Another trunk was upended. “Here, girl, shine that light over here.”
She turned the phone in his direction. Then it hit her, what had been bothering her the entire time. He hadn’t given the source of their light more than a cursory glance. The Old Vic theater in London wasn’t set to open for another sixty or seventy years. And he was holding a compact pistol in a time where they didn’t exist.
Reveal the truth.
“Ye’re from the future, aren’t ye? From my time?”
“I’m far beyond you, stupid girl,” he spat out, digging with one hand through the myriad of trinkets dumped from the next trunk. “I’m only here because I was sent to assure that the first duke was not given his peerage. He would have gone on to even greater things given the proper guidance.”
He’d better stop calling her stupid. “Ye’re no’ too bright yerself if ye’re still here after — what was it? — fifty years?”
“Only because the old bastard took my controller when the elder Boyce found me out. Wanted to string me up as a witch,” he spat out as he moved to the next trunk. “But they paid, the both of them. I had to wait out a whole generation and slit a few throats to regain a position in the castle without suspicion. Years of searching for this room.”
Aila crept toward the sword. “Did ye ever stop and think that if someone wanted ye to return to yer time, they would have sent someone back for ye? Face it, ye’re expendable.”
He turned to scowl at her and she froze. “You know nothing. You cannot even see how demeaning your behavior here has been.” With a cringe-worthy leer, he waved the gun in her face. “I’ve amused myself with the locals a time or two myself over the years, but never with such zeal as you.”
Her cheeks burned. Not with embarrassment but with loathing. “I’m surprised ye could convince any woman to sleep with ye.Och, is that what this money is for? Nay, that would only get ye a few hours. At most.”
His leer turned to a sneer. He lashed out, striking her low on the temple with the butt of the pistol. Aila stumbled back and lost her grip on the rope. Rab lunged forward and knocked the elderly man to the ground. Derne’s screams filled the room.
Then gunshots.
Her baby yelped with pain while Derne scrambled out from beneath him bleeding heavily from the side of his face. He crawled forward on his hands and knees. Then groped through the blanket of treasure beneath him.
“Aha, I’ve got it!” She hardly heard him over the ringing in her ears.
Without enough time to unsheathe the sword she’d grabbed, Aila swung it like a cricket bat at his head just as he straightened in triumph. Her blow hit him in the ribs below his upraised arm and he staggered to the side before falling on his back.
Rab was on him again in an instant. “Rabbie!”
Another shot reverberated through the small chamber, adding to the cacophony bouncing around her head. Like ripples in a pool.
“Nay!” She ran toward him only to realize the dog was still alive and had his jaws locked around the man’s arm. Unfortunately, Rab had gotten the wrong arm. Another shot rang out and this time the dog released Derne with an aggrieved series of yaps.
“Nay!” Aila caught him as he staggered to the side and pulled him on to her lap. The dog whined and peered up at her with wide pleading eyes. Blood seeped from a wound on his hindquarters. Her heart bled, as well. She had no idea how bad it was.
“Ye shot a dog, ye bloody bastard! Who’s the beast now?”
“You set him upon me, I ought to shoot you as well.” The old man climbed to his feet and pointed the gun at her while he cradled his injured arm against his narrow chest. She should have been able to take him, the withered auld bawbag.
With Rab’s heavy weight draped over her legs and Derne armed with what was clearly a multi-shot weapon, she wouldn’t get another chance.
“Ye willnae get away with this! Ye were found out once before and ye will be again!”
“In ten minutes, I’ll be gone from this place for good,” he spat out. “How I would love to be there when Donell learns that his weak counteroffensive has failed.”
Donell? Hadn’t she specifically asked whether there was something more than finding the treasure he wanted from her? Yet here she was, facing an assassin, righting wrongs he’d denied existed. He really was all about manipulation. Even armed with the foreknowledge of his wily ways, he’d managed to play her like a character in a live action video game.Och, shewasgoing to kill him when she got back.
Aila hardly had time to consider what she might do if she ever got the chance. Derne picked up her phone and backed away toward the door. Realizing his intent, her heart tripped over itself and she lunged out from under Rab who struggled to his feet. “Nay! Dinnae lock me in here!”
No one knew where she was. There would be no one to save her.
No light to banish the dark.
She scrambled to her feet and leapt forward, tackling him back against the door hard enough to hear thewhooshof breath come out of him. He didn’t release his hold on the pistol. Aila jabbed her elbow into his jaw and tried to pry it out of his skeletal grip. Gasping for air, he wouldn’t give it up. He pulled the trigger, the blast deafening. She barely heard her own cry as burning pain shot through her thigh. Derne shook her off and leveled the gun on her as he backed away.
Even in pain, bleeding, an evil smile stretched his lips, rendered even more grotesque by the light shining upward from his hand. Catching his breath, he turned the phone over and looked at the screen. “I’ve been stuck in this time for close to fifty years with no technology,no medical care. My biggest fear has been that I’d get cancer or have a heart attack. The butchers here would be able to do nothing for me other than finish the work. Even after all that time, I recall the importance of charging my electronics.Twelve percent.” He clicked his tongue contemptuously. “Now, now, Mistress Marshall, one must always be smart enough to charge their batteries before going into the dark.”
