Page 78 of Borrowed Time
Once he was gone, though, theprimasat up a little straighter in her chair. “Why come back now? I should think you’d want to take Seth back to where you started.”
Well, that had been the plan.
“Because I can’t fully control my talent,” Devynn said frankly. “And I’m not really sure why we’re here at this particular moment in time. I suppose that’s something Seth and I will need to figure out.”
Again, Abigail looked as if she wasn’t quite sure how she should respond. But then she shrugged and reached for a small silver bell that sat on the diminutive side table next to her chair. An imperious little ring, and she added, “While we wait, you should have some tea.”
Seth wasn’t sure tea would help much — after everything he’d heard in the last half hour, he thought he wanted something much stiffer…assuming Prohibition was no longer the law of the land — but he managed to smile at his cousin. “That would be very nice, thank you.”
A woman who was probably around theprima’sage but looked at least thirty pounds heavier and much more lively entered the room. “Yes, Mrs. McAllister?”
“Some tea for my guests, Dorothy.”
The woman — either the housekeeper or theprima’spersonal maid — nodded and said she’d be right back out with it.
Sure enough, she returned with a silver tea service that Seth was pretty sure had come over on the boat with the original McAllisters back in the 1870s. No sooner had she poured a cupfor him and Devynn than he heard voices coming down the hall from the entry, and soon enough, Charles entered the room with the three elders in tow, along with a group of whoever else he’d been able to collect on that Friday morning.
To his surprise, he realized one of the elders was his cousin Helen, the healer. The other two elders, Gilbert McAllister and Josiah Miller, were the same, although obviously much older than when he’d last seen them.
“How is this possible?” Gilbert asked, an echo of theprima’swords from only ten minutes before.
But even as Seth opened his mouth to reply, a woman’s voice cut through the room, stopping him before he could speak.
“Help. Come help!”
What the hell?
“It’s Ruby,” Charles said, his face growing pale. “She’s in trouble!”
“How…?” Seth managed, and his brother shook his head in impatience.
“Calling out to the clan is one of her talents,” he said. “We have to go help her!”
“A little while ago, I saw her walking down by the overlook just past the Flatiron,” Helen put in. “Let’s go.”
The overlook was at least a ten-minute walk from theprima’shouse on Paradise Lane. Whatever was going on, Seth didn’t see how the elders could possibly get down there in time to be of any use.
Whereas he….
“We can help,” he said, and reached out for Devynn’s hand. “Do you have the amulet?”
She nodded, comprehension clear in her wide blue eyes.
“Then let’s go.”
He put his arms around her waist, and immediately the crowded back parlor in theprima’shouse disappeared, replacedby the winding curve of Jerome’s main street as it snaked its way down the hill. To one side was the large building that had been a boarding house in his time, while across the road was only a narrow guardrail and a sweeping vista that afforded some of Jerome’s best views.
A screech of tires, and two large black cars headed down the hill, smoke billowing in their wake. And while the wild thought went through Seth’s mind that he knew there was only one way down the hill and he could jump ahead to block the road, he also realized that whoever was driving those cars would probably mow him down without a single thought.
Where was Ruby?
“Oh, my God,” Devynn said, and he whirled. She stood a foot away from him, face stark white, making the lipstick she wore stand out like blood.
“What is it?” he demanded. Normally, he would never have used that tone with her, but he knew he was just about at his limit. Too many shifts in time, too many details and losses to absorb.
“My dreams,” she breathed, then went on quickly, “I kept having strange dreams the past couple of days. Dreams about a black car and a man with black hair. But I couldn’t put it together. I didn’t know what those images meant.”
She hugged her arms around herself, although the day was mild enough out here in the sun.
Staring straight at him, Devynn concluded,
“Jasper Wilcox — the Wilcoxprimusin this time — just kidnapped yourprima-in-waiting.”
