“Not very gracefully I’m afraid.” Tara considered the floor and cringed.

None of them could quite figure out why they hovered, let alone how to ease themselves gently down.

They had tried many different rhymes and made up incantations, but none worked.

“You guys ready?” Liz asked.

They winced as each one of them hit the floor despite the pillows they had put under them.

Tara was better off in the chair, but still she called out, “Damn, that always makes me need to pee.” Myra tossed her hand and the candles went out.

Amber clapped her hands together. “We did it.”

“Did anyone hear anything?”

“Nothing,” Tara told her while rubbing her backside.

“I did feel a few things, and I could almost smell the smoke of the chimneys close to the village.”

Amber agreed. “Do you think he knew we were watching?”

“We’ll have to wait until tonight to find out. If I had to guess, I would say no.” Liz pulled one of her gowns out of a trunk and started dressing. “You’re the empath, Amber, what did you sense?”

“Kinship. Cian likes Simon’s company and feels the need to mentor him. My brother didn’t like losing the race.”

Myra helped Liz lace up her gown. “Your ability to feel other’s emotions will be helpful if we’re unable to hear what’s happening.”

“I agree,” Myra saw the praise sink into her young sibling. Amber completed their circle, despite her tender age.

They all helped put the room to order.

Liz stuffed the book away, hidden from the casual eye along with her modern clothes.

They spread the candles around the room, merely functional again.

Pleased with the results they left the room, in search of food.

Calling on the powers they provoked together always made them hungry.

Chapter Nineteen

“I think the stones need to be a priority.”

Duncan said between bites.

“They will be of little help if Grainna regains power,” Ian told him.

“But with the stones, can we not simply go back in time and stop her?”

“It is not us who decides the time in which the stones send us.” Lora placed a calming hand on her son’s arm.

Myra noticed the exchange, knowing that Duncan and Tara were becoming increasingly anxious as the weeks ticked down to the coming birth of their child.

“How do we know? Have we ever tried to make the stones take us to a specific time?” he asked his parents. “We have only done what your visions have told us. Consider how Myra was able to isolate where to be placed on her return, and she wasn’t given a vision.”

“He’s right. My subconscious repeated Tara’s words about Magicland when I left, which was where I ended up. It might work to choose the time in which to be sent.”

Liz put up her hand. “Wait a minute. Let’s assume you can do this. What happens if you try and come back to a day last week? You already exist in that time.” Liz glanced at Tara and Todd who gave her a brief nod. “Maybe I’ve watched too many hours of television… but couldn’t that change the course of history? Our history?”

“It hasn’t been tried,” Ian said. “But I think your concerns are valid.”

“We still don’t want the stones to stay in Grainna’s hands.” Duncan sent his wife a brief smile

“Have you ladies tried to get into one of our heads?” Ian asked after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Myra locked eyes with Todd. His questioning gaze had her sending him a quick shake of the head to say they didn’t pry into his. “You tell us.”

Fin sent a nervous eye to Liz, then on to his brothers who shrugged their shoulders. Simon shook his head no.

“Well then.” Lora smiled. “It seems to have worked.”

“Really? Who did you spy on?” Fin took a long drink of the ale sitting in front of him.

“Relax, Finlay. It wasn’t you,” Liz informed him.

“Who then?”

Liz eyed her son. “I thought I told you not to jump or run the horses.”

Simon’s eyes grew wide. He tossed a bite of bread in his mouth to keep him from having to speak.

“So you looked into Simon’s head.”

“No, we went into Cian’s thoughts, who was riding with Simon. No, make that racing Simon.”

Myra scowled at her younger brother who didn’t seem concerned for his actions.

“He’s an excellent horseman. I don’t know why any of you worry about him,” he told them all while patting Simon on the back. Myra had to agree, but from the look crossing Lizzy’s face, she didn’t out loud. “Still...” Liz started.

“Leave it, Elizabeth.” Fin dropped his hand on the table, causing the plates to rattle. “Simon is capable. In time he might outride any of us here.”

Liz turned in her chair and gave Fin her full attention. “The last time I looked I was his mother.

And you have no right to interfere. If I don’t want him running the horses at breakneck speed, then he doesn’t.”

“I say he does.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Just who the hell do you think you are? You’re not his father, and never—” she yelled.

“As long as you are under the protection—”

Liz put her hand up. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard this before. And I’m done listening to it.” Her voice rose to match Fin’s. “I think those stones are a priority after all. It’s time Simon and I go back home.”

“You don’t like the rules so you run away. Is that it?” Fin’s jaw stood firm.

Myra cringed while watching Liz and her brother stare each other down. Todd’s hand gathered hers beneath the table. His hold sent a silent word of comfort.

With hands clutched at her waist, Lizzy spat out. “It’s not the rules I want to get away from. It’s you!”

Simon shot out of his chair. “Stop it! Stop it, both of you.” Tears pooled in his eyes. He ran from the table and up the stairs.

Without another word, Liz sprung out of her chair and took off after her son.

Fin stood to follow; Tara halted him. “Lizzy has been a single mom for many years. No one she has seen socially has ever even met Simon, let alone been given the right to dictate how he should be raised.”

Fin listened, but made no effort to move.

“Unless you plan on stepping into a fatherly role, I suggest you back off.”