19 March, 1767

Rose Hall, Jamaica

CATRÌONA POV

"Auntie, what the hell is goin' on?" Caoimhe demanded from me as we made our way to Rose Hall. Temeraire and Archie were in the front driving the carriage, while Caoimhe and I were still inside of it dressed in ball gowns.

"It's difficult te explain, Caoimhe," I told her quietly.

"So explain it then. What do ye mean 'from her time'?" Caoimhe asked me. "I've heard whispers, Auntie, from the servants at Cìosamul about ye… havin' travelled through stone. I thought it was nothin' but haver, but when ye mentioned travellin' through stone, somethin' told me that it wasnae nothin'. So what is it? What did the servants mean ye went through stones?" I let out a soft sigh.

"Caoimhe, hen… Please, now just… isnae the time… It's a verra long story, but I promise te explain everrathin' te ye when we have the time," I told her. "What I will tell ye is tha' Mrs. Abernathy came here from another time through the stones, two hundred years from now, and she wants te go back and hurt yer cousin."

"The four-hundred-year-auld bairn," Caoimhe said to me. "Does tha' mean… you came here from a different time, too?" I paused for a moment, looking first out the shattered window to make sure Temeraire couldn't hear me, and then I looked back at her.

"Yes," I said to her. "Both me and… and yer father." Her eyes widened and her jaw fell open, and she stared at me open-mouthed for several long moments. "We came here on accident, both of us, but it turned out tha' our father, yer grandsire, was a traveller, too, from this time te ours. He met our mother, had us in 2116 and 2118, four hundred years from now. Then Cailean and I came through the stones and… here we are." She didn't say anything, only continued to stare at me in silence, and I let out a sigh. "Archie kens, and so does Jamie. Yer mother kent it, too. Grandsire kent it as well."

"Is… is that… where ye were… when ye left?" Caoimhe asked me quietly, and I nodded.

"Yes. Yer uncle forced me te go back after we left Ireland. I was pregnant, and he wanted te make sure the bairn and I were both safe. So he sent me back, and I had that bairn, Maevis, in 2147. Mrs. Abernathy wants te go te the future, find Maevis and kill her, which is why we must stop her," I told her as the carriage came to a stop, and I glanced out the window, where Archie appeared shortly.

"Temeraire says this is Rose Hall," Archie said to us, and I nodded and looked back at Caoimhe.

"Stay here, hen. Dinnae argue wi' me. Archie and I will be goin' up te the house and findin' Mrs. Abernathy. Temeraire will stay here wi' ye. Yer safe, all right?" I said to her, and she nodded, not uttering a word. "Right. C'mon, Archie. Let's go and get yer cousin." Archie helped me down from the carriage, and in the darkness, we made our way up to the house, lit only by the light of a single candle in the front room.

"Did ye tell her?" Archie asked me.

"Aye, a wee bit. She wouldnae let up aboot it. I imagine she'll have a lot of questions fer her father when we return te Scotland," I told him.

"Did she understand?" Archie asked her, and I sighed.

"I dinnae ken," I said to him. "I suppose it shouldnae be a shock if she herself can travel. My father could travel, and my mother probably could, too, because her mother could. Cailean and I both could travel, and we ken already ye hear the stones. I suppose it's genetic. I cannae help but wonder if Caoimhe will hear the stones, too." Together, Archie and I made our way up the stairs, the pair of us wondering if we should knock on the door or find another way in.

"A kitchen door would be wiser," he said.

"Aye, we'll be better hidden," I said, and we left the front porch to sneak around the back. From my hair, I pulled out a pin and picked the lock in the door, then Archie reached into his coat and pulled out a small sgian dubh while from the pockets of my panniers, I pulled out my folded up bow and loaded it with one of the arrows I had stored in there. Together, we went inside, both of us removing our shoes so we could creep through the house quietly. "It's unusually quiet… Where are the servants?" I whispered to him.

