Faelan scowled. “Damnation. I’d better go before she comes out here and falls in a hole. She finds the bloody things like a midge finds dung. Here.” Faelan pulled a dagger from his belt. “This is yours.”
“Where’d you find it?”
“Bree found it under Quinn’s coffin.”
“She climbed in a grave?” Tavis asked. She must be brave. Or odd.
“She likes graves. I’m trying to keep her from being so rash and bold, but it’s slow going.”
“I wondered where I’d lost it. I must have dropped it when we buried Quinn. I’ve been using my dirk.”
“I cleaned it up. It had a bit of rust. It didn’t hold up as good as you. Though you look a mess now. Your Marna wouldn’t think you’re so bonny now. Sorry. It seems like just days since we were there. Back then.”
“Aye.” But it hadn’t. Several lifetimes had passed. “Is there any news of Anna?” He felt awkward mentioning her now that Faelan knew what he’d done.
“No. Lachlan and Marcas are still searching the area where the fortress vanished. The Seeker should be here soon. We’ll find her.”
“She thought I was you at first,” Tavis said.
“We always did look alike.”
“She wouldn’t have gotten caught if she hadn’t tried to rescue you.”
Faelan snorted. “All these women keep trying to rescue me. It’s bloody embarrassing. No self-respecting woman would have done such a thing in our day. Women are different now. They don’t listen to a bloody thing you say. It’s hard as the devil to protect them.”
“I know. Anna fought like a man. I thought she was a bit barmy when she said she was a warrior.”
“She’s one of the strongest female warriors the clan has. She’s good. They all are, but I don’t understand why they want to battle. Makes no sense.”
“I want to help look for her. She saved my life, and I’m afraid she’ll pay for it with her own.”
“You need to heal a bit more first,” Faelan said, playing big brother. “Are you coming in?”
Faelan nodded and clapped his shoulder. “Aye.” He glanced around the woods. “Don’t be long. You’re still weak.”
Tavis watched his brother leave the graveyard, following the same path that his brothers and father had taken when they carried him here to be buried a hundred and fifty years ago. Tavis watched as Faelan reached Bree. She wrapped her arms around Faelan and lifted her face for a kiss. He kissed her softly, touched his hand over her stomach, which wasn’t even rounded yet, and took her inside. His brother had found his home here. And his mate.
Tavis thought how familiar Anna had looked to him. How familiar she’d smelled. And he wasn’t sure whether he was happy or afraid. He touched the healing cut on the front of his thigh and pulled himself to his feet, supported by the headstone of his father’s grave. Perhaps Faelan was right that it was intended to be. Still, Druan had torn their family apart.
He brushed his damp eyes and heard someone behind him. Female, from the pretty smell.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
He righted himself and turned. It was Faelan’s wife. She wore a skirt that showed almost as much skin as Anna had. Times had certainly changed.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt. Faelan said you were still out here, and I was worried. You shouldn’t be alone. You’ve been through a lot.”
“No need to apologize. Aren’t you supposed to be resting?”
She waved her hand. “He went off to take a shower. He’ll never know.”
Tavis hid a smile. Faelan had his hands full with this one.
“I see you found something to wear,” she said.
“Aye. The clothes are strange.” He twitched a bit, feeling constricted.
“Faelan’s still trying to get used to them. He hasn’t been out of the time vault much longer than you have.” She looked down at his father’s grave. “This is my favorite grave.”
“You have a favorite grave?”
“I love graves. I’ve always been drawn to this one. It’s his, isn’t it? Your father’s.”
“Aye. We couldn’t put his name on the headstone, in case someone came looking for Faelan.”
“You showed Faelan?”
Tavis turned back to his father’s grave. “Just now.”
“That’s why he rushed to take a shower. He likes to think in there. How awful, having to bury your father so soon after finding Faelan.”
“Aye, it wasn’t easy. Ian took it hard.” Tavis swallowed.
“Faelan has told me so much about his family that I feel like I already know you. He doesn’t like to talk about himself though.”
A smile stung the cut on Tavis’s lip. “You want to know what he was like?”
Her green eyes lit, and it was just like looking at Isabel. “Yes. Please.”
Tavis glanced at one of the cuts on his leg that was almost healed. “He was carefree, in the beginning, always joking around. But later he was like he is now. Trying to save everyone. Trying to save the world.”
“After Liam died. He told me what happened.”
“Faelan blamed himself for Liam’s death. But it wasn’t his fault.” If anything, it was Tavis’s fault. If he’d gotten there faster…
“It wasn’t yours either,” Bree said.
Tavis frowned. Had she read his mind? “If I’d gotten there quicker, Faelan and I could have kept him from falling.”
Bree put her hand over his, and he felt something run up his arm and settle in his chest. It was almost uncomfortable, like a bee sting. Then she reached out and touched his chest, right on his tingling battle marks, as if she could see them through his shirt. Maybe she had tended him and knew where they were, but it was a bloody bold move on a woman’s part to touch a man’s battle marks. They were personal, almost like touching someone’s mouth or something even more private. He didn’t want to make her feel bad, so he didn’t move away. The sensation in his chest grew stronger. Bree frowned and closed her eyes. His battle marks got hotter. He was about to pull away when she opened her eyes. She looked like she was in pain.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
“Yes. Yes,” she said, as if trying to convince herself.
“Did you do something to me?”
“What?”
“It felt like you were…reading my thoughts or something.”
“Bree can do all kinds of things other people can’t,” a male voice said.
Tavis turned and saw Ronan approach. He had a bow slung across his back. Was there no privacy in this place?
“She has…powers,” Ronan said.
“Are you a—?”
“A witch?” Ronan asked, grinning.
Bree scowled and smacked his thigh. Tavis was surprised to see his brother’s wife touch another man so intimately. “I’m definitely not a witch. I just get these…feelings.”
“Among other grand feats,” Ronan added, standing so close his legs were almost touching Bree’s.
“I was going to say Watcher,” Tavis said.
“Best we can figure, she’s a warrior and a Watcher.”
“That never happens.”
“Lots of things happen to Bree that never happen to anyone else. Did Faelan tell you she was locked in a time vault for four days, and he used his talisman to open it? She emerged unscathed.”
Tavis stared at his brother’s wife. “That’s not possible.”
“Like I said, she’s not normal.”
“Stop saying that.” Bree smacked Ronan’s thigh again. “You make me sound like a freak.”
“You’re not a freak, darlin’, you’re special.” The warrior was teasing, but there was a look in his eyes that made Tavis wonder if Faelan was certain it was his bairn that she was carrying.
“And don’t you forget it,” Bree said.
“Is this where the key to your time vault was hidden?” Ronan asked.