Time Travel Romances Boxed Set by Claire Delacroix

with Baird’s. “Blond hair, wearing only a sweater. Looks
like your princess set off the alarm when she ran away from
here.”
    Baird exhaled in a relieved rush and shoved
one hand through his hair. “Where did she go?”
    Julian shrugged. “He said she ran toward the
sea.”
    Baird caught his breath. One false step
could send anyone plunging to their death. And it would be all too
easy to slip in this weather.
    Aurelia wasn’t safe, after all.
    “ I tell you, Baird, this
woman is a lot of trouble and I really think you should reconsider
the wisdom of your offer.” Julian coughed into his hand. “If
anything happens to her, we could be found liable since you invited
her to stay. Having her here as an unpaying guest clouds the
assignment of responsibility …”
    Baird pushed past Julian and bolted down the
stairs.

    *

    Aurelia raced along the uneven rocks, the
path she had known now obscured. Her certainty that Bard had
deliberately hidden this way grew with every moment - it could not
have changed so drastically otherwise!
    The wind whipped her hair around her face
and the cold rain splashed on her face. Bard’s sweater was little
protection against the bite of the cold, her feet were freezing,
but she thought only of her sire.
    Her heart twisted as she imagined him
trapped in the wretched prison of a sea cell. Though Hekod was
strong, he was no longer a young man - he could already have caught
a deathly chill.
    Aurelia paused on the lip of the cliff and
scanned the rocks below. This was the spot. Aurelia could fairly
taste the despair.
    It was a desolate and lonely place, isolated
on the northernmost crag of Dunhelm. In broad sunlight, it gave a
person gooseflesh, no doubt because the torment of countless
prisoners had left its mark.
    From the crest of the cliff, the slope of
rock looked as though it continued unbroken to the edge of the
cliff, where it dropped straight down to the sea far below.
    But Aurelia knew better. Halfway down the
ragged descent to the cliff edge, there was a black and jagged
opening in the rock. That hole was the only entry to the dreaded
sea cells. Aurelia glanced back and thought she discerned figures
erupting from the castle.
    She did not have much time. She scrambled
down the steep rock face, scratching her bare feet in the process
but continuing undaunted. She tasted the salt of the sea spray and
her mouth went dry at the proximity of the crashing waves.
    The wet rocks gleamed like jet and were
slick with moss - one false step and she could slide to the edge of
the cliff, then straight down into the sea. There would be no easy
landing on the rough rocks below. Aurelia concentrated on finding a
secure footing on each rock, telling herself to ignore the hypnotic
pounding of the sea.
    The opening to the sea cells was closer to
the cliff edge than she recalled. Aurelia gripped the rocks and
leaned over the hole, closing her eyes at the dizzy drop to the
cell’s wet floor.
    There was no escape from these dismal cells.
It was here that the worst criminals had always been abandoned to
die. Aurelia was certain that the repetitive crash of the sea would
drive them to madness first. Or the crush of bones beneath one’s
feet, a tangible reminder of the fate of previous occupants, and a
fate ultimately to be their own.
    Aurelia could see no movement in the
fathomless shadows below. She peered into the darkness and shivered
when she thought she saw the glimmer of a pale bone.
    “ Father?” she called, but
there was no response.
    Her voice echoed slightly in the cavern
below and made a lonely sound. She raised her voice and called
again.
    The sea rushed and withdrew, the wind
whistled over the rocks. Gulls cried far overhead, but Aurelia
strained to see some sign of life below.
    “ Father! Father, answer me!
Father, are you here?”
    “ There is no one here,
Gemdelovely Gemdelee, no one but you and now there’s
me.”
    Aurelia jumped at the gently spoken words.
She spun to find an ancient