“I’m here, lass.”
Suddenly, Jamie was there. He snatched the stone out of the grass with one hand and reached for her with the other. She scrambled to her feet as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and darted off toward another part of the ruins. The boulder, well-worn with age, was before them, glowing and pulsing. Carved on the top of the stone was the exact same symbol as the one on the keystone. She sucked in a sharp breath of surprise.
“Jamie, look!”
“Aye, lass.”
He said it as though he already saw it and knew it was there. He must have seen it before he got to her.
“Ye have to stand on it,” he said.
“How do you know?” Her heart rammed hard against her chest as she tried to regain her breath.
“Trust me.”
He pushed the stone into her bleeding hand. With her heart in her throat, she stepped onto the flat boulder and closed her hand around the keystone. The moment she did, it vibrated so hard it sent tremors up her arm, to her shoulder, all theway through her.
“Jamie?”
He whipped a dagger from his belt, sliced his hand, and reached for her. “Take my hand. We must hold the keystone together.”
But as she reached for him, an arrow thunked into his shoulder making him fall back a step. A shriek escaped her throat as he watched him nearly fall, then regain his footing. He turned toward the assailant, rage on his face. Without blinking, he snapped off the shaft, emitted what sounded like a war cry, and lifted the dagger.
A sudden wind whipped around her, tangling her hair. The portal remained open, the creatures pouring in, and all around her the sounds of swords clashing, men screaming. The smell of death and blood permeated the air. And, strangest of all, the black creatures seemed to ignore her standing on the boulder with her fist glowing.
She didn’t understand that. Light seeped from between her fingers as her entire body hummed in concert with the keystone. Then, the light pulsed. The low hum grew louder and louder until it vibrated from her throughout the ruins.
Some instinct told her to lift her hand to the night sky. She punched it upward, a scream of terror ripping from her lungs.
And then a warming presence was behind her, surrounding her. The Triple Goddess appeared in a shimmering form. Athea to one side, Bridget to the other, Moira in front.
“Close the portal, Brianna,” Moira said, her words drifting to her on the wind.
“I don’t know how!”
She heard her name on the wind. Her eyes filled with tears—from the wind or her emotions, she didn’t know which. She blinked them away, searching through the melee for Jamie. And then, she saw him. He’d stabbed the man he’d been fighting and then bolted for her. His brothers were right behind him, fighting all those who tried to stop him. Fighting the dark creatures trying to attack them.
When he was within reach, he stretched out his hand, bloody fromthe cut. She held her bloodied hand out to him, the keystone resting in the center. He clasped his hand over hers, sealing the stone between them.
A surge shot through her to him and up his arm. His face contorted in momentary pain as he acclimated to the strange sensation cascading through him. He clenched his jaw, the muscles ticking along the edge.
“The portal,” he said through clenched teeth, his words nearly lost on the wind.
“How do I—”
But she never finished. The Triple Goddess moved before her, their hands clasped forming a shimmering, bright line as though a barricade existed between the two of them and the Realm of Chaos belching its evil. Their images swirled into one, spinning into a glistening vortex. That vortex twirled toward her and then punched through her with such violence she wobbled on her feet, nearly tumbling off the boulder. Jamie’s grip tightened on her and then…then she was overcome with a strange sensation.
She heard a mellifluous voice in her head.
Blood warms to blood. A maiden’s grace. A warrior’s heart. By the light and will of ancient power, I command this chaos gone forever.
A pause, then Moira’s voice.Say the words, Brianna. Close the portal. Shift the timeline.
But if she shifted the timeline…what, then, would happen to her? To Jamie and to her sisters?
“If I do, then what? Will they be safe?” Her voice was raw and ragged, the wind taking away the words the moment they left her lips.
All will be as it was once before. Before the Night of Shadows. Before the Shattering. Chant the final words and save this world from Chaos.
