Thoren Ashmore stood on the polished, wooden floor of a large room with sofas of various sizes and an old woman sitting in a chair by the window. When she saw him, she stood and crossed the room to him.
“So, here you are, child,” she said, reaching her hand out to touch him.
He moved back like a flickering flame, just outside of her touch. “Where’s my daughter?”
“She went out for lunch with Bernadette and Harper. She’ll return shortly. Why don’t we sit and chat.”
Thoren took a better look at her. He knew her. She had visited Ashmore Castle when he was a child, her and anotherwoman…Tess. He cared less about who they were and more about something else. “What year is it?”
“2024.”
His cerulean eyes settled on her, then he sat on one of the sofas. “What are you doing in the twenty-first century, Old Lizzie?”
She cast him an amused smile and held out her hand. “The watch?”
“You’ll get it after I’m reunited with Fable and not an instant before.”
“We saved you, Thoren,” the old woman said.
“We? You mean you and the Duke of Colchester?”
“No, of course not. He has no gifts.”
Thoren shrugged. “I disagree.” And so, according to Colchester, did Fable. Was her heart lost to the duke? If it was, what would he do? Could he give her up after a lifetime of trying to find her?
“What do you know of my daughters? What of Magnolia?”
“Since you sent her there, you can now visit Graven Fortress in the physical realm and try to find her. She has disappeared.”
His blood drained and his heart sank. “What do you mean, she has disappeared?”
“Just that. We suspect she used an object to travel to another time in the past.”
He should be used to this, but Thoren wasn’t. It had taken him years to find Magnolia, and it was after he’d died, so it was that much more torturous. Now, he was alive and she was gone again!
He wouldn’t take the chance with Fable. “Tell me, where is Fable so I can go get her?”
“Excuse me.”
The dulcet voice coming from behind him stopped Thoren’s heart. He closed his eyes for an instant before he turned to see his daughter.
The Duke of Colchester’s voice rang through his head. She’d had no home, no father, barely a mother, no one else to care for her, and very few meals.
He turned and smiled as his heart swelled with love that threatened to burst through his eyes. For many years he wondered what she and Magnolia looked like. He breathed as one who was on the brink of death and was finally healed. Fable looked like him, save that she had her mother’s hair tied up in a tail behind her head. It was as fiery copper as it had been when she was two. Her eyes, the same color as his, were wider and shaped with wonder as he said her name.
He took a step toward her, but paused when she moved back like a butterfly about to fly off. He wondered how she and the young duke got along when they both denied touch.
“It’s so good to see you, daughter.”
Her delicate smile didn’t reach her eyes, so she lowered them. “I’m sorry you missed me for so long.”
“My beloved daughter, I’m the one who separated the three of us and you are apologizing to me? Let that be the last time.”
She lifted her gaze and he saw the thread of warmth pass across her eyes.
“We’ll leave you two to get reacquainted,” Old Lizzie said and pulled the other two girls off with her.
Alone, Thoren decided he would be grateful just to stare at his daughter for the remainder of his days. But he didn’t want to frighten the poor girl away. He wanted to take her in his embrace and never let her out of it again, but he had to remember she wasn’t used to having a father.
