I felt like I could hear Haggis nearby. I yelled, “Haggis! Haggis!” My voice rasping. “Haggis!”
I felt for sure twas a sign of what was tae come. I was tae end here, dissipating intae dust within this timeline, inside this desolate world — without Kaitlyn.
I peeled m’shirt aside tae see the wound. It was deep, pouring blood. I dropped m’cloak tae the ground, pulled my shirt off, and pressed it tae the wound. I felt woozy from the loss of blood and — I looked back at the courtyard. William Wallace’s body was nae there. Twas as if all I knew was bein’ taken from me. Twas maddening tae lose the world, one person by one person, each piece one at a time. I picked up the cloak, draped it over my arm, and dragged the sword while holdin’ the shirt against my wound.
I couldna carry it all. I dropped the sword and dragged m’self up the stairs, resting against the wall, and crawlin’ the last few steps. Once I gained the floor, I clamored tae my feet, and lumbered down the hall tae m’room. It was bare and cold and dusty.
I fell intae the bed, pressin’ the cloth tae m’shoulder. “Och, Kaitlyn, I am injured, how can it be? Tae hae drawn the sword so many times, and then tae hae a lad, barely trained—”
I peeled the cloth up tae look, blood poured from the wound. “I need tae…I daena ken if we make it from this…”
Yet warmth filled me.
I sensed her nearby. It was good because it had been a long time without her. I turned my head tae look at the space beside me. “I pray ye are well, mo reul-iuil. This is… this is naething, I am going tae be fine. We are going…”
I dug through my bag for the watch. It took a moment tae focus, I was disoriented and weak, but twas five minutes until...
I whispered tae the empty space, “We are usin’ the Bridge, we are tryin’ tae fix the timeline. I want ye tae hold ontae me, stay here, we are… it may be awful, I imagine twill be very painful, but… “
* * *
“Magnus? Magnus?”
M’eyes opened and there was Kaitlyn’s face just within a few inches of mine.
CHAPTER 53 - HAYLEY
After about twenty minutes of sitting like that we kinda grew bored.
Zach said, “Well, hmmmm… what does this mean?”
Quentin said, “It must not have worked.”
Beaty said, “Unless it worked so well that we daena ken how much it worked.”
Fraoch nodded. “Aye, this is exactly how it might be.”
James shook his head. “Nah, something didn’t… that was supposed to be a huge thing, this was nothing, this wasn’t an option. That was our one big shot. Damnit.” He kissed Sophie on the head. “Well, we got you back, that was important. We’ll figure the rest out.”
I asked, “How do weknowit didn’t work?”
James said, “Because Katie isn’t here.”
We all looked at the tracker hanging on the wall. He said, “Just us, that means we didn’t do shit.”
Emma said, “It’s too early to know, I mean, what if they’re traveling right now? We don’t honestly know how long it might—”
Fraoch said, “We know it doesn’t take long, time wise, it just takes a hunk of life from your flesh.”
I asked, “But how would we know if it worked? We’re waiting for Katie and Mags to get back, right? And they’re in… where exactly?”
Everyone looked blank.
James said, “Shit, that sucks.”
Emma said, “We could look things up on…”
She jumped from her chair, ran for her laptop, returned, and plugged it in. Then with her hands poised over the keyboard she asked, “What would we look up though…?”
