Free Dark Rival by Brenda Joyce Page B

eyes were wary now. “Does it matter?"
    “Oh, yes, it does.”
    He stared, then murmured. “MacNeil asked me to follow Royce. When he left ye here, I should have gone home to Awe, to the time where I belong, but I went to Rome. I need to go back to my time.”
    She stated, her mind scrambling.
    Sympathy had filled his blue eyes. “Lass, I will take ye home, I just need to think a moment because ye need a Master to aid ye now, here, in yer time.”
    She didn't know what he was talking about. ‘Take me back in time!” she cried, trembling wildly. “I am not going home! I need to go back in time, to earlier today or even to last night. I’ll tell him what will happen—we'll stop it this time! I'll go back in time to stop his murder!” This was the answer; of course it was. To go back in time—and prevent his death.
    Aidan paled. “Ye canna go back in time an’ change the future... t’is forbidden.”
    “Who cares?” she cried. “I must stop Royce from being murdered! You must help me!"
    “I canna break such a rule.”
    “What?” She was shocked. And then she was furious. “You hate rules. They're a cage for your soul!” He would refuse her now. What was wrong with him?
    “Lass, the rules I break are the petty ones, MacNeil will take my head if I take ye back so ye can change this day.” He was dark and grim now. “Besides, Royce wished to leave this life. I have heard him say, many times, that he's tired of the fight. Ye'll nay change his mind, not in a single day.”
    Allie stared at him, incredulous, disbelieving. Her mind spun and raced. He wasn't going to take her back to earlier that day or yesterday; she could see it in his eyes. Royce had wanted to die. She had to accept that, even if she couldn't understand it. And he wasn’t going to change in a single day.
    She breathed hard. Her senses told her that Aidan knew Royce well and he was telling her the truth. Instantly Allie changed her plans. To undo his death she needed time with him—time to convince him he had a future worth fighting for.
    And she wanted time with him—a lifetime—even if it was in the primitive past.
    He must have sensed what she intended, because his eyes went wide. “Nay.”
    “I haven't asked you yet!”
    He shook his head and then drained half of her drink.
    “Take me back with you.” A wild determination hardened.
    He stared back. “To 1430? Royce will have my head.”
    “No, you don't understand. When we met the other night, he came to me from the fifteenth century. He left me here— but waited for me for almost six hundred years. Don't you get it? There's a reason we met that way. He loves me. I love him. You're going back—take me to him. Take me to him in your time,” she begged fiercely.
    He inhaled. “Lass, lust an’ love are hardly the same.”
    She seized his hand. “I am going with you.”
    And Aidan hesitated.
    Allie knew an opening when she saw one. “Please. I will do anything, anything, to go back with you to Royce.”
    “Ye offer me yer bed?” He was incredulous.
    “Anything...but that!”
    He shook his head, still ready to refuse. “Ye willna like my time. Ye willna like Royce very well in my time, either.”
    “You can't deny me. Please.” Her grip tightened. Panic began. He had to do this for her. He looked into her eyes. “Are ye certain, Lady Allie? Are ye truly certain? What if yer wrong. What if Royce doesna love ye as ye love him?”
    “I am certain,” she cried, clinging now to his large hand with both of hers.
    He drained the drink, murmured, “Royce left ye here fer a reason. I dinna ken,” and pulled her into his embrace. Allie held on tight. And they were flung across the room, through the walls and into the universe—back to 1430.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Carrick
Castle
, Morvern, Scotland—1430
     
    SHE OPENED HER EYES, the torment finally receding. Allie somehow breathed. This time bad felt even worse than the previous one and she was amazed she was alive.