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“Ari.” He came to a halt, forcing her to stop alongside him. “We’re on the edge of the twenty-first century. He’ll be in school and locked to his mobile phone and computer the rest of the time. That technology is in its infancy right now, but it’s growing fast.”
“Ye think?” She rolled her eyes. “Betwixt ye and me, he’ll have magic to burn.” She narrowed her eyes, thinking. “I have the easier job, since he’ll still be a biddable toddler when I give him over to you. I doona envy you. He’ll not be easy to raise.”
A soft light kindled deep in his eyes. “Whatever he is, he’ll be ours, and I’ll love him and do the best I can by him. Even if it means telling Arawn and them no a time or two.”
“What will ye tell them about the boy? They’ll not believe a child simply dropped out of the sky and into your lap, and we doona want them looking closely enough to figure out ’tis mine as well.”
“If my plan works, that will sort itself out. Shall we try to return to our own time?”
“Let me summon the shaft. Mayhap ’twill be more kindly disposed if I call it.”
Her words weren’t exactly prophetic. The time tunnel didn’t jump to her command for a good half hour, and then it was sluggish to open once it became visible. Arianrhod swallowed irritation, stowing it well beneath the surface. The living entity that infused the time shaft with its power was extraordinarily sensitive to negative emotions.
“Mayhap if I chant ‘Om’ a time or two, ’twill be happier,” she murmured.
“That’s the idea.” He took her elbow and guided her through the portal. “Radiate peace, tranquility, and a can do attitude.”
She laughed, and the walls took on a delighted glow before the doorway shrank into nothingness, and they began to move.
“What’s so funny?” He still held onto her arm.
“Hearing modern speech—from any of us. We’ll need to pay attention to the nodes since we’re not going far. Won’t take but a few minutes.”
She focused on the nodes, which counted off twenty year bites. Time travel was far from exact, but she’d gotten better at extrapolating the spaces between nodes. She timed the incantation to release them from the shaft, and it thudded to a halt before an opening formed.
“Not the most elegant transition,” she said, “but we’re here.”
He followed her into the gray light of dawn and inhaled deeply. The metallic scents of modern life and pollution reinforced that they’d come out in the right place. “Thank you for sweet-talking the mechanism into accepting us. If it had just been me, I suspect I’d have had a harder time.”
She swung to face him. “Show me what you have in mind. Quickly, afore anyone figures out we’ve returned.”
He nodded and wove a hand around her waist. After a short time, she concluded they were headed for the sea off the tip of Northern Ireland. Something he’d said rattled about in her mind and she asked, “Does this involve the Selkies?”
He cast an approving smile her way. “Aye. You’re a canny one.”
“Not so much. Ye mentioned them to me, and we’re about to walk right into the sea.”
“Have you ever spent time with them?” She shook her head, and he continued. “They’re an ancient race with memories that stretch in all directions. We could’ve found them in the last time period where we were, and they would’ve remembered me, but I thought it best to approach the pod from the time where we’ll be living.”
Arianrhod closed her teeth over her lower lip, thinking. “Won’t the Selkie who sings to you when you make love with her be jealous?”
“Nay. They don’t see things like that. They form couples, trios, quads, and more. Their couplings are fluid, and children are raised by the community. Not that they have many, which is why they’ll welcome our son.”
She stopped walking, absorbing the idea, running its ramifications through her mind. “Ye’re suggesting I live with the Selkies until our son is weaned.”
He smiled, and his teeth shone very white against his wind-burned skin. “Aye. It would make it possible for me to visit you, and it would also give me a credible explanation for how our boy came to be. Selkies occasionally give birth to half-human children.”
“I like it. It could work.”
“So long as the Celts don’t look too closely.” He took a measured breath. “You can think about this next part, but if you remain determined to hide your role in this from your kin, we’ll have to alter our child’s memories so they’re vague where you’re concerned.”
Outrage laced with maternal protectiveness surged, but she shoved it aside. How could she chide him for speaking the truth? She forced a careful neutrality into her next words. “We doona have to make that choice just yet.”
“Nay, we don’t. Let’s see what the Selkies think and if they’ll help.” Angus’s eyes glittered like exotic gemstones. “At least I’d be able to see you until I have the boy to care for full time.”
“Jonathan,” she said.
“Huh?” He cocked his head to one side.