"No fires in the hearths… No indication of life at all," Archie whispered back to me as we crept out of the kitchen and into the hall, and we both stopped, freezing when we saw the light of a flickering candle coming from the parlour.

"Someone's here," I whispered to him. We stepped forward delicately, but still the floorboards beneath our feet creaked.

"Who is that?" came a voice from inside of the parlour - it was Mr. Campbell. I raised a finger to my lips and gestured to Archie to stay where he was, creeping quietly against the wall to make my way to the parlour. I reached the doorframe and peered around the corner, but I saw nothing in there. Confused, I was about to turn back around when I heard a grunt and a crash, and I turned to see Archie lying on the floor unconscious, Mr. Campbell himself standing over Archie's body with a bloody candlestick.

"Archie!" I called, terrified that he was dead, but calmed when I saw him breathing. "Ye bastard…"

"Hmm, perhaps it was a mistake te injure him," said Mr. Campbell, stepping over Archie and approaching me as I raised my bow and backed into the parlour.

"Dinnae come any closer," I said to him as he stopped.

"Why not?" Mr. Campbell asked me. "Dinnae ye want te hear the rest of the prophecy?"

"The rest of it? What are ye haverin' aboot?" I demanded from him.

"The Frasers of Lovat are the subject of the prophecy," said Mr. Campbell, giving me a suspicious grin. "Simon Fraser… Brian Fraser… James Fraser… Archie Fraser… Interesting that it should be the Frasers."

"What do ye want wi' me and my family?" I demanded from him. "And who the hell are ye? Here, I thought ye were just some bastard who abused his sister. Seems yer a lot more sinister than we all thought."

"Oh, I do have that effect on people sometimes," said Mr. Campbell, giving me a curious grin. "The new ruler of Scotland will spring from Lovat's lineage-"

"Where the hell is Mrs. Abernathy?" I demanded from him. "From what I was told, yer prophecy calls fer the death of a four-hundred-year-auld bairn."

"Grab her!" shouted Mr. Campbell suddenly, and I was grabbed from behind by someone with large arms. My bow fell to the floor and I struggled against my attacker as Mr. Campbell approached. "Tie her up, set her down on the settee."

"Clever plan, distractin' me wi' absolute bullshit," I snapped at him as the slave who had grabbed me tied a rope tightly around me and dropped me on the settee.

"Arenae I lucky those fools all think it was the Chinaman?" Mr. Campbell asked me rather maliciously, and then he glanced up at the slave behind me. "Drag the lad in here, where his mother can see him, then make yerself scarce." As the slave obeyed this order, Mr. Campbell turned his attention back to me. "They say there was a man in Edinburgh called the Fiend… He slit the throats of whores."

"That so? Guess I'm lucky I'm no whore, aye?" I asked him.

"That isnae what I've heard," Mr. Campbell replied, and I scoffed.

"I imagine ye didnae. I dinnae ken why everraone has te think I'm a…" I paused, glancing at the set of glass doors behind Mr. Campbell, where I could see a figure silhouetted behind the curtains.

"What? What are ye looking at?" Mr. Campbell demanded, turning to look, and he gasped when from behind the curtain, Yi Tien Cho emerged, a vicious look on his face. " You! "

"You will release her," Yi Tien Cho demanded.

"Get out , Chinaman," Mr. Campbell demanded.

"I see you kill lady," Yi Tien Cho said, moving into the room and brandishing a pistol, pointing it at Mr. Campbell.

"What the fuck is goin' on just now?" I asked, watching this scene between the two men. "Do ye mean te say ye saw him kill Mrs. Alcott?"

"Dinnae be ridiculous!" Mr. Campbell spat at him.

"He like women - not with cock, with knife," said Yi Tien Cho to me, drawing his finger across his neck.

"Oh, tha's… pleasant…" I said, glancing between the two of them. Mr. Campbell backed away from Yi Tien Cho, who approached him with the pistol.

"Will ye take the word of a man who betrayed your husband, Mrs. Fraser?" Mr. Campbell said in a last-ditch effort to save himself.

