she touched something warm covered with some sort of fabric…

A body?

Gasping, she drew her hand back and covered her mouth with her hand. Who was that? She needed her light.

With her heart racing, and her pulse loud in her ears, she kept searching around herself and finally got a hold of her messenger bag. Her mind raced as she went through the contents.

Clothes, medicine, a book, silver coins… Her hand wrapped around a plastic cylinder. The light!

With a shaking hand, she found the button and pressed it. Momentarily blinded, she blinked. The round, white circle of light danced against the rough walls of the space, the vaulted ceiling, the rock with the Pictish carving…

There.

She stopped the light on a figure lying on the floor.

Her heart stopped. His eyes were closed, he was pale and looked like he was sleeping or unconscious.

David.

She rushed to him with her stomach sinking. Two fingers on his neck—he had pulse, thank God! She shook his shoulder gently.