Lady Murray’s sharp bark of laughter held no mirth. “Such a coarse word. I’m a scholar. A scholar of the old ways. Ways that have been handed down to me from my grandmother who had Fae blood in her veins. Ways that inyertime, I’m sure are already forgotten. Aye, I knew what this place was but I couldnae open the portals myself. For that I needed a catalyst. I’ve been waiting years for one to come.”
She leaned forward and her eyes glinted with eagerness. “I’ve been waiting years forye. I didnae recognize ye for what ye were at first, of course. When ye first showed up, I thought yewerethe Countess of Argyle like ye claimed. It was only after, when yer subterfuge had been discovered, that I began to put the pieces together. So imagine my annoyance when ye seemingly disappeared from Edinburgh before I could question ye.”
“And imagine our delight,” MacAllister added, “when I discovered it was my old nemesis, Niall Campbell, who had spirited ye away. After that it wasnae that difficult to plant the crumbs ye would both follow back here.”
Charlie stared at him. “You mean...you mean this is all a set up? YouwantedNiall and me to come here tonight?”
MacAllister grinned and for the first time, Charlie saw genuine mirth in his eyes. “Of course. Ye are the key, Miss Douglas. Ye always have been. Yer arrival was no accident. Ye opened the door. And now we need ye to open it again.”
Charlie shook her head, the confusion turning to something darker. “You want me to open the portal...so you can travel to the future?”
Lady Murray stepped closer, her smile sharp and predatory. “My grandmother taught me all about the wonders that can be found in the future. This is what I’ve been working towards for years.”
Charlie’s pulse roared in her ears. “You’re insane,” she growled. “I can’t open any portals. I already tried—the door just leads to a bloody store cupboard!”
Lady Murray only smiled, slow and knowing. “Oh, my dear,” she murmured, grabbing Charlie’s wrist in a grip like an iron shackle. “Ye knownothing.”
Suddenly, Lady Murray yanked her toward the cupboard door. The sudden force sent her stumbling, and before she could brace herself, her outstretched hands crossed the door’s threshold.
The moment that happened, the air shifted.
A shudder ran through the room, deep and low, as though the very bones of the house were groaning in protest. The candle flames guttered violently, casting wild, jagged shadows against the stone walls.
Charlie gasped as a strange pressure built around her outstretched hands as they came down on the floor beyond the threshold, like she had plunged it into something thick and shifting. The air itself twisted, swirling in unnatural currents. A low, echoing hum filled her ears, growing louder, rising in pitch until it was a shrieking, keening wail.
Then the darkness in front of her moved.
Not just darkness—atear. A rip in the air, in time itself, jagged and shifting like the edge of broken glass. The air beneath the arch of the doorway began to shimmer like heat haze.
A portal.
A real, impossible, terrifying portal.
Charlie tried to pull back, but Lady Murray held her fast, her fingers digging into Charlie’s skin.
“See?” Lady Murray breathed, her eyes alight with triumph. “It was alwaysye.”
MacAllister let out a low, awed chuckle. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he muttered. “She’s actually done it.”
Charlie swallowed hard, her breath coming in short, panicked bursts as she wrenched her arm away from Lady Murray’s grasp. The portal rippled and shimmered beside her. Would it really take her back to the twenty-first century?
She forced herself to focus. “Why?” she demanded, her voice hoarse. “Why do you want to go to the future? What do you think you’ll find there?”
Lady Murray tilted her head, amusement glinting in her cold, dark eyes. “Oh, my dear, ye already know the answer.”
MacAllister stepped forward. “The future holds power. Machines, weapons—things beyond anything we currently have. The English crown has ruled over us for too long, dictated our fate, crushed our people under their boots. If the Articles of Union go ahead, we will lose even more! But we will change that.” His words shook with conviction. “With the right tools, we can take back our land, overthrow the government, make Scotland great again!”
Charlie felt cold all over. She could practically see it—the destruction, the bloodshed, history being twisted into something it was never meant to be.
“You’re talking about war,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
MacAllister’s lip curled. “Aye, war if need be. A war we canwin.”
Charlie’s stomach clenched. She had read enough history to know what men like this would do with power. The idea of them getting their hands on modern technology—guns, explosives, even something as simple as a rifle—was horrifying.
She turned her gaze to the swirling portal, the impossible door she had just opened.
She couldn’t let them through. But how could she stop them?
