Page 105 of The Empire and the Wolf King

“Aye.”

Liam said tae Blakely, “I’m goin’ tae tell them, Woodshee.”

He turned to Finch, “But if anyone asks either of us, we dinna tell each other, we both already knew. Good?”

“Good.”

“They are time travelers. Is it what they told ye?”

“Aye, that’s what they told me, but I daena believe it, it canna be true. Yedidit?”

“That’s how we found out about it. Lady Mairead had a wee machine and it dragged Blakely and me through time. Bysurprise.”

My eyes went wide. “No way, that can’t possibly be true.”

Blakely said, “It hurts like hell and we ended up in a clearing in a forest in medieval Scotland.”

I shook my head. “That’s not… that cannot be true.” I glanced at Finch, his brow was drawn down and he was peeling the label off his beer.

Liam said, “We woke up and Fraoch was there, he was missing a tooth and looked about ten years older, we saw Magnus’s kids?—

Finch said, “Archie and Isla, they were young, how old would ye say, Ree-ro?”

“Archie was a little older than Arlo, Isla was younger. I don’t know their ages, exactly.”

“Archie was almost nineteen. They were all dressed in medieval clothes.”

I asked, “Were there medieval houses and a castle?”

“I dinna see anything but a clearing, a few horses and the people, do ye ken Zach? Tall guy with tats? He was there.”

Finch said, “Aye, the chef.Hewas in medieval times?”

“Aye, ridin’ a horse.”

“What ye are sayin’, Liam, is that ye just woke up in a forest — how did ye ken it was medieval times?”

Blakely said, “It’s hard to explain, it was dark, my sound was muffled. My heartbeat and breathing were too loud, but it justwas, it was true. Oh, and Isla and the other girl, what was her name?”

Liam said, “Zoe.”

Blakely said, “They’re young teens?—”

I said, “But we met them. They were like, I don’t know, four? How long ago was that, last year?”

Finch said, “Twas just before the tour.”

Blakely said, “Isla and Zoe were so excited by my used ChapStick. She hadn’t had anything like it ‘inyears.’ That’s a direct quote. They were talking about how long they had been without batteries. It sounded tragic.”

Liam said, “Archie used the time travel machine tae jump us tae this time, but left us in Florida. It took us two full days tae get back here.”

Blakely said, “I don’t really understand what he was about to do, he was going to go back and rescue them when they were younger.”

I scrunched up my face. “That’s a thing they can do?”

Liam and Blakely nodded.

Blakely said, “Apparently so. Apparently there’s been a big family crisis where their time travel vessels stopped working and by Liam and I delivering the machine we helped rescue them all.”

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