Prologue
Good day to you.I am Mairwen, Master Time Weaver.In truth, I am Master of all the Divine Weavers, ordained by the goddesses Bride and Cerridwen to ensure the blessed Highland Veil remains intact and that the many worlds and planes of time that it separates remain separated, except for a few friendly visits here and there to unite fated mates.
Ye see, fated mates experience the strongest love bonds, and that strengthens the weave of the Veil, protecting it against those who would destroy it to spread chaos through every known reality.The darkness always seeks to take control.It must be kept at bay.
My apprentice, Keeva, assists me in keeping up with this particular plane’s latest temptations.Things that catch a mortal’s eye and lure them—beg pardon, I mean,enticethem to visit Seven Cairns in the Highlands of Scotland, change throughout the centuries.At first glance, Seven Cairns appears to be a quaint Scottish town known for its healing waters, but the Council of Weavers and I know differently.
So if ye find yerself compelled to visit a wee quiet village in the Highlands, dinna ignore yer intuition.The blessed Highland Veil could require yer help and be calling to ye.
Chapter 1
Modern Day
Early summer
New Jersey, USA
“See it?Right there.It’s back again.”Jessa Tamson angled her cell phone so Emily Mithers, her best friend since they were toddlers, could see it.“I deleted that app fifteen minutes ago, and it’s already back.Check and see if yours came back, too.”
Emily rolled her eyes.“We’re already here, Jess, waiting to board.”She patted her fluorescent lime green tote, securely tucked under her arm.“We have our tickets, our cottage booked, our rental reserved.What difference does it make now?It’s just some silly dating app that keeps reinstalling itself.Ignore it.”
“Some silly dating app?”Jessa couldn’t believe her ears.Here they sat at Newark Liberty International Airport, Gate Nine, about to fly off to Scotland because thatsilly dating apphad intrigued both of them for over a month now.“You didn’t think it was so silly when the same tarot cards kept popping up for a visit to Scotland, and that one guy always shows up behind them no matter how many times I swipe left to see other options.”She bumped shoulders with Emily as if they were still children.“And who was it that talked me into spending a good chunk of my shrinking savings on this trip because of thatsilly app?”She felt a little guilty, blamingallher irresponsibility on her friend, but dear old Em had been the deciding vote that had teetered her over the edge, head first into this lunacy that couldn’t possibly end well.“What if?—”
Emily shushed her with a familiar scowl that bordered on the demonic.“Just shut it, Jess.All right?The tickets are non-refundable, and you’re way overdue for some goodjuju.Besides, there was no way you were going to be able to afford your landlord’s latest rent hike, no matter how much you scrimped and saved, so why worry about it?Mama’s sending Papa and the boys over to box up your stuff and get you out of the apartment before the end of the month.You know they love you, Jess, and the loft over their garage is yours as long as you need it.It’s nice.You’ll love it.”
“Then why don’t you live there?”
“Because my parents drive me batty.I love them, but theirhelpfulness—and the interference of the fearsome five who are always around looking for a free meal—is unbearable.”She grinned.“With you living above the garage, I’m hoping to aim my annoying brothers your way.Maybe then I’ll finally have some peace from them.At least, for a little while.”
“I’ll just tell them you’re dating…uhm…crap…I can’t remember his name.”Jessa picked at the lint on her black leggings that were not only comfortable but helped visually slenderize and elongate her short, thick legs.She wasn’t overweight.She was under tall.Clocking in at not quite five feet and on the curvier side of the spectrum, she needed all the help she could get to look taller and slimmer.Therefore, black was her color of choice when selecting garments.“What was his name?The one they hated so much that they showed up at his workplace?That’ll get the furious five back on your scent.You know they take whatever I say as gospel.”