"I beg yer pardon?" I asked, looking up at Yi Tien Cho with my eyes wide.

"Yes! It was him! It was this wicked creature who betrayed yer husband te Sir Percival Turner! The man told me himself!" Mr. Campbell exclaimed, and I looked at him next.

"I'm… clearly missin' somethin' verra important in this wee… soap opera," I said to them both.

"You kill whores! I see you! Two year, you live in Edinburgh, and two years, Fiend kill whores!" Yi Tien Cho shouted at Mr. Campbell.

"Ye've lived there just as long, ye murderer! Traitorous bastard!" Mr. Campbell shouted back.

"Dinnae mind me, hens, just tied up here," I said, watching these two fools squabble over who should be perceived as worse.

"I saw ye with the widowed whore!" Mr. Campbell snapped back at Yi Tien Cho.

"I saw you cut her throat!" Yi Tien Cho shouted back.

"Wouldnae that be convenient fer ye? Putting the blame on someone-" I heard a feminine grunt followed by a large object hitting the back of Mr. Campbell's head and he fell to the ground, revealing Caoimhe behind him with a bloodied candlestick that was bigger than the one he had used on Archie.

"Caoimhe!" I exclaimed, and she glanced up at me, and then before she looked at Yi Tien Cho, narrowing her eyes maliciously.

" You ratted on my uncle? Yer the reason he's goin' te hang?" she demanded from him.

"Caoimhe, will ye please just untie me?" I demanded from my niece, and she dropped the candlestick and untied me, allowing me to freely jump up to run to Archie's side. I turned him over onto his side to examine the wound, which was bleeding, and I removed one of my stockings. "Hand me the decanter of whisky on the mantle. Now!" Caoimhe did as she was told and I used it to soak my stocking, then pressed it to the wound on Archie's head to stop the bleeding.

"How could ye betray Uncle Jamie so?" Caoimhe demanded angrily from Yi Tien Cho. "He saved ye. Yer alive today because of him!"

"In China, there are stories of ghosts that come. Everyone fear ghost," Yi Tien Cho told her, lowering his pistol. "I leave China to save my life. I wake up, I see ghosts all around me, ghosts… Big ghost comes - horrible white face, hair on fire. I think he will eat my soul - and I am right."

"He didnae eat yer soul, damn ye, he preserved it!" Caoimhe shouted at him. "I trusted ye, Yi Tien Cho!"

"Caoimhe, hen," I said, trying to calm her down, but she was furious.

"My uncle could die because of ye!" she shouted as if she couldn't hear me.

"He eat my soul!" Yi Tien Cho shouted back at her. "Tsei-mi eat my soul. I am no more Yi Tien Cho. Better I die than be Willoughby. Pah!"

"So ye decided he should die because he calls ye a different name?" I asked him, looking up at him from beside Archie. "Caoimhe and I ken a thing or two aboot havin' names that are difficult te pronounce fer an Englishman. I've been called 'Catherine' many times by people who couldnae pronounce my name. I didnae condemn them te hang."

"There is a man I see in tavern. Ask for Mac-Doo. I am drunk," he said to us without emotion. "I want woman, no woman come with me. They laugh, call me yellow worm. I become angry. Ghost man want Mac-Doo, I say yes, I know. It is not important what I say."

"So ye gave him up. Condemned him te death," I demanded from him. "Ye'd better be glad my bow isnae within my reach." A groan from Archie distracted both Caoimhe and I and we looked at Archie, who was coming to. "Archie! Archie, lamb, yer all right…"

"Mama…" he muttered weakly. "Am I… dead?"

"No, lamb, but yer hurt," I told him, running my hand through his hair and bending down to kiss his forehead.

"He's gone," said Caoimhe, and I looked up to see that Yi Tien Cho, indeed, was gone, and the window to the veranda was open, the curtains fluttering in the breeze. She looked back at the body of Mr. Campbell, a neutral expression on her face. "Is he dead?"

