First of all, as predicted, Hayley was not happy when we arrived at her door at 4:35 am.

Her suitcase was packed, but she was completely crashed. Quentin stood at the front door checking his watch, while I cajoled her out of bed, into sweatpants and a T-shirt, and put on her shoes. “You’re acting like Ben, you’re making me put your shoes on like Ben. And he’s a one-year-old.”

She twisted her hair up in a messy bun, yawned, and said, “I’m only saying this because I’m his aunt, but he is very manipulative.”

“Says the grown ass woman who has another grown ass woman tying her shoes, for no other good reason than she’s too tired.”

“I also drank too much. I need to address that.”

“This is a recurring theme with you. Stop addressing how much you need to address it and do something about it.” I tied the last bow. And blew toward my forehead. Hot work struggling shoes on a grown ass woman who wasn’t in a helpful mood. “Thank you for coming with me by the way. It means a lot.”

“I know and it better, you owe me big.” She collapsed back on the bed, moaned, struggled over to the side, pulled herself up way-dramatically, and finally lumbered to her feet with a groan. “What time is it?”

“4:43, we have to hit the road.”

“How did you talk me into this?”

“Magnus,” I said as I jogged down the steps to the car.

An hour and twenty minutes later we were boarding our flight. I had a full blown sweat going by the time I dropped into the middle seat. Quentin took the aisle like a good security guard. Hayley got the window seat, yanked the shade down, put her head on my shoulder, and fell asleep immediately. I rested my cheek on her head and tried to do the same.

Quentin hooked his thumbs on his thighs and planted himself, still and watchful. He didn’t move and barely blinked. I teased him about it usually, that he was like the British guards in front of the royal palace, unmovable and unflappably calm. He told me that was why Magnus hired him, which wasn’t wrong.

He did finally fall asleep with his head lolling. I jiggled him awake to give him the neck pillow I bought for myself. Who was I kidding bringing it? After an hour of exhausted passing out, I was too excited to sleep.

We had a layover in New York. Then we flew directly to Edinburgh. We rented a car and it was in the car that Hayley finally woke up.

“So where are we, actually?”

“You’ve just gone through three airports and a car rental—”

Quentin joked, “A car hire.”

I chuckled, “A car hire, and now Quentin—”

He interrupted again, “Stop talking to me. I’m driving on the wrong side of the road. It’s taking all my concentration.”

Hayley joked, “I was wondering what was going on, figured I was sitting in the car upside down again.” She yawned and straightened up in her seat. “Where are we headed?”

“Eastern Perth and Kinross, near the Spittal of Glenshee. If that helps at all.” I was looking at the map the car hire people gave us, because come to find out our phones didn’t have much cell service and it was a lot like being in Scotland in the eighteenth century. I loud-whispered to Hayley in the backseat, “Shhhhh, Quentin is driving. We’ll be there in about an hour. Of course he’s driving at half the speed limit so maybe longer.”

“Look at the speed limit signs. I’m doing all this math in my head.”

“You don’t have to do any math. You just have to look at the dial and correspond it to the sign, brainiac.”

He chuckled. “Oh yeah, right. Man, I’m tired. I’m not thinking right.”

Hayley said, “How did I get through the airport?”

“You woke up enough to smile at the passport guy and hand him your passport. He only thought I was people-trafficking you a little bit.”

“When do we get to our hotel?”

“I haven’t booked one yet, this is a very classy operation.”

“So basically our security guard with questionable driving skills is taking us to the middle of Scotland to the ruins of a castle to look for a time machine? And we might be homeless?”

“You’re catching on. It should be easy to find the ruins too, they are strung with caution tape. We may have to sneak in.”

“Can I go back to sleep?” She wadded up one of the jackets.

“That’s why you’re in the back seat.”

We took two wrong turns and had to stop for directions but we finally found the correct Unnamed Road with the Historic Sites sign and followed it to the ruins of Talsworth Castle. The parking lot was empty. The ticket booth was empty. A sign on the front said, ‘closed.’ Caution tape stretched across the foot path. Absolutely nothing looked familiar to me from 1702. Nothing. Just a path going past the ticket booth and a sign that showed a couple of walking trails.

“What time is the storm usually?” asked Quentin.

“The news story said it happens at 4:15 pm every day. So about three hours from now.”

Quentin looked around. “Should we risk leaving the car here? Someone might come by and investigate. We don’t want to be found before we see the storm, or whatever it is we’re looking for.”

“Now that I’m here I actually have no idea what I’m looking for or why. This sounds really crazy.”

Hayley said, “If you think about it you’re like a storm chaser.”

“Well, that sounds better than ‘insane person’.”

Quentin said, “How about I park back where the road branches away and we hike in?” I took a photo of the trail map and we returned to the car.

We had been hiking for a while before Hayley started complaining. “Where the hell is a pub? Isn’t that why people come to Scotland? I’m in Scotland and so far all I’ve seen is trees and hills. A couple of farms. Now I’m on a hike. If I wanted to hike, I’d go on the Appalachian trail.”

Quentin bantered with her. “Would you? I mean seriously, I don’t think you’re much for camping or the outdoors.”

“Yeah, you’re right, I hate being in nature. I just had such a good complaint going I forgot to make sense.” She laughed. We all laughed.

A few moments later the small woods opened up and we had a view of the front partial wall of the castle. “Oh!”

My memory filled in the missing spots — Talsworth.

It hit me all at once: the long ago past, the castle, riding towards it with Magnus behind me on the horse, all the fear.

