The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance by Katherine Logan (comprehension books .TXT) 📗

his claustrophobia, and if there was a message, he blocked it out.

And here it was back again. What did the situations have in common? His mind didn’t have time to sort it out.

“I’m not going to escalate the situation,” Elliott said. “I have the torc and the topaz. We know what happens when we join the two. If the sparks go off, come running.”

“Ye can’t do that,” David said. “It was a twenty-minute shit show in a ten-foot radius. It could kill ye.”

“Wait a minute,” Ensley said. “I don’t know what the shit show is about, but this situation involves me, and you’re not leaving me behind.”

David was losing control of the situation, and he couldn’t allow that to happen. Not at the cost of losing the love of his life.

Elliott pulled a long skirt made out of the MacAndrew plaid from his duffel and tossed it to Ensley. “Strip down to yer T-shirt and shorts. Wear this with yer fly tartan, and strap yer weapon to yer leg.”

“Ye knew this was going to happen,” David said in an accusatorial tone.

“I suspected it,” Elliott said.

“Where’s mine?” Austin demanded.

Elliott jabbed Austin with his finger. “Sit yer ass down. The Council won’t hurt her, at least not until she produces Erik’s grandson. And then all bets are off. But ye could make this worse. Think, Austin, and trust us to take care of it.”

David fully understood the emotions thundering through Austin’s blood. If they didn’t let him go with Ensley, he’d go on his own, and that could screw up the rescue and give Arne a chance to kill someone—like Tavis.

“Elliott, if ye insist on going in naked,” David said, “then Austin and I will go as yer escorts,” David said.

“Fuck that!” Pete said. “It makes more sense if Connor and I go. Austin doesn’t have battle experience.”

“I need ye and Connor to mount a defense of the beach. I don’t want forty men to come ashore and interfere with whatever is about to go down at Arne’s longhouse. Plus, ye need to guard Joseph until we reach an agreement.”

“I’m going with you, Dad,” Joseph said, his lip quivering. “You can’t leave me behind.”

Tavis hugged his son. “Let me talk to Arne first, and then you can come.”

Elliott stripped down to his briefs and a black T-shirt—a man in his late seventies with the body of a forty-year-old.

“Stay with the others,” Elliott said, buttoning his kilt. “Let us work this out, and then we’ll come for ye.” After adjusting his fly tartan, he strapped a Sig to his thigh.

David pushed the talk button on his handheld radio. “This is Six Alpha. We’re coming in.” David put on his rucksack and picked up his rifle. “Pete, Connor. Ye have any questions?”

“We’ll have the beach covered,” Connor said.

Pete pressed his flat hand against Austin’s chest above his heart. “Don’t do anything stupid. If you do, JL will hang my ass from the shortest tree so she can beat it every day. Be smart, and if David tells you to do something, you do it. You don’t think about it. You just do it like you shoot threes or shoot goddamn bears.”

Austin hugged his godfather. “I’ll make you proud.”

“I’ve always been proud of you,” Pete said.

David was watching Robbie and Henry communicate with each other with blinks and nods. When they were younger, David could interpret their silent language. But by the time they turned twelve or thirteen, they had turned it into an art form. He had a feeling Kenzie could read it, but he’d never asked. Since David had never shared the hand signals he and Elliott used, he let the twins keep their secrets.

Since he was watching his sons, only his peripheral vision was on the rest of the group, so he missed the windup to Joseph’s decision to bolt.

“Joseph, stop!” Tavis yelled.

Joseph ignored Tavis and ran as if someone had their hands under his armpits, lifting him above the large rocks in his path. Others he dodged like the best wide receiver in the NFL.

“Damn!” David took off right behind Tavis. He looked over his shoulder to see Elliott, Ensley, and Austin running behind him. A mad race toward the enemy wasn’t the way he wanted this to go.

So deal with it.

Joseph ran as if his life depended on how far and how fast he could run. Tavis grabbed him just as he reached the settlement. By the time David arrived, men were rushing out of their longhouses, holding battle-axes and bows with quivers of arrows hanging from their belts. This wasn’t the way David wanted the confrontation to go down, so he had to pivot and go in with a show of force.

“Arne! Show yerself!” David demanded. “Kenzie! I’m here for ye, lass!”

“Arne! Release my family!” Elliott shouted his demand.

“Which one is Arne’s longhouse?” David whispered to Tavis.

“Second on the left. But close your eyes when you can to speed up dark adaptation. It’s dark and smoky inside.”

David took the lead and marched down the narrow pathway between the stone structures, squinting, and halted outside Arne’s longhouse. He stood in front of Tavis, Ensley, and Elliott, and Austin towered over all of them from the rear.

Arne threw open the door. “There’s no cause for violence. Lower your weapons.”

David didn’t.

“Lower your weapon.” He walked up to David and stood inches from the barrel of his rifle. “You are the Keeper’s vængr.”

Vængr? What is that?

“You are the Keeper’s wing, young David. You enable him to pass with the least possible resistance. You are there to help him escape predators, to take advantage of all resources, and to make his path easier. The Keeper cannot survive without his wing.”

“Aye. I am Elliott’s wing.”

“You were Erik’s first assignment, and he chose wisely. You have always been the Keeper’s trusted confidant,” Arne said.

Erik’s assignment.

Aye, young David. I chose you, and I chose your bride. You needed a warrior more than you needed a doctor.

“Why’d ye capture my wife and brother?” To David, Cullen was his