Chapter 1 #2
Mortification stole Ruby’s breath. Oh God!
Somebody had seen her after all! How would she explain this away?
Pretend she was rehearsing a play? That she was a poet trying out some new lines?
Or tell the truth and explain that she was desperately trying to get a Fae to send her back in time so she could escape her broken life and visit her cousin?
“I...um...I...” she managed.
The old woman smiled. “I...um...I? Well, that explains it, lass. Carry on. Dinna let me stop ye.” Her eyes, dark like onyx, glittered with humor.
“Actually...I...er...think I’m done now. Bye.” She grabbed the book, stuffed it into her pocket, and turned to leave. But the woman’s voice rang out behind her.
“Ye didnae need all that claptrap in order to speak to me, ye know.”
Ruby froze. Slowly, she turned back to face the old woman. “I beg your pardon?”
The old woman waved a hand at the bench. “All that. Dancing around and chanting silly rhymes. I’ve never understood why people feel the need to do it. It isnae necessary to speak with the Fae.”
Ruby blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“No need to be sorry either.” The old woman stepped forward and offered her hand.
In something of a daze, Ruby took it, finding the old woman’s skin warm and dry and her grip surprisingly strong.
Her hair, Ruby noticed, was as iron-gray as the Edinburgh sky and pulled back into a severe bun.
But her expression was not severe in the least, it was warm and friendly.
“I’m Irene,” the old woman said. “Irene MacAskill.”
“Um...Ruby Douglas,” Ruby stammered.
Irene released her hand and nodded. “Aye. I know.”
“You do?”
Irene rolled her eyes. “Do ye think I wouldnae know the name of the person who summoned me? Although ye didnae really summon me, since I was coming to talk to ye anyway.”
Ruby stared, waiting for her brain to catch up. “Summoned you? I didn’t—” Then the implications of Irene’s words slowly sank in and her jaw dropped. “Wait. Do you mean...do you mean...you’re one of the...the Fae?”
Irene grinned, dark eyes flashing. “My, my lass, that took ye a while.”
Ruby’s mouth moved, but no words came out. “But...but...you’re not—”
“Not what? Some little thing with wings that flits around sprinkling fairy-dust?”
Ruby snapped her mouth shut. She suddenly felt a little woozy. She glanced around, expecting to have been transported to an alternate reality, but she was still standing in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.
Talking to a Fae.
She cleared her throat. Took a deep breath. Tried to drag her thoughts into some kind of coherence. “So it um...worked then?”
She was, quite frankly, stunned by the words coming out of her mouth. What had happened to steady, dependable Ruby? That Ruby would never even have entertained the idea of the existence of the Fae, let alone be standing here speaking to one as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Irene MacAskill cocked her head. Her gaze was deep and penetrating, like she was looking right down into Ruby’s soul, seeing things that Ruby would rather keep private.
Irene tapped her hand on her chest. “It’s what resides in here that called me. That and the currents of time and destiny that swirl around ye.”
“What do you mean?”
“We all have a path to tread, my dear,” she replied, clasping her hands together.
“We all have a place in the grand tapestry that we call life. We are all threads in that tapestry. But sometimes some of those threads come loose, or are woven into a place they weren’t meant to be.
When that happens, the Balance shifts, and the tapestry itself can begin to fray—unless those threads are woven back in to where they are supposed to be. ”
Ruby shook her head. “Nope. None of that made the slightest sense.”
Irene laughed, a rich, deep sound that seemed to echo up from the earth. “It will, my dear. In time. When ye have found yer place in the tapestry and the person who will help ye weave yerself back into it, ye will know what I mean. But for now ye wished to ask me a favor did ye not?”
A favor? In the confusion of the last few minutes, Ruby had almost forgotten what had started all of this.
“I...yes... I have a cousin, Charlie Douglas. She was sent into the past by the Fae. By you, actually, I think. Well, I would like to visit her.” She lifted her chin and met Irene’s dark gaze.
“I would like you to send me back in time so I can see my cousin.”
And escape my life, a voice whispered in the back of her mind. And the car crash it’s become.
Irene regarded her steadily. Her face was a map of wrinkles, concentrated around her eyes and mouth, which suggested she liked to smile a lot.
She was, Ruby had to admit, not what she had expected a Fae to look like.
She wasn’t quite sure what she’d expected mind you, but someone who looked like somebody’s kind old granny was definitely not it.
Yet for all that, there was something about Irene MacAskill, something that suggested an ages-old wisdom and a deep, abiding compassion.
At last, the old woman spoke. “Is this truly what ye wish, Ruby Douglas? I know ye believe this will be an escape, but it willnae. If ye do this, ye will face hard truths and even harder choices. What ye think ye want and who ye think ye are will be thrown into chaos. But if ye have the strength to see where yer true thread in the tapestry lies, then ye may find what ye are looking for after all. What say ye?”
Ruby swallowed. Was she really going to do this? Part of her was appalled. But the larger, louder part of her screamed for some kind of release, some way to escape from everything that had happened in the last few weeks.
And besides, how bad could it be? She was going to see Charlie. She would visit with her cousin, get some perspective, and then come home and have a fresh start.
She straightened her shoulders and faced Irene MacAskill. “I’m sure. I want to do this. I need to do this.”
Irene regarded her for several heartbeats more before finally nodding. “Then all ye need do is step through the arch.”
Ruby turned and saw that an arched wooden pergola rose behind her. Honeysuckle was growing up both sides of it, its flowers beginning to fade with the season. Then Ruby noticed something else. The space beneath the arch was obscured, blurred, like misted-up window panes. What the—?
She glanced at Irene. “Just walk through there? It’s as simple as that?”
Irene smiled. “As simple as that, lass. I told ye ye didnae need yer silly incantations.”
Ruby faced the arch. Turn back! A voice screamed in her head. This is crazy.
But she ignored the voice. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through.