The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,69

they beat Magnus until he was unconscious.”

Quentin said, “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, then they threw us all in the back of a truck.”

“The kids and you and...“

“Unconscious Magnus, yeah. Then they time-jumped us to the future.” I looked around at their faces. “And just to let you know, time jumping inside a steel box is not good. That is not a solution.”

I looked down at my hands, they were pretty mangled too. Emma noticed, and opened the first aid box again, pulling out ointment and bandages. “When we arrived, Magnus was still unconscious. He’s having heart problems again.”

“Like when he jumped back here, years ago?”

“Yeah, remember how scary it was?” Emma sat down in front of me and began applying Band-Aids.

Hayley said, “Remind me, what did they say it was?”

“They didn’t find anything wrong with him, not really, it was the stress of a beating, plus time jumping — his heart stopped. The doc said to rest, recuperate, to not get stressed out.”

Fraoch said, “Tis impossible for Magnus tae nae be stressed out.”

“That is so true, and so he’s lying there, having this heart thing, and the kids were there, and I was trying to get his heart to start again, and I was yelling for help and banging on the walls of the van. It was awful.” I folded forward, crying, covering my face in my hands. Emma kindly patted my knee. Hayley sat beside me, passing me the tissue box.

I dabbed my eyes. “We were on the landing pad at the castle, but the castle was all war torn hell, like some kind of armageddon. There were goddamn heads on pikes. Like a horror movie.” I retched.

Quentin said, “Just a few days after Boss left? That is not cool. Time travelers can do a lot of damage when they surprise attack.”

“Well, we agree on that. Magnus’s kingdom was supposed to be a hopeful place, not some trash heap where any chickenshit with the biggest weapon gets to take everything. Magnus killed Roderick so we wouldn’t have to deal with his pussy-ass anymore.”

Hayley said, “Damn girl that’s crass. Also it’s not making a lot of sense, you’ve mixed a lot of metaphors.”

“Yeah, well I’m tired. And all the words I just used, work. If Roderick was still alive I would say it to his face, you are a pussy-ass chickenshit.” I leaned my head back. “I’m sorry I said that, I’m glad my kids didn’t hear me. I am so worried about Magnus. Whatever is happening in the future-future is dark and Magnus is in the middle of it.”

I looked down at my bandaged fingers. “They took Magnus to the hospital and then put me and the kids into a cell down in the dungeon. A few hours later they dragged Magnus into the cell beside me. He was talking but I don’t think he was much better.”

Fraoch said, “What is the purpose of it?”

“They want him to fight in the arena, again, plus there’s a war — armies, Quentin, plural armies… ugh, his life is becoming never-ending war...”

Quentin said, “It’s this Sir Paddy guy, right? Where did he get the armies?”

“I don’t know, but he is describing himself as the king.”

“Now he’s the king? What the hell?”

“And Magnus is too weak to fight, he could hardly sit up.”

Quentin said, “This is bleak, so how did you get out?”

“Archie had a small knife in his pocket, and I used it to pick the lock on our cell. Magnus refused to come, he said he’d slow us down.” Hayley squeezed my hand and I took a second before I could continue.

“I got us out of the castle through a tunnel and made our way to a hidden vessel. Magnus had told Archie about it while we were on vacation.”

I recounted the rest of the story, the running with Isla on my back, sneaking out of the tunnel, Archie digging under the tree, how hard it was to pry the lid up on the box, the helicopters and other vehicles descending on us at the last moment, and the jump to here. All of it.

Hayley said, “Man, that is a lot.”

“Yep.”

“I’m so glad you got Archie out of there.”

I solemnly nodded. “I can’t believe he is going to have to deal with this his whole life. Kidnappings, arena battles, kingdom wars, poor little guy. He can barely eat cookies and give a pig a bath because he’s so worried.”

A memory flashed in my mind, that Old Magnus voice, Tell me to go get