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W hen the last sparkle faded, the wind died as abruptly as it had begun, and Destiny found herself lying on the ground on top of Jesse, struggling to catch her breath.

“What the hell?” Jesse’s outburst shattered the dark silence around them. He rolled them over, putting his body over hers as if to shield her and dropping his head to the crook of her neck, breathing hard.

The smell of moist earth, the feel of wet grass against her exposed skin surprised her.

“Where are we? Why’s it so dark?” Afternoon in the Arizona desert was not like this. She peered straight up over Jesse’s shoulder at… the moon?

“I’m not sure,” he answered, his words muffled against her neck, his breath hot and moist against her skin. “You okay?”

His question caught at her heart and she wrestled with her emotions, not sure if she was going laugh or cry. Somehow they’d lost hours, a whole afternoon and evening, and all he could ask was whether she was okay.

“Uh-huh,” she murmured into his ear, and tightened her arms around his neck. She wanted to hold him close, to memorize the feel of his body next to hers, knowing any second now he would break the embrace and be on his feet.

Why had she thought this was bad? Why had she ignored him and sent him away from her bedroom door last night?

Oh yeah. She was angry with him for deserting her.

Only he hadn’t. And then she’d been too frightened by that to let go of her anger, as if it were the last of her emotional barriers. Her last line of defense against laying herself open to whatever might happen between them. Her last chance to protect her heart. Her last chance not to end up like her mother, broken and alone. She’d lost everyone who was ever important to her. The thought of finding, and then losing, the most important one of all terrified her.

He nuzzled his head against her in what felt suspiciously like a kiss to the area just under her ear before pulling away and rising to his knees.

“Come on. Let’s figure out what you did.”

“Me?” she squeaked, allowing him to pull her up. “I didn’t… oh! Look out!”

A huge figure loomed behind Jesse. Without taking time to think, she threw her weight against him, knocking him onto his back, throwing herself over the top of him.

In less than a heartbeat, he’d flipped them, once again covering her body with his own. “What?”

From this position, she could clearly see the “figure” looming behind him was an enormous rock.

Well, damn. This was the second time she’d mistaken something purely harmless as a danger to him and made a fool of herself. Third time if she counted the dream in the car. She totally sucked at this chasing-the-bad-guy stuff.

“Sorry. I thought it was a person.” She pointed at the enormous stone.

“Lucky for me it’s not.” He rose to his feet, pulling her up once again, keeping hold of her hand even after she stood. “I think a guy this size might be a little much. Even for me.”

There wasn’t just one stone, she realized as she looked around. They were surrounded by them. Moonlight reflected off their light surfaces. Each one standing up on end, tall and straight, as if they’d been placed there in some sort of a pattern. Though they all varied in size, the ones she could see clearly were considerably taller than Jesse, and that was saying something.

“So, you have any idea where we are?” she asked, not really expecting an answer.

“As a matter of fact, I do have an idea,” he answered, dropping his hold on her hand to reach into his pocket. “But it’s crazy. You stay right there. Don’t move. I want to check something.” From his pocket he pulled a tiny, flat key chain flashlight and switched it on.

He strode away, quickly blending with the darkness. He disappeared among the stones, a tiny bobbing light the only telltale sign of his presence, like one lone firefly in the distance.

Destiny placed a hand against the nearest stone, realizing the moisture she’d felt initially hadn’t been her imagination. The face of the stone was damp. So was the back of her shirt. And her butt. And the back of her hair.

“Great,” she muttered, wiping her hand on her jeans. Lost in a strange, dark, wet place. Could their problems get any worse?

A full moon certainly would have been welcome, but the one shining down on them, when it wasn’t hiding behind what appeared to be clouds, was no larger than the one she’d seen last night. The light it cast gave her maybe three or four feet in any direction to actually discern anything more than vague shapes.

One of those shapes, at the boundary of what she could see, was another stone. Roughly as tall as the others, but wider. She made her way to it, taking small steps to avoid slipping in the wet ankle-high grass and mud.

There was something different about this stone. As she got closer, she could make out a carving on the face of it. A slanted bar, a snake curled around it…

“Look at this,” she called, hoping Jesse was still within hearing distance.

“Keep your voice down,” came his response from somewhere out in the dark. “And stay still like I told you.”

“Whatever,” she muttered, tracing her fingers over the familiar markings before she began backing away. “You’re not going to believe what I…”

As she spoke, her foot sank into a puddle of water and she jumped when she felt mud ooze over the side of her shoe. Her other toe caught on one of the wet clumps of grass and mud, pitching her forward into the big carved stone.

Into and through it, as if a door had opened.

Destiny landed on her stomach, her arms thrown out in front of her to protect her face. The wind was knocked from her lungs with the force of her body hitting the ground.

She lay still for a moment, catching her breath.

In that moment, she realized the problems she hadn’t thought could get any worse just had.

It wasn’t dark anymore, though it wasn’t exactly daylight, either. More of a twilight glow all over.

The ground wasn’t wet. Or even damp.

