Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels 5)
Page 54Kincaid couldn’t imagine taking each journey in time wondering if that was the one where he’d meet his bonded mate. Distraction might have killed him.
Giles thrust the book into Kincaid’s chest. He uncrossed his hands and took it.
“The last page is where I placed the note.”
“Okay.”
“Open it,” Giles told him.
Kincaid flipped to the last page and found it blank. He flipped a few pages more, found nothing written in Giles’s hand.
“Are you sure this is the book you used?”
“Positive.”
The room grew cooler. “What does this mean?” Kincaid tossed the book on the table and looked at the others gathered.
“Don’t you find it strange there is no mention of Amber coming to this time? Of her surviving?”
“There are hundreds of books here. I’m sure the information is somewhere.”
“Perhaps. Or there is some reason why her history…or future as it is, isn’t recorded for a purpose. Like my writing your bonding date on the page of that book, it is not meant to be recorded.”
“Why? Why keep that information only to us?”
“With that question in mind I found this book. There’s a passage in here I’ve never heard of. In fact, I don’t think any of us have heard of it.”
“Which is?”
Giles hesitated, and then said, “Grainna had a child.”
Kincaid blinked once. “Go on.”
“She bore one child, a product of a ritual that gave her the immortality that kept her alive for centuries. She discarded the child shortly after birth.”
Giles offered a half smile. “This book tells of that child and the others that followed. They all bore one child. Man or woman, they abandoned the infant to others to raise. Some of these decedents knew of their power, but none knew where it originated. Their family tree had missing limbs and no clear path back to identify who their family was.”
Kincaid huffed out a laugh. “There are many of us who share similar stories.”
Giles caught Kincaid’s eyes and stared. “Yes. But those who are most powerful know their kin.”
“I’m powerful and have no knowledge of the mother who gave it to me. Or any of her family.”
“I know.” Giles stared directly at him and didn’t let his gaze stray.
A chill, so powerful it shook Kincaid’s entire body, rolled over him. “You don’t think… No! I’m not.”
Giles pushed another book across the table. “Read this.”
Kincaid clenched his fist to keep it from shaking. With his back rod-straight, he pulled to look closer and read the passage.
Only when the powerful one bonds and complete their union with one of equal gift, will the cycle be broken…and then the gifts of the forefathers and mothers will come together. This bond will come from two opposing families…enemies.
A crossroad will follow where the path of good or evil will be chosen. Power, in this time, will mean everything, and the path of right will have been nearly forgotten.
From this day forward, the path will not be recorded to protect and preserve the future.
The passage was an omen. That was obvious.
“This could be anyone.”
“It could be the two of you.”
“I’m not a descendent of Grainna.”
“Are you sure?”
No. “Of course.”
“I assure you, I can bleed.” Yet when was the last time he had?
“Explain why when I do this…” Giles placed his pen to the book and wrote Amber’s name in the margin. As he wrote, the words swiftly disappeared before their eyes. “It won’t keep.”
“I don’t know.”
“From this day forward, the path will not be recorded to protect and preserve the future. I have written other passages, that of Helen and Simon, those have all preserved. But not one word of you and Amber. Not one, Kincaid.”
“There must be some protection her family put upon her.”
Giles shook his head. “Or this passage is speaking of the two of you.”
Kincaid slammed the book closed and the fireplace behind him sprang to life. “It isn’t me. I am not the son of Grainna!”
Behind him, he heard a gasp and felt the presence of his wife before he turned around.
She’d gone sheet-white as she stumbled backward toward the door. “God’s teeth.”
“Amber?” He moved toward her and she flinched and backed farther away.
You’re her family?
“No.”
The words in his head dried up as she successfully shut him out.
He took another step in her direction, and she pushed the shield up between them. “Don’t.”
Before he could say one word, she fled the room.
“Wait,” Giles called him.
Kincaid twisted toward his friend. “Quickly, Giles.”
The sound of Amber fleeing couldn’t be ignored.
Giles backed away, clearly uncomfortable. “Never mind.”
“I’m not a son of Grainna!”
“I hope you’re right.”
He pursued his wife up the stairs and found her door closed and locked. “Amber?” How had she shut him out so completely? He barely felt her. He lowered his voice in an attempt to coax her out. “Giles doesn’t know anything for certain. We can figure this out.”
He waited.
Nothing.
“Amber?”
Amber?
He swallowed a wave of nausea and pushed his shoulder into the door, forcing it open. The room was empty. In the middle of the room stood a circle of candles still flickering.
Amber was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Three
One moment Selma was drinking coffee on the back porch of her temporary home and the next the cup fell from her hand, hitting the wood and spilling the dark brew everywhere. The charm around her neck grew cold and spread over her body. The image of the twins swam in her head, their tiny voices screamed with fright. “Kelsey, Sophie,” she murmured. “Oh, God.”
She jumped from her chair and ran in the back door. “Simon? Helen?” Where are my keys? My purse? Something was wrong. She tore up the stairs, colliding with Kincaid as he moved franticly in the opposite direction.
“Where’s Amber?”
The question got stuck in a loop in Selma’s brain. “What? I don’t… something’s wrong with the girls. We have to get to them.”