Page 44 of Only a Breath Away

“Okay, the sweet talk made me feel better. I wonder where James is?”

“I daena ken, he has disappeared, it is worrisome.”

We drove in silence down a two lane highway. Then we pulled off on an exit for the small college town of Orono.

I said, “Joe Munro has a dog, what are we going to do about—”

“The dog is a sweetheart, I will tell him tae wheesht. I brought him a treat.”

“Okay, but no one dies, right? Especially not me or you or the dog.”

“Nae one dies, we will just purloin the chest off his desk. He probably haena even moved it since we were there. Twill be easy.”

“Sure, but also, what are we doing?”

“We are parking the Jeep in a hidden spot and then hiking intae their yard, this will be easy as well. Then we will shimmy open the window and crawl through. I will go in and pass the chest out tae ye.”

“What happens if we get caught?”

“If I get caught ye run. Ye hide it in the woods. We need it, nae matter what comes.”

I parked the Jeep, we pulled on our gloves and hats though it was a little too warm. I strapped a headlamp to my forehead to light our way from the Jeep through the woods. The map on my phone led us right to the back of their property.

There was a wire deer fence. Fraoch clipped the wires, peeled them away, and we climbed through. We watched the house for a moment.

Fraoch said, “The light is still on.”

I said, “We have to sit here and wait — whatcha want to talk about?”

He said, “Remember when we went tae find the vessel that was triggering the storms and we had tae sit and wait under the tree?”

“I do, how fun was that? I miss those simple issues, a vessel here and there, missing — the occasional bad guy.”

“We hae had tae fight a great many murderous, maniacal evil men, and sometimes we hae had tae do it at great personal risk. What are ye talking on?”

“I don’t know, maybe I miss the clothes.”

He chuckled. “Ye miss the Frayley adventure.”

“Did you just call us Frayley?”

“Aye, Beaty said it the other day, tis tae smash our names taegether.”

“Oh my god, you are adorable.”

“I am glad ye think so.”

I sighed. “What if we can’t get the Bridge? What if it’s not the right thing? What if none of this helps? What if Katie never comes home? Last time this happened Isawher disappear, I was able to go into rescue mode. I took care of the kids, focused on her — but now it’s too vague. She isn’t gone but just slipped away somewhere. It’s terrifying to think of getting lost in time, but maybe worse yet, to slip from time into somewhere else when we can’t get to her.”

He kissed the top of my head. “We will get tae her. This box with the Bridge inside is the key, I can feel it. Lady Mairead said there was another one of those, she has seen it. She is sure it is capable of doing what we need. Else why did Donnan give it intae safe keeping?”

The main light in the house turned out.

“This is safe keeping?”

“Nae, twas only safe before we kent it was here, now tis verra unsafe, we are about tae steal it.”

We waited longer until every last light in the house went out, then we waited longer still.

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