Page 36 of Time of the Druid (Stones of Scotland #7)

Chapter 36

M atthew still couldn’t quite believe what had happened. His limbs felt heavy, as though the weight of everything they had been through still clung to him. The air in the forest was cool and damp, smelling of moss and wet bark, and each step seemed to sink just slightly into the leaf-littered ground. Surely this was all a dream, and any moment now he would wake up to find himself still on Bedwyn’s crannog—or, even worse, still in the druid nemeton, with Norah nowhere to be found.

But when he glanced to the side, there she was. Norah walked quietly beside him, her arm occasionally brushing against his, her eyes scanning the trees as they picked their way through the forest. Her presence felt like an anchor, warm and real amidst the swirling fog of disbelief. Matthew tried to focus on the path, but the shock and confusion had done something strange to his sense of direction. Everything looked unfamiliar. Trees blurred together, and the muffled rustle of birds in the canopy above sounded distant and dreamlike. Still, he kept walking, telling himself that if Norah was here, everything else could be figured out.

“Can we really do this?” he asked Norah.

She paused and turned to look at him. He realised with a jolt that he had no idea where they were. He didn’t recognise this part of the forest at all .

“Can we really do what?” she asked.

He took her hand and wandered a few steps further forward. They were at the edge of the forest, sure enough, but this was not the lakeshore. He’d somehow brought them out on the edge of a rocky cliff, the ground plunging away before them to reveal a stunning view of the hills and lakes that stretched out into the distance.

“Can we really build a new life together?” he asked, staring out at the Scotland that spread out before him. “I’ve spent so long looking to the past that I can’t even imagine what the future might hold.”

“We can do it,” Norah assured him, a smile in her voice. She stood close beside him and slipped her arm around his waist. “It’s going to be strange for me too. For so long my life has been in someone else’s hands. I know we can do it, though. Together.”

Matthew pulled her closer against him, leaning down to bury his face in her fiery curls. Her hair was soft and fragrant with the scent of crushed pine needles and wind-swept wildflowers, and for a moment he simply breathed her in. The heat of her body against his felt grounding, like sunlight through the storm. How could this be real? Norah in his arms, her warmth seeping into him, his father's shadow finally banished, and a bright, uncharted future unfolding like the golden light spilling across the hills before them. Just a few days ago—just a few hours ago—he couldn’t even have imagined this kind of peace, this kind of love.

“I love you, Norah,” he said.

And then, because his voice was muffled by her hair, and he needed her to hear this, he lifted his head.

“I love you, Norah!” he shouted into the sky, his head flung back and the wind whipping his words away.

Norah laughed, clinging to him even more tightly.

“I love you too, Matthew!” she shouted, then the two of them collapsed in hysterical laughter. Matthew couldn’t remember laughing so hard ever before in his life, not even when he was a little boy. He felt like a terrible weight had been lifted from his shoulders—the weight of time itself. At long last, he could smile.

“I’m so sorry about everything, Norah,” he said. “I thought my death was the only way to stop my father—the only way to find enough power to destroy the stones. I should have seen that love was the true answer.”

Norah buried her head in his chest, stroking her hands up and down his back.

“You did what you thought best,” she said. “And you reached the right answer in the end, even if it did take you a while.”

He laughed shakily. He had, hadn’t he? After all that struggle, all that pain, he’d finally found the answer, and she stood there in his arms.

“Then can you forgive me?” he asked. “For lying to you?”

Norah stretched up on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Of course I can,” she said softly, and Matthew felt just that little bit lighter.

“What do we do next?” he asked.

Norah considered that in silence for a while, staring out over the lakes and fields, dappled with cloud shadow and soft sunlight.

“I don’t know,” she said at last. “But I think it’s time to leave. This time period isn’t home for either of us.”

Matthew nodded. She was right about that. Despite the months he'd endured in the druid nemeton—its dim clearings echoing with ancient rituals, the constant smell of damp earth and incense, the cold earth floors beneath his feet—it had never truly felt like home. There was no warmth in that place, no comfort. It had been a prison of tradition and expectation, where even the light felt old. Now, with Norah beside him and the open air brushing against his skin, he realised just how much he had longed to leave it behind. The thought of never seeing it again filled him not with regret, but with overwhelming relief.

“Let’s find Jack,” he said. “And then I can take you away from here.”