She shivered and rolled onto her side. The bright light was long gone, but the cold and feeling that she was somewhere she shouldn’t be was still coursing through her. She curled into a ball, afraid to open her eyes… Where was Rebecca? And most importantly, where was she? Was she still in the archives? The sensation of open air around her suggested that she most certainly wasn’t. But she didn’t understand… What had happened when she opened that door?
A bird squawked overhead and she jumped with fright. She was outside. She hadn’t wanted to admit the possibility before, but the bird had just confirmed it.
She moved one of her hands and reached out to touch the ground around her. It was mossy, soft, and definitely not the stone floor of the archive under the library. She exhaled and gathered up the courage to open her eyes. And when she did, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
She was in the middle of an open valley, in front of the most incredible loch. The water lapped up at the pebbled shoreline about five hundred feet ahead of her, and birds of prey swooped above her, diving down onto the ground to pick out mice and vole.
“Where the hell am I?” she said aloud as she looked around.
The valley was deep, and she appeared to be right at the center of it. The loch was still and gray, and as she gathered her thoughts, a wind started to pick up around her.
The door had transported her somewhere. She was no longer in Boston, and she was pretty sure she wasn’t even in the United States… She seemed to be somewhere else entirely.
Thunder rolled out above her and the sky darkened. She could see a trail of rain coming in from over the loch, and she was about to get to her feet and run for cover in the woods behind her when she heard the snapping of twigs and heavy breathing. She stopped still and didn’t dare move. The footsteps got closer and the breathing got heavier.
“What you doing, lassie?” a voice boomed at her. She jumped to her feet, terrified and confused at the strange and very broad accent.
“Who are you?” she yelped as she tried to pull her scarf tightly around her chest.
The man who had approached her was tall, muscular and had a shock of red hair. He was handsome in ways Zoe didn’t even know existed.
“Och,” the man laughed as he shook his head. “Have ye lost your mind?”
Zoe felt the tears welling up behind her eyes. The man looked like a barbarian… He was wearing armor and had dirt-stained knees. There was a wildness about him that Zoe found intimidating and it was with a strike of pure fear that she realized he held in his hand a large, thick, silver sword.
His eyes were an intense brown, and they seemed to be piercing her with each step he took.
“Please,” she held up her hands. “Don’t come any closer!”
A grin curled across his lips and Zoe kept showing him her palms, hoping he would leave her be.
“Where am I?” she pleaded. “I…I was in the library, and then I found a door… And I woke up here. Something’s happened… Something very strange has happened!”
The man stopped and cocked his head to one side. He was looking at her with both curiosity and amusement, but Zoe couldn’t tell if that was going to lead to violence. He seemed so unpredictable.
“Please,” she sobbed. “I don’t know where I am…”
She fell to her knees in tears, and the man rushed to her side.
“Shhh,” he soothed. “Don’t cry, I’m sorry I laughed.”
Zoe looked up at him and was glad to see that any doubts she may have had about him seemed to vanish in that instant. Suddenly he didn’t seem so untamed anymore, his face had opened into a genuine smile and his touch was gentle as he patted her arm.
“I can see you’re upset, lassie,” he said. “I don’t know what has happened to you, and I am sorry… It’s just, well, everyone in Argyle knows who I am…” he trailed off and looked out across the water.
“Argyle?” Zoe asked, completely confused.
“Aye, lass.” He got to his feet and offered her his hand. “Welcome to Loch Awe, the home of Clan Campbell.”
She took his hand and got to her feet. He looked out across the water and Zoe realized that not only was she not in the United States anymore, she wasn’t even in her own time.
“What year is this?” she asked with trepidation.
He turned to look at her and smiled. “Why, it’s the year of 1529,” he said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Zoe felt the ground fall away beneath her and her head began to spin.
The next thing she knew, a heaviness weighed her down into an all-consuming blackness.