Chapter 29
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Ascream rips me from sleep. Raw and jagged, like an animal in pain.
I jolt upright, pulse hammering, trying to make sense of the darkness.
“They took him,” Donag wails. “’Tis Gregor all again.”
Just her nightmares.
My breath steadies, and I flop back onto the cot with a groan.
“Wake! Wake, slut.” Hard fingers clamp onto my arm and yank. I gasp, my stomach bottoming out as I crash to the dirt-packed floor.
“What happened to our truce?” I shout, scrambling back.
She steps toward me, hand raised, and I leap to my feet. “Touch me, and I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” Her cheeks blotch with fury. “I knew nae to trust you. I kent better. And now ’tis as it was with Gregor. Trust misspent is trust betrayed. The daughter delivers the same curse as the mother.”
Donag pants two hysterical breaths. Then shatters into teary, hair-pulling shrieks.
Mother. Of course.
I stand slowly, putting my hands up to calm her. “Please, Donag. I didn’t do anything. I’m not my mother. You know that. Please, just tell me what happened.”
Her eyes glitter with fury as they meet mine. Her next words punch the air from my chest. “The Campbells took Callum.”
“Took—?”
My heart stops.
“What? No. No, that can’t be right.”
“He’s accused of thieving.” Her expression is all angry astonishment. “Apples. My Callum hasnae the taste for apples. And now they’re to send him to Tom a Chrodhaidh hill.”
“I don’t understand.” She’s speaking too quickly. My muddled brain isn’t processing any of this. “I thought Hamish was just trying to act tough. I told him the apples were for me.”
“So it is your fault,” she says with malicious satisfaction.
My fault.
She’s right. Why didn’t I take this more seriously?
My knees buckle and I sway into the table. Callum is suffering because of me. Again.
“They’re punishing him because I ate some stupid apples?”
I thought Hamish was just trying to scare me, but of course he’d take advantage of any opportunity to hurt Callum. This isn’t some zany adventure I’m having. It’s life or death.
“Aye,” she says with ominous quiet, “’tis because of you.”
“Well it’s your fault too.” My fear flips into fury. I jab an outraged finger at her. “You’re the reason I’m here. You had a chance to fix your mistake. If you’d helped me, none of this would’ve happened. I begged you to send me back.”
“And I told you to stay away from Callum. But you cannae help it,” she adds in a trilling voice, going dark again as she growls, “Janet’s borne you, and blood will out.”
“I have Gregor’s blood too—remember?” I set my jaw over a long exhale. “I’ll fix this.”
I grab my clothes and turn my back to hide my body. And Janet’s ring.
Ne Obliviscaris. Forget Not. The Campbell motto. My mother’s motto.
And mine.
I’d long ago switched out the chain for some twine, but it still hangs hidden between my breasts. Donag doesn’t know about it, and I’m relieved I never trusted her enough to show her. Maybe it’ll help me now.
“I’ll stop this. I swear it.” Tiny seams pop as I tug on my dress as fast as I can, my clumsy fingers fumbling with the bodice. “I will not let him be put in that pit.”
“You’re nae listening. The pit would be a blessing,” she whispers.
My hands still over my laces. “What do you mean, a blessing?”
Donag’s mouth twists. “Because the only thing atop Tom a Chrodhaidh hill is a cage.”
“Cage?” Pressure cinches tight around my ribs. This is my fault. I should’ve run off with Callum the moment Hamish started bragging about all the ways he likes to punish people. “Like, they’re going to put him in an actual cage?”
“Aye. Strung up from the tree for all to see.”
Callum, in a cage. All because I wanted to eat something sweet.
“I’m going to the laird to tell him what happened.
” I grab my boots and drop onto the edge of my cot to put them on.
“I’ll make him listen. This isn’t Callum’s fault.
The apples were for me. He only had, like, one of them.
” Hopping up, I snatch my cloak and storm to the door. “I’m going to the castle.”
“Dinnae think I trust you to go alone, you wee slutling.” Donag grabs her shawl and slams the door behind us. “I’ll see you don’t hide from the truth as your mother did.”
I halt, my eyes flashing to her. “I don’t hide from the truth. Ever.”
She spits on the ground. “Here’s a truth.
I took you in. Gave you a roof and a bed.
I didnae let harm come to you. All I asked was that you do your work and be quiet about it.
But you were hungry for trouble. You kept running to Callum, asking for his help, when he’s in more danger every day than you ever will be.
If you’d done as I asked, stayed away from Callum, in time, I might’ve found a way and sent you home. ”
Home.
