Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
The breeze off Culloden Moor carried the scent of heather and grasslands, and Noah happily filled his lungs with it. This was a day of celebration marking the anniversary of his family’s arrival in this world.
One year ago, he and Skye had stumbled onto this ground clutching each other, gasping, half-blind with terror, into a world neither of them understood. The grey emptiness of the portal had spat them out onto cold, wet grass beneath a sky so vast and open it had buckled his knees.
Today that same sky stretched above them, pale blue and streaked with wisps of clouds over the moor that rolled away in every direction.
A perfect day.
Emily sat cross-legged on a blanket near the memorial cairn, a book open on her lap and a green knitted cap pulled low over her ears.
The cap was new, one of several Skye had found in an Inverness shop.
Emily had opinions about every one of them, which Noah considered a wonderful sign.
His sister was returning to them, stronger and more herself every day.
Her cheeks held color again. Actual pink, warm and alive, replacing the terrifying grey pallor that had haunted his nightmares for months.
Her blue eyes, enormous as ever, followed the words on the page with the fierce concentration of a girl determined to devour every story and bit of knowledge this world had to offer.
A.L.L. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The doctors at Raigmore Hospital had given it a name within days of their arrival.
Had begun treatment immediately. Months of protocols, extended hospital stays, and medications Noah still could not properly pronounce.
But Emily had fought with a ferocity that surprised no one who knew her, and now, thankfully, she was in outpatient care with oral medication and monthly visits.
They measured her future now in optimism and possibilities instead of hours.
Noah watched Skye lower herself onto the blanket beside Emily and point to something on the page. Their heads bent together, dark hair against a green cap, and Emily laughed. The sound carried like birdsong and lodged in Noah’s chest so fiercely he found it hard to breathe.
Brody raced between the clan markers, his energy boundless as usual, shouting questions at Taran about the battle and the Highlanders.
Taran followed, answering each one with the patience of a father and the knowledge of a man who’d lived through the battle, knew every spot and its significance, and had paid the ultimate price for his country.
He looked younger, Noah realized. A year in the modern world, free of the dangers and limitations of the last one, had eased the deep lines of worry that had seemed permanently carved into his father’s face.
Paige strolled a few steps behind her husband and son, her eyes soft as she watched them.
She caught Noah looking and smiled that wonderful smile she reserved for moments when the family was whole and accounted for, and no one was in immediate danger of anything worse than a scraped knee.
It used to be rare but now he saw it often, especially with Emily’s excellent progress.
It was a gift, that smile, and he treasured it every time he saw it.
This first year hadn’t been easy for any of them. Emily hanging on by a thread. Paige unwilling to leave her. No one daring to look too far ahead.
And in the beginning, for both him and Skye, the city of Inverness had overwhelmed them in ways the old world and the Citadel never had. Noise, cars, phones, electricity, crowds of strangers moving at a pace that felt reckless and bewildering, were too much.
Taran and Paige had rented a flat near the hospital to be close to Emily, and Noah and Skye had gratefully accepted an invitation from Reginald and Lauren McColl to stay with them at the glen, where the quiet of the land and the rhythm of physical work gave them room to breathe and learn about their new world, at their own pace.
And the time to spend together, to get to know everything about each other. To fall even deeper in love.
Lauren had even graciously driven them to Inverness for regular visits with Emily at the hospital and so Skye could give Paige a rest and a chance to spend some time with Brody.
Over time, the noise and the crowds of the city had become less overwhelming and easier to integrate into their new lives.
Noah glanced again at Skye and Emily, giggling over some shared secret, and gave thanks for whatever fate, magic, or set of miracles brought his family to this day.
The woman he loved and the sister he adored had developed a unique bond during Emily’s hospital stay as Skye read to her, talked to her, played with her.
The two of them spent long days lost in marvelous stories while machines hummed and nurses came and went around them.
When Paige could not leave Emily’s side, Skye had simply stepped into the gap, caring for Brody with a natural warmth that still startled Noah when he caught glimpses of it.
She took part in all his interests and nurtured his curiosity, read to him at bedtime, and answered his relentless questions about life at the Citadel with clarity and a tenderness that never wavered.
Skye herself read everything she could find.
History, science, novels, newspapers. She approached the modern world the way she had approached the Citadel’s library, with a hunger that bordered on ferocious.
Noah loved watching her discover things.
Loved the way her gorgeous green eyes widened at some new wonder, then narrowed with the focused intensity of a woman cataloguing the information for future use.
“Grand day for it,” Finn stated, appearing at Noah’s shoulder.
His Irish lilt had softened over the year but never disappeared.
Noah knew the gash on his shoulder from the tunnel had healed into a thick scar he wore without complaint.
Just as he wore all the other scars he carried inside him.
Noah was grateful every day for this steadfast man who’d helped save his family and become part of it in the bargain.
“It is,” Noah agreed.
“The farm’s coming along. Reginald says he’ll have the new forge delivered by month’s end.” Finn beamed with pride over the farm the McColls were helping him purchase. “Plenty of room for all of us, once you and Skye are ready to make the move.”
Noah nodded. Finn’s new farm was not far outside the glen, and he was working hard, crafting one-of-a-kind artisan ironworks to sell in Reginald’s popular custom furniture business. With some samples and advertising from Reggie, the orders were coming in faster than Finn could fill them.