“Oh,” I said again, staring up at what was left of the walls. “I don’t know what to…”

Quentin asked, “Does it look familiar?”

“Yeah, this is the castle. I stood right here three hundred plus years ago.”

“Let’s walk around the grounds, maybe we’ll get a feeling for the best place to watch the storm.”

“How long have we got left?”

“Two hours.”

We walked up to the front gate now nothing more than a partial wall with a section of a tower in one corner. We walked across the courtyard to the staircase where I met Lord Delapointe that first time. Kaitlyn Campbell! Well, well, a daughter! Him and his sleazy smile. Now the staircase climbed toward nothing.

There was an enclosed hall near the back of the square but that was really it. I took in the scope of it turning around. I said, “It was so big before, it towered over the land. We were up on the second floor, trapped in Lord Delapointe’s office, and I didn’t think I would be able to escape.” — I love you, strong as an oak, near a stone wall, aligned with a castle tower — I stopped dead in my tracks.

Hayley asked, “What did you…?”

“Maybe it's not — maybe it’s…”

Quentin asked, “Maybe it’s what?”

“The thingy, maybe it’s…” I ran toward the right tower and scanned the clearing ahead of it. The distance was about right, though nothing looked familiar, manicured grass and pebbled paths. I ran towards the woods.

Quentin followed.

Hayley called, “Why are we running now? Aren’t we going to sit here and wait for the storm?”

“Stop asking dumb questions and follow me!”

The woods were manicured. The underbrush was cleared. The first rows of trees were more like garden trees than woods.

I turned left, walked for a bit, and looked back at the castle. The tower that I needed to judge by was not there anymore, just the base of it, but I aimed my sights on the blank space above it. My guess was I was still too close. I backed up, my heart racing. I brisk-walked backwards even farther.

The tower was still visible, but that wasn’t necessarily good — I scanned the area for the oak tree. There was one to my right, much larger than before. I looked up at the branches. There was nothing familiar about it. I turned away to locate the stone wall.

I found it, almost hidden behind bushes, a stone wall crumbling in places.

By now Quentin wanted to know what was happening.

“It’s the wall.” I scrambled over it.

“I see, you’re going over a wall.”

Hayley said, “What’s up with the wall is what we’re asking?”

“It’s where Magnus hid the time vessel for me last time. What if it’s here? What if I’m about to find it? What if it’s been messaging me to come to him? What if?”

The inside corner was built up higher than the outside, dirt and leaves and lichen and — I popped my head up. “Got anything to dig with?” Quentin climbed over to join me in the corner.

“TSA stole my shovel,” he joked looking for a rock with a sharp end. “Use this.”

Hayley climbed over the wall and watched while sipping from her water. I scraped at the earth. The top layer was soft above hard layers that didn’t want to move. I passed the stone to Quentin and he scraped and dug for a few moments.

I said, “My turn again,” and kept digging until I had gone pretty deep. Like inches deep. And then I dug more.

Hayley asked, “You think something will really be there?” I mean, couldn’t we watch, see if the storm is centered here? Maybe it’s somewhere else?”

I stood and rested and blew the hair from my face. I was sweating and really tired. And now mucked up and totally dirty.

Quentin asked, “Want me to dig, Katie?”

“I should do it so if nothing’s here I won’t feel guilty.”

I went back to digging on my knees in the dirt, scraping with the stone, using all my strength and then — clunk. My stone hit metal. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.” I had my hand on Magnus’s time travel vessel. “It’s here, oh my god.” I gingerly pulled it up from the muck and mire of three hundred years.

Hayley asked, “What does this mean?”

“I don’t know." I leaned on the wall with the vessel cradled in my hands. “I don’t know. What does this mean? Magnus left it here for me. Or, he left it here. Definitely. Probably for me.”

“What are you going to do with it now that you’ve found it?”

“I have no idea.”

I stared down at it.

Quentin said, “Would you go to the past? To 1702? I mean, probably — right?”

I looked at him working it through my mind. “Yeah, 1702, I mean that’s all I’ve got. The only numbers I know. Let me make sure it works.” I twisted the ends and the vessel purred to life. The markings glowed around the middle.

Quentin said, “I should go with you — Magnus wouldn’t want you to go alone. I’m not supposed to leave your side and…”

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I don’t want to explain to Magnus after I let you go through time by yourself. So I might as well quit now.”

I huffed. “Okay, fine. But as soon as I find him we’ll send you right back.”

“What about me?” asked Hayley. “I’m just supposed to get myself home from Scotland? Freaking Scotland? We’re in some kind of primordial forest and the only way home is driving a car on the wrong side of the street?”

I said, “Here’s what you’re going to do. You’ll drive the car to Edinburgh. Call Emma. She’ll buy you a ticket home. Stay in a really nice hotel. Go to a pub. Be the cool girl out on the town in a foreign country. Turn the car back in. Get our stuff. Fly home with it.”

Quentin climbed over the wall and jogged across to our packs and rifled through them moving the car keys and the paperwork into Hayley’s bag.

Hayley nodded, “Okay, I can do that but you seriously owe me. You owe me a trip to Europe with you. When Magnus is home we’ll leave him in charge of the house and you’ll go on a trip with me because you owe me big.”

I smiled, “Definitely, I owe you — “

A loud thunderous boom filled the air, and lightning struck the oak tree right beside Quentin. The tree caught fire and flames spread from branch to branch. Quentin said, “Holy shit!” and rushed toward me but he was too late.

The wind whipped around me and like a cannonball a force hit me in the stomach, pulled the air from my lungs, tore me to pieces, and then it got really really really bad.