"Yes, hen," I said to her. "Will ye go back te the carriage, get Temeraire so he can carry Archie back the te carriage?"

"Yes, Auntie," said Caoimhe, and then she left.

"What… happened…" Archie muttered drowsily.

"Dinnae fash aboot it, lamb. Just focus on yerself, aye?" I asked him, smiling down at him and touching his face.


When we returned to the inn, Temeraire carried Archie up to mine and Jamie's room, where I had all of my modern day medical equipment. "Milady!" Fergus called to me, stopping me in the tavern portion of the inn. His eyes widened when he saw Archie limp in Temeraire's arm. "What has happened to Archie?"

"He was injured, I'll see te him. Will ye keep an eye on Caoimhe fer me? She's a wee bit distressed," I said to him.

"Oh, of course, Milady," said Fergus. "Milord has returned. He says the Governor of Jamaica arranged for his pardon. He is in your room."

"He did? Oh, tha's wonderful! Thank ye, Fergus," I said to him, standing up on my toes to kiss his forehead and then racing up the stairs after Archie and Temeraire. "Right in here," I said, opening the door, where I found Jamie inside composing a letter at the desk.

"Catrìona!" he exclaimed when he saw me, jumping up from the desk, and then his eyes widened when he saw Archie. "What happened?"

"Rose Hall, Mr. Campbell turned out te be a fucking lunatic," I said as I went to my medical bag and pulled out my blood pressure cuff and a small flashlight. "Lay him on the bed, Temeraire." He did as he was told, and I climbed up on the bed and turned on the light to check Archie's pupils, finding one of them to be slow to react. "He's got a concussion. A wee bit of ice would be nice, but I doubt we'll find any of that here."

"What is ice? What it do?" Temeraire asked me.

"Ice is frozen water, lamb. It would reduce the swellin' in his head from the injury," I said as Jamie made his way to Archie's other side.

"What happened, lad? Did ye see who hit ye?" Jamie asked his son, brushing back the hair on Archie's forehead to kiss his head.

"It was Mr. Campbell," I said. "Archie, I need te turn ye over on yer side. Jamie, will ye help me?" He helped me turn Archie onto his side so I had access to the wound on his head, and I dug around in my bag for the numbing spray I had in there.

"I feel like I'm goin' te be sick," Archie muttered with strain.

"Jamie, fetch a bucket please," I said, and Jamie brought a bucket for Archie to vomit into.

"My head…" Archie moaned.

"I imagine it hurts quite a bit," I said as I removed the alcohol-soaked stocking and poured more alcohol into the wound, causing him to hiss in pain. "Oh, I'm so sorry, darlin', I ken it hurts, but I promise yer goin' te be all right…"

"What happened, Catrìona? Tell me," Jamie demanded from me.

"Geillis wasnae at Rose Hall when we went. We didnae have time te look around much, either. Mr. Campbell was there. I dinnae ken if Margaret was, I didnae stick around te find out, but the house was nearly empty, save fer him and one slave. He snuck up behind Archie and hit him," I said as I cleaned Archie's wound and started to stitch it up. "He killed that widow at the ball."

"He did? Well, I suppose it means we can find Willoughby," Jamie said to me.

"Aboot tha'," I said. "He was the one who ratted ye out te Sir Percival."

"What? He wouldnae do such a thing," Jamie said to me incredulously.

"Well, he did , and he's gone, and thank Christ fer it. I'd have had the right mind te kill him if I wasnae tendin' te Archie," I said, and then I let out a sigh. "Geillis has likely already gone te Abandawe, and she probably took Ian wi' her."

"Te what?" Jamie asked me.

"Abandawe," I repeated.

"Abandawe?" Temeraire asked, and Jamie and I both looked up at him.

"Ye ken it, lad?" Jamie asked him.

"Yes. I tell you where if you keep bargain," Temeraire told us. "There is place in Jamaica where free men live - escaped slave live in mountains, near Rose Hall."

