Page 61 of Entangled With You

Tyler asked, “So we’re going to go into this dark as shit hole?”

Quentin was loading weapons. “Yep, and you’re going first.”

Tyler joked, “I’m the new guy, why do I have to do anything first?”

Quentin said, “Because you know how in all the movies the black guy dies? I am not dying. I’ve been stuck here eating crap food for four months. Trying to keep a bunch of medieval white guys from accidentally blowing themselves up with weapons way past their brainpower to comprehend. And I’m not dying now. Not this close. So you, my new friend, are going to do all the bullshit tasks, not me⁠—”

I said, “I will go first. Tis my hole. My death tae meet.”

Quentin said, “Well that got dark fast, Boss. I didn’t mean it like that.”

I strapped a gun tae my waist. “I dinna take it like that. I will go first so the black man and the new guy both winna die.” I patted the walkytalk and joked, “Unless of course the death comes from behind.”

Tyler and Quentin both groaned. I led the way intae the tunnel.

The tunnel was smaller than I remembered and I was bigger than I’d been when I was young. As a boy this had been fun but now bendin’ under the low ceiling was exhaustin’.

I tried tae keep my light off, but beamed it every few feet tae check our progress. Then I banged my head, hard. I groaned.

Quentin’s voice was a whisper. “You okay, Boss?”

I held my hand tae my head and tried tae get on top of the pain. “Och. I rattled m’skull.” I switched on the light and checked my hand, twas a trickle of blood on it. I checked again. The blood wasna much. “Tis good.” I switched off the light remembering Kaitlyn stretching the bandage on my forehead at that long ago castle before she jumped by herself tae the future.

I should have made her promise tae do it this time too.

I used the button on my walkytalk tae send her a chirp. That was how we agreed tae contact each other. A sound. It meant: I am alive. I canna speak tae ye though, but I am alive.

We went farther, much farther, creeping along as quiet as we could be until finally I drew us tae a halt. I listened for the noises of the castle above. Twas silent. A place that should be bustlin’ with the noise of hundreds of men was silent as a grave. What of Sean’s wife and children? The servants? Liam said there would be people there, were they all in hiding?

The openin’ tae the tunnels let out on a small storehouse in the back of one of the smallest larders. There was a rickety stair that led tae the kitchen. Still nae people tae meet us. We climbed stealthily up and twas a first that the kitchen was empty.

I glanced at Quentin. He kent this was extraordinary. He gestured we needed tae be cautious. I nodded in agreement.

We checked twas clear, then passed through a small courtyard with a door at the far end that led intae the larger courtyard. I haena seen it since the day it had been blown apart, months before. We clung tae the edges and crept tae the door.

33 - KAITLYN

Every so often all day long there had been drones flying past the house. Every so often there would be the soft knock on the door, the voice of a guard. Lizbeth would answer that we were okay and then we’d hear the guard’s footsteps going away.

The whole village was in lockdown, hiding from the drones and waiting for the fighting to end and the men to come home.

Lizbeth and I talked. I told her about Zach and Emma’s wedding. I even told her that Lady Mairead had appeared. I didn’t tell her that Magnus was going to be a father. I couldn’t bear to say it out loud.

I knew that it was not very helpful to lay on your back for the last weeks of your pregnancy, so I talked Lizbeth into getting up and we walked around the room. I turned it into a game of ‘follow the leader’ and we climbed over a chair, crawled across the bed, twirled in the middle of the room, did a couple of kickboxing moves, and then did it all again. It was silly looking and hilarious until Madame Greer’s voice bellowed from downstairs, “What is all the noise up there?” And we collapsed onto the bed laughing.

“Fine,” Lizbeth said, “I will just lay here and...” She turned to me, her eyes wide. “Ugh. Either that drink ye made me swallow has turned or I am beginnin’ the pains.”

“Really? Oh my god, really?” I took to the chair facing the bed. “Now what do we do?”

“I think we best send Madame Greer for the midwife.” She clutched her stomach, her brow drawn as she climbed under the covers of the bed.

34 - KAITLYN

My radio squawked.

Lizbeth asked, “What is that sound?”

“It’s Magnus.” I answered him and we spoke for a moment while Lizbeth watched. She was between contractions. After we said goodbye, I held the radio in my hands and stared down at it wishing he could keep speaking to me for longer.