He’d made it clear his hope was for Noah and Skye to join him there, for Noah to put his farming skills to use and eventually make the place their own. It felt right. Solid ground beneath their feet. Work that mattered. A home built from choice, not necessity or desperation.
Noah looked at Skye, and the power of his love for her filled him. “We’re ready. Taran took me to see Rory Patterson, one of The 79. He has a very successful farm not far from yours, and he’s promised to show me some modern farming techniques.”
He smiled at the memory. “Skye really likes his wife, Lilly, and of course adores Lauren as well. She says between the two of them and Paige, she’s learning to be a proper twenty-first century woman.”
“Is that what you want?” Finn asked.
Noah gazed at his love. “I just want Skye. I don’t care what century she embraces. I only care about the world we create together.”
Finn studied him for a long moment, smiled, clapped his shoulder and walked toward the cairn where Brody was tracing the letters of the marker stone while Taran helped him sound them out.
They all gathered near the cairn as the afternoon light softened across the moor. Emily sat tucked against Paige’s side, her book closed now, watching her family with bright, observant eyes. Brody stood beside Taran, his small hand tucked inside his father’s.
Noah felt such gratitude for each of them.
And for Skye, standing beside him, her hand warm in his.
He thought of Keir, who had given everything to get them to this moment.
And Paige’s brother, Austin, who in his final desperate seconds had been dragged toward the portal by a man who refused to leave anyone behind.
But the tunnel’s collapse had swallowed them both. At least they assumed so, though they’d never know for sure. Sometimes it helped to imagine them in some new—or old—world, making their way with their own unique gifts.
Paige still spoke frequently of the brother she remembered and loved, the man who had existed before circumstances turned him toward blind ambition that consumed him.
Skye spoke of Keir often, as well, honoring the man whose steady, loving presence had guarded and protected her when no one else would. The father of her heart.
The absence of both men was acknowledged, honored, and grieved by the entire family.
Noah cleared his throat. He was certainly not a man who gave speeches. But today, with his family around him and his heart so full of gratitude, he felt compelled.
“I’ve lived in multiple worlds,” he began.
“Colonial Boston, where I was born and lived my childhood years. Havenwood, where Taran and Paige offered Emily and me a new life. A new family. And the Citadel, a world unto itself, where I feared I might lose everything and everyone.” He paused, feeling the weight of emotion swell in his chest. “But it gave me the best thing life, in any time, could offer.”
He lifted Skye’s hand to his lips. “You.”
She held his gaze, her green eyes glistening.
Dropping to one knee on the cold, damp earth, he took both her hands in his and gazed up at her with sheer adoration.
“We promised Emily we’d wait until she was well enough to be your flower girl.
” He glanced at his sister, who had gone very still on the blanket, her eyes enormous, her hands pressed to her mouth.
“So now that she is…” He turned back to Skye, and the rest of the world fell away.
“Skye. Love of my life. Will you marry me?”
She sank to her knees in front of him, her hands tightening on his, her face so open and unguarded it nearly broke him.
“I will.” Her voice was steady and sure. “For a lifetime. For all time.”
He pulled her to him and kissed her. Not the desperate, stolen kiss of collapsing tunnels and impossible choices.
He kissed her slow, deep and thoroughly, a promise sealed with the absolute certainty that they had all the time they wanted, in this world and beyond.
No guards, no restrictions, just the promise of love fulfilled.
Emily squealed. Brody whooped. Paige pressed her hands to her face, laughing through her tears.
Noah drew back just far enough to look into her eyes. “I love you beyond time.”
“I know,” she whispered. “I thought I knew before, but when you walked into the portal carrying me like the world was ending and whispered it against my hair, I felt it as deep and real and strong as my love for you.”
“Our world wasn’t ending then.” He cupped her face in his hands. “It was beginning.”
He helped her to her feet and pulled her close to his side as Emily launched herself at them both, her thin arms wrapping around their waists.
Skye laughed as Brody crashed into the group a second later, and then Paige, followed by Finn who stepped forward to clap his hand on Noah’s shoulder, his eyes suspiciously bright.
Taran waited, watching his family with the expression of a man witnessing something sacred. When the collective embrace loosened, he moved close and gestured toward the moor.
“I spent centuries tethered here with The 79. They were my family then. Still are.” His voice was rough, his brogue thicker than usual with the emotion he rarely let show.
“And then Soncerae gave the lot of us life and,” he turned to Paige, his blue eyes fierce as he grasped her hand, “sent me you.”
He looked at his family. “Then life gave us Brody, and fate gave us Noah and Emily. And Finn. And led us tae Skye.” He paused, his gaze moving across each of their faces as though memorizing this single, perfect moment. “It gave us this incredible family.”
“I agree,” Noah said as he ruffled Brody’s hair. “Just as you said once, mother—blood alone doesn’t make you family.” He kissed Skye’s cheek. “Being a family is a choice. It’s choosing to love no matter the past. Choosing it for the present and the future.”
He looked down at Emily, bright-eyed and flushed with joy. At Brody, practically vibrating with excitement. At Paige and Taran, standing shoulder to shoulder the way they faced life, a united front against whatever came next. At Finn, steady and sure.
And at Skye, the extraordinary woman who had sacrificed everything she knew to walk into the unknown with him.
“Family is love. And love is timeless.”
Author’s note: Thank you for reading Timeless. I hope you enjoyed your time with Noah and Skye. If you’d like to leave a review for Timeless or any of Jo Jones’ books, please go here.