The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,80
in the future and I ken it will scare ye, but we will do everything we can tae change it. We hae tae rewrite it.”
I pulled my head away. “What is it? It will be scarier not to know. I have too good an imagination. You have to tell me.”
He met my eyes chewing his lip. “Through Isla. I daena ken what happens tae me, or tae Archie, but Isla is forced tae marry him and it… it sent a chill through me, Kaitlyn. I daena ken how tae stop it.”
I scrutinized his face. Then dropped my head back to stare at the ceiling. “We can stop it though. Anything we do changes it. We might have rewritten it already just by rescuing you.” I thought about it. “What we do today will change the future...”
“Ye told me once that twas nae a straight line, that there were alternatives of life happenin’ at once, and there were branches, and... like when ye met me when I was auld, but returned tae me when I was young.”
“Yeah.” My dream from before flashed in my mind: Old Magnus’s rough hands on my skin, his voice: Tell him to go get them. Who? It hadn’t felt like a dream or a memory, it had felt like a message.
But Old Magnus was gone. I didn’t like the idea of him being on another branch of time, just living alone, sending me messages, looking out for me from afar. That was a heartbreaking idea.
I looked up at Magnus’s face, resting my chin on his shoulder. He was battered and bruised and I didn’t want to tell him that I had dreamed about Old Magnus. Besides, I didn’t know what it meant. I said it again, “Yeah,” and added, “but the alternative timeline is just a theory really, it makes a lot more sense that what we do here now will change what happens in the future—”
“The big things canna be changed, ye said so.”
“I know I said it, but—”
“What is bigger than a king?”
I put my head back down on the pillow, my lips against his shoulder. “I don’t know... I’ve said a lot of things that in retrospect probably aren’t that smart. We have to be able to change this.”
His eyes darted back and forth across the ceiling as if he was following threads of thought. “Aye, we will.”
“The thing that worries me is that he’s in the future-future, past your kingdom, so he knows everything about us, about Archie and Isla, right?”
“Aye, and he has vessels, tis likely we need tae go dark again, tae keep them safe.”
“Oh.” I stared up at the ceiling fan. Its eternal lackadaisical spin, little puffs of dust flinging away in the sunlight. “Roderick never frightened you as much as this…”
“Because I had him contained and was battlin’ him in m’kingdom. I feel I hae lost control. Tis as if usin’ the Trailblazer has caused everything tae be...”
He seemed to search for the word.
“Chaotic?” I asked.
“Aye, terrible chaos. Padraig, has fully conquered us from the future, he has more knowledge and power, and strength. He is playin’ the timeline against us. Dost ye ken what has happened tae Hammond?”
“Quentin spoke with him, he said he was pinned down somewhere.”
“Did he say where?”
“The wetlands?”
“Was it the WAD-lands?”
“I think so. It was hard to understand.”
“Och, it means he has lost the war.”
“Are you sure?”
“WAD means ‘we are dead.’”
“Oh.”
“I hope he has found somewhere safe.”
“Well, this is bleak.”
“Aye.”
“If Padraig Stuart has more knowledge from being in the future, we have to work with what we have — the ability, from the past, to do things that will change the timeline. He is a fucking creepy ass man if he thinks I’m just going to let him marry Isla. I don’t care if she is of age. She doesn’t like him, right?”
“Nae, tis safe tae say she is unhappy in the connection.”
“We have to keep her safe.”
“Aye, I would feel a great deal safer though, Kaitlyn, if I had all the vessels. I hae lost them along with m’kingdom. I wonder if I might be makin’ a mistake in nae securing every last one — I ken tis a risk, but Isla’s life might depend upon taking it.”
“Are you talking about going to 1557 again?”
He nodded.
“I just… I disagree. I know you haven’t watched a time travel movie, but there are things that are true, namely, things you do in the past will change the future. We don’t want to change our