to protect their treasure.”
“I remember. Alexander has a cave in Sedona that’s warded against the supernatural. And Nick told me that Rowan created an entire hidden city for her best friend, Harriet, and her people. This place, Mistwood—you can’t even see it from the road. It seems to take up no space.” Avery shook her head. Dragon magic was amazing.
Nathaniel nodded. “Exactly. Xavier needed something bigger.”
Avery crossed her arms. “How big are we talking?”
“Together we created a pocket near Bidean nam Bian, the highest point in what used to be the county of Argyll. What you need to understand, Avery, is we were doing something no dragon had ever done before. We didn’t just ward a part of the land; we copied space.”
Avery shook her head. “Copied space? What does that mean?”
“We didn’t take existing acreage and fold it into a pocket; we expanded what was there, duplicated it. Xavier and I, with help from the fairy kingdom, created a land that had never existed before. You won’t find it on any map, but it is big enough to support thousands of Highlanders for multiple lifetimes. We created roughly six hundred square miles and protected it with the strongest wards known to our species.
“Nothing supernatural can get through those wards, and no human can find the doorway inside. The Campbells who stayed behind wiped all memory of Xavier from their history. Several hundred Highlanders followed my brother into that pocket of space, which he named the builgean—bubble in Gaelic—not just Campbells but others who wanted to avoid the coming battle. Xavier became the chieftain of a new branch of Clan Campbell that still exists today, locked in a world that has branched off from us since 1745.”
Avery shook her head. “What are you saying? That he never came out?” She laughed. The thought seemed ludicrous. Certainly the people would eventually long to travel beyond the borders of the wards.
“Never. Xavier rules over a land of perpetual abundance, fed by his dragon energy. A land where presumably the world is the same as it was in 1745. A land completely cut off from the modern world.”
“But surely you’ve visited him over the centuries. You helped design the wards!”
Nathaniel shook his head slowly. “Although my magic is incorporated into the wards, his is as well, and fairy magic. As a supernatural, even I can’t get through. Over the centuries, Xavier has sent a few human scouts out and they’ve brought me messages of his well-being. I’ve provided them with some simple pleasures on occasion. Books mostly. Ideas. They told me stories of their existence before I returned them to the pocket, but since the day of its creation, I’ve never ventured inside.” He looked at her then, in the direct way of a dragon, an idea sparking amethyst in his normally gray eyes. “But you can, Avery. You’re still human. I can bring you to the door. I’m the only one who knows where it is. You can go through and tell my brother what is happening in Paragon. You can tell him that we need him.”
“What?” It felt like he’d knocked the wind from her lungs.
“Witches, dragons, and vampires are supernatural. They can’t get through. That means, of the people who know us and understand the situation in Paragon, only you or Nick can go through the door. Nick is mated to Rowan and any length of separation will be torture for her, especially if she has no way to contact him. She’ll try her hardest to keep him from going, and if he does anyway, she’ll be inconsolable until his return.”
“But I don’t have a mate.” Avery chewed her bottom lip.
“You don’t have a mate.”
“And I have no power.”
He nodded.
“You want me to retrieve your brother from a place you haven’t seen since 1745.” Avery tried to process the words as she said them, but they overloaded her brain.
Nathaniel faced Xavier’s portrait. “You have another advantage, Avery. You’re a woman. You have a better chance of reaching him. The Highlanders will be much less threatened by a strange woman than a strange man.”
Avery stared back at the portrait again.
“You don’t have to decide now.” Nathaniel sighed. “It’s a lot to ask, especially considering what you’ve been through the past few days.”
“Considering I haven’t had my stitches out yet and I’ve just discovered I have a sister I never knew about, I think dropping into an experiment in time and space is more than my mind can digest at the moment.”
“I