Page 1 of The Swan Detective (The Swan Syndicate #2)

I t all began when AJ Moore climbed a cliff along her home shores of Oregon. Only a small group of people, either in this time or two hundred years before, knew the story. A tale no one would believe if they hadn’t been a part of it.

AJ had watched a nineteenth-century sailing ship appear and disappear into the fog.

A couple of days later, two men came into her life.

Mysterious men who spoke little of themselves yet found ways to gather information from those around them.

Unbeknownst to her at the time, the two men, Finn Murphy, a fiery, roguish Irishman, and Ethan Hughes, a reserved, handsome Englishman, had spent eighteen months traveling through time in search of an ancient stone necklace.

As it turned out, AJ had found that necklace at an estate sale a few months before the men came into her life.

She was a reporter by trade, so it didn’t take her long to decide the old ship and the enigmatic ship’s captain would make a good story, but it was never written.

Instead, she fell hard and fast for Finn.

Finn, who tried to ignore AJ’s appeal, was unable to douse the spark she ignited whenever she was close.

Once Finn held the necklace in his hand, his mission complete, he couldn’t think of a life without AJ.

So, he did the unthinkable. He called upon the fog, and they disappeared from this time and fell into the past—ship and all.

What came next was months of betrayal, heartache, loss, and eventually, a reunion that reignited the passion between AJ and Finn. Then, she learned the secrets of the ancient stone necklace.

Over two millennia before, during an eclipse, a sect of Druids performed a ritual.

Lightning interrupted the rite and turned a silver chalice holding colorful beads into six stones that allowed a person to travel through time.

The largest stone, referred to as the Heart Stone, had been lost in time, eventually turning up at an estate sale.

The other five stones were smaller yet held a strong connection to the Heart Stone.

The Druids believed if the stones were kept closely together, the ability to time travel would be more powerful and predictable.

They mounted the stones in a silver torc.

Through trial and error, they discovered the mysteries of how the stones worked and wrote their findings in The Book of Stones, otherwise known as the Mórdha Stone Chronicles.

While speaking the proper incantation as one held the stone or wore the torc, a dense fog appeared and transported the person to another time.

But the timing and location were far from accurate—in the beginning.

The Druids were a suspicious lot, and while they wrote their secrets in Breton Celtic, they also encrypted the critical pieces of how the stones and incantations worked.

Finn’s sister, Maire Murphy, being Irish, was able to read Breton Celtic, though the text took time to translate.

She acquired the assistance of Sebastian, a member of the Brotherhood of Monks, who lived in a monastery on the northern coast of France.

The monks were responsible for protecting rare and treasured artifacts and hid The Book of Stones and the accompanying six stones from the men who raided churches and monasteries during the Reign of Terror.

When the Duke of Dunsmore escaped to France to hide from the King of England’s wrath, he heard stories about the stones.

And so began the long journey Finn and Ethan traveled in search of the Heart Stone.

The power-hungry duke and, eventually, his son, Reginald, were killed, and everyone felt the stones were safe.

Until one fateful day when a man from the past found his way to the future, arriving at the inn along the Oregon Coast that AJ and Finn called home.

The couple happened to be on vacation, and Stella Caldway, AJ’s best friend, who stopped by to water the plants, found a strange man standing in the kitchen.

The man, who worked for their new enemy, Gemini, a woman in search of the stones, mistook Stella for AJ and stole her away through the fog.

Beckworth, a nineteenth-century viscount who had a long and complicated history with AJ, Finn, and the Duke of Dunsmore, was on a mission to locate the mysterious Gemini.

When he caught up with her, he convinced Stella to escape with him.

They were on the run for two weeks, evading Gemini’s men while trying to find safe haven.

During that period, they became friends, and eventually much more.

After a long and tiring journey, Stella and Beckworth reunited with AJ, Finn, and the rest of the team.

The group decided to change the stakes, and Gemini became the prey.

The mission hadn’t been easy, and men had been lost, but once Gemini was dead, the stones and The Book of Stones were safe once more.

Everything was hidden within the secret passages of the monastery, with a few exceptions.

The Heart Stone would return to the future with AJ and Finn.

One of the small stones was retained by Ethan and Maire, who returned to the future along with Sebastian, the monk, who was always up for an adventure.

The Book of Stones was also sent to the future, keeping it out of the hands of anyone else seeking too much power.

Before leaving for the future, Sebastian gifted Stella and Beckworth with a stone of their own and an updated incantation.

Stella returned home to Oregon, leaving Beckworth behind. Each believed neither could be happy living in a time period not their own. But the heart wants what the heart wants, and Beckworth used his stone to travel to the future, where the two live happily together.

Everyone agreed the stones were only to be used for emergencies.

Beckworth had a different idea. And so begins the story of Stella and Beckworth. What they weren’t aware of, because no one could foresee the future, even with the stones, was that their first use of the stones would be the beginning of the Swan Syndicate.

And no one could have been prepared for what happened next.