But I know now—no place would feel like home without Callum.
I take off for the castle at a brisk pace, tossing her a withering look. “Oh, you’ll still send me home. I told you, I’ll make this right.”
“For you, there’s but one thing to be made right.” She catches up to me, her tone creepy as she asks, “Do you want to hear a story? Your mother came to me. She wanted to slip her bairn. To slip you.”
My breath hitches. Unwanted.
Callum told me this, told me how Janet wanted soapwort to end her pregnancy. But the sting hasn’t gone away. Instead, it’s burrowed deeper, like a splinter lodged in my chest.
“Your own mother wanted you disappeared,” Donag says, and I know it for the truth.
Janet never wanted me—not then, not now. She’d expected a pampered life where servants were the ones who worried about trivial details like children.
But Poppa wanted me.
The thought is so simple, so obvious, that I don’t know why it surprises me. Even if he knew the truth—that he’s not my blood—he’d still choose me. I know that as surely as I know the sound of my own voice. You choose your family.
And I choose Callum.
Donning resolve like a suit of armor, I meet her eye. “I know this story.”
“Then you know you shouldn’t be here.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.” The words explode from me. “But you’re the one who yanked me out of my time. Against my will.”
“You’re nae listening.” Her fingertips cut sharply into my arm as she snatches it, demanding my attention. “I’m saying, you shouldnae even exist. Janet begged a wish of me—I could grant it still. She didn’t want you. I don’t want you. Nobody wants you.”
Some version of those words has haunted me my whole life.
But everything’s changed. For the first time, fear—that I might not have a place or people to call my own—doesn’t register.
Instead, an unfamiliar feeling has taken hold in my bones.
It’s the opposite of lonely. The opposite of despair. And it’s a revelation.
Callum. He’s the revelation. I thought returning to my own time would make everything right. But nothing’s ever felt right in my life.
Not until Callum.
At first, he helped me make sense of the past. Now he helps me make sense of myself.
“I know one person who wants me,” I say coolly.
Callum. I’m coming for you. He’ll never be safe here, not with Campbells hunting MacGregors. I’ll save him. And then we’ll go far, far away.
Donag gives me a look simmering with hatred. “What Callum suffers, you shall suffer tenfold.”
“Callum is done suffering.” I’ll bring him with me, to my time. It’s the only way. We’ll figure out the magic. Even if it takes longer—even if it means waiting years to return to Poppa—I’m not going without Callum.
Donag stops, and for a moment, she only gapes, a muscle twitching in her cheek. She knows what I’m thinking.
She spreads her arms wide, raising them as she inhales.
“Heed me, skies above,” she intones, her voice eerily deep.
“Listen, earth below.” With a sharp sniff, her eyes snap wide and roll back in her head until all that’s left are her eyelids flickering over grayish-white orbs.
A hissing stream of Gaelic spills from her.
I shout to be heard over her chanting, “You’re wasting time.”
Her eyes snap back into place, landing on me with a sneering grin. “Janet shall have her wish. You’ll slip from this place as though you never existed.”
A chill rolls up my spine. Giving myself a shake, I start walking, going faster until I’m nearly jogging. “News flash. I don’t believe in curses. You’ve tried and failed before. You wanted to summon my mother, but you got me. You’re not smarter than me. Or more clever. Just older.”
I storm down the path, and Donag tramps noisily behind me, but I’m faster than she is. It’s not just because I’m younger. I’m determined. I’ll tear that cage apart with my bare hands if I have to.
The ring knocks my chest with every jogging stride. Forget Not—a promise etched in gold, hundreds of years ago. What I feel for Callum will outlast even that. He’s a part of my life. A part of me, forever. No matter what.
I burst into the castle dining hall and shout, “You have to let Callum go.”
The hall is packed—faces, firelight, shifting bodies—but for me, there is only Callum. His eyes are wide with fear. Not for himself. For me.
His face is a mess of bruises. One eye swollen shut, his lip cracked, blood crusting his temple. The guards have been enjoying themselves.
I lurch toward the laird, past the nauseating stench of ale and eggs. “You have the wrong person.”
Men jump up, hands flying to blades, but I don’t stop.
“Callum is innocent,” I plead. “This is my fault. You have the wrong person.”
“Hold,” Campbell bellows, shoving back from the table. “Stop this madness.”
The room goes still. Dozens of faces, dozens of eyes, all locked on me. But I only see Callum.
He’s shaking his head, warning me off.
“You’ve made a mistake,” I say, forcing steadiness into my voice.