Timeless

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter 19

Shaw slid off of Macbeth's back and approached the small hut. The door was ajar, hanging halfway off of its hinges. The interior was dark, the hearth still smoldering, but cooling rapidly. Shaw expected to find the furniture tossed and smashed. So it was quite shocking when he found everything completely pristine, whole and intact, but completely barren. No clothes, no linens, no tableware, no cookware, not even dust to indicate where these items might have been. There was no sign of anyone having lived here. Aside from the fire, there was no sign of any life at all.

Save for the small figure, hunched and curled up in the corner, shaking with grief. Shaw dropped his hand from where it's been hovering near the hilt of his sword.

"Riona . . ."

"She's supposed to be here," Ri sniffled. "She brought us here for a reason, she gave up decades of her life to bring us here, to ask for my help, she's supposed to be here, but . . ."

"Who?" Shaw crouched beside her, wanting to touch her, to comfort her, but daring not to. "Who's supposed tae be here?"

"Agatha," Ri hiccoughed.

"Ye said she'd brought ye here. Why?"

"To find the man who's going to kill you: to stop him," Shaw was momentarily stunned into silence by this answer. His silence proved to be just what Ri needed to keep going. "There's someone you know, someone close to you who wants you dead so they can take power from you. Agatha asked me to help, to save your life. She brought me and Fiona and Austin here, to help you. She said she would send them back . . . that she'd send them back when they needed to return home . . ." Ri choked on a violent sob. "He was supposed to be safe. I was supposed to protect him. I let him down."

"Nay, nay Lass," putting aside everything else for the moment, Shaw drew Ri into his arms. She fell apart, all of that strength and fearless courage melting away in the face of a terrible loss. Shaw simply held her, let her cry until her eyes ran dry.

"He killed me too . . ." Ri's voice was hoarse and empty.

"What?"

"The man who will kill you. He killed me too. I remember him, I remember his eyes, I remember his cold, grey eyes . . ."

She stared up at him. Her eyes were no longer vivid purple, but a dull, steel grey. They were empty, so empty of life, yet so filled with hatred. And suddenly, Shaw couldn't breathe.

Shaw startled, coming awake in a cold sweat, dragging one breath, heaving and sawing, after another.

"Shaw?" Purple eyes, vividly purple, beautiful and expressive. And then she was in his arms, holding him, comforting him, him, after everything she'd lost.

"I'm alright, I'm fine," Shaw forced his breathing to slow, held her to him with all the strength he had, trying to impart some to her. It'd been two days since Austin's death. His body had been burned along with the few possessions he'd had here, per Ri's request. And ever since, Fiona had locked herself in her room and refused to come out, to reply to anyone calling through the door to check on her, to touch the food left for her outside her door save for a few morsels of some bread or cheese, although she didn't spare the water. That was good. If nothing else, she intended to keep on living, if only to waste away in her chambers, wallowing in grief.

Not that Ri was doing much better. She'd spent the two days after the funeral sequestered in his study. She ate what was placed before her, spoke, if briefly, to him and to other visitors. But she hadn't moved from her seat save to use the privy from time to time. She just sat there, poring over those documents she'd gotten from Fergus. Shaw had practically had to sling her over his shoulder to get her to come to bed last night.