“Ye heard me,” he grated. He grabbed her wrist. “Who are ye? What do ye want with us?”
His grip was tight enough to hurt. “Ow! Let me go! You’re hurting me!”
“Not until ye start talking. Who are ye? What century have ye come from? Who sent ye?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Time travel? Was he totally insane?
She kicked him in the shins as hard as she could and was rewarded when he let her go with a curse and began hopping around. She took off, running as fast as she could away from the barn. She didn’t care that she was in the middle of nowhere. She didn’t care that she couldn’t get a signal on her cell. The one overriding thought flashing through her mind: she had to get away from these madmen this instant.
He caught her in less than five steps. Oskar’s strong hands closed about her arm and yanked her roughly around. She swung her fist at him but he caught it with his other hand and held her there. She found herself facing him, less than an arm’s length away. His chest was heaving and there was a strange expression on his face, something between anger and hurt.
“Let me go, you madman!” she yelled. She tried to kick him again but he managed to dance out of the way while still keeping a tight hold of her.
“Will ye stop that?” he snapped. “It bloody hurts!”
“Good! Now you know what it feels like! Take your hands off me!”
“Not until ye tell me the truth.”
“I am telling you the truth! You’re the one who’s acting like a lunatic all of a sudden!”
Oskar pressed his lips together and didn’t answer. He glared at her and Lily glared right back. If he thought she was going to be intimidated by him, he’d better think again! Her annoyed gaze met his furious one and she could smell the scent of him: wood smoke and open skies, and the wind had tousled his hair so that if fell around his face in messy red tangles. His deep blue eyes seemed to pierce right through her.
For a second, she forgot everything else. She forgot the barn, the landscape around, the crazy situation in which she found herself. She forgot everything but Oskar’s warm, strong hands on her arms.
Someone cleared their throat. “Everything all right?”
The two of them sprang apart. Magnus was standing behind, one eyebrow raised enquiringly. Oskar ran a hand through his hair, looking flustered.
“Nay, everything is most definitelynotall right,” he snapped. He held out Lily’s cell phone. “Look what I found. Seems our traveling companion has been lying to us.”
Lily clenched her fists. “I havenotbeen lying to you! How many times do I have to tell you? Dear Lord, it’s only a cell phone!”
She expected Magnus to laugh off Oskar’s outburst—he did seem the more reasonable of the two—so she was surprised when his eyes narrowed and a stony expression crossed his features. He studied Lily and rubbed his chin in thought.
“Well, this complicates things.”
She looked between him and Oskar. “Complicates things? Why does my cell phone complicate things?”
“Because that thing doesnae belong in this time, lass,” Magnus rumbled. “And it marks ye out as a time-traveler.”
Not him too! He was as insane as Oskar!
She began backing away. “Okay. Joke’s over. Very funny. Ha, ha.”
“This isnae a laughing matter, lass.” Magnus replied. “Why are ye here? And why didnae ye reveal who ye were? It would have made things much simpler.”
Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. “Look, I don’t know what the heck either of you are talking about. If this is some sort of game, then I’m not playing. Please, you’re scaring me.”
Magnus’s expression turned thoughtful. “Do ye mean to say that ye dinna know what’s happened to ye?”
“I’ve been telling you that from the start!”
Magnus glanced at Oskar who was glaring at Lily with his arms crossed over his chest. Magnus blew out a breath. “I think we should all go inside,” he said calmly. “Where we can discuss this and get to the bottom of it. Emeric is cooking supper. Why dinna we go join him?”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on!”
“We will,” Magnus said soothingly, holding out his hands in a placating gesture. “Ye have my word. We’ll straighten this all out, lass. I promise. Will ye trust us?”
