Redeeming Vows (MacCoinnich Time Travel Trilogy #3)(37)
Author: Catherine Bybee

Because in truth, the place her feet were planted now might have been familiar, but it no longer felt right. Simon wasn’t going to barge in the door. Myra wasn’t hiding her laugh behind her hand and Tara wasn’t stand beside her husband holding her son.

Where was Amber holding one of the keep’s cats or Cian teaching Simon how to ride a horse at breakneck speed? Not here! No, this no longer felt like home. Home, at least while the threat of Grainna hung over all of them, was in the sixteenth century. Home was where Liz was needed, where she belonged to a gaggle of family destined to destroy the wicked witch of Scotland.

Observe the stars.

What the hell did that mean? Why on earth would she have been so cryptic in a note to herself?

Then again, half the message was unreadable.

Maybe she hadn’t been such a putz in the past, or future? Or whatever the hell she was going to be.

Liz’s head started to pound.

The water grew cold causing a shiver to run down her spine. Slipping from the shower, Liz toweled herself off and dripped dry on the mat covering the linoleum floor. The room felt chilled.

She lifted her hand to bring the flame of the fireplace higher and stopped. She wasn’t in her room in the MacCoinnich keep. There wasn’t a fireplace keeping her room warm.

Liz studied her hand and realized how much she’d changed since the last time she’d emerged from the plastic curtain surrounding the porcelain tub.

Soar above.

The words haunted her. She’d thought them endlessly since the day Simon shifted into a bird and took to the sky.

She’d elevated from the ground without the aid of wings. Deep down, she knew she was the reason she and the sisters hovered above the earth each time they cast a circle and attempted a spell.

She couldn’t control it. Then again, she hadn’t tried.

Shaking the thoughts from her mind, Liz wrapped a towel over her wet hair and secured another towel around her bare body.

Voices met her ears as she slipped into her room and opened the chest by her bed. She reached inside and found a bra and panties.

“I took the liberty of washing a few things last week, just in case you two actually showed up.”

Selma spoke from the doorway. An easy smile played on her lips.

“Thank you.” Liz ran her fingers over her underwear. “You have no idea what it’s like to live without the simplest of clothing.” Liz could hear the longing in her own voice.

“No, no I don’t. I hope to hear more about it, though.”

Liz pulled on a pair of panties under the terry cloth towel and turned away from the door to put on a bra. “I’m not sure how much time we’ll have, but I’ll fill you in as much as I can. Seems only fair. I can’t believe you’re here. I don’t know if I would have been, if I were in your shoes.”

Selma laughed. “And pass over the opportunity to meet a real life time traveler? I’m the one who’s lucky. Lucky you found my book and believed what I’d written.”

“Your book, your knowledge, has helped us more than once.”

Selma turned away, her voice grew dim. “I’m glad it helped you. It didn’t sell, and I’ll never publish another book again.”

Liz wiggled into a fitted T-shirt and zipped up her capris. “Your book, no, you have already saved many lives. Don’t sell yourself short, Selma.” Liz stepped into the other woman’s personal space and placed a hand on her arm. “You and I, Fin, we’re all family, in a way. Druids. We have a connection, goals that are bigger than any number of books sold in a bookstore. You help people with your gift, right?”

“Yes,” she said, green eyes staring into hers.

“Then that’s all that matters. Because this—”

Liz tossed her hands in the air. “This is only stuff.

Helping others, keeping witches like Grainna from taking control, that’s more important than stuff.”

The sound of a door bouncing off its frame rattled every nerve ending in Liz’s body.

“Don’t move or I’ll shoot.” The male voice boomed in the room and brought a second wave of alarm over her.

In the time it took to leap into the living room, the walls started to rattle and the floor shook. The frame of Todd’s ex-partner Jake filled the entrance to the apartment. The cold, black steel of a gun was aimed at Fin’s chest.

Fin’s jaw went taut under the strain of his teeth, his expression deadly.

Jake’s gaze wavered as the tremor beneath their feet grew.

With his hand in the air, Fin brought a golf ball-size orb of flame to light. With a toss of his fingers, the ball soared through the air, knocking the gun from Jake’s hand. The flame burned out with a small trail of smoke.

“Holy cow,” Selma exclaimed.

Jake recovered and lunged for his weapon.

Fin cut off the cop’s path and laid the tip of his claymore to his throat.

Pictures on the wall started to fall.

“Finlay?”

“Not now, lass.” Fin stared into Jake’s eyes, daring him to move.

“Fin! Can you stop the earthquake before the walls crumble and take us all out?”

In a heartbeat, the earth stilled and the room grew quiet.

“Wow!” Selma breathed the word with excitement.

Jake wasn’t impressed.

“Elizabeth, remove the second weapon on his leg.” Liz fell to her knees, searching for Jake’s backup gun. She and Fin both saw Todd arm himself anytime he left the keep. For good measure, Liz patted down the cop, found a taser tucked at the small of his back, and removed it.

“Until you realize we’re aren’t here to hurt you, and we haven’t done anything wrong, I’ll hold on to these.” Liz picked up the small arsenal and dumped them in her room.

Fin still held the sword to Jake’s neck, neither of them moved.

“Where’s Todd?”

Selma shoved herself between Fin and Jake, her hands met her hips, her voice edged on pissed.

“Where the hell do you think he is, Jake? He’s in the past. Five hundred years in the past. Or haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve said?”

Fin fastened his sword to his side but didn’t move far behind the two arguing.

“I don’t believe in time travel.”

“Did you believe in the fireball that just whizzed by your head?”

Jake shifted his eyes to Liz.

“What about the earthquake? Did you feel that?”

Liz heard his words in her head before they left his mouth.