Page 22 of Highlander Unraveled
I glanced at him, his face tight as he watched me.
“She is gone,” Ewan said, not asking, but knowing.
“Aye.” Admitting it was painful, as though I were realizing it all over again for the first time. “But she’ll be coming back. I’m going to make damn sure of it.”
Ewan nodded, his support a great comfort to me. Emma was his sister. The man would want her back almost as much as I did.
“Did ye see her?” he asked.
“Aye.” I raked my hand through my wet hair.
Ewan tugged my boat up further onto the shore. “The glen has magic. Shona and I went back to modern day when we were together by the stone.”
I knew this story. I’d heard it a dozen times. When the six of us, Emma, me, Ewan, Shona, Moira and Rory, were together, we often talked about time travel. I was the only one of the six who’d not yet traveled, or “journeyed” as Rory liked to say. I didn’t feel left out by that fact, quite the contrary. I was blessed to still be here. Or at least, that was what I’d always thought until now.
Och, what I wouldn’t give to scoop up Saor and blend in with the mist, walking out of it into the arms of Emma in whatever world she was in. I’d brave that mad modern realm, if I could only be with her.
“If there is one thing we’ve learned, my laird, ’tis that ye’ll see her again.”
I frowned. “But that could be years, and there is no guarantee.” Rory had been missing for nearly five years by the time he’d returned. Ewan had come to the Highlands as a boy, and not returned to modern times until just the past year, and only for a few short hours at that.
“I canna live without her,” I said. “I dinnawantto live without her.”
“I know how ye feel, Logan.” Ewan patted me awkwardly on my bare shoulder. “But we must remain positive, else, Fate will have won. Ye’ve a son to care for, a clan that depends on ye, and a country that has named ye its guardian. Fight on, Logan. Dinna give up.”
I stared up at the sky, willing it to open up, to strike me down with a lightning bolt. “Why did she bring this battle to me? I dinna think I am strong enough to withstand the pain.”
“I dinna know why she chose ye. But I do know ye are strong enough. Ye’ve faced far worse. I know it doesna seem that way to ye, but it’s true.”
I only glared at him. There was nothing worse than losing the love of my life.
“I think we’d best send for Rory and Moira,” Ewan said. “We need them.”
“Aye.” I agreed, though I couldn’t fathom what good it would do.
“’Haps, with all of us together, we can somehow bring her back.” Ewan shrugged, his face clouded.
“I will try anything.” We trudged up the slippery water gate stairs toward the outer bailey. Ewan told the guard at the top to secure the rowboat.
By now many had roused, and stared at me with faces full of concern.
The clan, my lands, Scotland—my son—were at a disadvantage. With my mind split between worry for Emma and duties to the clan, an enemy could sneak up behind me and I’d only notice maybe half the time.
I regarded those in the bailey, their eyes still filled with sleep. They looked at me as though waiting for answers I didn’t have to give. They didn’t know about time travel, and I couldn’t tell them without them all thinking I was mad. They would assume the enemy had taken Emma, and that we should be calling for war against whoever that enemy was.
And even though it felt that way, as though she’d been yanked right from my arms, she’d not been taken by an enemy with a face. Or one we knew by name. One we could bring our swords down upon to show our superior might.
How in holy hell was I going to explain it?
“Your mistress has gone missing,” I said, wincing at the gasps that went up through the people, the soft murmurs that moved in waves. “But we will do everything we can to find her.”
“Do ye know who took her?” one of the guards that had been at the bottom of the stairs asked.
I shook my head. The man was likely wracking his brain, trying to figure out how the enemy could have gotten past him.
I would have liked to ease his mind, to let him know he wasn’t going crazy, anymore than I was, but there was nothing I could say to ease those fears. Nothing that would make sense to him.
Ballocks!
