RAEN HAD TO rise several hours before dawn to see to the laird’s duties as well as his own. He didn’t mind the extra work. Dun Aran was an efficient household, and their well-trained mortal retainers labored diligently. None of the clan woke until sunrise, which was why it surprised him to see Seoc Talorc staggering across the great hall.

“Seoc, are you waking, or off to sleep?” Raen joked, and then saw the blood streaking the stable master’s face and grabbed him. The other man had a nasty gash across his pate and a broken nose, and when he eased him down onto a bench he swayed as if ready to topple. “Seoc, who beat you?”

“I would have given him the coin. He dinnae have to steal it.” He peered at Raen. “Why would my cousin run off with a mortal wench? He doesnae even like them. That and I thought Neac said she was a traitor…och, my head.”

Raen called for a night sentry to see to the injured man, and then grabbed a hammer and headed for the dungeon. Last night the Uthar chieftain had told him only that Evander had brought a mortal to the stronghold for questioning. If he’d known it was a woman, Raen would never have left the seneschal alone with her. But before he reached the stronghold he saw a dark-haired woman at the loch. Evander stood waiting in the water for her. He heaved the hammer, sending it sailing through the air between them. As it plunged into the water, both Evander and the woman recoiled from it. In those few moments, Raen surged forward to come between her and the seneschal.

“Stop there, Mistress. Evander, come out and explain yourself.”

“Fiona,” Evander called. “Dinnae move.”

“Stand aside, McDonnel,” the plump woman said and drew a dagger of Roman design. “We’re going away now. We’ll no’ trouble anyone again.”

Raen disarmed her with one blow that sent her sprawling. As he plucked her from the ground, he turned to look at Evander.

“Are you mad to be–”

The spear that rammed through his throat cut off his voice, and drove him to his knees.

Evander rushed up to seize the woman, but paused and grimaced down at Raen.

“Why did you move? I was aiming for your shoulder.” He reached for the spear, but then let his hand fall away. Instead he picked up the woman and carried her into the loch.

Raen grasped the shaft protruding from his neck, and tried to tug it out. Warm wetness poured down his chest as he fell over onto his side, as Evander and Fiona disappeared under the water. He tried to take a breath, only to choke on his own blood. He tried again, inhaling only a little, and was able to get some air in his chest.

Raen panted around the spear as the darkness lightened, and the sun rose over the water. If he was to live, he had to save himself. Painfully he crawled toward the loch, until the end of the spear collided with a stone. With the last of his strength he gripped the shaft again, but when he pulled on it something inside his neck snapped.

It was then he knew he would never see Evander or his woman again. Because as all feeling left his body from the chin down, he knew he would be dead.

* * *

As they left the stables, Lachlan tugged Kinley to his side. “You like sleeping in the hay.”

“I like that bed,” she said as they walked down to the loch. “We should have Seoc make a new mattress for your tower chamber. He knows how to make straw feel like– Raen.”

As soon as he saw the big man on the ground, Lachlan ran for him. But when he saw the spear that skewered his bodyguard’s throat, he fell to his knees beside him. Raen was barely breathing, and from the look of his body he couldn’t move. The end of the spear protruded from the back of his neck, as did a shattered bone from his spine. Since he still breathed his spine had not been entirely severed, but the laird had seen many such injuries during his long life. Removing the spear would likely finish him off.

As Kinley reached for it, Lachlan stayed her hand. “He’s done for, lass.”

Kinley glanced at the water. “Can’t we just put him in the loch to heal?”

“The spear went through his spine,” he told her, feeling sick. “It willnae heal unless we take it out, which will kill him before the waters can mend it. There’s no coming back from this.”

“But there has to be something we–”

“Kinley,” Lachlan said past the contraction in his throat. “’Tis the killing blow.”

Lachlan stared at the ghastly wound trying to think how he could make Raen more comfortable.

“Wait,” Kinley said and touched her face. “Lachlan.” She grabbed his arm. “Can you carry him and me through the loch to the oak grove where I crossed over?”

“He’s almost dead, lass. Let his final…” He stopped when he saw the light in her eyes. The grove? “Hold the spear,” he said, as he hefted Raen into a sitting position. Carefully, he drew the man up and onto his shoulder. “You think it will heal him, as it did you?”

“I don’t know,” she said taking his free hand as they waded into the water. “But we have to try.”

Lachlan carried his bodyguard into the loch, and emerged from the stream nearest the sacred grove. Kinley helped steady Raen as they hurried to the center of the ancient trees, where Lachlan carefully lowered the big man next to the stone.

Only then did he notice the mark carved on the shaft, and his blood ran cold. Evander, who could hit anything with a spear, always carved his with the same mark.

Kinley placed her hand over a winged serpent etched into the surface of the stone. The lines of it took on a green glow.

“We take out the spear,” Kinley told him. “We go through to my time, and then we come right back.” Kinley gripped the spear too. “Okay, now.”

It took almost too long to tug the weapon out of Raen’s neck, and as soon as Lachlan flung it away he heard a death rattle escape his bodyguard’s lips. Kinley snatched up both their hands, leaned close to the glowing stone, and pressed her cheek to the winged serpent. The green glow became a whirlwind of light that encircled them, shaping itself into a tunnel of curving oak boughs.

