Page 68 of Only a Breath Away

We all remained quiet.

I said, finally, “We don’t know what to look up, there’s nothing, no way to prove if it worked or not.”

Zach scratched his head. “How long have we been sitting here? Do you know?” He tipped one of the bowls to look inside, they were all empty except for some crumbs.

He narrowed his eyes. “I’m hungry though, are you?”

We kind of vaguely nodded.

Sophie said, “I am famished, I haena eaten since lunch at Kilchurn, right afore the battle.”

“Whoa, Sophie, that was months ago, time-travel speaking. Let me organize dinner. That there’s an emergency.” Zach left the porch for the kitchen.

Emma typed some things into the keyboard and read. “Nothing. No mention of Magnus, that’s what it was, right, we were looking for Magnus?”

We all nodded and finally she closed the laptop. “Why are we in Maine?”

Quentin said, “I feel like we’re missing part of the story here, and that worries me.” He stood. “I’m going to arm up, and take a guard shift.”

James said, “You’ve got a gun in a shoulder holster.”

Quentin looked down. “Oh right, good.”

James said, “What are we worried about?”

“I have no idea. But I better be ready.”

CHAPTER 54 - KAITLYN

Magnus’s eyes fluttered open.

“Magnus, oh my god, is that really you?”

I touched his face. “You’re right here, oh thank god!!” I leaned forward and kissed him, I kissed him hard and he kissed me back. “You are right here, I can’t believe it, wait…”

It was wet under us. I pulled away to see blood,everywhere.

I shoved him on his side, he moaned and I found the blood coming from a cut on his shoulder. He had his shirt wadded up beside him. I pushed him over on his other side, jumped on him, side-straddled his waist, and used the shirt to put down-pressure on his shoulder. There was a lot of freaking blood, but I tried to swallow down my panic.

“What happened?”

He croaked out, “William Wallace.”

“WilliamWallace,that asshole cut you? I knew I didn’t like him.”

He chuckled.

I said, “Thank god, please laugh, please make it through this, pleaseplease.” I kept the pressure going, but blood had soaked through the cloth. I pulled up my skirts, wadded up the hem with one hand and pressed the wad down on top of the soaked-red cloth.

I kept pressing like I had learned in all my first-aid training way back when. I knew it was going to be a while, like ten minutes or fifteen — “Do you have a clock?”

He turned his hand over, he was clutching one of Lady Mairead’s pocket-watches. His eyes closed, wincing with pain, he asked, “What time is it?”

I squinted at the timepiece. “It’s three minutes after the hour.”

“Och, she activated the Bridge on the hour. It only took a moment, did ye feel anythin’?”

“Nothing, what’s the Bridge?”

---