“Where, exactly, are we going?” Kenna touched my arm as we moved into the dim corridor.
“Alloway.” Practically running, I turned the corner toward the stables. The fastest way to the bridge was on horseback.
“What’s the plan?” Kenna asked, keeping pace with me.
“Rescue Jamie. Save Doon. Take Addie down.”
That was it. My master plan boiled down to seven little words. It sounded so simple, so straightforward. But how to accomplish it was a different matter. I had no idea how to find Jamie or win against a wicked witch with supernatural powers. But I did know that I would fight for the people I loved, no matter the cost. If ever in my life I’d needed to stand and fight, it was now.
I was done running.
CHAPTER 32
Veronica
The bridge should’ve been open. I blinked again and willed my burning eyes to see something different. But it was no use. The Brig o’ Doon remained a ruin surrounded by impenetrable walls of swirling mist, as if the Centennial hadn’t happened.
Upon our arrival, Fiona had discerned a powerful curse that kept the portal to Alloway from opening. But I refused to believe the Protector of Doon would bring us all this way and then let evil win. There had to be another way.
Fergus and Duncan had gone in separate directions, to search the borders for any opening that might get us to Alloway. Fiona and Kenna, meanwhile, sat huddled in their elaborate gowns on the cold stone ground, the former engaged in supernatural introspection while the later dozed with her head slumped against her knees. Both girls appeared to twitch in the flickering light of the torches at the base of the bridge.
All too aware of the minutes ticking away, I turned to Fiona. “Any idea what time it is out there?” I tipped my head in the direction of where Alloway should have been. Wherever Jamie was, time was passing differently, more quickly but in a way I didn’t have enough data to quantify.
Fiona’s hazel eyes brimmed with fear not only for her king but for all those she loved. Her voice, when she spoke, sounded thick with despair. “Nay. I wasna born at the last Centennial.”
Her anguish mirrored my own. I wanted to ask her if she sensed anything that could help us, but I didn’t want to add to her misery. I knew if she had, she’d have said so. She was pushing herself nearly as hard as I was.
Instead, I paced the cobbled stones at the mouth of the Brig o’ Doon. Each pass caused my legs to ache a bit more. Without a clear focus for my energy, fatigue started to set in. After an indeterminable amount of time, Duncan’s sputtering lamp materialized in the heavily wooded forest. A moment later shadows leapt in the opposite direction announcing Fergus had returned as well.
Duncan, slightly out of breath as if he’d been sprinting, spoke first. “This side is impassible.”
“Aye,” Fergus confirmed as he approached. “My way as well.”
At the sound of voices, Kenna sat up, blinking against the artificial light. “Did they find a way across?”
“No.” My single word came out harsher than intended as frustration threatened to consume me from the inside out. Any problem could be solved under the right circumstances. Usually I could step outside of myself and examine different perspectives, but at the moment all I could feel was hopeless. We would never find the right solution in the time we had left.
“This is useless.” The girl who shared my brain spoke my exact thoughts. “I say we go back to the castle.”
Duncan and Fergus nodded in agreement as Fiona said, “Aye. It’s time to accept what’s ta be.”