by Annis Reid
But he had come with her. Seeing him and knowing he loved her—that he had given up everything he ever knew just to be with her in this strange, new world—was enough to set her back on course and send her running down the slope and between the two sections of chairs and around to the stairs leading onto the stage.
“Why were you all the way out there?” Piper demanded when she reached the stage. “You were just up here a minute ago! How did you make it out there so fast?”
Jimmy slipped the strap to his guitar over his head. The guy was sweating bullets, and his breath reeked of Scotch. Just a couple of shots, she thought, going back over the conversation she and Piper had just before the electrocution.
It was like remembering another lifetime. She was a different person then.
“You ready?” he asked, bouncing on the soles of his feet. Ed twirled his drumsticks, winking at her.
Was she ready? No. She had never been less ready in her life. But she couldn’t tell them that, could she? Not only would they never believe her, they would never forgive her if she let them down now.
Never in all the times she’d worried about getting home did she imagine having the chance to perform at the festival. This was the best-case scenario, no doubt.
She just had to get through it, was all.
“Yeah. I’m ready.” She nodded, giving Jimmy a thumbs up.
“You sure?” Piper whispered, frowning. “You don’t look so good. And what’s wrong with your hair? Have your roots been showing like that this whole time?”
“I’m just fine.” She tried to ignore the ache in her shoulders and arms, the soreness in her thighs after riding Aonghas. Sweet Aonghas. She hoped somebody helped him have a good rest of his life.
You have to stop. She kept moving back and forth between what she had just left and what she had just fallen back into. Her brain couldn’t seem to catch hold of the moment. The festival’s promoters were onstage, welcoming audience members who were still trickling in, promising a great show.
And she was falling apart inside, remembering the men she had only just talked to and knowing they were dead now. Fergus and Clyde and so many others.
She looked away from the stage, her gaze falling on her dad’s leather jacket. Too warm and heavy, or so she’d told herself before the whole world turned upside down.
Now, she went to it. Slid into it. Smelled the leather and wrapped it around her body for a second. Breathing it in. Feeling it. Forcing herself to be present. To be here, in the moment, where she was supposed to be.
And out there, leaning against the center stone, was her future. Waiting for her.
“Come on!” Piper hissed before following Ed and Jimmy onstage. They waved, arms raised, and the audience applauded. Anna hadn’t even heard the promoter mention the band’s name, too deep in her brain to notice anything else.
“You can do this,” she whispered before taking a deep breath. And she could. Look what she had done so far.
She followed her band onstage, waving, staring out over the crowd to that stone beyond the seats. The same tall, broad-shouldered figure sat against it, covered in a dark brown cloak. Good. At least she didn’t have to worry about him for the moment.
“Good afternoon, Edinburgh!” she called out into the microphone as Jimmy’s guitar riff opened their two-song set. Just two songs. Everything hung in the balance.
They opened with a Queen cover, which Anna knew would be a great way to start things off. Hundreds of people got to their feet as a driving, familiar riff filled the air. Getting the crowd dancing was always a plus.
Anna sang, with Jimmy on harmony.
She poured everything into it, and it really was the best therapy. The few looks she exchanged with Piper told her that yes, she was just as energetic and raw and passionate as she felt.
And the audience ate it up with a spoon, singing along and dancing and cheering when Ed finished the song with a little drum solo.
She raised the mic stand into the air a la Freddie Mercury, which got another wave of enthusiastic applause. European audiences were much more into the band and recognized gestures like that right away.
Another familiar guitar riff followed, and she really wished she’d had the chance to warm up before the show. Freddie was one thing, but Ann Wilson? In-her-prime Ann Wilson?
No choice but to kill it. She just had to pray her lungs would hold out.
She sang, pouring it all out again. All the pain she was in, the fear and confusion she had suffered. She could even imagine Kirk in front of her, taunting and using her, touching her under the table.
That helped. He was definitely a barracuda.
She was a sweaty mess by the time the song was over thanks to the energy she poured into the performance and the leather jacket which had brought her back to reality. She wouldn’t have left it off for anything in the world, for she might otherwise have been left swaying back and forth, forgetting the lyrics and generally ruining everybody’s life.
Ed, Jimmy, and Piper joined her at center stage, the four of them linking hands and bowing as one. The crowd loved them. In fact, she realized, they were chanting for an encore.
Piper’s hand tightened around hers, and Jimmy and Ed beamed at her. Of course, they weren’t allowed to do an encore, it was in their contract. The promoter came out and explained that there were so many other acts waiting to entertain the audience, it wouldn’t be fair to make them wait.
“I think that did it!” Jimmy shouted, picking her up by the waist when they made it offstage and swinging her in a circle while Piper and Ed hugged. “You were brilliant out there!”
“A genius,” Ed agreed, giving her a high-five.
“I’ve never seen you like that,” Piper gushed, hugging her around the neck. “Whatever happened out there, let’s make sure it happens again whenever we play!”
If she only knew…
“I’ll be right back, I promise,” Anna said after hugging everybody again. “I swear, I’ll be back. A friend I wasn’t expecting to see came to watch the show, and I promised I’d catch up with him once we were finished.”
