He hesitated as he glanced from her open hand to her face, question flickering in his sea-green eyes.
“Why?” he asked.
“The last two times we were touching while I held the stone. I think that’s the key. I think we have to be touching each other while I hold the keystone to make it work. Because I’m the link to the past and…” she halted and swallowed hard, “you’re the link to me.”
Destinies intertwined. It was true, then. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, their fates were tied together.
“Chlo, are you sure about this?” Evie asked, concern edging her tone.
“No,” she said, honestly. “But I have to try. We have to know.”
She met Malcolm’s gaze as he reached for her. He grasped her hand as she closed her fingers around the stone.
And then it happened again.
The vision burst through her mind with forceful clarity. And there she was in the midst of the battle between three clans—Sinclair and MacLeod against MacDonald.
Brodie MacDonald held the glowing great axe as he cut down man after man. The smell of death and rot and blood permeated the air with a pungent odor. Dead littered the ground. Men screamed in agony. Swords clashed againstswords. Alexander MacLeod was losing. Most of his men were dead. Padrig Sinclair was nowhere in sight.
On the crag, the Triple Goddess stood together. Moira in the center. Bridget to the left of her. The third sister, Athea, to the right.
Past, present, future standing together as Brodie MacDonald fought his way toward them.
Moira held the keystone aloft and whispered an incantation to the wind. The stone began to glow.
“Get that stone, lads!” Brodie shouted.
“You cannot think to defeat us, MacDonald,” Moira said, her voice even and calm. “I will destroy you.”
But Brodie MacDonald seemed not to care. He lifted his great axe higher in the sky. The words he uttered were lost to the wind. The great axe exploded into life with a bright, white light pulsing upward into the night sky, illuminating everything around him. Then he pointed it at the Triple Goddess.
Bridget and Athea went into action. The two moved to stand in front of Moira, clasping hands and using their bodies as a shield to protect her. The shot of power from the great axe went around them and then dissipated out of sight.
But only for a moment.
The space between Brodie and the Triple Goddess appeared to have ripped, pulling apart at the seams between them. Time and space ripped apart as the two women stood in front of Moira to weather the storm that came from the rift. Brodie pulled back the layers of time, causing a temporal disturbance.
Bridget’s voice boomed loud over the din of battle.
“Tell them, Chloe. Tell them what you saw here today.”
The vision ended. But there was more to that night than anyone knew. Bridget continued to speak in her mind, tellingher everything that had happened that night with sharp, quick words that pounded through her. Words she didn’t have time to comprehend. She sucked in a sharp breath, her lungs burning. Her head throbbed with stabbing pain. She groaned.
“Lass?”
Malcolm.His strong arms were around her, holding her, cradling her against his chest. She still clutched the keystone in her hand. With her free one, she reached up to place her palm against his cheek.
“I know what happened the night of the Shattering. I saw it.”
Chloe was dimly aware that Evie was asking her more questions, but she felt as though she were in a tunnel. Far, far away from her and everyone. Even Malcolm. Her head hurt. She couldn’t think. Her eyes flickered closed. She allowed the darkness to overcome her.
CHAPTER 23
The keystone dropped from her hand. Malcolm snatched it up, pocketing it into his sporran. Then he swept her into his arms and rose from the floor, holding her slight weight against his chest. There was some commotion between Evie and Callum, but he ignored it.
“She’s out. I’m taking her to my chamber.”
He stomped by them without waiting for a response from either Evie or his brother. When she first came out of the vision, her body quaked against him in a violent shiver. Even now as he carried her through the great hall and up the stone stairs, her body was cold.
