Chapter 12
Taking those first few steps was one of the hardest things Maddy had ever done and it wasn’t because of the freezing water making her feet go numb. It was because walking away from Deryn felt like she was being torn in two.
She focused on the arch up ahead as she made her way carefully along the stream. She propped Rory on her hip, using her free arm for balance as the streambed was rocky and the last thing she wanted to do was go tumbling into this water. They’d likely get frostbite.
She fixed her eyes on the dark space beneath the arch. Through there was home. In just a few short strides, she and her son would be back where everything made sense and where they could start putting their lives back together. She ought to feel excited. She ought to feel relieved. But all she felt was sick to the stomach.
This is for the best,she told herself.For you. For Rory. For Deryn. You’ve wanted to go home ever since you ended up here.
So why could she feel Deryn’s presence pulling at her like a magnet?
She knew if she turned to look at him she would be lost, so she walked resolutely forward, ignoring Rory’s chatter about fairies and wishes.
Then suddenly she was standing at the lip of the arch. The bridge above was not wide, and the tunnel beneath would onlytake a few paces to traverse. She could see the stream continuing on the other side and the landscape of the Highlands stretching out beyond.
Click your heels together three times, she thought.There’s no place like home.
Before she could lose her nerve, she stepped through the arch—
—and emerged on the other side still in the stream, still in the wilds, still in the fifteenth century. There was no park, no road, no school, no town skyline.
This couldn’t be right. She’d done something wrong, obviously. She walked back through, expecting it to change this time, but she only emerged on the other side again, right where she’d started.
“What’s wrong?” Deryn shouted.
“It’s not working!”
He edged along the bank until he was standing right above her, close to the sheer drop where he’d pulled her out the first time they met.
“Try it again.”
She walked through. Still nothing.
“See? Do you have to say some magic words or something? ‘Open sesame’ or ‘abracadabra’?”
“Nay, lass. If this is where Irene brought ye through, then it should take ye home again. Unless—” He stopped abruptly.
“Unless what?”