"Of course," I said, speaking before Jamie could. "Let me finish fixin' up my son and we'll take ye there." Once I finished up with Archie, and after I had changed into something more versatile than a ball gown, I asked Marsali to stay with him and care for him, which she was only too happy to do, and then I went back down to the tavern portion of the inn, finding both Caoimhe and Fergus seated at a table.

"How is he?" Caoimhe asked me, jumping up straight away.

"He'll be fine, he just needs te rest," I said. "Marsali will keep an eye on him fer us. I need ye te hang tight fer a bit. Jamie and I need te go somewhere."

"If it's te wherever Mrs. Abernathy has gone, I'm comin' wi' ye," said Caoimhe with a stubborn determination. "I'm sick of what tha' bitch has caused this family."

"Caoimhe, no, ye've been involved enough. Ye should stay here-"

"No, Auntie. I'm sorry, but no," she said to me firmly. "She's threatenin' my family, too, and Archie cannae help ye te defend it. So I will."

"Catrìona, we dinnae have the time te argue. We must go," Jamie said to me with urgency, and I let out a huff.

"Fine," I said. We made our way out to the carriage, carefully following Temeraire's instructions. It was a long ride to Rose Hill yet again, but this time, we passed it, and Caoimhe looked away so she wouldn't have to see the house, which still contained the lifeless body of Mr. Campbell. We went up higher and higher into the mountains until we could no longer see the lights of Kingston.

"Here. Stop," said Temeraire, and the carriage came to a stop. "I see the mark. This is the path. I go ahead, tell them you come." We all waited patiently for Temeraire to return.

"What if he doesnae come back?" Caoimhe said rather impatiently. "What if he's playin' us fer fools?"

"Temeraire trusts us, I hope," I told her. "He'll return."

"If he doesnae, then Ian is lost te us forever," Jamie said rather neutrally, and I rested a hand on his arm.

"We'll find him. Even if we have te comb the entire island te do it, we'll find them," I told him, giving him a soft smile. After nearly an hour had passed, Temeraire had finally returned, and frankly, I was quite relieved.

"There ye are, man! We thought ye wouldnae come back," Jamie said to him.

"You come with me," said Temeraire, and he led us into the woods. It was quite a long walk, but soon, we started hearing the sound of drums and shouting, and I grasped Caoimhe's arm and held her close to me. Soon, we could see the light of the fire, and we pushed through some tall grass to see many African men and women dancing around the fire dressed in tribal clothes and singing in a foreign language. A tall man approached Temeraire and spoke to him in a foreign language, and Temeraire replied back to him. "The Frasers," Temeraire said to him in English. "They buy me to free me."

"You buy man to free him?" asked the other man in a deep voice. To me, it didn't sound good at all, however, at that point in time, it was an extremely rare and unheard of act of kindness in Jamaica.

"We dinnae wish te own slaves, sir. When my wife saw how wounded Temeraire was, she had te spare him," Jamie said to the man.

"Aye, I'm a healer, and Temeraire was horribly wounded," I replied.

"She save me," Temeraire said again.

"Then you welcome here, for little while. You cannot stay," said the other man.

"Of course," I said. "All we want te ken aboot is Abandawe."

"Abandawe… Abandawe! " I gasped lightly and glanced up, seeing Margaret seated on a throne-like seat, and I raised my eyebrows.

"Margaret?" She heard her name, and then she looked at me, a friendly smile growing on her face.

"Mistress!" she exclaimed happily, drawing me to her, and with Caoimhe still under my arm, I approached her on the throne. "I was so pleased te see ye at the reception!"

"I'm pleased te see ye too, ye look so much happier," I said to her, and then she looked at Caoimhe.

"You have a hint of darkness… but dinnae worry, it will fade," she said. "A man's soul cannae be taken if there was never a soul te begin with, and yer soul is light."

