Taran shifted, arms crossed, the lines of his face were grim. “We would need tae find The Keeper.”
“Who?” Noah demanded.
Taran glanced at Paige as she joined them.
“The Keeper,” Taran repeated. “There are stories of a man who can control the portals.”
Noah’s breath hitched.Theportals?
For years, they had believed there was no way back. For years, they had stoppedtalkingabout going back. It was the unspoken rule of their village. Survival meant looking forward, not back.
Noah had tried to bury the longing, the desperation to return to where they belonged. To find the family they’d lost. To make sense of why they’d been brought here in the first place.
Now, that old dangerous hope stirred inside him again. But he couldn’t think of home. He must think of Emily. As far as he knew, this thing that wracked her body hadn’t even had a name, let alone a cure in his own time.
“If The Keeper can control the portals, maybe he can send us back to my time,” Paige interjected, her voice full of hope. “It may be the only way we can get Emily the help she needs.”
Noah turned to Taran. “Do you believe such a person exists?”
Taran’s expression was noncommittal. “Old Man has heard of him.”
Noah knew Old Man was the closest thing this village had to a leader. A man of indeterminate age and unquestioned wisdom. No one knew where he came from or when. But he knew more than anyone about this place, its strange rules and, more importantly, its dangers.
Taran laid a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “Old Man admitted he has sent people to The Keeper before. None have ever returned.”
A ripple of apprehension skittered through Noah’s gut before exploding into anger. A muscle jumped in his jaw as he clenched his fists.
“That doesn’t tell us if their quest was successful or unsuccessful. You warn me of The Others every time I go hunting, and we take turns standing guard against them. How can we know if those missing people encountered The Others instead of The Keeper? Or that The Keeper isn’t an even bigger threat?”
They were chasing a ghost. A fanciful rumor. A fairy tale. All at Emily’s expense.
He turned back to her, noting her shallow breathing, her hands tucked limply beneath her chin.
Paige and Taran stepped silently to either side of him. Taran’s hand squeezed his shoulder as Paige took his hand. Even Brody, sensing the tension, slipped an arm around his leg.
“We love you and Emily as if you were our own,” Paige said softly. “You are as much our son as Brody is. Emily is our daughter. But we understand what happens now is your decision to make. We’ll do everything we can for her here. Or we will go as a family in search of the Keeper. Whatever you decide, we support you.”
Noah couldn’t look at them. Couldn’t bear the weight of their hope-filled gazes. Hope was dangerous. Hope could destroy you. He’d learned that lesson well when they first arrived here, spending months hoping to wake up from what surely must be a dream, hoping their parents would somehow find them.
But as he listened to Emily’s labored breathing, he knew he had no choice. He would find this Keeper, if he truly existed, and do whatever it took to save his sister.
The night airwas thick and cool, the scent of damp earth filling his nostrils as Noah walked to the river’s edge. He grabbed a smooth stone, clenched it in his palm, then hurled it across the water.
It skipped once, twice, then vanished beneath the rippling surface. Was Emily’s life just as fleeting? Everything felt so fragile. So temporary. Safety was an illusion, threatening to slip through his fingers no matter how tightly he held on.
He’d learned that lesson the night he and Emily were caught in that massive storm walking home after visiting a distant neighbor. It had come upon them so suddenly, with lightning exploding so violently in the sky, the only option they had was to take cover amid some boulders and try to shield themselves against the unnatural light.
When the storm finally passed, they still huddled in a group of boulders. But the boulders were no longer just outside Boston. Their family was no longer a mere two miles away. And the world around them was far different from the one they knew.
He rememberedcradling Emily, his arms wrapped around her while she sobbed, asking if they’d ever see their family again and if she and Noah were going to die here.
He’d promised her then that no matter what happened, he’d never leave her and never stop fighting to keep her safe.
But how could he fight something he couldn’t see? Couldn’t understand?
Noah tensed when he heard afamiliar soft footfall behind him. Taran.
“If throwing rocks will bring the right answers, I will join you,” Taran said softly.
