CHAPTER 12 #2
The first one was of a woman with long silvery hair and bright blue eyes standing on a craggy hill, her fisted hand raised to the night sky.
Her hand glowed with streaks of light seeping through her fingers.
Two women flanked her—one with black hair, the other with red hair.
Lightning flickered all around them. Below them, an army charged toward them led by a man wielding a shiny great axe.
As she stared at the woman in the center, a sense of familiarity came over her. She was certain that woman was Moira, the shopkeeper from Mystic Treasures. The shopkeeper who had given her the piece of the stone that transported her back in time.
The second tapestry was of a bolt of lightning hitting the ground in front of the three women. The ground was lit up in a bright flash.
The third left her lightheaded when she saw the woman on the ground with the fiery red hair dressed in black. Hair that looked much like her sister’s. In the sky, a rip as if she had fallen straight through the hole.
The next tapestry made her weak. Her knees threatened to give out as she peered at the image.
The face staring back at her was her own.
Behind her, Bruce. As if the tapestry she stared at foretold of her arrival in the past with him hot on her heels.
The picture was of when they had plummeted through the portal.
The movement of the image was in slow motion, but it was clear to Chloe what she was seeing.
She was looking at her arrival in the past.
The one next to that had a faint image of another woman, but it was a silhouette. She was faceless. The wind blew her hair to one side. She was tall, thin, and curvy.
Chloe understood who this woman was. She was certain it was Brianna.
The final tapestry was nothing more than a damask design in shimmering thread. No image floated on it like the others as though it were blank, waiting for whatever happened next.
She glanced back at Evie who still stood at the door, a calm expression on her face.
“What…what is all this?” Her voice was a weak whisper.
“The prophecy,” Evie said, matter-of-factly.
“I don’t understand.” She shook her head.
Evie moved deeper into the room to join her. She pointed to the first wall hanging. “This is the Night of Shadows. I told you about that before. The woman…that’s Moira.”
Chloe wasn’t wrong then—it was Moira. Hot pinpricks skipped down her spine. “Moira is…”
“A goddess of Time,” Evie said. “This one is the Shattering.” She pointed to the next one. “When the three goddesses broke the keystone into three pieces. Past, Present, Future. You can see that here.”
She pointed to the ground where the stone was broken into the three pieces.
“And the third one?” she asked.
“That’s when I arrived here.” Evie moved closer and stared at the wall hanging with a mixture of horror and resignation. “Callum said I fell from the sky.”
Chloe thought of her own passage through the time portal and how horrible it had made her feel. She stared at her sister with a renewed sense of respect and awe.
“How did you survive?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, but I’ve decided the stone protected me.”
As she mentioned it, she slipped her hand into the pocket of her gown as if to make sure she still possessed it. Chloe did the same and was relieved to feel the jagged piece of stone residing in the depths of her pocket.
“And this, of course, is you and Bruce.” Evie stood in front of the wall hanging and peered up at the images. Her gaze was fixed on Bruce. “I had hoped the tapestry was wrong and he didn’t follow you.”
“But he did,” Chloe said, a sudden chill pressing through her. She clutched her elbows. “And he’s out there somewhere.”
Her sister turned to her, reaching for her. “He can’t hurt you here. Callum, Malcolm, and Jamie will make sure of it. They will protect you.”
There was a fierceness in Evie as she said it. There was no reason to doubt her sister’s word.
She thought of Malcolm, then, and how he had placed his body between her and Bruce with his sword drawn. As if it were the most natural thing to do.
Her gaze drifted from the wall hanging with her and Bruce to the next one with the silhouette of the woman. She and Evie, both, stared at it for a long, quiet moment.
“Do you think that’s Brianna?” Chloe asked at last.
“It has to be.”
Silence stretched until finally Chloe snickered. “Can you imagine our beach-loving sister here? In the Highlands?” She shook her head.
Evie grinned, her face lighting up. “I’ve thought about this a lot, you know. And I did wonder if she would come.” She reached for the tapestry, running her hand down the edge of it. “It’s only a silhouette of a woman, but I can’t imagine who else it would be.”
Chloe considered this for a long moment, too, as she peered at the darkened figure woven through the threads.
She thought of their childhood. Brianna was ten years older than they were and had been out of the house by the time they were in middle school, living her own life.
Their parents had argued with Bri numerous times before she left.
Maybe that was why she had left: She was tired of the arguments.
Their parents had wanted a different life for her.
Certainly not one of her wandering through the Caribbean taking photographs and trying to make it as a professional.
They had wanted her to go to college; she refused.
They had even offered her a free place to live while she went. And yet, she still refused.
Chloe never understood it—why was she so determined to leave?
Why did she never come back except for the occasional Christmas holiday?
The questions she didn’t dare ask gnawed at her.
Did she resent her and Evie? Was their closeness too much for her?
Was she jealous? The thought stung, but it lingered there, unspoken, like a chasm between them.
Their parents’ death shattered everything about their worlds when she and Evie were still in high school.
Brianna had had no choice but to return to their hometown as their legal guardian.
But even then, Chloe sensed the resentment simmering below the surface.
Brianna did what she had to by taking care of them, but it had always felt temporary, like she had one foot out the door.
And when the time had come, she was gone again, like they knew she would be.
“Chlo? Are you okay? You looked lost in thought.”
She shook herself out of her thoughts and focused on her sister’s face, creased with concern. She managed a smile. “I was trying to imagine Brianna here, in the past, with us.”
“Do you think it’s her?”
“I think if it is, she’s going to be pretty angry when she arrives.”