Charlie’s pulse quickened as she approached. Irene turned to look at her, dark eyes unreadable yet knowing, as if she had been expecting her.
“I was wondering when ye’d hear me,” Irene said, a faint smile playing at her lips. “I dinna have all night ye know.”
Charlie crossed her arms, suppressing the shiver that ran down her spine. “What...what are you doing here?”
Irene tilted her head, considering her. “I came to speak to ye, of course. I would have thought that was obvious.”
“Speak to me? Why?”
Irene watched her steadily and Charlie got the feeling she was being weighed on some sort of scale. “Ye made a choice when ye came back here and that choice has helped to right the balance. Ye made another choice when ye decided to stay with young Campbell. I came to ask if ye are happy with that choice.”
Charlie didn’t hesitate. “Yes,” she said firmly. But even as she spoke the word, something in her expression must have betrayed her, because Irene’s sharp gaze intensified.
“And yet,” Irene mused. “Ye look as though a shadow hangs over ye.”
Charlie swallowed thickly, glancing away. “It’s nothing.”
Irene laughed softly, shaking her head. “Dinna lie to an old woman, lass. I’m too old and too practiced to fall for them. Tell me.”
Charlie hesitated, then sighed. “I just... I wish I could have explained things to my family. I didn’t even get to say goodbye. They must be worried sick.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t regret staying here. I love Niall. He’s my home now. But I hate that I left them without a word. That they’ll never know what happened to me.”
Irene studied her for a long moment, then nodded as if she had been expecting that answer. “Would ye fix it, if ye had the chance?”
Charlie blinked at her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Irene said, “that I can send ye back. Back to yer time, just for a short while. Long enough to see yer family, to tell them what ye need to say. And then,” she gestured expansively, “I’ll bring ye back here. To this very moment. As if ye never left.”
Charlie’s heart stuttered in her chest. A way to go back. To explain. To give her family closure.
To say goodbye.
She glanced back at the door, at the window of their room above. She could still feel Niall’s touch on her skin, still hear the way he had whispered her name as he held her.
She looked back at Irene. “Can ye really do that?”
Irene smiled. “Aye, lass. But the question is—do ye want to?”
Irene lifted a hand and gestured toward the stable door across the courtyard. The wood shimmered in the moonlight, but it wasn’t the glow of the night reflecting off it—it was something else. The air around it rippled like heat haze, swirling with energy.
Just like the portal that had brought her here.
Charlie turned back to Irene, her stomach twisting with uncertainty. “And you promise... I’ll come back?”
Irene gave her a small, knowing smile. “Ye have my word, lass. When ye step back through, it will be as though ye never left.”
Charlie glanced once more toward the door of the house, where Niall slept, unaware.I’ll be back before he even knows I’m gone.Then, steeling herself, she turned and stepped toward the stable door.
The moment she touched the swirling energy, everything lurched. The wind howled in her ears, her stomach flipped, and the world around her blurred into nothingness.
Then, suddenly, she was standing beneath a doorway in a bustling street in Edinburgh.
HerEdinburgh.
The sharp scent of diesel filled her nose. Cars rumbled past. People walked by, their faces illuminated by the glow of their phones. Neon shop signs buzzed overhead, and the sound of distant music mixed with the hum of voices and city life.
The sheer noise of it all hit her like a slap.
She gasped, stumbling slightly, and wrapped her arms around herself, her mind reeling. It was all so... loud. So overwhelming. How had she ever lived with this constant assault on the senses?