And instead of stones she was surrounded by hills and forest.

“Not good. I am so not liking this. Not at all.” She spoke aloud to keep her courage up.

“Jesse?” she called quietly, straining to hear any response as she lifted herself to a sitting position.

When he’d told her to be quiet just minutes ago, his voice hadn’t sounded very far away.

At least, not very far from where she had been.

“Jesse!” she yelled, knowing even as she did so he wouldn’t answer, because he wasn’t here.

Here, wherever here was, wasn’t where she’d been a moment before. Where Jesse still was.

“Well, what have we here? A lost damsel?”

Her head snapped around at the sound of a man’s voice to see a horse and rider picking their way through the trees toward her.

Too frightened to stand and run, she scrambled backward through the grass like a desperate crab on the shoreline, staring up into a face she knew all too well. The face of Dermond Tyren.

“Destiny?”

He had left her in this exact spot. He was positive of it. In the glow of the small flashlight, he could see her footprints marking the soft mud all around him.

Goddammit! He’d told her to stay right here. Where had she gotten herself off to this time?

When the lights had surrounded them in the desert, he’d known they must have stumbled into the vortex Destiny sought. What they’d experienced was too much like what he’d seen years ago when his sister Cate had swept him through time with her to rescue her husband.

All he could think of when the lights stopped and the winds calmed was that wherever he was, whenever he was, he had Destiny safely at his side. His ego hadn’t allowed him to consider any possibility other than his own ability to protect her from whatever they might encounter.

His feelings for her had clouded his judgment.

Once he saw the stones, he’d had a suspicion of where they had landed. He’d been here before, though not in the dark. Making his way to the outer perimeter of the big stone circle and around to the signposts confirmed his suspicion.

They were at Callanish, on the Isle of Lewis. Scotland.

They had ended up in Scotland, just as Destiny had predicted they would.

Once again, Pol had known what he was talking about with his legends of the old Fae traveling long distances using energy lines. One day of researching the internet, of all places, and Destiny had more or less figured out the mechanics of the process.

So, too, it would appear, had the Nuadians. It certainly explained what had happened to Leah and her kidnappers. They’d come through here yesterday.

He could only hope none of them had remained behind as sentry.

“Des!” He fought to control his voice as the panic started to swell. “Answer me!”

This was the same way he’d felt at the airport earlier today. Frightened, helpless. To experience these emotions on a personal level was foreign to him.

Not that he hadn’t tasted fear in the past. He had. He’d experienced more than his share of danger in his line of work, but always he had felt in control. What he’d known before had been an entirely different flavor of fear. One that motivated and empowered him to change his circumstances. Not like this.

This new fear stripped him bare and dug into his gut, burrowing around like some animal.

If anything happened to her…

He’d tried to tell her that back in the desert. Tried to explain how he felt about her. Though explaining his feelings to her was damn near impossible when he didn’t completely understand them himself.

What he did know was that he cared about her more than he had any woman in his past. He also knew that in spite of his feelings for Destiny, he had to stay calm so he could think clearly. He’d been in much worse situations than this before.

But he wasn’t the one in trouble this time. Destiny was in trouble. She was the one who was missing. His stomach knotted even as the thought formed.

One minute she’d been here, calling out to him to come look at something she’d discovered. Then her words had cut off with a little squeal and he’d come running, not sure what he’d find.

Her disappearing completely was not on the list of things he might have expected.

Dammit! If she’d just done as she was told, neither of them would be going through this now. He should have kept her with him. At the time, though, he’d wanted to check for tracks, to make sure no one else was around. No one who might want to harm her.

Squatting down, he studied the ground around him, tracing her footprints. She’d moved from their original spot, in spite of his orders. That didn’t really surprise him. Her staying still and quiet as he’d asked—now that would have been a shock.

The fact that there were no other prints, only hers, was a small relief.

He followed her tracks over to a large stone, wider than the others nearby. From the slide of her shoe print, it looked as though she might have slipped in a mud puddle, but there the prints ended. Right at the stone.

Turning his light on the face of the large obelisk, he saw nothing. Not even rubbing his hand over the surface showed any difference between this stone and any of the others.

Not that he actually expected to see anything.

He’d learned many things during the time he’d trained as a Guardian in the Realm of Faerie. One of these things he’d learned had to do with stone circles such as this one.

Long ago, the ancient stones had been gathering centers for the Fae, places where the entrances to their world, Wyddecol, as Pol had called it, were located. For the most part, these entrances had been permanently sealed.

For the most part.

Some entrances remained, though they were usually under the care of a Guardian. And, of course, they couldn’t be seen by anyone who hadn’t passed through the doorway.

Anyone except a female descendant of the Fae, that is. The women, Faerie women, could always find the entrances. That was why the Nuadians had searched for female descendants for centuries. To make their way back into their home world.

This circle, these ancient stones, resonated with the power of the Fae. When he concentrated, Jesse could smell them. He could feel the essence of their having been here in the very air he breathed.

