Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels 5)

After propping the door open, she and Jake made their way down the stairs in silence. They hadn’t had time to really talk once the police arrived and the investigation began. She’d kept it together during the entire ordeal—a show of strength for the girls in an effort to alleviate their pain. The adrenaline that fueled her hours before now short-circuited in her veins and made her dizzy enough to sway on her feet.

“Hey?” Jake caught her elbow and steadied her.

She started to shake. First the tremor in her hand moved up her arm and then waved over her body and down her legs. “I thought I was too late.”

“Shh! You weren’t.” He pulled her into the safe warmth of his arms. “They’re upstairs, alive.”

Selma buried her face in his shoulder and released the sob that had been lodged in her throat for hours.

Jake held her, just held her as she cried on his shoulder. The man could have lost his kids and yet he was comforting her. It was her fault. Whoever was after her managed to touch the girls. “You should take the girls. Go far away from me.”

“Shh!”

She pushed away and met Jake’s eyes. “I-I mean it. The crazy after me is probably behind this.”

“We don’t know that.”

“But it could be.”

Jake’s jaw bulged. “I’ve been a cop for a long time. It could be anyone from my past too. Where would you suggest I go to escape it?”

She hadn’t thought of that. “But if it’s because of me—”

“Then we deal with it.”

She couldn’t look at him. His trusting eyes, his calm voice. How could he be so calm?

Jake lifted her chin with one finger. “You protected them, Selma. You and your cauldron crap.”

The snark in his voice made her hiccup and smile. “You don’t believe in my cauldron crap.”

“I don’t want to believe in it. Doesn’t mean I don’t. I’m all about facts, and I sure as hell can’t ignore any of you. Especially you.”

God, when had Jake become so human? He’d always been such an ass with everything Druid.

“We almost lost them,” she whispered.

“But we didn’t. And we won’t. Now…” He slid a thumb over her cheek to dry her tears. “Let’s find the others and figure out how to protect my girls in this house.”

“O-okay.”

****

Amber didn’t see a lot of Gavin over the next couple of days. On the day of the gathering meant to welcome Gavin into their family, she retreated with the women while her father took Gavin and her brothers outside the Keep for a more private talk.

The sun sank low on the horizon, and she smelled the cooking fires and the rich aroma of roasted meats and fresh bread coming from the kitchens below. They would have a feast in honor of her and Gavin’s joining.

“The longer you stay the harder it will be for you to leave,” Tara said from where she sat next to her sister. Myra and Lora were perched in chairs across from each other, and Amber stood by a window staring at the land surrounding her childhood home.

“I know. Gavin reminds me we can visit, but I can’t help but wonder if doing so would alter the future.”

“Your father worried of that when we first sent Duncan and Finlay to the future. The responsibility of traveling in time isn’t something we can ignore. It seems Gavin understands that better than even we do.”

Myra stood and started to pace. Her overburdened belly filled with a new life led the way. “I wonder how Gavin and those in his clan police others. Certainly, tragedy must occur in the lives of those who time travel. The desire to alter the outcome would be difficult to overcome.”

“I’ve thought about that,” Lizzy said. “What would any of us do if something awful happened? Would we be tempted to go back and change the results?”

“We have to believe there are reasons for our journeys in life. To alter them, no matter how painful, could prove more tragic.”

“Isn’t that what Gavin does all the time. Changes the course of time?” Myra asked.

“Not entirely,” Amber said. “There are gifted Druids who guide the travelers to where their premonitions tell them to go.”

“The Ancients must be guiding them.” Myra rubbed her back as she talked.

“As they did us,” Lora said.

“Still, there have to be rogue warriors. Those who desire personal gain, love and power.”

“There are, Lizzy. According to Gavin, men and women throughout time have simply disappeared. Some band together, others stay apart from their own. Many want to be the next Grainna. They collect power, as she did, and fight against Gavin and his men.”

“For not knowing Gavin for very long, you certainly understand his cause.”

Amber smiled. “Before we bonded the only thoughts in my head were his and mine. The peace of only him being in here,” she tapped her head, “was a blessing. Escaping the pain wasn’t something I ever imagined happening in my life.”

“Is that why you bonded with him?”

“Nay, Myra. I bonded with him because he saved my life… twice. I couldn’t let him die.” Just the thought of him laying there lifeless, or nearly so, chilled her core.

“How did he save your life twice?”

She wasn’t proud of her weak moments, but talking about her fears with the women in the room wasn’t something she would have the luxury of repeating often in her life. “I was dying. I felt my body weakening, my will to live with the world crushing in was simply too much to bear.” She turned away from her mother’s watering eyes and stared out the window. “In a moment of weakness I prepared myself to return here. I didn’t want to die without seeing all of you again.” She paused.

“What happened?”

“I collapsed before I could shift time. When I woke, Gavin was beside me holding my hand, and the world had gone silent. His gift surrounded us both and pushed everyone else out.”

“That’s one hell of a gift,” Lizzy said with a weak laugh.

“What happened when he let go?”

Amber’s eyes drifted to her mother briefly, then back to the green landscape. “He couldn’t, not without everything rushing back in. We learned that quite by accident. Giles searched feverishly for a cure, a way to use Gavin’s gift to seal everything out, or at least control it, but all we found was talk of bonding and marrying our gifts.”