"Ah, yes," I said, holding Caoimhe's shoulders between my hands. "Margaret, could ye help us? We're lookin' fer a cave called Abandawe, we believe-"

"ABANDAWE!" Margaret cried all of a sudden, and then the dancers circling the fire stopped and raised their hands above their heads.

"Abandawe!" they repeated, and then they resumed dancing.

"Yes, Abandawe," I said.

"ABANDAWE!"

"Abandawe!"

"Okay, dinnae say tha' word. Got it," I said to myself. "We think Mrs. Abernathy has taken our nephew there. Would ye mind tellin' us how te get te-" I stopped myself before I almost said it again, and Jamie came up behind us.

"Did ye find anythin' aboot Abandawe?" he asked me.

"Don't!" I exclaimed.

"ABANDAWE!"

"Abandawe!"

"Oh, I see ye!" said Margaret suddenly, sitting back down on her throne and looking directly at Jamie. "I see ye… in an orchard of death… sown wi' blood. I see… the rabbit… and the wraith."

"Christ," Jamie muttered, clearly unsettled by this.

"And you ," she said, directing her attention to me and making me jump. "I see… a bird… a little bird… There's a bird on a beach… She sings te ye. There's a bird on a windowsill… He sings te ye, when ye are sorrowful… but ye hear him… She hears him, too…" She paused, and then she looked at Jamie again, changing her voice to that of an American accent:

"My father… I've been dreaming about you… I love you… I love you, too, Mama!"

"What?" I asked her, and then she reverted to a Scottish accent, lowering her voice and sounding more masculine.

"Mother… Father… I dream of ye… She has helped me te see… I cannae wait te meet ye both…" Margaret said to us, and I wanted badly to back away, but then she reverted back to the American accent and started screeching. "No… No! The monster! Help me! Don't let it take me!"

"Margaret! Margaret!" Caoimhe suddenly exclaimed, pulling herself from my arms. "What are ye talkin' aboot? What monster?" Suddenly, Margaret snapped out of it as if a light switch had been flipped, and she looked down at Caoimhe.

"Abandawe," she said.

"Abandawe!" said the dancers.

"You will go through the wood," said a voice behind us, and we all turned to see a rather short woman with very short hair standing before us as if in a trance. "You will come to river. Cross it."

"Ye'll keep goin' until ye hear the frog choir," Margaret chimed in, also seemingly in a trance. "Once ye hear it… ye'll ken yer there."

"Through the wood, across the river, keep goin'. Got it," I said, trying to make sense of what all these people were saying.

"She lies in the crest of the tallest mountain. Above it, ye'll find a window te another world," Margaret continued. "Go - ye must go. There is no time…" She reverted back into the American accent. "Mama, help me! Help me!"

"Let's go, quickly," I exclaimed, pulling away from Jamie and Caoimhe and looking for the tallest mountain. "That way, aye?"

"It is the way," Margaret answered us. "Onto Abandawe!"

"Abandawe!"

"Abandawe will devour ye… Abandawe will devour ye…" The chant of 'Abandawe' followed us for quite a distance into the woods before it disappeared. For two hours, at least, we trekked through the woods, crossing the river when we came to it, though it wasn't much of a river. I heard Caoimhe groan as she slapped at an insect on her neck.

"I'm covered in itchy red bites," she moaned. "If Abandawe doesnae devour me, these insects might."

"Let me ken if ye fell unwell at all, hen. It isnae uncommon fer mosquitos te carry malaria," I said to her.

"What is a 'mos-quit-o'?" Jamie asked me, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"It's mos- keet -o," I said with amusement. "It's like a midge. A bitin' wee insect tha' can carry disease and is a pain in the arse."

"A pain in the arse, all right," Caoimhe groaned. "How much farther?"

"Until I hear the stones," I said with a soft sigh.

"What does tha' mean exactly? Ye've said the stones are like… portals… But what do ye mean ye hear them?" Caoimhe asked me.

"Ye told her?" Jamie asked me.

"I had te. She's as stubborn as her father," I said.

"And her auntie," said Jamie with a soft chuckle.

