Page 131 of Edge of Yesterday

“That dagger he wears is very strange,” Julianna said.

Cailean started. “What do ye mean?”

She locked gazes with him. “Do you remember Father Phillip’s words when he wrote about Lady Elizabeth’s arrival?”

Cailean nodded, heart beating fast.

“He mentioned Valdar Ross and the dagger he wore,” she went on. “Ye commented that you had seen a dagger like that. I didnae think of it at the time, but the dagger looks like the one Crowe carries. It is the same dagger he had that night. He said the dagger was his father’s. Surely his father couldnae be Valdar Ross?”

The woman was too damned smart.

“That is too odd, I dinnae like,” Lennox murmured.

“It is strange.” Julianna frowned. “But when I pricked my thumb on the blade, for an instant, I was…confused.”

Cailean’s attention snagged. Disoriented?

Lennox shook his head. “Ye were remembering that he used the blade in the ceremony that night and it simply made ye feel strange.”

“Nae,” she said slowly. She shifted her gaze to Lennox. “Ye remember what I told you happened with his staff?”

“That isnae possible, Julianna.”

“What happened?” Cailean demanded.

She hesitated. “When I first arrived, Crowe was holding a staff. It had a stone lashed to the top. The stone glowed.”

Cailean’s mouth thinned. “What color was the stone?”

She exchanged a look with Lennox. “Red. A ruby, I imagine.”

“Fuck.” He collapsed back against his chair.

“Ye know the staff,” Lennox said. It wasn’t a question.

How could he tell them it was a wizard’s staff? Well, that part Julianna already believed. But she wouldn’t be able to comprehend that it belonged to a man who lived six hundred years in the future. Bloody hell.

“I know the staff, aye,” he finally said. They stared, and he added, “I have…seen it.” He winced inwardly.

Lennox stared for a long moment. “Are ye saying Crowe can truly perform magic?”

Cailean frowned and Julianna said, “I saw him with the staff. Then, in the next instant, the staff disappeared from his grasp and he held the knife.”

“Sweet God,” Cailean muttered.

“Then ye are saying it’s true.” Lennox sounded stunned.

Cailean nodded slowly.

Lennox’s mouth thinned. “Ye are both mad.”

That was exactly how Cailean felt, for he now understood how Crowe intended to send Julianna through time…and how Val had sent him here.