“No,” Heather said, grabbing him around the waist, hugging him tight. “There is something else I must show you. Come with me.”
She opened the door once more. The men had disappeared as had the strange room they were in. The corridor had returned as if it had always been there.
Gavin followed Heather out and up the stairs to the next floor. She unlocked the door to her bedchamber, walking inside and crossing to her pile of clothes. Of course. If she was from the future, her clothes made sense, the strange things she’d been wearing when they first met. It was all starting to make sense.
A heavy feeling sank into him, weighing him down. He was going to kill Mungo. The thought sickened him. It wasn’t the idea of killing the laird of the Frazers, he’d killed enough men in his time to have grown used to it.
The part that galled him was the dishonor of killing someone during peace negotiations. That was a deadly sin, a way of ensuring he never made it into Heaven no matter what else he did with his life.
Heather was rummaging in the pile, bringing out a small black box.
“What is that?” he asked as she pressed something on the edge of it.
“My cellphone,” she replied. “But that’s not important. Wait a second.”
She turned away from him, pressing things on the device before turning back and lifting it up to his face. “What is this witchcraft?” he asked, looking down at the box that had come to life.
“It’s my Kindle app and that’s an electronic book.”
“Electronic book?”
“It’s a history of the clans. Look, there’s your father.” She stroked the box and the words changed.
Gavin marvelled at what he saw. A book with no pages. The text changed before his eyes. All she had to do was move her finger and the next page appeared. “Like magic,” he said out loud. “Where are the pages kept? Where do they go?”
“Look,” she said.
“These pages. They are blank. Why is that?”
“Because I think I’m starting to understand all this. Tony thinks I can change the future by bringing back the knife but I think I can change it just by being here. These pages are blank because the future hasn’t been written yet.
“We get to decide what it is. I think if you don’t want to kill Mungo, you won’t. I don’t think fate is decided already. I think it’s up to us. Tony can believe what he wants but something tells me I’m right about this. The book just proves my point. There’s nothing there because it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Who’s Tony?”
“A man who won’t be alive for seven hundred years. Try wrapping your head around that if you can. He gave me the key to come back here. He told me to steal your knife.”
Gavin thought for a moment. “Have you thought maybe he’s got a different reason for wanting the knife.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. It just seems very convenient that he’s interested in saving the lives of people hundreds of years before his own time.”
“It’s not just that,” she said, rubbing her eyes as tears began to form. “There’s more to it.”
“What?”
“You killing Mungo Frazer ruins the Frazer family.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Because I’m descended from them. My family for generations were ruined by what you did. Stealing the knife fixes all that. The past is supposed to change. My family get to rewrite their history. That’s why I’m doing this.”
“Except that hasn’t happened yet.”
“And it might not. I’ve no idea what to do anymore, Gavin. I think I’m falling for you and that’s completely stupid as you’re laird of a great big massive clan and you’re all noble and I’m just a no one and I don’t even belong here and-”
He cut her off. “Breathe for a minute. You’re going to faint if you don’t breathe.”
She looked up at him through watery eyes. “I’ve no idea what to do. Help me.”
“I ken what to do,” he said, holding her cheeks with his hands. Leaning down, he was about to kiss her when all hell broke loose. Horns began to sound, bells ringing, voices crying out in the courtyard. Men were roaring, swords were crashing into armor. “What’s going on?” he asked, running for the steps down.
He made it to the entrance to the keep, freezing on the spot as he looked out. The castle had been overrun. How was that possible?
“Keir!” someone screamed up at him. “He broke the sallyport door.”
