Why were they…?
Why wouldn’t they be?
A vague image of bodies and blood came to her mind. Sickening in its detail. Laird still, motionless.
No.
Dead.
Scarlett didn’t know what had happened, but joy flooded her. She flung herself in Laird’s arms, clung to his wide shoulders, massive and so very vital beneath her hands. Alive.
Alive.
He crushed her to him and lifted her off the ground.
“You’re all right,” she murmured against his neck. It didn’t make any sense. What had happened? “How? How are you here? I saw you in there. I saw you…”
Laird pulled back, eased her down until her feet were once more on the floor. Bewilderment churned in his gray eyes, but just as quickly comprehension filled them.
“Ye disappeared before my eyes. I thought ye gone forever. Then…nay, it cannae be.”
He turned to Emmy and Connor who were both looking rather bemused. “Ye died,” he said to Connor.
“A dream? Just a dream?” Emmy suggested, but her grip on her husband’s arm intensified visibly.
“The same one?” Scarlett pointed out, then stiffened. “Donell!”
She whipped around and opened the motel room door expecting to see the old wizard dead on the floor. The room was empty. No sign of Donell, Jameson, or the devastation that had taken place.
Or had it?
Scarlett rubbed her temple again, trying to remember what had happened. Jameson had been about to kill her. Then Donell had sent her…to the future. Five minutes? Ten minutes ahead? An hour? She didn’t know.
In that time the others had come. Fought with Jameson. Killed him. And been killed in the process.
It had to have been a dream. They were all here. Alive.
Scarlett turned back into Laird’s arms and held him tight.
His heart beat against her ear. His chest rose and fell with each breath. She saw herself draped over his lifeless body, reliving the vicious pain of knowing he was dead. Whatever had happened, she was eternally grateful it wasn’t real. She didn’t ever want to experience such agony again.
“Laird, I thought I’d lost you forever. I couldn’t bear it.”
“Mo chroí, ye will ne’er lose me.”
Laird kissed her lightly to seal the promise and wrapped his arms around her, binding her against him.
But she had lost him. The grief she’d experienced had been so devastating. A remnant of the pain lingered in her heart even as the memory slipped from her grasp.
What had happened?
Where was Donell?”
Scarlett asked the question aloud but no one had an answer. “Where did Donell go? He was hurt. Badly.”
“So was I,” Connor reminded her, his tone strained with the memory. “Yet I am here. Unharmed.”
“Not just hurt. Oh, God, Connor, you were dead! I saw…oh, God, I just can’t…!” Emmy cried out and hugged him. Words of love tumbled from her lips. Promises to never leave his side again. To never let him go.
