“I saw…your death.”
Chapter Fourteen
An hour later,Brianna sat curled in the chair by the great hall fire, her legs tucked underneath her. She held a steaming mug of something that smelled a lot like weak herbal tea between her cold hands. The steam rose from the cup, curling around her nose and warming her face.
After her second vision, she was inconsolable. Her tears had long since dried but her throat was raw. Mostly, she was embarrassed she had fallen into such distress in front of Jamie. She would never live that down.
Jamie didn’t know what else to do with her, so he scooped her up and carried her to the great hall where the others were having their evening meal.
Evie took one look at her and scurried off to the kitchen. Chloe sat mute and ashen next to Malcolm with her hand on his, peering at her with large, round emerald eyes, as though she hadn’t a clue what to say to her. Truthfully, Brianna wasn’t sure what to say, either.
Callum sat at the head of the table. Calm, quiet, stoic.
They all waited for her to speak with expectant looks on their faces.
“Well?” Chloe finally said. “Are you going to tell us what this is all about? Or is all this drama for nothing?”
“Chlo.” Evie’s tone was one of warning.
Brianna flashed her sister a glare but said nothing.
“She had a second vision,” Jamie said.
He’d parked himself beside her, one hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She liked it there.
“Another vision?” Evie drew her brows together.
“Of the future.” She managed to croak out the words.
“If I dinnae ken any better, I’d say the lass was in her cups,” Malcolm said.
“She wasna drinking the ale,” Jamie said, defending her.
She dropped her feet to the floor and placed her cup on the table with a thump. “I saw the future. In that future, we all die.”
Her tone was matter-of-fact, as though she were reporting on nothing more than the fine weather. Her gaze alighted on each and every face. As she did, she reached for Jamie’s hand, lacing their fingers together. In her weakened state, she drew her strength from him.
“Tell us, Brianna, about your second vision.” Evie was calm, controlled, as she sat next to her husband with her hands folded in her lap.
So she did. She told them everything about how the world seemed to blur around them—the three of them standing on the craggy hill facing the MacDonald’s massive army. When she described the glittering seam in the space in front of them, Chloe snapped to attention.
“That’s what I saw in my vision of the past,” she said. “A temporal rift in space. MacDonald wants to open a portal to the Realm of Chaos.”
“Yes,” Brianna agreed. “And he does. When he does, dark creatures spill into our world. He wants to use them to take over the lands. He wants to control all of the Highlands.”
Callum made a noise of disbelief. “I will be dead before he conquers my lands.”
“And that’s exactly what he wants,” Brianna said, pinning him with her best stern look. “He wants you and your brothers dead. The only thing standing in his way right now are threepieces of stone.”
“You said in your vision the stone was whole again,” Chloe pointed out.
She nodded. “I did. And it was. Which means, we have to find a way to put it back together.”
But she was uncertain what would happen once they did that.
She also didn’t mention to them Athea seemed to think she was the one who had the power to shift the timeline. It was hard to forget those words ringing through her mind. Every time they came back to her, her stomach cramped with a wave of sickness.
She didn’t want to be that person. And though the goddess told her she had the power within her, she hadn’t a clue how to use that power.
