Athea told her she had to shift the timeline if she didn’t want to see the portal opened to the Realm of Chaos. She still did not know how.
“We need a knife,” Evie said, glancing around the room. There wasn’t anything suitable to use. “I can go back to our chamber and get one of Callum’s daggers.”
Her words were punctuated with a thunderous boom and the shuddering of the castle walls. It was the first large boulder crashing against the outer defenses. That would, likely, be followed by the battering ram.
“You can’t go alone,” Brianna said. “Not with the castle under attack.”
“We’ll all go,” Chloe said.
Evie glanced between the two of them. “Maybe we should stay here and wait it out.”
Another crashing boom as a boulder smashed into the walls. Brianna stared down at the small piece of stone smudgedwith her blood.
Something strange happened then. It was as though the world tilted on its axis—and not in the way it did when she was with Jamie. The sounds around her were as though she stood in a tunnel and her sisters were far, far away. She turned her head to see Chloe tilting sideways and, beyond, the strange enchanted tapestries.
Athea, the Goddess of the Future, appeared to turn her head and meet her gaze. And then something even stranger happened—the goddess stepped out of the tapestry. Her body was translucent—as though she were a ghost—and was outlined in shimmering light.
“You know what you have to do, Brianna of Clan Sinclair,” she said, her voice soft and soothing. Her eyes flickered down to the stone she held in the palm of her hand.
“Do I?” Brianna asked.
“You do. Use the power within you.”
“I don’t know how.” Her voice warbled on sudden unshed tears as frustration flickered through her.
This woman, this goddess, was telling her things she should know but didn’t. She hadn’t a clue how to use the power inside her. She had no idea what to do next.
“I told you once before you had the power within you to prevent or bring about certain destinies,” she said. “You still have that power. Not only to shift the timeline, to save us from the Realm of Chaos, but to save the MacLeod men from certain death. For if you do not use this power within you, then they will all surely die in this battle.”
The heavy burden of the goddess’s words pounded through her.
“Tell me what to do!” she begged, hating how she sounded.
Brianna was never good at decision making, especially the hard decisions. It was why she’d returned to the Caribbean after she’d settled her parents’ estate. She wanted to hide from the world and making the hard decisions. She wanted an easy life.
What she faced now was not easy. She didn’t want the men to die. She certainly didn’t want to see Jamie dead. He had become dear toher over the last few days. They had formed a sort of bond of understanding because they both had strife with their siblings. He understood her. She understood him. And it would destroy her if anything happened to him.
“Mend the stone. Use the power.”
It was the last thing the goddess said to her before she disappeared in a poof of light and then the world righted itself. One of her sisters was shouting her name. Something cold and hard pressed into her back and she realized then she was lying on her back staring up at the ceiling.
“Bri!” Evie shook her.
“She’s coming around.” Chloe’s voice hitched with worry.
Another mammoth boulder smashed into the walls. This time, it was close. Too close. The keep shuddered under the force.
“What happened?” She pushed herself to a sitting position, her head throbbing with sudden pain. She put a hand to her forehead as she winced.
“You fainted,” Evie said.
“I know what we have to do,” Brianna said. “We have to mend the stone.”
“We assumed you’d had a vision,” Chloe said.
She nodded, even though it hurt her head. “The Goddess of the Future came to me. She told me…”
She paused, her gaze alighting on both their youthful, hopeful faces. She knew they had to do this. She couldn’t bear the thought of telling her sisters the men they loved would die if they didn’t.