But he couldn’t feel Destiny any longer. Wherever she was, it wasn’t here.

To make matters worse, he had a horrible suspicion that he knew where she’d gone.

Wyddecol.

“Don’t you come any closer to me, Tyren!”

Destiny continued her backward crabcrawl until she bumped up against a massive tree trunk. She didn’t dare take her eyes off the approaching Faerie.

“Tyren? Do I know you?” His blond hair, longer than she remembered and worn in a low ponytail, swept over his shoulder as he dismounted. In his hands he held a wickedly lethal-looking sword.

It was hard to take the high ground when she sat on her butt looking up at the huge man, but it wasn’t like she had much choice.

“You stop right there!” She pressed her back into the rough bark of the tree. There was nowhere to run. “I mean it. Jesse’s here… somewhere. And if you even think of touching me, he’ll kick your ass again.”

There. That should slow him down for about a second and a half.

“Jesse?” In spite of her warning, he closed in, his head tilted to one side. “I fear I am at a disadvantage, my lady. I have no idea who either you or this Jesse you speak of may be. And I certainly have no intent to…”—he paused, his eyes tracking her from head to toe and back again before his lips curled in a knowing smile—“to harm you.”

He sheathed his sword and leaned over, reaching out a hand as if to help her to her feet.

In response she slapped his hand away and he laughed.

The nerve of the guy! Acting so innocent, giving her an obvious once-over and that flirty grin. Who did he think he was? It set her blood boiling.

“Oh, and I suppose you don’t intend to harm my sister, either, huh? I wouldn’t trust you as far as I could throw you, Dermond. You or that red-haired bitch you work for.”

“Dermond?” The Fae’s body stiffened and he backed up, his smile gone in an instant. He stood with his hands behind his back like some soldier at parade rest. “I believe I understand our problem now. Permit me to introduce myself—”

“I already know who and what you are.” She practically spit the words at him as she scrambled to her feet. “You’re a kidnapping, bloodsucking, toady-assed…” she sputtered, struggling to find the appropriate curses for the fiend standing in front of her. “Faerie,” she finished lamely. “I know all about you.”

“I do not believe you do, my lady. You seem to have me confused with my brother. I am Devlin Al Tyrn, Guardian Lord to General Darnee Al Oryn.” With a mock bow he continued, “At your service.”

“Brother? But you’re identical to…” She stopped, staring at the man.

Perhaps he was telling the truth. His eyes didn’t seem to have that same hard, uncaring detachment she had seen when she looked into Dermond’s eyes.

“Twins,” he added with a raise of both his eyebrows. “Now that we have that settled, who is this Jesse you referred to earlier? More important at the moment, where is he?”

“I’m not sure where he is right now. I’m not even sure where I am.”

She continued to study this man who claimed to be Dermond’s brother. Now that she really looked, there were other differences. This man’s hair was much longer than Dermond’s, easily reaching the middle of his back. And when his lips curved in even the smallest semblance of a smile…

“You have a dimple!”

Devlin’s neck colored a dull red. “I have the Mark of the Guardian as well, if you need to see that to prove what I say.”

“You mean that snake tattoo thing?” As soon as she said the words, the connection clicked. “Like on the stone.”

“If you saw the Mark on the stone, I suppose I have my answer as to how you got here, but where have you seen the Mark as a tattoo?”

“On Jesse’s arm,” she answered. The tattoo was the least of her concerns right now. “Since you seem to know how I got here, maybe you could tell me. And while we’re at it, where is ‘here’ anyway?”

“A Guardian?” Devlin’s forehead wrinkled in thought. “Does this Jesse of yours have a full name?”

“Of course he does.” And she even knew it now. “Jesse Coryell.”

“Coryell, Coryell,” he murmured as if trying to place the name. After a moment his eyes lit with recognition. “Ah, yes. I have heard of him. Dallyn’s newest man. You say you don’t know where he is?”

Dallyn again. She’d heard that name when Jesse was discussing the Fae with Pol, but he’d never explained who the man was other than making some vague comment about his being a friend.

She shook her head. “He was roaming around the stones trying to figure out where we were. I found the Mark and fell against the stone and, well, here I am.”

“Here you are.” His smile was back, accompanied by an amused chuckle. “Lost in the Realm of Faerie with your Guardian trapped outside.”

“Realm of Faerie?” she squeaked, not recognizing her own voice.

“And frantic he is by now, I’m guessing.” Another chuckle as Devlin turned, leading his horse toward a vine-covered mound. “I find I have many questions for this Guardian of yours, my lady. What say we invite him in to join us?”

With that, he pushed his arm against the vines and Destiny watched in awe as a gap appeared.

Like a doorway cut in the scenery, vines and earth peeled back as the opening grew larger, revealing another place altogether. A place where it was dark and rain fell in a steady downpour.

A place where Jesse sat staring outside the opening, drenched. His hair was plastered to the sides of his head and water droplets ran down his face.

“Welcome, Guardian,” Devlin boomed, reaching out an arm to invite Jesse to enter the Realm of Faerie.