Highland Shifter (MacCoinnich Time Travel) by Catherine Bybee

were looking for.”
    The weight of the pendent on her neck felt heavy and warm. “You think the necklace moved me in time?”
    “If not, then what?”
    She tugged on it, wanting it off. If it moved her though time once, it could do it again.
    “Get if off.” She batted it with her hands, pulled and attempted to break it free. But the chain was thick and unrelenting. She ’d loved the heavy chain the first time she put it on. Not anymore.
    “Calm down.” Simon attempted to grab her hands, but she moved away.
    “It needs to come off.”
    “Relax, Helen.”
    “Relax? Easy for you to say. The thing isn’t fused to you.”
    “If the Ancients wanted it anywhere but around your neck, you ’d be able to remove it easily. Don’t fight with it.”
    Simon and his Ancients, those spiritual beings he credited for everything that happened. She didn ’t lend much belief in spirits.
    Helen stopped pulling and walked briskly to the junk drawer in her kitchen. There she found a pair of pliers and moved them to the chain.
    “Halt!” Simon yelled his voice stopped her instantly. “You may be destroying my only chance to return home.”
    The pliers fell from her hand, hit the counter, and then tumbled to the floor. He was right. Her own insecurities and fears were making her rush to action. “I’m sorry. You’re right.” Her hands shook with the force of her fear.
    “We ’ll figure out what makes the necklace work. Together.”
    “But what if I wake up in your time and you ’re here?”
    “You won ’t.” Simon’s hands rested on her shoulders.
    She wanted to believe him but didn ’t know what to believe anymore. “You don’t know that.”
    “I ’ll not leave your side.”
    “But—”
    “Shhh.”
    Not leave her side? Her body tightened in a ball of pressure. What the hell was wrong with her?
    * * * *
    Amber palmed one of the small stones and rubbed her thumb along its smooth surface. “I know you’ve done this for a reason,” she voiced to whatever, whoever might be listening. The Ancients only appeared in dire times. This obviously wasn’t one of them. Simon might be missing from this century, but Amber no longer felt the forbearing weight of loss she did when he’d first stepped out of this time. She guessed the lack of acute pain was due to Lizzy’s emotions calming. Bearing the weight of other peoples’ emotions, experiencing their joy, pain, and sorrow, became more oppressive with each passing year.
    This was her Druid gift.
    Lately it knifed her like a curse.
    Her burden was shared with her parents. Her father, Ian, encouraged her to find a husband, someone of her own to love and start a family. Each suitor Amber turned away, unable to bear their touch or experience their lingering pain.
    Lora’s premonitions had faded as she aged, giving Amber hope that hers would diminish, too.
    Through the years, the pain of the family faded enough to bear their direct contact. But even that became increasingly difficult. Simon was a part of that family. Although they didn ’t share any blood relation, he was a brother to her. She missed him.
    A knock on her chamber door sounded, followed by her mother ’s voice. “’Tis me.”
    “Come in.”
    Lora’s skirts swished along the floor as she crossed the room. She wore grace and elegance as others would wear a scarf. Her mother’s long dark hair was bundled into a snood at her neck; the lace matched the deep umber color of her dress.
    “Are you still studying the stones?”
    Amber returned her eyes to the table on which the smaller stones lay. “Aye. The Ancients are trying to tell us something.”
    Lora lifted one of the stones and rolled it in her hand. “Agreed. And I think I may know what they ’re suggesting.”
    “You ’ve had a premonition?”
    She shook her head. “More feeling than anything predetermined.”
    “Don’t leave me waiting.”
    Lora lifted the stone to Amber ’s chest and tilted her head to the side in thought. “When I close