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“So would you have stayed with her if not for Seoc? That’s what everyone had assumed you’d do. Coming back for Seoc was very noble of you, of course.”

Raghnall let his head hang between his shoulders. “Nae, I dinna think I would have stayed.”

“What? Why?”

Truth was, he’d been terrified of Bryanna’s sickness and of losing her. But days spent here, without her, were dark and joyless. If there was a hell, it was on this side of the rock.

“I do wish I’d stayed now, though. I understand Seoc’s wish, and I know there wilna be better parents for him than Catrìona and James. But now that I have fulfilled my promise to his dying ma…there’s nothing for me here.”

David nodded and threw another pebble into the hand. It bounced slightly but stayed inside the print.

“A man needs a purpose. And I dinna have one, nae without Bryanna. I…” Raghnall wasn’t usually someone to share his feelings, but that was what Bryanna had done to him. She’d healed him. He felt his heart patched back up, whole and full of love. And he liked David, always had. The fact that he also had been in the future united them. “I love her. If I had a chance to go back to her, I’d go. I’m ready. And even though the possibility of losing her still makes me want to cut my heart out, I want to risk it even for one more day with her.”

David nodded thoughtfully and picked up another small stone. “I’m sorry to hear it, man. It sucks that you want to go but can’t.” He stretched his hands to the sides and gave a sarcastic chuckle. “Again, welcome to the club. Look at the two of us. We desperately want to travel in time, but we can’t.” Suddenly, he froze. “You know what we should do?”

“What?”

“I bet you someone out there knows something. We can’t be the only ones who know about these rocks and about Sìneag and about time travel. If you and I unite and go out there and search the whole of Scotland, we’ll find some information. Maybe we’ll find a way to travel in time. What do you say?”

Raghnall stood up. “Did I go mad, or does it sound like a good thought…?”

He liked the idea of a friend, another warrior with the same goal to travel the country and try to find a way back to the twenty-first century.

“It gives me a purpose,” Raghnall whispered. “And hope.”

David clapped his shoulder. “Yes! Me, too. Come on, when do we leave?”

“Today,” Raghnall said. “I’ll ask Angus to lend me a sword.”

David pumped his fist in the air. “Yes! All right, I’m going to talk to Rogene. She won’t like it, but she’ll have to deal with it…” He left the room, chatting more to himself than to Raghnall. “Go ask Angus for your sword…” As the door swooshed closed behind David, Raghnall smelled something…lavender and freshly cut grass. He didn’t know why he’d lingered and not gone after David right away.

But now he was glad that he had.

Because as the door closed, a woman in a green cloak appeared from behind it, and Sìneag’s bright, button-nosed face beamed at him.

“Hello, Raghnall,” she said cheerfully. Raghnall opened his mouth to call David, but she interrupted. “Nae, dinna call David, please. I came for ye.”

An explosive combination of dread and joy washed through him. This meant something—but was it something very good or very bad?

“Did ye come to tell me to stop throwing stones into the hand?” he asked.

She approached him soundlessly. “Nae. I heard ye talk with David. I’ve seen yer heart. I ken ye want to be with her and ye’re ready.”

Raghnall swallowed a painful knot in his throat. His fingers and his feet were suddenly cold. “I am. But we’ve used our three passes, aye?”

Sìneag took a deep breath. “Aye.”

Silence filled the space, hanging between them like a boulder about to fall.

“So why are ye here, faerie?”

Her eyes watered as he said that, but she gave him a sad smile. She walked slowly to the rock and sat on it, right by the carving. It started to glow, and Raghnall blinked, not sure if he was seeing it right.

“Ye remind me of someone,” she said and gently stroked the curve of the river carved on the stone. “The human that created this rock called me that.” A tear rolled down her cheek as she met Raghnall’s eyes again. “I am an impossibility, Raghnall. A faerie that loves a human. I ken what ’tis to never have that happiness. I ken what ye’re feeling.”

Raghnall came a step closer. “Ye do?”

She stroked the carving with her hand again, as though she stroked a dear one’s face. “So I’ll break the rules for ye and give ye another pass.”