Lachlan landed hard beside Kinley and Raen, but this time the grove held no stones. A strangely-marked, bright yellow ribbon had been tied to the tree trunks to form a barrier. He heard something roar and looked up to see a huge, headless bird made of silver metal soaring over them. He turned his head to ask Kinley what it was, but saw another woman had taken her place.

She looked as if she had been torn apart and sewn back together by a shaking hand. Terrible scars covered her face, twisting her features and obliterating her beauty. The only feature he still recognized was her lips, which had somehow escaped unscathed—and made the damage done seem so much worse. Most of her hair had been cut away from the curving scars on her head. One of her legs stretched out so crookedly it didn’t match the other, and the bandages wound around it had partially torn, showing the damage done. Bulky white stone covered one of her arms to the shoulder. Half her body weight had melted away from her, leaving her limbs painfully thin and wasted.

He peered into her thunderstruck blue eyes, which now appeared dull and clouded. “Kinley?”

She nodded. “Now do you believe I was a soldier?”

Lachlan had not wept since he was a boy, but he paid no mind to the tears that spilled down his face.

“My sweet lass.”

“It’s okay,” she said, and gave him a lopsided smile. “This is why I didn’t want to come back. I suspected I’d revert to what I was before I crossed over to your time.” She shivered as she looked at the yellow ribbon bound around the trees. “God, they must think I was abducted or murdered, or both. I hope Dr. Stevens isn’t the prime suspect.” Her voice slurred the last words, and her eyelids fluttered.

“Kinley,” Lachlan said thickly and put his arm around her.

“It’s okay. I forgot how weak I was back then. Now. Whatever.” Her hand shook as she touched Raen’s bloodied neck with her twisted fingers. “The good news is that he still has a pulse.”

“He won’t for long,” Lachlan told her, and frowned as green light shimmered around them. “Does the grove take us back now?”

“I think so. It felt like this when I came through the first time.” She gripped Raen’s shoulder. “Hold onto me, and don’t let go. This way is a lot rougher.”

Lachlan gently took her hand, and braced himself for the second passage.

Would they return to his time, and if they did, would Kinley and Raen survive it? He should have asked her that, but they were falling through the bower of oak trees again, and tumbling through time until they fell back beside the sacred grove stone.

He pushed himself upright, and looked over at the glowing forms of his woman and his best friend. Light funneled into Raen’s neck, streaking through him to emerge from the back. His exposed spine sank back into his flesh, which covered over the terrible wound.

The light faded, and Raen opened his eyes and dragged in a breath as he pushed himself upright. He touched the smooth skin of his neck where the spear had pierced it. “My lord.”

“Welcome back, lad,” Lachlan said.

“I was crawling toward the loch,” the big man murmured as he stared down at Kinley. “I never made it.” He gripped the back of his neck. “How…?”

“She saved you,” Lachlan said and moved to Kinley’s side, where he watched the much slower process of her healing.

The light saturated her from head to toe, gleaming as it filled in the recesses in her cheeks and brow. New hair sprouted from the bald patches on her scalp and grew into thick, soft golden tresses. Her shattered leg straightened, and her curves grew riper as her limbs filled out. By the time the light evaporated she looked as she had the first time he had seen her from across the battlefield.

“My lord,” Raen gasped as his dazed eyes shifted to Lachlan’s face. “How can this be? I could feel naught, I couldnae breathe. I swear, I was dead.”

“You were, nearly,” Lachlan said and helped Kinley sit up, and brushed his mouth over her temple. “Crossing over healed you.” He held her tightly against him. “Anything you ask is yours, faodail. My castle. My clan. Even my horse, if you want the demon.”

She drew back. “I don’t want anyone to know I did this but you and Raen. Also, I never want to do it again.”

Lachlan tried to smile. “I dinnae think I could survive another go.”

“No, you don’t understand. Someone taped off the grove on my side as a crime scene, and…okay, that’s trouble I’ll explain later.” She rubbed her brow. “The thing is, if someone had been there and saw us, they might have kept us from coming back. Then Raen would have died in the future, and when they found his body…”

“Even more trouble,” Lachlan finished for her. “Raen, was it Evander?”

“Aye. He was running away with a wench who spied for the legion, and I tried to stop them.” He touched the front of his throat before he looked at Kinley. “I saw your wounds, Kinley. You shouldnae have survived them.”

“We have these things in the future called VA hospitals, and I guess someone up there likes me.” She saw the way Raen prodded his chest. “Sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fashed, is all.” He extended his arms and touched the back of his neck, and then rubbed the side of his head. “My battle scars have vanished. As if they never were.” He took off one boot and peered at his big foot. “There’s the toe I lost chopping wood as a boy. ’Tis grown back.” He looked at the stone. “What does it mean?”

“Mayhap the gods send us a missive,” Lachlan said and lifted up his tunic to see his abdomen was as smooth as a lad’s. So were his arms and neck. He wouldn’t miss his scars, especially the reminder of his own beheading, but Neac would likely make much of them vanishing. “To remind us that we shouldnae make the same mistakes again.”

She nodded slowly. “That’s the other reason I don’t want to do this again. I could feel myself dying in the future, and death was much closer than it was the first time I crossed over here. If I make a third trip, I don’t think I’d live long enough to come back.”