Page 22 of Promises to Keep

I scrambled up and raced down the street, through stopped traffic tae the far side of the road, where I turned in time tae watch the top three floors of the building crumble down. Fire billowed from the ground floor, the grounds behind the building were full of smoke and screams. I doubled over, out of breath.

Lochinvar raced up, put his hand on my shoulder, his breath coming in puffs. “Och nae, twas frightening!”

“Where is Lady Mairead now?” We scanned the crowds, the injured and the frightened, the cars surrounded by people, the police pushing everyone away. “Do ye see her?”

“Nae.”

Fraoch came racing around the side of the building. He was covered in smoke and ash, his face pitch dark, his eyes beady in the middle where he had wiped on his sleeve. “Och nae!”

“That’s what Lochie said.”

His breath comin’ in bursts, he asked, “What... are we... goin’... tae do?”

I shook my head. “We are outmatched and outplayed. We must reconvene and decide what tae do next.”

“Do ye think they jumped with Lady Mairead?”

“Aye, they hae her, we haena stopped anything.” I shook my head. “I was speakin’ tae her, but twas Lady Mairead from years ago, she is... I daena ken…she is loopin’ within her life. She was younger, she dinna ken as much about her history. This is a sad state of affairs.”

“How do we ken if we areevertalking tae the current Lady Mairead?”

“We daena ken.”

We stared up at the building as the rumbling continued, a wall from the top floor slidin’ down in a large billow of smoke. The crowd screamed, racing away, pushing past us, buffeting us.

Fraoch yelled over the ruckus, “What next?”

I watched the crowd. “We ought tae go tae Elmwood and see if she is taken there.”

We marched briskly down the street tae Elmwood, where I knocked and peered through the window, but the building was dark and lifeless as if nae one had been there for a long time.

We watched the house for a time, then headed tae Central Park, walking through the high grass, up the hill and intae the woods. We collected our things and jumped back tae present day.

CHAPTER 14 - KAITLYN

Iwent with Quentin to wait for Magnus at the park and it was a long wait, which is why, once the storm died down and I could get close enough, I lay down beside Magnus with my arm across his chest and waited for him to wake up.

He sputtered awake a few minutes later and his head rose to look down at me. “Och aye, ye are a fine sight, mo reul-iuil. I hae arrived in one piece?”

“Yes, you did.” I squeezed him in a hug. “But Fraoch looks like he was in a coal mine blast, and… you all smell like smoke and… I just needed to be close.”

Quentin said, "Did you have better luck, Boss?"

"Nae, I think we had worse."

I said, “Uh oh.”

He lugged himself up to sitting, plucked a piece of grass and tossed it away. “I tell ye, Colonel Quentin, twas nae easy—

Lochinvar groaned and threw his arm over his eyes. “Naething about it was easy.”

Fraoch hefted himself up. “I question whether the way of the Moderns is the right way tae do anythin’ at all.”

I frowned. “It was that bad? But we had all the intel. You knew the layout and the timing, I mean, you didn’t get Lady Mairead, I see that, but even worse than that?”

Magnus said, “Aye, we dinna get Lady Mairead, and the museum building is gone. All the art is…”

Fraoch made a pthhhhtp noise.

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