“How are we going to move this stuff around without being noticed?” Lizzy heaved a bag full of books to the trail off the road.
“We won’t have to move it far. We will stay in one of the cabins outside the Keep this night. My mother will know I am back and send one of my brothers to fetch us.”
“How will she know?”
“When your son needs you, do you know it?”
Myra asked, not expecting a reply.
“Huh.” Lizzy pondered.
“Are you ready for this?” Todd asked Simon.
Simon looked up at Todd like he was nuts. “Is anyone?”
Todd shook his head, ruffled Simon’s hair.
“You’re too smart for your own good.”
Myra glanced at the pattern of the trees, searching for a symmetrical spot to place the stones.
She found a small clearing which suited her needs before she set her things down in a pile. Todd, Liz and Simon followed her lead.
One by one, she placed the stones in a circle.
Slowly, she drew out the moment of their departure for as long as she could. I’m leaving and I’m never going to see him again. The words echoed in her mind, creating havoc in her heart.
Unable to put off the inevitable any longer she glanced up. “We’re ready.” She motioned for Liz and Simon to come inside the stones.
Todd’s eyes followed Lizzy as she led Simon into the circle.
Myra waited until Todd’s gaze moved to her. She stood staring at him, patiently waiting. Unable to control it, her heart started to crumble and break.
“Come here,” he said.
She rushed to his arms on a cry. Desperate, their lips found each other’s, each devouring in a last attempt to hold onto what they knew could never be.
His hands stayed in her hair holding her to him.
His kiss was excruciating. She wanted him to beg her to stay, but how could she even if he did.
A silent tear streaked her cheek when his lips left hers. “I will never forget you, Todd Blakely. A part of you will live with me all my days. I have no way to thank you for all you have done.”
He wiped her tear away and kissed her forehead. “I’ll never forget you.” He stiffened his spine and moved aside, putting a small amount of distance between them. He already missed her. She could see it in his eyes.
Her hand slipped from his before she stepped into the circle, where Lizzy stood waiting with Simon. Myra laid her hand on each stone bringing brilliance and light. The inscribed words, written by the Ancients, hummed and radiated heat.
In Gaelic, Myra began:
“Ancient stones, and ancient power, take us back to my home this hour. Take us to my time at last, may only the day’s I’ve been here lapse. Keep us safe and from harm’s way, hide us from the light of day. The cabin by the creek, if you please. As I ask it, make it be.”
A rush of hot air pushed against the three of them. The stones, once dormant, now shot fire and light above their heads, and swirled into a vortex.
Myra looked up as the ground began to shake, her eyes met and locked to Todd’s. Her hand lifted in a silent wave.
His shock registered to her senses. For the first time since they met, she felt his absolute belief in all she had told him, his acceptance of all she had said as truth.
Then he was gone.
The world shimmered in front of the travelers, and the ground disappeared from beneath their feet.
A feeling of weightlessness and a falling all at once surrounded them. Colors of all shades shot past them and above their heads. They couldn’t tell if they were moving up or down, left or right. The noise was deafening and the wind rushed over them at an alarming speed.
Simon’s eyes grew wide. Lizzy held his hand in a tight grip. “This won’t last long,” Myra yelled over the noise, but she didn’t think the others could hear her. Like a door slamming, everything stopped all at once, the noise, the light, the wind.
A small dusting of snow drifted down from the gray skies above. Their belongings sat in the neat piles they had placed them in only moments before but now they sat on a pile of snow, surrounded by a dark ring where the stones’ energy and light had burned into the ground.
“Now what?” Lizzy asked.
Myra snapped out of her thoughts, blinked away her tears, and looked at Simon and Lizzy still holding hands and shaking. Behind them stood a cabin. “We will put our things here, and stay until first light.”
“Are we really in Scotland?” Simon asked.
“Aye. Look over there, beyond the trees. Do you see the hue of light?”
“Yeah.”
“That is my home, MacCoinnich Keep.” A smile chased away her pain. She closed her eyes briefly and sent out a call of ‘I’m home’ to her mother.
“Come, let us get out of the cold, after we cover up the circle from the stones.”
Todd sat on the cold, hard ground. His eyes were dry and refused to blink. Jesus, she was gone. She was really gone. The only thing that remained to remind him she had been there was a black circle where fire had scorched the earth, evidence from the circle of stones that tossed them all from one time to another.
If he hadn’t seen it, he wouldn’t have believed it possible. Even now, sitting alone in the dark with a mist starting to rain from the cloudy skies, he couldn’t wrap his mind around the facts.
From the beginning, he knew there was something about her that was pure. Innocent.
It wasn’t until a bitter cold wind bore down on him that he made his way to his car. He looked over to where Lizzy had parked hers, a forestry pass displayed on the dash, informing any official policing the forest that a hiker would return for their car within the time allotted.
Only he knew the driver wasn’t a hiker enjoying the great outdoors.
At home, he tossed his keys down and went straight to the liquor cabinet, poured himself a double Scotch, then fell onto his couch. His blurry eyes registered a box next to his fireplace, wrapped up in bright red and green foiled paper, perfect for the holiday.
It was the only evidence in the room that Christmas was less than an hour away.
The card on it was from Myra, it said simply;
“Happy Christmas, Todd. Never Forget.”
The box was impossibly heavy. It took both hands to carry it back to his sofa where he unwrapped it. Under the wrapping and from the plain cardboard box he drew out a sword.
The ornate carvings were etched deep in the blade and the hilt fit his hand perfectly. He lifted it up and tested its weight.
Never in his life had he held such a weapon. The joy it brought to him was mixed with more sorrow than he expected, more pain than he thought possible.