Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
I t was now or never.
Kate’s heart hammered against her ribs as Connor stared at her, his blue eyes hard and cold in the moonlight.
“I’m not from here,” she began, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Aye, that much is clear,” Connor said, his tone clipped. “From the moment ye arrived with yer strange manner of speech and odd ways and yet I chose to accept you into my home, despite knowing ye were not telling me the truth about yourself.”
Kate shook her head, chestnut hair spilling over her shoulders. “No, I mean I’m not from now .” She drew a deep breath, steeling herself. “I’m from the future. The twenty-first century.”
Connor’s expression didn’t change, but she caught the slight narrowing of his eyes, the minute tightening of his jaw beneath the shadow of stubble.
“Do ye take me for a fool, then?” His voice was dangerously soft.
“I know how it sounds,” Kate pressed on, desperation making her words tumble out faster. “I was born in 1996. I work, or rather I worked, for a dating app called Love Lasting, in Atlanta. I came to Scotland on vacation after my boyfriend Angus?—”
“Enough!” His shout echoed among the ancient stones, startling a roosting crow into flight. “I’ll not stand here and listen to such madness. If ye wished to leave, ye needed only say so, not spin tales fit for a bairn.”
She stepped closer, the damp grass soaking through the hem of her dress. “I can prove it. Ask me anything about the future, anything at all.”
“Ye think to trick me with parlor games?” He raked a hand through his dark hair, his frustration evident in every taut line of his body. “Ye’ve stolen the most sacred relic of my clan, and now ye mock me with?—”
“In my time,” Kate interrupted, “men have walked on the moon. We have machines that fly through the air carrying hundreds of people across oceans in hours. I can talk to someone on the other side of the world instantly through a device that fits in my pocket.”
Connor’s laugh was brittle. “Ye’ve an active imagination, I’ll grant ye that.”
“The American colonies will revolt against British rule and become an independent nation in 1776. Scotland and England will eventually unite under one crown. There will be wars that span the globe, weapons that can destroy entire cities in seconds.” Kate’s voice cracked. “And Clan MacDonald and Clan MacLeod will survive it all. Your bloodline continues for centuries, though your home is a ruin.”
Something flickered in his expression, uncertainty, perhaps. But it was quickly masked by anger.
“And how would ye ken such things?” he demanded. “Are ye a witch, then? Is that why ye sought the brooch, for some dark purpose?”
“No!” Kate felt tears burning behind her eyes. This was what she’d been afraid of, labeling her a witch.
“I’m just a woman who fell through time. I don’t know how or why, but I ended up here, in 1689. The old woman at the cemetery, the Cailleach, she did something. The brooch was part of it.”
Connor’s gaze dropped to the artifact in his hand. In the moonlight, the intricate knotwork seemed to shift and move, as though alive.
“The Cailleach,” he repeated, his voice suddenly hollow. “Ye’ve seen her?”
Hope fluttered in her chest. “Yes. First in my time, then here. She speaks in riddles, but she’s real. She was here tonight, just before you arrived.”
Connor was silent for a long moment, his breathing ragged. When he spoke again, his voice was low, controlled.
“If what ye say is true, and I’m no’ saying it is, why did ye no’ tell me before?”
Kate wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold. “Would you have believed me? Or would you have thrown me in a cell? Accused me of witchcraft? Burned me at the stake?”
“I would never harm ye,” he growled, and the raw hurt in his voice made her wince.
“I was afraid,” she admitted. “And then... then I started to care for you. For everyone. I didn’t want to lose what I’d found here.”
“Until tonight.” His words fell between them like stones. “What changed?”
Unable to bear the intensity of his gaze, Kate looked away. “After Cameron died, you pulled away. You barely looked at me or talked to me. Then Kenna...” Her voice broke. “Her death is on my hands, as is the assassin who was her lover. I don’t belong here. I’ve brought nothing but pain to your clan. Everyone thinks I’m cursed.”
“So ye thought to flee? To abandon us, abandon me, without so much as a farewell?”
“I thought it would be easier,” she whispered. “For everyone.”
Connor stepped closer, close enough that she could see the pulse beating in his throat, smell the heather, salt, and smoke that clung to his skin.
“Tell me something else,” he demanded. “Something from this future of yours that no one could possibly ken.”
Kate thought for a moment, then met his eyes. “In my time, they’ve mapped the human body down to its smallest parts. They know what makes us who we are, tiny building blocks called DNA. It’s unique to each person, passed down through generations.” She took a shaky breath. “And they can look at someone’s DNA and tell exactly where their ancestors came from.”
Connor’s expression was unreadable, but she saw his throat move as he swallowed.
“In my time,” she continued, “Skye is still beautiful. Tourists come from all over the world to see the Fairy Pools. The MacLeod clan still exists. And while Bronmuir Keep is now in ruins, Dunvegan Castle still stands.”
Something shifted in Connor’s eyes, a flicker of belief quickly extinguished by doubt.
“If what ye say is true,” he said slowly, “then ye’ve lied to me from the moment we met.”
“Not about everything,” Kate whispered. “Not about how I feel.”
Connor’s laugh was bitter. “And how am I to ken which words were true and which were false? Ye’ve stolen from me, Katherine, not just the brooch, but my trust.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, the words wholly inadequate for the pain she’d caused. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“Yet here we stand.” He gestured to the space between them, moonlight casting his face in harsh relief. The scar above his eyebrow stood out starkly against his skin, a reminder of battles fought and won. But this, this was a wound she’d inflicted that no sword could match.
Connor’s expression softened for just a moment, and she caught a glimpse of the man who had held her through nightmares, who had shown her the secret waterfall and cave, who had looked at her as though she were the answer to a prayer he’d never dared speak aloud.
“If ye truly wish to leave this time, to return to your world of flying machines and talking devices, then go.” His voice was rough with emotion. “But the brooch stays with the clan. With me.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “And if I want to stay?”
Connor studied her for a long moment, his face a battlefield of warring emotions.
“I dinna ken if I can trust ye again,” he said finally. “Ye’ve broken something between us, something I’m no’ sure can be mended.”
He turned away, broad shoulders rigid with hurt, and began walking toward his horse. Kate watched him go, rooted to the spot, her heart shattering with each step he took.
At the edge of the cemetery, Connor paused, looking back at her over his shoulder. In the silver moonlight, his eyes gleamed with unshed tears.
“You should take shelter for the night,” he said quietly. “There’s a storm coming.”
Then he mounted his horse and rode away, taking with him both the brooch and the pieces of Kate’s broken heart.
She stood alone among the ancient graves, the mist curling around her ankles like ghostly fingers. Above her, the stars wheeled in their eternal dance, indifferent to the pain of mortals below. A cold wind swept through the cemetery, carrying with it the promise of more rain.
Kate sank to her knees on the damp earth. For the first time since arriving in this century, she felt truly lost, adrift between worlds, belonging to neither.
“What do I do now?” she whispered to the silent stones.
No answer came but the soft sigh of the wind through the ruins of the chapel and the distant rumble of thunder over the sea.