Silent Vows

Amber walked over, linked their fingers together. “All is going to be fine.”

Myra smiled at her sister. “I know.”

Amber gave her a knowing smile.

The four sisters held hands for a brief moment and chanted a rhyme. They asked the Ancients for the knowledge of the others’ safety.

With final goodbyes said, Myra stood back and watched them go.

When the stones hummed and lit the ring, the vortex swallowed the travelers whole. Myra couldn’t help but feel disappointed that the Ancients willed Lizzy and her son to return.

“I’m going to miss her,” Tara sobbed in Duncan’s arms.

“We all will,” Lora stated.

Myra caught Amber out of the corner of her eye and found her behavior odd. Amber picked up a cat at her feet, smiled and walked back to where the horses stood waiting to take the family back to the Keep.

Chapter Thirteen

A constant pounding on Todd’s door woke him up. He jumped out of bed, pulled on his shorts and yelled at whomever it was to hold their damn horses.

The door hit the wall with a crash. All Todd saw before a fist connected with his jaw was the blurry face of a bearded man. The punch threw him back three feet, another punch hit his right eye and had him landing on the floor.

“Get up!” the man yelled in a Scottish accent.

Todd was on his feet in a split second with his hands in front of him, ready for the assault.

Liz rushed into the house at a full run. “What the hell are you doing?” Todd’s lip was split and bleeding, his eye already swelling. She placed herself between them and turned. “Stop it.”

“Get out of the way, lass. This doesn’t concern you.”

“The hell it doesn’t, Fin MacCoinnich. I brought you here, and I will not be a part of any fighting.”

“Then move aside.” Fin’s eyes never left Todd’s.

Todd looked at Myra’s brother, wanting nothing better than to give him a taste of his own blood. It’s a hell of a thing waking up with someone else’s fist in your mouth. He realized then that this was Fin’s twisted way of protecting his sister.

Todd wiped the blood with the back of his hand, looked at it then said, “Cheap shot, MacCoinnich.”

Fin straightened his spine, lowered his hands slightly. “The next one will be even.”

“What is wrong with you?” Liz pushed Fin’s chest, which didn’t move even an inch. “You said you wanted to thank him, not beat him up.”

“I lied.”

Todd snickered. Like sister like brother. He lowered his fists as the tension passed.

“I’d like some coffee before we go another round.” Todd walked beyond the two of them and into his kitchen.

Todd splashed water on his face and winced at the sting behind Fin’s punch.

Now what?

He started a pot of coffee, went back into the laundry room, and tossed on a t-shirt and jeans. By the time he ran a comb through his hair, he was able to fill a half a cup of coffee before Lizzy’s heated words rose over the percolating pot.

“Why don’t you just take your damn stones and go?” Good idea, he thought.

“I’ll go when I’m ready, love, and not a moment before.”

Todd wiped his hand across his mouth and moved back toward the room.

“Well you had just better get good and ready, because you’re not staying with me! And after this, I don’t think Todd’s going to want your company.”

“She has a point,” Todd said when he sauntered into the room.

Fin stood, only to be pulled back down by Liz.

“Knock it off.”

“We’re not done,” he spat out.

“We are for now. What did you plan on doing?

Drag me back to the sixteenth century to make an honest woman of Myra?”

Fin glared at him. “The thought did cross my mind.”

“Is that what Myra told you to do?”

“Nay, Myra only weeps day in and day out. She would never demand the hand of the man who ruined her.”

That stung. He lowered his stance. “What your sister and I shared was mutual, MacCoinnich, she knew what she was doing.”

“That is where you are wrong. She was too innocent to be sent here alone. Now she will spend her life paying for it. Unless she is forced to this time to pay for her mistake.”

Shouldn’t they have thought of that before sending Myra? “Didn’t your precious Ancients tell your family to send her here?”

“Aye. To keep her from Grainna.”

Todd sat his cup on the table and looked Fin straight in the eye. “Then it would be best you keep her away, because Grainna is back.”

It was one of the hardest days in Simon’s life. He wanted desperately to tell his best friend Tanner all about his trip. Of course, he couldn’t do that, or he might end up in some type of crazy house with a bunch of weirdoes.

Instead, he told him he went to Scotland and stayed in a sixteenth century castle, leaving out the part about it being in the sixteenth century.

Ohhh, and the part about starting a fire without a match ate at him, too. Again, the thought of some padded cell came to mind, and Simon kept his secrets to himself.

Mr. Price went on and on about the importance of Algebra and the need to study in order to get a good grade on the upcoming test. Simon rolled his eyes before shutting them.

He fingered the blade Cian had given to him, hidden in his jacket. That too could land him in some type of cell for bringing it to school. He touched it instead of showing it and tried to listen to his boring teacher.

His mind opened when he started to relax, and all at once, he heard the thoughts of his teacher.

Damn kids aren’t listening to a thing. They’re still on vacation. I might as well be talking to the moon.

Simon sat up and shook his head. As soon as the thoughts went in, they left. All he heard was the singsong voice of Price talking about solving for X.

Cian told him to expect a few surprises now that he was open to them. He didn’t say they would come so soon.

The bus let him off a block from his apartment.

He pulled out his key knowing his mom wasn’t going to be home for another hour. Only this year, she started leaving him home for that hour without a babysitter. Every time he let himself into their place, he felt a little more grown-up.

He put the key in the lock and turned the handle. To his surprise it didn’t click, indicating the door wasn’t locked. Maybe Mom left Fin here.

“Mom, Fin, I’m home.” He dumped his backpack on the couch.