Fury flashed through her. “I tried calling you both but only reached voicemail. I knew Evie was in Edinburgh. She told me she was going to your gala. When I was unable to get in touch with either of you, I knew something was wrong.”
Chloe remained stiff and silent as she clenched her jaw. Guilt flashed over Evie’s face as she glanced between the two of them.
“You told her?” Chloe said, turning her heated, accusatory gaze on Evie.
“I invited her to come. You worked so hard, Chloe, I thought—”
“And yet youdidn’tcome.” Her ire swung back to Brianna.
“I did. I came when I thought you might be in trouble.”
“Clearly, it was too late.” Color rose high in her cheeks.
Brianna huffed, losing patience. She didn’t want to fight with Chloe and changed the subject. “Maybe you two tell me what the hell is going on here.”
“She doesn’t know, does she?” Chloe asked Evie. And then she emitted a nervous laugh. “She doesn’t know where she is or why.”
It was like old times—the two of them sharing some secret between them, some inside joke they never let her in on. Once again, she was the outsider. A pariah in her own family. She shoved those feelings aside for now to get to the truth.
“All I know is somehow this little piece of stone brought me here. But where ishere?” Brianna asked.
Evie and Chloe exchanged a knowing glance, one that still did not give her the answer she wanted.
“Tell me!” she demanded.
Chloe pressed her lips together into a thin line and looked to Evie to make the explanation.
“You’re in the Highlands of the past,” Evie said. “Specifically, 1357.”
Brianna gaped at her as though she’d grown a second head. Hot pinpricks of disbelief went over her. Jamie’s words came back to her. He’d alluded to the fact she was in a different time period, something he seemed to know but didn’t share. He wanted to bring her to her sisters and let them tell her. Even so, it was difficult for her to believe she was transported through time.
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not,” Evie said, deadpan.
“Yes, you are. This is some elaborate hoax you two have managed to pull on me to get my attention. Or something. Well, I can assure you, you bothhavemy attention. I refuse to believe this jagged piece of rock brought me into the past.”
“Brought all three of us,” Chloe corrected.
She pulled something out of the pocket of her dress and held it out to show Brianna. It was a piece of stone similar to the one Evie had. It looked like the missing third piece.
Brianna stared at the little piece in Chloe’s scarred palm, a scar that looked hauntingly familiar to the burn on her own hand. When she glanced at Evie, she held up her hand and showed her she had the same brand. Brianna glanced down at her own, saw the red, angry imprint on her palm and understood then that it was never going away.
“Your hands…”
“Like yours,” Evie said. “You clutched the stone in your hand when you fell through time.”
Brianna stared down at her hand, remembering. She stood on the terrace. She held the humming stone with the pulsing lines in her hand. John MacDonald had attacked her and tried totake it from her. She’d panicked and ran.
“There was a…flash of light,” Brianna said.
“Yes,” Evie agreed, giving her an encouraging nod.
“And a cold wind that seemed to suck the air from my lungs,” she added.
“That, too,” Evie encouraged.
“Then I was falling and then…” She shook her head. “I don’t remember much after that.”