She couldn’t get away from them fast enough, ducking her way along the side of the amphitheater’s seating to the top of the slope and the standing stones.
There he was, still sitting, facing the stage. Staring, trying to take it all in. She almost didn’t want to disturb him.
But he saw her, reached for her. He looked dazed, shaken.
“Oh, Kaden,” she whispered, kneeling next to him. “It must all be so much for you. I wanted to stay here with you, but we came back in time for the show, and I had to get up there. Everybody was counting on me.”
“I ken, lassie,” he murmured. The poor thing looked a little green around the gills. For once, she was the strong one, and he was the one who needed taking care of. “Ye were… something I could never have dreamed.”
She blushed. “You were awake for that?”
“The moment ye began to sing, I woke up. Your voice brought me back.” He chuckled, eyes wide. “Truly, that was something wonderful. ‘Tis all so wonderful, all of it. Nothing ye told me could touch how wonderous it is.”
She sat next to him, holding his hand. “I guess it is,” she said, trying to see it through his eyes. Like she had never seen it before. “I guess I was pretty jaded, too, before I met you. Believe it or not, it’s easy to take this for granted when you’ve known it your entire life.”
“I canna believe that.”
“Well, it’s true. I’ve been to dozens of concerts, all sorts of bands and singers. This is just one more concert. I mean, not really, since I was the one on stage and you were out here, waiting for me.”
“The way they behaved while ye were singing, lass…” He sighed, then looked down at her with a smile. “They loved ye. Perhaps ye are a witch in your way.”
She laughed. “What do you mean?”
“’Tis not easy for me to explain. Perhaps because I canna quite make sense of what
has happened. But ye held them in your thrall, lass. If ye had told them to jump up and down, they would have. Or they would have laid down on the ground. Anything ye wished. Ye were powerful out there, and I was proud of ye.” He chuckled. “Even if I didna ken half of what ye sang.”
She laughed again, resting her head on his shoulder and thanking her lucky stars he was taking this so well instead of freaking out, the way she would have in his place. But she’d explained a little about her world, anyway, so it wasn’t like he was completely unaware. “Yeah, well, I didn’t understand most of what you said when we first met.”
It would’ve been nice if they could’ve stayed this way forever, but she knew better than to wish for any such thing. “You know, you don’t have to stay here with me if you don’t want to,” she said, staring at the stage rather than look at him while she said it. “The only way to keep you from getting captured and killed was to bring you through with me. But I totally understand if you don’t want to stay in this time.”
“Anna.” She had never heard him sound that way.
Looking up, she found him frowning deeply, almost glowering. “Ye mean to tell me ye dinna want me here? When ye told me ye love me?”
“I do love you!” she almost shrieked. God forbid he think she didn’t mean it. “I love you with all of me, every ounce of me. I swear it. But I don’t want you to feel trapped—because I love you. Get it? I don’t want you to have to stay here any more than you wanted me to have to stay there. You didn’t want me to go, no, but you wouldn’t make me stay and resent you for it after a while. That’s how I feel now. I would die if you ever resented me for making you stay here.”
“Och, Anna. Lass. My love.” He took her face in his hands, smiling down at her in his special way. His dimples would be the death of her one day. “Time means nothing so long as I can be with ye. Do ye believe there is anything there I would rather return to than remain with ye? Ye are everything to me. All of life. And I would be the most terrible fool if I turned away from ye now.”
“You could always use the rune to go back if you changed your mind,” she mused, though she hoped he never would.
“Aye, if I changed my mind.” His chuckle told her she had nothing to worry about.
So did his kiss.
A man didn’t kiss a girl like that unless he had every intention of sticking by her side forever.
Keep reading for an excerpt from the next book in the series!
Excerpt
Aidan
Book Two of the Highland Passages Series!
* * *
Piper Kaminski’s a bass player in a band that just got contract. So why is she poking around a group of rocks that remind her of Stonehenge? Why? Because Piper’s lead singer and her odd but hunky boyfriend are skulking around the henge and looking for something.
Piper’s a take-action kind of girl. So she’s going to find out what they’re doing. She trails them to the henge. But in the middle of the night, she finds herself confronted with an unconscious hottie. When he comes to, she’s got all kinds of problems because he acts like he’s never seen cars. Or jeans. Or anything in this century.
He’s at her mercy it would seem. Except her heart appears to be in his mercy.
When she realizes that Aidan knows her lead singer’s boyfriend, pieces of a strange puzzle start to fall into place.
Chapter 1
“I feel like I’m walking on air. I never could’ve imagined it being that great!” Piper couldn’t keep still after what was probably one of the greatest sets of her life. Even if it was only two songs long.
“Careful,” Jimmy warned as he poured himself another shot. “You might take flight if you don’t calm down.”
“I might take flight?” She smirked, lifting the bottle of Scotch, noting how light it was. “This was full when we got here today. Don’t start making fun just because I’m excited that we kicked—”
“Okay, okay.” Anna stepped between them and grabbed one of the shot glasses, lifting it to her mouth and bolting it back in a short, practiced gesture Piper rarely saw from her. She wasn’t exactly a drinker; at least she didn’t drink much in public.
