“Face north,” Rachel told herself, hearing Granny’s voice in her head. She lifted her hands and recited the ancient words, thanking the spirits of the north, the earth element, for blessing her with their powers and time. She turned clockwise and halted at the point of the east, repeating the movement and paying homage to the spirits of the east, the air element. To each direction, she acknowledged and welcomed them to her sacred circle: south for fire, west for water. As she finished, the glowing blue energies she remembered from long ago swirled around her.
In the center of the circle, arms raised and eyes closed, she allowed the cloak to slide off her shoulders and puddle around her feet. She opened her eyes and held out her hands, baring herself to the energies and offering her glowing white aura to swirl and mix with the blue.
When a familiar warmth, a faint violet aura brushed across her shoulders, it made her smile. She knew this power would do her no harm. This spirit guide, her precious Granny, still loved and protected her as she had done while she lived. The violet light swirled around her body, encircling her head like the gentle hand of a loving parent touching their favorite child. Then the aura tickled her under the chin and touched her cheek as Granny had always done during life.
After greeting her in such a loving way, it surrounded her body and shifted to a blinding brightness for several seconds, then faded. Rachel held her breath as the energy circled herwaist, rose, and touched her forehead. It repeated this motion three times.Boy, whispered through her mind each time.
Rachel swallowed hard. Three boys. Heaven help her. She carried triplets. Struggling to focus, she reached for the shimmering violet light. “Where is the book, Granny? I don’t remember,” she whispered.
You know where it is, sweet girl. It is in the place you fear.Then the aura warmed around her one last time, then shot up into the stars.
“The place I fear,” she repeated, missing the violet light as the other energies slowly faded. She’d have to think about that, but first, she had to undo the circle. She donned her cloak and once more faced north. But this time, she turned counterclockwise and bid all the powers farewell and thanked them for blessing and protecting her circle. When she sensed everything had returned to its natural state, she wearily returned the cloak to its protective packaging and pulled on her jeans and sweatshirt. She shoved her feet into her shoes, then yawned and stumbled back down the hillside toward the house.
“Witch!” Emrys accused as he stepped out from behind a great oak. He glared at her as if ready to challenge her to some sort of magickal duel.
She almost laughed at the thought of it. Her weariness had driven her to the stage of downright silliness. Too tired for the confrontation, she squared her shoulders and glared right back at him. “What is it you Highlanders always say? Aye and so what!”
“Dinna mock me, girl! Ye’ve not the full training to have any idea at what ye’re playing at!” He shook his finger, barely missing the end of her nose.
If the man wasn’t so old, she’d shove him back on his ass and leave him in the woods. But she couldn’t. Granny would never forgive her. “As you no doubt just witnessed, you sneakyold man, I know a bit more about the craft than you’d probably care to admit.” She resettled her stance and protectively tucked her cloak under her arm. “Look—I’m tired and in no mood to argue with you right now. Unless you’re going to burn me at the stake this very minute, I’d suggest we save this conversation for another time.”
Emrys puffed up to his full height and raised both his arms, causing storm clouds to gather and block the light from the moon. Lightning streaked through the clouds, and thunder rumbled as the wind blew harder.
Rachel rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, rubbing the corners of her tired eyes. “I am so not impressed and not about to engage in anI can do anything you can do contesteither. I consider that a waste of time and disrespectful to the surrounding energies.”
Emrys cracked a slow smile and lowered his arms. “I see your grandmother taught ye well. By the way, the triplets? Be they sons or daughters?”
Rachel blew out a heavy sigh while still rubbing her eyes. “Caelan should be proud. He has three sons started, but let’s not tell him that just yet, okay? I have no idea how I’m going to handle this, and I’m afraid of what he will say.”
Emrys grinned, hugged one of his scrawny arms around her shoulders, and offered to carry her cloak. “Three sons? Ha! That Highlander will finally learn to be careful of what he wishes for. Dinna worry, lass. There will be plenty of folk at the keep to help ye care for them. Everything will be just fine.”
“I hope so.” She stared at her feet as they trudged along, hoping the druid couldn’t read minds. If he could, he would soon discover her plan to break their curse, so he and Caelan would remain in the present time with her.
CHAPTER 13
“And I need your signature and initials one more time right here please, Mr. MacKay.” Gerald Randolph, the lawyer Emrys had thoroughly researched by studying the man’s history on the surface of the pond, pointed at yet another line on what felt like the fiftieth sheet of at least the seventy-fifth copy of the sheaf of papers Caelan and Rachel had signed this morning.
“Will that do it, then?” Caelan asked, as his oversized hand almost swallowed the strange wee pen with which he scrawled his name across the bottom of the page.
“Everything is now completely as you requested it, sir,” Mr. Randolph assured. He rose from his chair and extended his hand while bobbing his head happily. “Any time you need us to handle your financial and legal needs again, you just call us. I’ll see to anything you need, sir. Yes, sir, anytime you need us, you just give us a call.”
Caelan barely narrowed his eyes at Rachel as she pretended to gag behind the lawyer’s back. He smiled and shook Mr. Randolph’s hand, then accepted the folder containing copies of all the papers. “Thank you, Mr. Randolph. I can assure ye, I will keep ye in mind any time I’m in this area again.”
He pressed his hand to the small of Rachel’s back and steered her out of the room before Mr. Randolph noticed how often she rolled her eyes whenever he spoke. Caelan breathed easier as they stepped outside. Finally, it was over. His precious Rachel was completely out of debt, and no longer had to worry about Larkin taking over her lands. What was even better was that it was also set up so that when they traveled to the past, all their holdings would be used to set up the aptly named Hawkins-MacKay Wetlands where no construction or hunting would be allowed. Larkin would be furious when the two hundred plus acres of river bottom land slipped right through his greedy fingers.
“Shall we go by the mill so ye can turn in your resignation in person or will ye mail it to them?” Caelan glanced at her as she sat beside him in the truck, nervously chewing on her bottom lip.
“What happens if we decide to come back? Would we be able to get the land returned to us?” she asked without looking at him.
It was then he noticed her pallor and the slight sheen of sweat beading across her upper lip. She kept pulling in deep breaths and blowing them back out as though about to be ill.
Caelan pulled the truck over, put it in park, and stopped the engine. He laid his hand on hers and tried to keep the worry out of his voice. “There is no coming back, lass. Once we travel to the past, we shall be there the rest of our days.”
She jerked her hands away, dove out the truck door, and scrambled down into the ditch. Holding her hair back from her face, she bent and heaved, losing every bit of the impressively huge breakfast she had eaten at the diner.
He ran to her side, wrapped an arm around her, and helped hold back her hair as she continued to gag. When she finally stopped vomiting, he carried her back up the embankment, then sat them down in the grass beside the truck.
“Rachel,” he said softly. “Please dinna tell me ye have changed your mind about coming back with me. Have your fears made ye ill? Is that what’s wrong?” He struggled to read the overwrought feelings flashing in her eyes. While he longed to know what was wrong, he feared hearing the answer.
