Zoe trembled with pleasure as she rolled onto her back and Colin swept her up in his arms. He nuzzled into her, breathing in her scent and kissing the soft skin of her shoulders.
“Are you sure you’re not an enchantress?” he laughed as he turned her face to his and kissed her softly on the lips. Zoe smiled and giggled.
“I don’t know what just came over me,” she whispered. “I’ve never done anything like that before. It just felt so… so right.”
“Since the second I laid eyes on you down by the loch, I knew I would take you to bed,” he said as he ran his hands through her hair. “Maybe I just didn’t believe it would be so soon.”
Zoe blushed and cuddled into him again. She felt so safe with him. It was as if they were the only two people in the world and nothing else mattered.
As the fire crackled away and the embers burned down, they both fell soundly asleep.
As dawn broke Zoe was woken by the loud squawks of birds and she reached out her arm to discover she was alone. Disappointment filled her and her stomach dropped.
Where is Colin? she thought as she sat up and looked around the room.
She was certainly alone. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and walked towards the door. She was about to reach out and grab the handle when she heard the loud clattering of footsteps and armor hurtling down the corridor towards her room.
She backed away from the door and reached for the dress Colin had given her the day before. She pulled it down over her nightie and rushed up against the back wall. There was nowhere for her to hide. She was trapped.
The footsteps came to halt outside of the room, and she prayed to any God listening that she would be saved. There was a loud hammer on the door, but she didn’t dare speak. After a second, the door came crashing open and Colin stood there with fear in his eyes.
“Come, now!” he shouted as he dashed towards her and grabbed her by the wrist. “You must run! Douglas and a mob are coming for you!”
Zoe and Colin ran down the castle’s cavernous hallways, followed by an army of armed guards. They split off in different directions throughout the castle to try and throw Douglas off the scent and disappeared down a thin corridor and into a long forgotten room.
“I don’t think he will look for you here,” he whispered. “This room was our parents’.” He looked down with sorrow. “How I wish they were still here to stop him from going mad like this.”
“He thinks I’m a witch,” Zoe said sadly. “Which means I can’t stay here.”
Colin shook his head.
“I’ll sneak you out of the castle tonight,” he said, “and I’ll come with you. We can run away and be together.”
Zoe liked the sound of that more than she ever thought possible, but she knew she couldn’t take Colin away from his life, and she didn’t want to be back in ancient Scotland without him. Her heart began to race with panic.
She turned and looked around the room, and with complete shock she saw something familiar. Something she had seen before and was more relieved than ever to be in the presence of again.
“That door,” she said, her finger pointing to the small, carved door in the side of the room. “I know that door.”
“Impossible,” Colin said. “No one has ever been in this room apart from my parents, myself, and my brother.”
Zoe reached up and touched his cheek. She wanted to kiss him and tell him everything, but she knew he wouldn’t understand.
“If I go through that door, I’ll be safe,” she said. “But I believe I will be able to return to you… We could meet here every night, and that way you don’t have to worry about Douglas trying to kill me or your position here at the castle.”
Colin looked confused, but he also seemed to understand.
“I trust you,” he said. “Just promise you will come back to me.”
He swept Zoe up in his arms as Douglas’s rage thundered through the halls not far from their hiding place. Their kiss was magic and it roused something in the room. When they parted, Zoe looked to the door and the familiar bright light was shining out from behind it.
“Wait for me,” she whispered as she let go of Colin’s hand and knelt by the door. She reached out for the handle and opened it just in time before Douglas charged into the room with his own armed guards ready to take her to trial.
She woke up on the floor of the archive feeling battered and bruised but full of love. Rebecca was standing in front of her with a look of horror on her face, and she dropped the clipboard that held the notes for their inventory.
“What…the…fuck?” she said, her mouth gaping open. She looked at Zoe up and down and looked at her dirty feet and the tattered brown smock she was wearing.
“Oh my God,” Zoe smiled. “You’ll never believe it…. But you were right when you said there were things down here that the world didn’t know about.”
“Where the hell have you been?” Rebecca put her hands on her hips. “And what the fuck is that door? How have I never seen it before?”
“Are you ready for the wildest adventure of your life?” Zoe raised her eyebrows. “Inventories are about to get a lot more interesting. How do you feel about journeying back to ancient Scotland and getting yourself a hot highlander boyfriend?”
Rebecca looked at her as if she was insane. “I guess I could think of worse ways to spend the afternoon,” she shrugged.
“Well,” Zoe began, “I’m about to tell you one hell of a story…”
As she recounted to her new friend of where the door had taken her and of who she had met, her heart beat solely for Colin. She knew she had met someone who was going to change her life, and she now knew she had the means to reach him whenever she needed to. The library had shown her the path her life was meant to take, and she couldn’t be more excited. Existing in two different times was going to be challenging, but it would be worth it.
She had tasted love, and she was never going to let it go…
THE END