"What I mean, hen, is tha' the stones call out te people like yer father and me, and Archie as well. We can hear the stones - it means we can travel through them. Yer uncle doesnae hear the stones, so he cannae travel," I explained to her, and then she froze all of a sudden up ahead of us, causing Jamie and I to both freeze as well.

"Does it… does it sound like a hive of bees?" Caoimhe asked me suddenly, her shoulders stiff in evident discomfort.

"Aye… Why? Do ye-" I froze when I started to hear the buzzing as well. "Yes… Yes, that… Tha's them…" I glanced up, following the sound of the buzzing, and I could see there at the very top of the hill was a stone circle. "Blessed Bride…"

"This must be it," Jamie muttered quietly. "Abandawe."

"Yes," I said. "It must be in tha' cave there…" I turned to look at Jamie, grasping his shirt. "Jamie… if the portal takes me… I dinnae ken fer certain, but I… I may not be able te come back… I dinnae ken if I could face the horror of the stones again."

"Then I'll go," said Caoimhe suddenly. "I can hear them. Tha' means I can pass through them, aye?"

"Caoimhe, my time is a whole different world fer ye. Ye wouldnae understand it," I told her. "There's things in my time that… ye cannae even imagine. They'd frighten ye."

"Mrs. Abernathy likely wouldnae understand it then, either," she replied, and then she turned to face us. "If she goes through… I'll follow her, and I'll stop her. Yer needed here, Auntie. Me… no' so much."

"Caoimhe, that isnae true," I told her, embracing my niece tightly. "Ye cannae go… What would I say te yer father?"

"That I chose te go, and wouldnae let ye stop me," she told me, pulling back to look at me. "Dinnae fash, Auntie… I'll keep Maevis safe."

"Christ, I dinnae ken if yer daft or if yer brave," I said, smiling at her and touching her face. "Ye've certainly the spirit of yer mother wi' ye."

"Everra time I look in the mirror," she told me, giving me a soft smile. Jamie approached us again with a lit torch made from a piece of his shirt wrapped around a stick, and he nodded to us both.

"We should go," he replied. "We'll no' lose Maevis, nor will we lose Ian." Swallowing our fears, we all went into the cave, Jamie's hand held tightly in mine. The buzzing grew louder and louder, and I could see that it disturbed Caoimhe as much as it disturbed me, but she held firm and remained resilient.

"Let go of me, ye bitch!" cried a voice echoing throughout the cave. Ian - he was still alive.

"Dinnae worry, ye'll be sacrificed fer a great cause," came the malicious voice of Geillis, and it made my blood run cold. The three of us glanced at each other and quickened our pace, finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It was Caoimhe who emerged first, appearing to startle Geillis until she saw that Caoimhe was joined by both Jamie and I. "Ah. Ye came, didnae ye?" At her feet, tied up and doused in kerosene, was Young Ian, wriggling in the ropes trying to get free.

"Ian!" Jamie exclaimed.

"Dinnae come any closer, fox!" Geillis snapped at him. "Persist, and Hercules will put a bullet in yer head." She gestured to a large African man standing off in the corner of the cave, a pistol in his hand.

"Right," I said. "Let him go, Geillis."

"A life fer a life, sweet Catrìona," Geillis told me. "I saved ye from the pyre after the witch trial. Ye owe me a life."

"I would have burned wi' ye like a loyal friend. Ye gave me no choice in the matter," I spat back at her. "Leave him be, he's just a boy."

"He's just fodder fer my passage," Geillis told me.

"Ye dinnae need a sacrifice te pass through, Geillis! I never needed it!" I exclaimed.

"I find it hard te believe ye passed through the stones three times and survived," she said to me. "I think yer lyin' te me, Catrìona."

"Well, I'm no', and the fact tha' yer tryin' te kill my daughter should clue ye into tha'!" I said to her.