Then again, she didn’t seem much like herself at all. Practically a different person than she was just that morning, before the show, when they were setting up and going through sound check.
After the performance she had given and the way the audience reacted—it was such a rush, when they were really and truly connected with the music—she should’ve been relaxed and satisfied and maybe looking forward to the future.
Now? She was just as shaky and anxious as any of them had been before the set. Maybe more so.
“Are you doing okay?” Piper asked her, pulling her away from Jimmy and Ed. They were having a good time on their own, half-soused and determined to get all the way there. Celebrating, the way anybody would after they played so well.
But here was Anna, acting like she had just seen a ghost.
“I’m fine,” she said with a shrug, but that was obviously a lie. Piper might have been much better with a bass than she was at… just about anything else, but she wasn’t a dummy.
“Are you sure? You know you can tell me, right? Two chicks against the world.”
That got a smile, anyway, even if it was the barest hint. “Two chicks against the world,” she repeated in a whisper. “Yeah. Sometimes I forget.”
“Does that mean you’re gonna tell me what’s going on with you? And why you got onstage looking different than you did this morning?”
That got a reaction, anyway. Anna’s brows lifted practically off her forehead. “Oh. Right.”
“I mentioned it earlier, but I think it bears repeating.” Piper touched the part in her own bright-red locks, then pointed to Anna’s head. She had a skunk stripe running through her black hair that hadn’t been there in the morning. Piper would’ve bet every last cent she had on it.
That gig had been the biggest thing they’d ever done, hands down. No way would the meticulous, everything’s-riding-on-this Anna have let her roots come in without dying them well in advance of the performance. She had a lot on her mind, but that wouldn’t have slipped through.
Besides, Piper was completely sure she would’ve noticed it before. The girl’s natural color was a very fair shade of blond, completely the opposite of what she dyed it. Not the sort of thing a person missed when they were standing under dozens of lights.
Anna looked away, toward somebody outside the tent. A beefy guy. Piper had noticed him before, just after their set, when Anna was talking quietly with him. Hot, for sure, but… weird. Like everything freaked him out. She wondered if he was on something. But it wasn’t Anna’s style to hang out with a guy who took drugs, either. Ever.
Besides, they weren’t exactly familiar with the country. When did she have time to make a friend? Maybe he was a cosplayer from someplace near the amphitheater since he wore what Piper could only describe to herself as a costume—a loose shirt that hung halfway to his knees, belted at the waist. Tight pants. A plaid sash draped over his chest, tucked into the belt, hanging over his shoulder and down his back.
“Who’s that guy?” she finally had to ask.
“Hmm?” Anna’s head snapped back, away from his direction, her wide eyes focused on Piper. Was she guilty of something? She had that sort of look on her face. But what could she possibly have to feel guilty about?
“I asked you who the hottie is,” Piper repeated with a grin. “You keep looking at him, you know.”
“I do?”
“Yeah. Not that I blame you. The guys around here are so much hotter than the ones back home. They could learn a lesson.” And she was always a sucker for a brogue.
The hottie looked into the tent, making eye contact with Piper before his gaze shifted over to Anna. He stared at her like she was the only person in the entire world. But it wasn’t a romantic sort of look.
The guy looked scared. Like Anna was the only person who could help hi
m. It was enough to make Piper wonder if the two of them had known each other before this. But no, Anna had never come to Scotland before they flew in together, just for the festival.
“Are you gonna introduce me?” Piper pressed on. Normally, she would’ve let it go, but something about this didn’t sit right.
When Anna gaped at her like a deer in headlights. “Uh. Um. I don’t know. I guess?”
“Now I’m more interested than ever,” she teased. That was true. How was anybody supposed not to be interested in a mysterious, hunky Scot?
“We’re supposed to be waiting here for those guys to meet up with us. From the record company.” That was why they were waiting in the tent, to begin with, rather than enjoying the festival or going back to their hotel to decompress. They’d gotten word that a pair of executives wanted to talk to them and would they consider hanging around for a little bit for that meeting?
Who wouldn’t?
Even so, that didn’t mean they had to stand in the same spot until the guys showed up. “Sure, and we’re only going over there to talk to your friend. Relax, would you? What’s the big deal?”
“I don’t know.” Anna sighed. “Okay. Come on. I just wanna warn you, though. He’s not very social.”
“Okay.” What a weird thing to say. What a completely weird situation, all the way around. What was Anna doing with this guy if he came with all these warnings and basically looked like he had been dropped into their world from another planet?
Anna reached him first and had the chance to murmur something to him before Piper caught up. “Kaden, this is Piper. She’s the bassist for the band.”
He nodded, smiling just a little. The guy was even better looking close-up. His jaw could cut glass. And his eyes were so intense, deep-set and hazel and sparkling with something that wasn’t friendliness. “Aye, I recall seeing ye on the stage. Ye did verra well, lass.”
She couldn’t help it. He sounded like something out of a historical drama, which totally matched up with his costume. How was she supposed to not giggle a little at the thickness of his brogue? And the way he called her lass? Who did that anymore?
