Page 60 of Highlander Unraveled
I studied the small computer. A time jumper’s key to any period within all our history. What about the future? Did it have to be a time that had already passed? This small box, seemingly insignificant, was actually a tool that if it got into the wrong hands could change the course of history for good or bad. Terrifying, really.
Blowing out a breath that was harsh enough to make my hair flutter around my face, I pushed the power button and the machine whirred to life.
But then there was nothing, just a blinking cursor on a blank, blue screen. Obviously a protective measure should it be stolen. There had to be some sort of code. Or could it truly be as simple as typing in where a person wanted to go?
“What do ye do?” Logan asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Hold onto me. I’m going to try a few things and I want to make sure if any of them work, we are not separated.”
“Do ye think it is as simple as that?”
“I don’t know, but it seems so. I mean, if couples can time travel by making love? It has to be touch, right?”
Logan shook his head, looking just as perplexed as myself. “I dinna know. But if I had to make a guess, then aye.”
“All right.” I blew out another breath, my heart pounding hard. “Here I go.”
Logan wrapped his arms around my middle, his chin resting on my shoulder.
I typed in1544then pressed the return button. Freezing. I didn’t know what to expect. But I didn’t feel any different. There was no shift in the wind. In fact, nothing happened, and the 1544 disappeared from the screen.
“Okay, that didn’t work,” I mumbled. “Let me try to be more specific.”
I typed inGealach, 1544and pressed enter. Again, nothing happened.
“Dammit,” I muttered, so frustrated. I gritted my teeth. Tore my gaze from the screen to stare at the sky for a minute.
What had Mrs. MacDonald said?Punch in where you want to go.I’d done that. My eye lit on the red button. Maybethatwasthebutton. Not an emergency, don’t press it button, but the one that made you disappear.
“Breathe, love. We’ll figure it out,” Logan murmured, massaging my shoulders.
“I’m going to try something different,” I said.
“All right.”
“Put your arms around me again, and don’t let go. No matter what, hold on tight,” I said.
This time, I typed,Castle Gealach, July, 1544. My finger hesitated over the red button, scared to press it and not have it work, but equally terrified that it would and one of us wouldn’t end up going. I settled the black box on my knees, and with my free hand threaded my fingers through Logan’s where his palm rested around my waist.
“I love you,” I said, touching my temple to his.
“I love ye, too.”
I bit my lip hard, still unable to make my finger move.
“Press it,” he whispered.
And I did.
Reality pulsed in an out around me, like it had the first time I’d time traveled. I heard noises that were different, and then nothing. The air turned warm, then frigid. Through it all, I held tight to Logan—and the black box, the logical part of me realizing if we ended up somewhere else, not where we wanted to be, we’d need that thing to get back. We’d been given an enchanted prize, and we needed to keep it safe. No matter what. We couldn’t allow it to get back into Mrs. MacDonald’s wretched hands.
Beside me, Logan groaned.
“I think it’s working,” I said, my voice sounding so far away, like I wasn’t the one who’d said it.
“Aye. I feel queasy.”
The dawn bloomed into a bright sun, then faded, and then brightened again.
