Read Time Everlastin' Book 5 for Free Online Page B

can it be rock? I
came down through here!
    But it was rock. She slapped
both palms to the slab then again and again until the pain in her
hands made her stop.
    "Let me out of here!" she
bellowed. "Hey! Can anyone hear me?"
    Drawing in a hoarse breath,
she squinted into the darkness and shouted, "Hey, mister! Where are
you? Hey, you can't leave me here!"
    Her efforts were futile. She
knew the barbarian wasn't nearby because she couldn't smell
him.
    “This is payback, Taryn, for
siccing Mom and Dad on Roan,” she muttered.

Chapter 3
     
    Katie MacLachlan couldn't
bring herself to glance at her watch. A red shawl covered her head
and shoulders, not that she could feel the cold, nor anything else.
Her mother's harsh words reverberated in her head, doing their
usual bit to undermine whatever self-esteem she may have gathered
from one year to the next.
    "Tis a full moon, Katie, and
tis your duty to offer yerself!"
    Since her twenty-first
birthday, her family believed her the current lover of the
Callanish Rider, and for over twenty years she had lied to them. In
truth, he had refused her then and every month since. Not once had
she looked into his eyes. She didn't know if he was a man or a
ghost. They had never touched each other. The only words he had
spoken to her were Gaelic curses and demands that she never return.
She wasn't sure if her parents' willingness to loan out her body to
the Callanish Rider, or the Rider's lack of interest, hurt
more.
    All for the sake of a
treasure Katie didn't believe existed.
    Katie was the twenty-second
female in her family chosen to comfort the MacLachlan Rider once
each month. Her great-grandmother had called him a demi-god, but
Katie was inclined to think him the devil, himself. Devil or god,
though, he didn't want her. The lie ate away at her year after
year, but she couldn't bring herself to confess her unworthiness
and see the shame she knew would be in her family's eyes from that
day forth. So, every month during the full moon, she returned to
the site, and stood with her head lowered while he galloped among
the stones and collected his gifts before vanishing once
again.
    Next year, her cousin
Margaret would replace her. Margaret. Nineteen and
pretty.
    Tears gathered in Katie's
eyes as she passed beyond the stone wall. Half of her resented his
disinterest in her body. Half was relieved. If given a choice, she
preferred to save herself for the man she married, although at her
age, the possibility was bleak.
    She was nearly to the
central stone when she spied a figure sitting on a rock at the end
of the cross. A breath lodged in her throat. She stepped around the
menhir and anxiously peered beyond the edge, her heart thumping
wildly in her ears.
    Not twenty minutes ago, she
had checked in on the journalist. Obviously, the woman was not the
shape beneath the blankets. The subterfuge rocked Katie more so
than the fact the ground was open between herself and the woman. It
wasn't the first time she had seen the black rectangle. This time,
however, Taryn Ingliss' presence added an element of danger that
left a bitter taste in Katie's mouth.
    "Use your head this time!"
Katie heard her say. "No story is worth—"
    "I tell, ye, somethin'
doesna feel right, tonight! I heard somethin'."
    Gil's voice alarmed Katie.
With a whimper of helplessness, she shrank against the stone,
molding her body to it as if to become a part of its surface. When
she glanced at the journalist again, it was to see her disappearing
into the rectangle. She opened her mouth to call out, but at the
heavy footfalls of her cousins' rapid approach, her throat
closed.
    The rain ceased. The clouds
hovering at the horizon melted into the night. A gauzy,
golden-orange light swept across the site, the now surrealistic
landscape drugging Katie's consternation.
    Her cousins were at the end
of the stone wall when tremors rippled across the ground. Katie
clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream, and closed her
eyes tightly. The