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“Well, my compass app seems to be working,” Gwen noted. She pointed her phone in various directions. “But the trouble is figuring out which way the cottage lies. Do you know?”

Ellie groaned. “I have no idea. I wasn’t paying attention to anything except staying upright.”

“That might turn off some potential matches if a picture of you on your bum is splayed out for all of the kingdom to see,” Gwen murmured, trying to load her GPS app. She rolled her eyes and shut the phone off. “It’s no use. I don’t have any service out here, so we’re going to have to just wing it.”

“Grand,” Ellie muttered. Her lack of directional sense was only trumped by her inability to stay upright an entire day. “Well, perhaps we ought to go back the way we came.”

“Which way was that?”

Ellie pointed in the general direction she sort of thought they may have come from. “Over there?”

“This is going to take a while,” Gwen sighed.

They ventured down a small, overgrown path, the leaves sticking to Ellie’s jeans.

She batted them away for a little while before giving up.

Her palms were scratched and a little bloody from all the prickers embedded in the denim; she couldn’t wait to get back to the cottage and find some sort of balm for her stinging hands.

Gwen and Ellie walked for a few more minutes when there was a sudden burst of light from somewhere near them.

Gwen grabbed Ellie, and they held tightly to each other as hail pelted their skin, disorienting them.

Just as quickly as the lightning struck, the hail stopped, leaving both women breathless and shaken.

The air was quite suddenly heavy and even stiller than before, and the daylight around them began to fade.

“What,” Gwen whispered, “was that?”

“Just a freak storm.” Ellie stood on shaky legs and looked up into the dense canopy of the trees. “We’ve got to get back. I don’t care to be out in weather like this.”

They both looked at each other and, without saying any more, continued on their way.

They were even more lost than they thought, for they came not to Reilly’s cottage, but to a large clearing that was both unfamiliar and out of place in the thick forest. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and a cool breeze swept across the tall grass, the blades waving wildly in the wind.

The clouds were dark and heavy, hanging over them as Ellie and Gwen tried to figure out where they were.

“I thought we were going the right way,” Ellie exclaimed, frustration lacing her tone. “But now I have no idea where we are!”

“Where, pray tell, are you supposed to be?”

The two women shrieked and spun around in surprise.

A teenager, dressed in the strangest outfit Ellie had ever seen, was looking at them with huge, curious blue eyes.

A mop of unruly dark blond hair gave him an uncanny likeness to Colin.

The long, deep blue tunic was belted with a silver rope, his leggings were a deep gray, and his well-worn boots looked to be made from stretched leather.

He held a basket in one arm, a scythe in the other, and a sword strapped to his back…

but he couldn’t have been more than fifteen or sixteen years old.

A moment passed, and the boy stood taller. “I heard your speech. I believe you can understand me,” he added in his strange accent.

“We can, and we’re lost,” Gwen informed him. “We’re trying to get back to our cottage, but we got turned around in the forest.”

The boy looked over their shoulders at the forest, then over his own toward the approaching—or was it receding?

—storm. “There isn’t any cottage for leagues.

You must be quite lost indeed. Perhaps, were you to give me the name of your sire, I could obtain my own sire’s services in returning you safely from whence you came? ”

Ellie, still too surprised to form any coherent words, exchanged a startled glance with Gwen. Who is this kid? He spoke like a character from one of her historical fiction novels.

“Oh!” Gwen exclaimed, a look of relief crossing her face. “I bet you’re one of Reilly’s students.”

“Reilly’s students?” Ellie echoed.

“Uh huh,” Gwen replied, relief in her voice. “He runs a training school for swordplay. Teaches Hollywood types and guys with too much testosterone.”

Ellie felt her breath loosen in her chest.

“I guess we know now where he was headed,” Ellie murmured. Gwen gave a sheepish nod.

“Reilly?” the young man exclaimed. He cleared his throat manfully and looked about him. “Do you have a surname for this Reilly?”

“O’Malley,” Gwen replied, and Ellie was certain there was never a boy who lit up quite like this one did at the mention of Reilly O’Malley.

“He’s coming back?” the boy asked, his eyes alight. “Mama will be so pleased! ”

Ellie flinched as a peal of thunder split the sky. “Who’s your mum?”

“Oh, of course. Allow me to present myself. I am Aidan MacWilliam, and my sire is Nioclas MacWilliam.” He paused for dramatic effect. “As in, the MacWilliam.”

Another Aidan MacWilliam? Ellie frowned.