"Ah, yes. Yer four-hundred-year-auld bairn," Geillis told me, an evil smile on her face. "It's yer daughter's life ye owe me, Catrìona." She stepped forward, looking down into a pool of water which glistened and glowed a mysterious colour - the pool was the portal.

" Is é an linn snámha é ," I whispered quietly to Caoimhe in Irish. It's the pool.

"We are chosen, ye and I," Geillis said next, the glow of the portal reflecting in her eyes. "We have a responsibility te change history."

"I told ye, we cannae change history," I said to her. "In my time… we won the rebellion, Geillis. We won. Scotland won its independence."

"Ye said there was another," she told me.

"Aye, there was, but it was te protect our freedom, and we were winnin' when I left," I told her. "We'll be free someday, Geillis, in four hundred years. Killin' my daughter willnae change tha' or make it happen any faster!"

"I gave up my child fer the cause, Catrìona," Geillis told me, looking up at me. "Ye must as well."

"I already did, damn it!" I shouted at her. "I told ye I gave her up te protect her from vile beasts like you! I gave her up so I could fight fer a free Scotland! Dinnae do this, Geillis!"

"I'm sorry, Catrìona… This is God's will," she said, striking a match to light up Ian with.

"Geillis, no!" I shouted again.

"Then so is this!" Caoimhe suddenly cried, seemingly appearing out of nowhere with Jamie's large machete that he had used to cut back the branches, and she leapt over the pool and slashed Geillis across the throat to stop her from jumping into that pool. Geillis Duncan then lay dead at her feet, her life's blood spilling from her neck, which barely held on by a thread.

"Christ," Jamie muttered, and it seemed that even Hercules was in shock at what had just happened. "Go, man… Yer free…" Jamie said to him, exchanging a look with the large man, and then he took one look at his dead mistress before he fled from the cave. "Ian," Jamie said next, going to Ian and pulling the ropes off of him.

"Uncle Jamie!" Ian cried, throwing his arms around Jamie and sobbing into his shoulder.

"Shh, Shh, there's no need te be afraid, lad. Yer safe now," Jamie said to his nephew, comforting him. Caoimhe, on the other hand, hadn't moved, and she stared down at Geillis's body still holding the machete in her hand. She dropped it as I approached her, and then I turned her and pulled her into my arms, allowing her to embrace me and sob into my shoulder as well.

"It's all right, hen. Ye've… ye've done well," I told her. "Ye've saved yer cousin."

"I-I killed… two people… today…" she sobbed quietly.

"Fer a good cause, hen," I told her. "Ye saved my life, and ye saved Ian's and Maevis's as well. I'm so proud of ye, yer father will be, too… and yer mother would be so proud of ye. I can feel her pride from here." I kissed her fair hair, holding her tightly as she cried, then her sobs slowed down into sniffles, and she pulled back from the embrace.

"Can we… Can we jus' go back home?" she asked me and Jamie.

"Aye, I wish fer nothin' but Lallybroch's chickens just now," Ian said, still sniffling as well, and Jamie chuckled softly.

"Aye… We'll go back home," Jamie said to them both.

"I kent ye'd come, Uncle," Ian said to Jamie as we made our way out. "But ye left it a bit late, aye?"

"We crossed the entire ocean and yer sayin' we left it late?" Caoimhe asked him, lightly scoffing.

"I dinnae believe we've met. Ian Murray, Uncle Jamie's my, well… my uncle," said Ian, his fair cheeks turning pink, and Caoimhe laughed a little, smiling meekly.

"Caoimhe Fowlis, Auntie Cat is my, well, Auntie," Caoimhe told him, teasing him lightly.

"Thank ye fer savin' my life, Caoimhe. Christ, I cannae wait te tell my brothers aboot this!" Ian said excitedly, and Jamie and I held back as we exited the cave while the two of them went on, chuckling lightly at their exchange.

"Perhaps now we can settle down fer a wee bit?" I asked Jamie, who chuckled and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, kissing the side of my head.

"Aye. We can finally settle down," he replied, and then we followed Caoimhe and Ian back through the woods.