Page 97 of An Enchanted Spring

Emma raised an eyebrow. “This has to be the most insane day of my life.” She looked at the girls, who were furiously cutting long swaths of gold fabric, and Sinead, who was using a knife to outline a pattern in a large sheet of parchment.

Bri laughed. “I bet it is.”

“Do I have a choice?” Emma asked in a small voice.

“You’ll always have a choice. But there are consequences to each choice, and the one that’s most likely to ensure your safety is to marry Aidan.”

“Damn it.”

“I’ll take that as consent. Let’s get you ready for a wedding.”

Aidan stoodnext to the desk in Nioclas’s solar, his arms folded as he stared down Reilly. “When you leave, will you have the ability to take Emma back with you?”

“Are you giving up on her?” Reilly asked in surprise. He tossed a dirk into the air and caught it, then repeated the action. “That’s unlike you.”

“She needs to understand her options.”

Reilly caught the dirk again and scratched his cheek with it thoughtfully. “I wonder why you care so much. You didn’t give her many to choose from.”

Aidan wanted to smack Reilly’s forehead into the nearest hard surface. “I care because she will be my wife. But if she’s not willing to stay here, I need her to understand that she can return.”

Reilly shook his head in pity. “You poor sap. Of course she can come back with me. In fact, I believe she has to return with me.”

“What?” Nioclas broke in.

Aidan felt his chest constrict. “I thought you said you weren’t sure?”

“Once I take care of my business here, I’ve been given orders to return to the future. With Emma.”

“Only Emma?” Nick asked.

Reilly kept a steady gaze on Aidan. “My directive included only one.”

Aidan saw the seriousness in Reilly’s eyes, and he felt as though he’d been punched in the gut.

“So what you’re saying is that Aidan has to choose between Emma and his family?” Nioclas demanded.

“I’m not saying that at all. In fact, I don’t think the choice will be up to him,” Reilly conceded.

“So I’m supposed to stay here,” Aidan concluded, a hollow feeling spreading through his chest. “Alone.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve been working toward for the better part of the last decade?” Reilly prodded.

Aidan didn’t respond, the enormity of it slamming into him. He blindly groped for the edge of the table.

“When do you take her?”

Reilly sighed. “When ’tis time, I’ll know. But I’m nearly done with my task here.”

“What is that, exactly?” Nioclas asked.

He shook his head. “It needs not your input as I first thought it might, MacWilliam, so you need know nothing.”

“Fate isn’t always what we think it is,” Reilly said, sheathing the dirk in his boot. “I’ll leave the two of you to settle the marriage contract.”

Aidan sat down heavily, his mind reeling. Fate had handed him his soul mate, only to rip her away?

He didn’t want to believe it.

---