Now, as these three people clustered around me, their combined strength bathed me in a warmth I’d never experienced. I’d been weak, a broken and fragile creature. I knew that. But maybe with actual real friends beside me, I was learning to be strong.
I nodded and closed my eyes. Years of study began marching through my head in systematic rows. Pain struck in the middle of my forehead, but I ignored it. When I came across a paragraph that matched my mother’s symptoms, I flinched and tried to discard it, but it fit too well.
Placenta previa. An abnormal implantation of the placenta at the opening of the cervix. This condition can impede the child’s delivery and, left untreated, can lead to maternal hemorrhage. Without immediate medical attention, the condition can cause severe injury and/or death for both mother and child.
My eyes popped open. “We have to get her back,” I said. “Fast. There’s no other option.”
I followed Collum’s gaze as he read the sky. To the east, there might’ve been a hint of gray, but would it come soon enough?
Black blood spread out beneath us on the hard packed dirt. Under my knees, my gown sopped it up like syrup. Mom’s freckled face looked ghostly, as if she were already gone. My whole life, she’d guided me. Now, when I needed her most, she was far away. Farther than she’d ever been.
The pendant jolted against my skin. My head jerked up, and I saw that the others had felt it too. Somewhere, a thousand years in the future, Doug was fiddling with the dials of the Tesla device, ready to flip the switch and bring us home. The Dim was coming for us.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
“The Nonius Stone,” I gasped. “It has be on Mom when the Dim comes, right?”
With his uninjured hand, Collum fumbled for the dagger in his bag, cursing his own stupidity. Phoebe took it from him and unsheathed it. With the knife in my boot, I slashed through the bottom of my underskirt, making a long strip to secure the blade to my mother’s arm.
We’re going to make it. Lucinda and Moira will know what to do. We’ll—
A twig cracked in the forest. Bran leaped up, the two curved swords instantly in his hands. Collum tried to struggle to his feet. When he fell, Phoebe gestured him back and withdrew her knives. Side by side, Bran and Phoebe peered into the darkness.
Chapter 41
“AH.” HER SULTRY VOICE PRECEDED HER AS SHE STEPPED through the circle of trees. “It seems we are in the nick of time, yes?”
Celia Alvarez’s glossy dark hair poured down on either side of her face. Her forest-green gown blended perfectly with the trees as she surveyed the scene before her.
My eyes fastened on the object in her hand. A very small, very modern gun.
She brought a gun?
Phoebe took a step toward her. “Celia.” Hatred burned as she spoke the name.
“No, no.” Her wide mouth turned down into a regretful frown. “Get back, little one. I do not wish to kill Michael’s child, mi querida, but I will if I must.” She noticed my scrutiny and examined the pistol in her hand. “Anachronistic, I know.” She shrugged. “But a woman must have her useful things, yes?”
With a spatter of displaced snow, the bald Flint slunk from the trees holding another, larger pistol.
Flint grinned when he saw Bran. “Good work, Brandon.”
I flinched. Suspicion danced across my mind, leaving rotting pits in its wake.
Good work?
Bran sheathed his swords and ambled toward Celia. “Hello, Mother.”
“My son.” Celia kissed him on both cheeks. Her victorious smile sent my heart plummeting into my feet. “You’ve done well. How is your injury? It is good?”
Bran touched his side and nodded. “Fine, Mother.”
“Accidents will happen, my son,” she said, patting his cheek. “Now get their lodestones and bring them to me. We have a long journey ahead, and time grows short.”
Bran nodded. “Of course, Mother.”
Oh, no. Not this. Please, not this.
I tried to catch Bran’s eye, but he wouldn’t look at me. He advanced on Phoebe, ordering her to kneel. She shot quick glares at the two guns, then spit at Bran, plopping down just behind me. Collum had somehow gotten to his feet. Bran faced him.
“Your ring, MacPherson.”
“You worthless piece of scum,” Collum said quietly. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
Bran shrugged. With a sweep of his leg, he knocked the injured Collum’s feet from under him and kicked the sword from his hand. It skittered across the frozen ground as Collum crashed onto his wounded shoulder with a grunt of pain.
Overhead, the sky brightened imperceptibly. I heard Phoebe’s intake of breath behind me as she felt her lodestone twinge. I felt it too.
Bran knelt in front of me, his back to his mother. “Sorry, Hope,” he drawled. “It’s been fun, love. But I’ll need that pendant now. And, Phoebe, your bracelet if you please.”
My heart was a mangled thing when I raised my eyes to his. Poisonous words burned on my tongue. But they dissolved as Bran’s blue and green eyes seared into mine. He mouthed, Be ready.
My chest inflated. Relief thrummed through me as I mimed giving him the necklace.