“You are so ungrateful.”Emily shook her head, making the many strands of her long black braids sway with a gentle grace that Jessa's thick mass of coppery curls could never mimic.Emily tapped on the screen of her phone, then showed it to Jessa.“It says here that Seven Cairns is known for its healing waters.Reckon that includes healing bad luck?”She winked.“Maybe we should dip you an extra time or two.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?”Jessa shifted in the uncomfortable seat at the boarding gate.Why did decorators never think of short people when designing waiting area chairs?“If those magical healing waters replace bad luck with good, I’ll need at least three dips by my figuring.”She counted off on her fingers.“Once for either a new job or help with my freelancing as a digital creator.One for a reasonably priced vehicle since my paid-off one didn’t survive the neighborhood carjacking, and then one last time for an affordable yet safe place to rent.”She wrinkled her nose.“I don’t like sponging off your parents.”
“It’s not sponging off them.You know you’re one of us.”Emily glanced up from her phone with a compassionate yet somehow pained look.“Mama and Papa love you, Jess.Just like me.Especially after?—”
Jessa stopped her with a curt upward flick of her hand, then looked away.The last thing she needed right now was a revisit to the memory of her parents cutting all ties with her byloudlyannouncing in the middle of a crowded restaurant they wished they’d never adopted her.It had happened over five years ago, but that day was still a raw, open wound.“I love your mom and dad, too.Let’s leave it at that, okay?”
Emily nodded, then frowned at the vacant airline counter and the closed door behind it.“They’re waiting till the last minute to board.I hope nothing’s wrong with the plane.”
“Do not plant that seed in my head.”Fidgety and almost nauseous from nerves, Jessa tapped on the impossible-to-delete app, then tapped again on its tarot deck that always appeared on the home screen.The cards fluttered off the main deck and flipped over to reveal themselves on the vibrant green background that reminded her of a card table at a casino.She released a heavy sigh.Those were the same three cards the app had dealt her for the past month, no matter how many times she tried it.At first, she’d blown it off as an error in the creator’s coding.But that was before Emily had tried and gotten different results, and Emily’s parents and brothers had all received wide-ranging outcomes every time they tapped on it.
But Jessa always got the same three cards.The ace of wands that the app said represented the beginning of a journey, the birth of new ideas, and the start of creative projects.The fool, supposedly representing wonder, anticipation, excitement, and the need to go your own way, and the unicorn from the oracle deck, said to bring messages of hope and attract love, light, and healing, and beneath all three cards were the same three words: Seven Cairns, Scotland.She shook her head.That app was one hell of an advertisement for Seven Cairns, Scotland’s tourism board.
With her finger hovering over the triquetra symbol flickering from green to gold between the cards displayed on the app, she tried to ignore the urge to tap it and see if the mysterious Mr.MacSexy, as she and Emily had dubbed him, appeared yet again.
“Might as well,” she muttered and touched it.
There he was, a dark-haired, broody male with fierce gray eyes that flashed like lightning in a stormy sky.He had a square jaw dusted with a day’s growth of beard and an aquiline nose crooked enough to make him even more handsome.Full lips.A cutting glare.He was so unbelievably gorgeous that Jessa had enlarged the picture as much as possible to see if it was real or AI generated.He seemed real enough, but it was hard to tell these days.With no profile name or personal details, she had finally decided he was a character programmed into the app.But if that were the case, why did Emily and her family retrieve pictures and data on all sorts of individuals whenever they tried to help Jessa prove that the stupid thing was malfunctioning?
“Leave it alone, Jess,” Emily told her without looking up from her own phone.“You’re just winding yourself up.”
“I can’t help myself.”Jessa powered down the device and shoved it into the faded denim backpack she’d carried since college.
Emily also put hers away and scowled at the vacant airline counter again.“You applied your patch, right?And brought the plastic barf bag we got from Papa’s office?”
“Yes, to both, and I haven’t had anything to eat or drink, so if I do get sick, it’ll just be the dry heaves.”Nobody knew her as well as Emily.Jessa touched the motion sickness disk stuck behind her ear and sent a silentthank youto Dr.Mithers, Emily’s dad.He’d recommended the patch because he knew she hated taking any sort of medication that made her feeldisconnected.The patch might make her a little drowsy, but it wouldn’t turn her into a glassy-eyed zombie.
