Page 29 of Time of the Druid (Stones of Scotland #7)

Chapter 29

N orah woke early the next morning, unable to sleep, her skin clammy beneath the heavy wool blankets and her heart thudding with uneasy thoughts. The air in the guesthouse felt close and stale, thick with the scent of damp wool and last night’s fire. She and Matthew had returned to the causeway guards' raised eyebrows and Jack’s impenetrable silence. Even now, his steady breathing filled the cramped room, each sound a reminder of everything unsaid.

Part of Norah had wanted to whisper to Matthew, to ask him to stay with her, just for a little while longer. But she hadn’t dared. Instead, she’d lain awake alone in the dark, listening to the quiet drip of rain from the eaves and the distant lap of lake water. When the soft grey light of dawn finally pushed through the cracks in the shuttered windows, she gave up the fight. Throwing off the blankets, she shivered as the cold bit into her bare toes.

She pulled on her cloak, the fabric cold and slightly damp where it had hung overnight, and tiptoed out, careful not to wake Jack. The door creaked despite her efforts, and she winced at the sound, then slipped into the open air, blinking against the watery light of morning and the lingering mist that curled like ghosts around the edge of the crannog.

She made her way back across the causeway onto shore. Thankfully, there were different guards there today, and they said nothing about her stroll with Matthew the evening before. They said nothing at all, in fact, and the silence was blissful.

Norah decided to head in the opposite direction from the little beach. She hadn’t explored this stretch of shoreline, and it might prove to have some beautiful undiscovered corners. So far, as she strolled along by the lake, it looked much the same as the rest of the shore—all thick forest on one side of the path, and rocky beaches on the other. This part of Scotland, wherever they actually were, was certainly lovely, with this wide lake and the tall hills stretching up all around. Norah wondered if she’d ever visited in another time period. It probably hadn’t changed much.

Perhaps she and Matthew could visit in the twenty-first century. That brought a smile to her face. For the first time in a long time, she could look forward to the future—to a future shared with Matthew. It was a glorious thought.

Something rustled in the trees, sharp and sudden, like dry twigs cracking beneath a heavy boot. Norah froze mid-step, her breath catching in her throat as her eyes darted into the shadowy undergrowth. The silence that followed was deafening—no birdsong, no breeze, just the pulsing thud of her heart echoing in her ears. She was out of sight of the causeway, and too far for anyone to hear if she screamed. Her fingers itched toward the knife at her belt, but no further sound came. The stillness slowly returned, heavy and clinging like mist, and she forced her tense muscles to relax. Probably just a squirrel leaping through the branches. Nothing more. She hoped.

Walking on, Norah let her gaze drift back out to the water of the lake. Maybe she and Matthew could take over the Edmondson time travel lab and run it properly. The technology truly was incredible, and there were so many good things that could be done with ethical time travel. For a start, they could?—

A hand clamped down on Norah’s arm, hard and sudden, the fingers biting through her cloak and into her skin. Instinct surged through her like a spark to dry tinder. She twisted, lunging sideways to break free, her feet slipping on the wet path as she threw herself into a full sprint. Her breath burst from her chest in a sharp gasp as she glanced back?—

And froze mid-stride.

It was Edmondson.

He stood in the middle of the track, drenched from the rain but unbothered by it, like some wraith conjured from the mist. His thin lips were curled into a scowl, and his eyes—those cold, calculating eyes—locked on her with such poisonous intensity that her stomach turned to ice.

“I was expecting you back by now, Norah,” he said, in that empty, ominous tone that Norah hated so much. “What progress have you made? The task should be almost complete by now.”

Norah took a deep breath, struggling to find the right words. She’d never imagined that Edmondson would come after her. How had he found her? And why did he even need her, if he could travel here himself?

“I—I don’t?—”

She paused, pulled herself together, and took another deep breath.

“Our deal is off,” she said firmly. “I have no intention of killing Matthew. Do your dirty work yourself. I’ll have no part in it.”

He drifted a little closer, a scowl spreading across his face.

“Have you so easily forgotten who holds your life?”

He pulled the little stone from his pocket and held it aloft, glinting slightly in the dawn sunlight. Norah swallowed hard as she stared at it.

