The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

it’s as ancient as the brooches. I don’t have all the answers, Meredith. But I know this… If we believe in the power of the stones, then how can we not believe in the healing power of the cloak?”

“I don’t have the same faith you have.”

He squatted to be at eye level, and she wanted to shove him over, but she didn’t.

“Ye have the same faith I do. It dims, then brightens, then dims again just like mine. But it’s always there. Sometimes yers dims when mine brightens and vice versa, but it never goes completely dark.”

“James Cullen still needs to be in a hospital. I won’t change my mind about that.”

Elliott stood and ran his hands over his thick gray hair. “Damn it, Meredith. If ye move him, he’ll die. And I won’t let ye do that. There’s only one way we can play this. Erik said James Cullen should sleep for forty-eight to seventy-two hours, and when he wakes up—”

“If,” she said, spitting out the word.

“No! Meredith! He will wake up. The cloak is his only chance. I’ve seen him, and God bless his soul. The only recognizable part of him is the birthmark on his foot. He had the shit beaten out of him, and the goddamn bastards took a knife to him and tried to skin him alive. If not for Erik, he would have died, and we would never have known what happened to him.”

She screamed, “You goddamn bastard. I’ll never be able to unsee that.” She pushed away from him, lifted her skirts, and ran until she dropped to her knees in the freshly cut grass, doubling over in the most unbearable pain she’d ever experienced. She felt like she, too, was being skinned alive. She sucked in oxygen and screamed out in pain. “Not my beautiful boy! Tell me it’s not true! I want my son back!”

Elliott knelt beside her and held her while she cried.

“He can’t survive this, Elliott! He won’t want to live with being disfigured and disabled.”

“He won’t be disfigured or debilitated.”

“Good God. Are you that gullible? You believe everything that horrible Viking told you. Well, it’s not true.”

“People think time travel is impossible, but we know the truth, and James Cullen’s body will completely heal.”

Something about that didn’t sound right to her. What was Elliott not saying?

His body will heal.

If she couldn’t unsee James Cullen’s tortured body after Elliott’s description, James Cullen couldn’t unsee it, either.

His mind.

“Oh, God!” she screamed again, ripping up handfuls of grass and shredding them until she exhausted herself. “He’ll suffer emotionally from this, won’t he?”

Elliott didn’t say anything.

“You still remember crying in the barn when your mother left all those years ago. You have nightmares and call her name. James Cullen will scream out just like that. You never forget trauma. What happened to James Cullen will replay in his mind, torturing him for the rest of his life.”

“We don’t know what he’ll remember.”

She pulled up to a sitting position and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Even if James Cullen doesn’t remember, the memory will still be there and will haunt him. But he won’t understand why his heart races or why he runs away in fear. That’s almost worse.”

“Erik suggested he go to the monastery. And I agree. That’s the only place his mind will have a chance to heal.”

She swiped at her nose. “For how long?”

“As long as it takes.”

“Months?”

“Maybe years.”

Those words were like knives piercing her heart, each one plunging deeper than the last. “The monastery doesn’t allow women, visitors, or phones. We won’t know how he’s doing.”

“Paul is going with him.”

“This is all Paul’s fault anyway.”

“No, it’s not! If the brooches had taken him to James Cullen in Chicago, Sten and his henchmen would have tortured and killed them both. James Cullen will recover.”

“I don’t know how you can be so sure.”

“Because I had a vision of James Cullen standing over our graves. He had gray hair, hunched shoulders, and a joyful smile. It’ll work out for him. We just have to give him time, and we need to be patient.”

“Paul can leave the monastery and call us, right?”

“Probably.”

She glanced toward the cabin, where smoke poured from the chimney. It had to be hot as hell in there. Paul should open the windows and allow in some fresh air and the scent of spring flowers.

“Let’s go to the cabin. I want to see him.”

“He’s in a coma and completely covered with Erik’s cloak. Ye can’t touch him or look beneath the fabric.”

“But you did,” she said.

“No, I had a vision.”

She gave a frustrated sigh. “When will he come out of the coma?”

“Two or three days. Just try to have faith in the process.”

“In a magic cloak.” She shook her head. “Why don’t we go back a few days and prevent this from happening? We can stop Sten from finding James Cullen in Chicago and torturing him.”

Elliott gave her a pitying smile like she was a child asking a ridiculous question, which pissed her off—again!

“Well, why not? I’m surprised Erik didn’t try it. He seems to be able to come and go anytime he wants.”

“The only time we tried to change history, we ended up with the same result,” Elliott said.

“You’re thinking of Kenzie’s grandfather?”

“He still died, but he died a hero instead of a traitor. If we go back and try to stop it, we might be collateral damage. Not that I wouldn’t give my life for my son, but it might make it worse for him. When we get home, let’s talk to David and see what his thoughts are.”

“Ask Erik.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever see him again.”

“Why not?”

Elliott gave her an exasperated look. She was frustrating him, but she didn’t care.

“I don’t know, Meredith!” Elliott took a deep breath and blew it out. “There are things I sense and other things I know for sure. The answer to your question lies somewhere in between.”

“I intend to stay here with him until he wakes up,” she said.

“I know