Without another word, he turned and the doors began to close.
Noah’s pulse roared in his ears. They could not have come this far, this urgently, to be turned away.
A movement caught his eye, a flash of something in the dimness beyond the guard’s retreating form.
A single figure, a woman, separated from a group and moved toward them with sleek, almost predatory grace. Tall, dark-haired and sharp-eyed, she was dressed in green and brown fitted leather and well-worn boots, as if she’d just returned from outdoors.
Their eyes met, and in that moment, Noah felt something shift.
Though he knew it to be impossible, her name whispered through his mind as if it belonged there. As if he already knew her. But he knew no one remotely like her.
What he did know was if it became necessary to fight for Emily’s life, this woman could turn out to be his enemy. The thought settled uncomfortably in his chest. Pray God that would not come to pass.
“You’re…Skye?”
Her astonished gaze held his, challenging, assessing. For a heartbeat, Noah felt completely exposed, as if she could see every desperate thought, every hope and fear that had driven him to this moment.
Finally, she gave him a single, short nod as the guard returned, taking up his stance in the doorway, his massive frame filling the entrance. “Mistress, your father will not like?—”
A single glance from her cut him off. Instead, he turned to the three of them and placed both hands on his weapons. “We are done here. Be gone.”
Skye’s hand shot out, touching the guard’s arm. “Wait.”
Though she appeared strong, capable of much more, her feather-light touch on his arm seemed even more effective.
Noah exchanged a quick glance with Taran and Finn. From the look on the guard’s face, something unexpected was happening.
“It would appear these men have traveled far,” Skye’s gaze remained fixed on Noah. “Perhaps they deserve more than a quick dismissal.”
A muscle jumped in the guard’s jaw. “Mistress,” his voice came low and measured, “you are aware The Keeper does not grant audiences. Especially to outsiders.”
Skye’s lips curved into something short of a smile as she confronted him. “Thank you, Keir. But we will hear them out.”
The guard’s acquiescence was immediate but strained as he backed up a step.
Sensing a rare opportunity, Noah spoke quickly. “I am Noah Wheeler. This is my father, Taran Fleming and our friend, Finn O’Malley. We came because my sister is dying. We seek passage through a portal to a time when her life can be saved. We ask for that and nothing more.”
Skye’s brow arched, more curious than surprised. “A portal?” The word, more challenge than question, hung in the air between them.
Noah swallowed his irritation. He’d come too far, the urgency too great, to play games, even with this captivating stranger. He refused to back down. Refused to show weakness.
“Tell me about this sister,” Skye finally stated.
When he paused to gather his thoughts in order to plead Emily’s case effectively, he felt a nudge from behind. It seemed either Taran or Finn had noted Skye’s singular focus on him and urged him not to lose this chance.
“Emily is thirteen. The light, the focus of my life,” he added, feeling the surge of love he had for her. “She’s been sick for some time. Worsening by the day. Nothing we or the medicine woman in our village have tried, had any effect. We fear she will die. We need to get her to a time where her illness can be treated.”
Skye’s eyes narrowed as something flickered in their depths. Distrust? Calculation?
“Describe this sickness.”
“Somethin’ in her blood,” Taran interjected tersely. “Somehow, her body cannae fight it and ’tis failin’ her. My wife comes from a time when their medical knowledge has a good chance o’ saving her. But...” he swallowed, seeming to battle the emotion clogging his throat, “we’re running out o’ time.”
“Yet you waste ours,” the guard snorted, moving menacingly closer, a hand on the hilt of one of his knives.
Skye touched his arm once more. A silent warning.
“And you believe The Keeper can somehow help you find this…portalyou seek?” Her tone suggested she found the idea somewhere between amusing and absurd.