Gwen caught Ellie’s eye, and they shared a skeptical look.

The boy continued, “My mother is, of course, Lady MacWilliam.”

“Of course,” Ellie murmured.

“Perhaps, if you know my uncle Reilly, you also know my other uncle, Sir Aidan MacWilliam?”

“Oh!” Gwen exclaimed. A look of understanding crossed her face. “You’re one of those MacWilliams. Geez, your family tree is enormous. How many MacWilliams are there in the world?”

“Well over six hundred now, my lady, though many are married into other clans.”

“Reilly never told me the family was quite so big,” Gwen replied. To Ellie, she added, “He’s a bit tight-lipped about them. I never could figure out why.”

Aidan gave them a low bow. “Perhaps I may escort you both back to my family’s castle, so that you may take your ease by the fire whilst we await my uncle’s arrival?” The boy turned and began to walk.

The women exchanged a look.

“He probably means his house, as it’s about to pour on us,” Gwen whispered, motioning to the sky.

“Your uncle?” Ellie echoed as they followed him into the tree line.

“Aye. You did say he was coming? Reilly?”

“I hope he’s one and the same,” Gwen replied. “He was headed this way.”

“How many Reilly O’Malleys can there be?” Ellie carefully sidestepped a low bush, only to trip over her shoelace .

“I would’ve asked the same question about Emma’s husband before today,” Gwen muttered as she helped Ellie right herself. Louder, she called out to Aidan, “How far are we to your home?”

Aidan waved his hand negligently. “We’re almost there. The scouts have already seen us and are preparing for our arrival.”

“This kid is serious about his sword training,” Ellie whispered, impressed again.

“No joke,” Gwen whispered back. “I hope his ‘castle’ isn’t a cardboard box.”

Ellie giggled. “It’s probably just a cottage like Reilly’s. I’ve explored these woods for years and never seen anything else.”

Not a moment later, both women halted, their jaws hanging open as the castle, complete with turrets, a drawbridge, a portcullis, and many armed men, came into view through the trees.

“What the…” Gwen trailed off, her eyes enormous.

Ellie stared, shocked. The first little building looked like a visitor’s center—there was a drawbridge to cross, and the structure itself was circular.

The parapets were in remarkably good shape, showing almost no wear from centuries of Irish rain.

The men atop the parapets wore armor, which glinted even under the cloudy skies.

Or perhaps it was their swords that glinted; Ellie couldn’t tell.

She could just make out the turrets of the main castle behind the little building, but her viewpoint was skewed by the angle of the land and the thickness of the trees.

“Perhaps you would be so kind as to wait here, until my sister comes out.” Aidan cast a knowing glance at them. “She should be here soon. She’ll have proper attire for you as well, so as to not raise any suspicions.”

Gwen managed a sick sort of smile, and the boy let out a guttural sound. Immediately, three men on horseback surrounded them, and Aidan began speaking in rapid-fire Gaelic.

At least, that was what Ellie assumed. She caught only one or two words of it, but what else would they be speaking in Ireland if not English?

“This kid is like a commander,” Gwen noted in quiet awe. “The men are doing whatever he asked them to do.”

The men gave a nod, then turned and charged towards the castle without even a glance at them. Ellie wondered if this was the school Reilly ran. It had to be a fortune to attend; the upkeep costs of the castle alone must be astronomical, not to mention the salaries for all these people.

She glanced at the boy again. The MacWilliam, indeed.

“As I thought, we will wait here until my sister comes out,” Aidan explained. “Until then, perhaps you can tell me what my uncle’s been doing these last few years?”

Gwen blinked. “Years?”

“Aye, I haven’t seen him in nigh on two years now.”

Gwen frowned. “He told me he was just here a couple of weeks ago, though.”

Aidan laughed. “Mama tried to explain it to me once, but I still don’t understand how it all works. Time bending follows its own set of rules that I simply cannot figure out.”

Ellie blinked, then met Gwen’s equally confused look. Just what the hell have we stepped into?

When the first drops of rain began to tap against the window, Colin checked his watch and frowned.

Ellie and Gwen hadn’t yet returned, and though it was only mid-afternoon, the sky was a deep gray. The wind blew a blast of unnaturally cold air through the open window of Reilly’s living room, and the rumble of thunder sounded in the distance .

Colin zipped his suitcase closed and peered out the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the women as they returned from the forest. He could imagine both of them, laughing as they tried to outrun the rain.