Before her, the leader with the glowing great axe glared at her with afierceness that jangled her insides. She knew this was the MacDonald army.
The battle for Time had arrived.
With a flash of his great axe, MacDonald created a rift in time. The air before her pulled apart, light flickering from whatever was beyond.
Then she woke up.
Brianna opened her eyes and stared up at the concerned face of her sister. Her body ached from head to toe. She realized, dimly, she was on the floor and beyond Evie’s face was the wood-beam ceiling.
“Are you all right?” Evie asked.
“What happened?” she croaked, her voice weak and rough.
“You collapsed,” Chloe said. She sat on her knees opposite Evie.
She shoved to a sitting position, the nausea taking hold of her as her stomach cramped. A blinding pain pounded the backs of her eyes. She groaned as she put her head in her hand, squeezing her eyes closed.
“I feel sick to my stomach.”
“That’s the blood magic,” Evie said. “Chlo, help me get her up. She needs to rest.”
But Brianna shrugged them both off. “I’m fine.”
Though she wasn’t fine, she managed to get to her feet under her own power. On the floor, next to her feet, was her piece of the keystone smeared with blood. She bent to pick it up and then inspected her sliced hand. Her palm was smeared with blood.
“Let me bandage you.” Evie motioned toward a chair at the great hall table.
Brianna stumbled toward it, falling into it. She rested her cut hand on the table, palm up.
“Is that what is was like for both of you?” she asked.
“Yes,” Evie said.
A glance at Chloe who nodded. “It left me so weak, I slept for hours.”
As Evie bandaged her hand with strips of linen,she asked, “What did you see?”
Brianna dragged her lower lip through her teeth. She wasn’t sure how to explain what she saw. “There was an army led by a man with a glowing great axe.”
“Rory MacDonald,” Evie said, nodding encouragement.
“And two other armies,” Brianna continued. “One led by Callum, Malcolm, and Jamie.”
Chloe sucked in a breath at hearing her husband’s name. Evie stilled, her face draining of color.
“The other army was led by someone I don’t know but he had eyes the same color as me.”
“Sinclair,” Chloe said, her voice but a whisper.
A strange feeling crept through Brianna. “As in…our ancestor?”
“We think so,” Evie said. She tied off the bandage. “There. That should stop the bleeding. You need to rest now.”
“No,” Brianna snapped. “There’s more. In the vision, the three of us stood on a hill. I held the keystone. It was one piece.”
They both stared at her in silent shock. Evie’s eyes were wide and round.
“What do you mean one piece?” she asked.
