The Parchment Scroll by C. A. Szarek

raspberries on his palm.
    Lachlan giggled and clapped.
    Claire grinned. “Thanks. I think so too, but I’m his mom, so I’m biased.”
    “His dad isn’t so bad either.”
    Her sister’s gaze held a wicked glint. “No, he’s not. He’s hot .”
    Jules laughed. She refused to think about Hugh as he popped into her head. He was hot, too. “You’re really happy here, Claire?” she whispered, scrambling for anything but the MacDonald laird.
    “Yes.” Her sister’s nod was earnest, but she flashed another grin. “Or, aye , I should say.”
    She found herself smiling again. Claire was practically radiating happiness. Jules knew her sister too well to think any of it was for her benefit. She sighed and averted her gaze.
    Going home without Claire didn’t sit right in her gut. Even if she could see with her own eyes how happy she was. “You found happily ever after, ” she muttered.
    “I did,” Claire whispered. “I really did. I love Duncan and Lachlan more than life itself. I love his family. You’ll meet them soon, I’m sure. Janet’s pregnant and about to pop, so she’s resting, but she’s fab. Her husband is Fae, but so’s Alana.”
    “Like Bree.”
    Claire stilled. “Bree?”
    “The chick that helped me get here. Opened the…Faery Stones?”
    Her sister nodded. “Yeah. The Faery Stones.” Claire’s eyes were narrowed and she cocked her head to one side.
    “Something wrong?”
    “I don’t know. Where’d you meet this chick?”
    “I put an ad in the paper when you went missing. She saw your pic and answered it.”
    “What?”
    Jules’ instincts pricked and she sat straighter, letting Lachlan go when he pulled away. “Claire, what’s wrong?”
    “Keep talking, Jules. What else happened?”
    “She said she was from here. Like this century, and she knew you. She said she could help me get here because she needed to go home.”
    Claire’s green eyes were like saucers. “Bree? You said her name was Bree?”
    She nodded. “Yeah. When Hugh found me, I couldn’t find her; I looked.”
    “What did she look like?”
    “Why?”
    Her chest rose and fell with a breath. “Just…tell me.”
    Jules stared at Claire. Her sister was leaning into the edge of the chair’s seat, gnawing on her lower lip. “She was about your height. Shorter than me. Long dark hair. Brown eyes and darker complexion, like she was Hispanic or something. But she’s Irish. Said her grandma was Fae. I didn’t believe it until the bubble thing opened.”
    Claire gasped. “Bridei.”
    They both ignored Lachlan tugging on his mom’s sleeve.
    “What?”
    “Her real name is Bridei. She’s dark-skinned because she’s a gypsy. We thought she was dead.”
     

Chapter Ten
     
    Jules could only stare as Claire explained a ton of unbelievable things—despite the fact she’d time traveled. People with wings called Fae Warriors. Magic. Funky colored trees and grass in a place called The Realm of the Fae.
    Evidently her friend Bree wasn’t exactly good people.
    Claire’s husband cursed savagely. The whole freaking family—including the pregnant chick—had filed into the solar.
    “What’s the problem?” Jules asked. “She didn’t seem bent on some revenge plot or anything, she just wanted to get home.”
    “You don’t understand, lass.” A guy with purple eyes—like for real violet purple—spoke. He had white-blond hair and was as freaking tall—and built—as the MacLeod twins. Claire had told her he was a former Fae Warrior, but Jules didn’t see any wings.
    “What don’t I understand?”
    Alana, who was supposed to be a real princess, stepped forward. She was beautiful—ethereally so. Long, white-blonde hair was loose to her waist, and she wore a shimmery lilac gown. Her eyes were purple, too. She looked related to the former Fae Warrior but no one had said so. “Bridei’s lover was killed when we were fleeing.”
    Ah, so that’s what Bree left unsaid. Jules remembered the emotions flashing in the