“I don’t care,” she said bravely. “Crush that stone if you like, but I won’t help you to kill Matthew.”

Edmondson sighed.

“I should have warned you to act quickly,” he said, sounding almost sad. “I see that he has filled your head with all kinds of twisted stories.”

Norah clenched her fists.

“You are the one with all the twisted stories,” she said. “Matthew is the one who’s trying to put things right.”

“I suppose he told you that he could break this spell, didn’t he?” Edmondson asked.

Norah’s gut churned a little. She said nothing, just watched him warily.

“Well, I have news for you,” Edmondson said. “This spell is unbreakable. But there’s more. You don’t know what Matthew is planning, but I do.”

“I know exactly what Matthew’s planning,” Norah retorted. “He’s told me everything.”

He hadn’t told her everything, though, had he?

“Matthew’s plan is to end time travel for good,” Edmondson continued. “But not just from now. He will stop it having ever existed. That means that I will never have traveled through time, and Matthew himself will never have been born. The whole world will be reset.”

Norah shook her head, confused.

“No. That isn’t what he’s doing.”

“Oh, I’ve intercepted enough of his messages to know,” Edmondson said casually. “Your sister, Sadie? She will never have met her dashing warlord.”

Norah swallowed hard. Sadie loved Ciaran like a part of her own soul.

“She’d be willing to make that sacrifice,” she told Edmondson. “If that’s what it takes to make this right.”

But could she do that to Sadie? Could she tear Sadie and Ciaran apart just to save Matthew?

“Oh, but there’s more,” Edmondson said with a crooked little smile. “All the other couples who’ve met through my time travel magic? Bethany and her royal husband, for example? They will lose each other as well. All of that love, lost. Does Matthew really have the right to take all that away, just to settle some petty score with me?”

“It’s not petty ,” Norah insisted.

Edmondson raised an eyebrow.

“So, he’s been able to give you a reason?” he asked. “A reason for why he kept me chained like a wild animal? For why he used black magic to drain my strength and make me weak?”

“Matthew wouldn’t do things like that,” Norah insisted, although she could feel herself losing control of the conversation.

“Wouldn’t he?” Edmondson asked, silky smooth. “So you’re convinced that he’s told you the truth? The whole truth?”

Norah opened her mouth, then closed it again, her throat tight with panic. A thousand words tangled behind her teeth, none of them right. Her heart pounded like a warning drum, each beat hammering against her ribs. She couldn't look Edmondson in the eye, but she couldn't look away either.

“I don’t like asking you to do this,” Edmondson said, coming even closer as his voice softened. “Matthew is my son, after all. I hoped for so long that we could resolve our differences. But he is determined to destroy everything for so many innocent people. A few drops of poison, Norah, and you can stop all of this. The future is in your hands.”

Norah nodded woodenly.

“This is about far more than your life,” Edmondson told her. “I understand that you want to save Matthew. I understand that you want to believe him. But the stakes are too high. You have to end this. Will you stop him, Norah? For all of us?”

Norah shivered, a tremor running through her down to the marrow. Her breath caught in her throat, the misty morning air suddenly tasting like ash. All those names Edmondson had spoken—Sadie, Ciaran, Bethany—spun through her mind like ghosts. She could see their faces, hear their laughter, feel the weight of their happiness—and know, in that same breath, that it might all vanish. Not just their lives, but the memories of those lives. Wiped away as if none of it had ever happened.

She pressed a hand to her chest, as though that might still the violent pounding of her heart. Her stomach turned as the horror of it settled in: she would have to choose. Not between good and evil, but between the people she loved and a future that might never come. If she chose Matthew, everyone else would be lost. If she chose the others, she would have to destroy the only man who had ever made her feel safe, feel seen.

How could she say no?

The answer lodged itself in her throat like a splinter. Because she had to. Because too many lives depended on her. Because this choice wasn’t hers alone to make—but she was the only one who could make it.

And either way, she would lose Matthew forever.

“I’ll stop him,” she whispered, her voice and heart hollow. “But this is the last time, Edmondson. The very last time.”