Page 87 of Only a Breath Away

Emma said, “We’re almost to the point where we need to hire someone to do the cooking while Zach plans the meals…”

He grabbed his chest. “Are you trying to kill me, Em? You take that back.”

She laughed.

I said, “And Magnus and Lochinvar have just arrived and they are very, very hungry.”

“Are you?” asked Zach, “Need a midnight snack?”

Magnus said, “Och aye, if it can be ice cream. And we need tae put the Bridge away somewhere.”

Zach said, “I know just the place, there’s a board loose in the back of a cabinet above the fridge.”

Lochinvar pulled the Bridge from his messenger bag and passed it to Zach who said, “So this is the little fella that fixed the world? Wow. You’re amazing, little box. Good job. Now I’m hiding you in a dark dusty place.”

He walked into the kitchen and we could hear him dragging the step-stool across the floor. Then he called out. “I have vanilla with cookie chunks.”

Lochinvar’s eyes went wide. “There are cookies here as well?”

Archie said, “There are cookieseverywhere.”

Isla sat on Magnus’s lap, but her eyes were glazed over with sleepiness. I whispered, “Do you want to go to bed?”

She shook her head no, her face buried in the folds of his shirt.

Quentin said, “First question, did you feel anything when Lady Mairead used the Bridge? Because none of us felt anything.”

Magnus said, “I felt nothing, just instantly Kaitlyn was beside me.”

I said, “He was covered in blood, and we were in another king’s bed.”

Quentin said, “That is insane.”

Emma said, “What king?”

”John Balliol.”

She said, “Phew, yes, that’s what Wikipedia says. There is no mention of you at all, it was freaking me out, but I didn’t tell anyone, been keeping that secret since yesterday.”

She looked around at all our shocked faces. “Don’t be pissed, I just didn’t know what it meant. I sort of remembered Magnus was a king in the past, but now I couldn’t find a record of it. I wondered if it meant I misremembered, or worse, that something terrible had happened, but either way I waited until I had proof. Here’s proof.” She gestured to Magnus and me. “Magnus is no longer king in the past.”

Magnus exhaled, then looked at Fraoch and shook his head. “All that time and effort in vain, I gained the kingdom of Scotland and lost it in an instant.”

Fraoch shrugged, “We could win it again, we just hae tae go—”

Everyone said, “No!”

I said, “No regaining kingdoms and changing history, no leaping, or looping, or…nothing, we are going to be calm and chill.”

Lochinvar asked, “Queen Kaitlyn, what is chill?”

“That’s when we sit around and relax.”

His face screwed up in a grimace. “Sounds awful, will there be any cattle reiving? Might we go on a warrin’ party along the Viking coast?”

Magnus shook his head, “Nae tae cattle theft, nae tae Viking fights, nae arena battles or fights tae the death — we are on vacation.” Zach placed a bowl of ice cream and a bottle of chocolate syrup in front of him. He moaned happily, turned the bottle upside down, dripped chocolate all over the top, then started eating.

Lochinvar watched him, took the bottle, turned it upside down accidentally pouring chocolate everywhere, dripping down the side of the bowl, scowled because his looked different from Magnus’s, but took a spoonful up, ate it, and smiled. “I think I did it better King Magnus, ye ought tae try it with more of the sweetness.”

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