“They’re gone.” Her eyes widened at his stricken look and she wiped her nose on her sleeve. “I mean, gone to Scotland. They’re alive, Owen. Please breathe.”
She whacked him on the back and he took a great, gasping breath. For a moment he couldn’t see or hear, then it all came whooshing back. His family was alive. The house was gone but his family was alive. A hundred questions crammed up his throat.
“What happened?” was all he could manage. He fished a crumpled handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her.
She wiped her face and shrugged, a small, sad movement. “I only arrived a few hours ago. I found Cook at her daughter’s house— none of the staff were in the house, they’re all fine. It— it burned down.” Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at what was left of her home.
“Arrived?” He latched onto the one part of her explanation that made the least sense. “Where were you when it happened?”
This induced another bout of sobs and she shook her head back and forth as if trying to make something go away.
“I left right after you did. To— to my other time.”
To that man she fancied was her soulmate. He scowled, momentarily distracted from the horror that surrounded them. For a split second he recalled Maria saying with absolute certainty that he wasn’t her soulmate, though. This gave him a perverse sense of comfort, but only for a second.
“Maria!” Ariana squawked, clutching her heart. “Where did you come from?” Maria had come over the wall without either of them noticing and now stood a few feet away, poking at a pile of rubble with her toe. “Where did she come from?” she hissed in a lower tone at him.
“Aye, she does that,” he said. “It can be a bit shocking, but it was useful on the passage back.”
“Passage back? She went with you? All the way to Moldavia?”
He almost laughed at her scandalized expression. At least it had wiped away the grief. “I’m surprised she hasn’t been reported missing. All of London should be looking for her.”
“Maybe they are,” she said, irritated now. God, he’d missed her. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and squeeze her tight but was afraid she’d smack him in her current state. “I told you, I’ve only been back myself a few hours.”
He watched Maria poking around and stood up. He reached for Ariana’s hand and pulled her to her feet, leading her toward the sooty lemon trees. He remembered Ariana’s brothers having a lemon war out here, back when all was right with the world. It was such a short time ago but seemed like a lifetime. When they were a reasonable distance away, he cleared his throat.
“That’s not really Maria,” he whispered, closing his eyes against whatever face Ariana would make at that revelation. Of course, being Ariana, she knew him well enough to wait until he opened them again to reply.
Her brow was raised, but she didn’t look as shocked as he thought she would. “Of course it is,” she said. He knew she was about to go on a tirade about how he shouldn’t be playing around at such a time so he held up his hand to nip it in the bud.
“It’s not. We didn’t run away together or elope or anything like that. She was waiting for me when I got to my cousin’s village. They wouldn’t let her in their houses. Look at her, Riri. Really look at her.”
Ariana swept her gaze over Maria, who had a stick now, and was furiously digging away at a clump of melted metal and singed wood. He watched Ariana take in the lank, matted hair, the skeletal frame, the grubby gown. Maria turned and looked at them, parting her lips in what now passed as her smile. Even from the distance they were from her, the vacant gleam in her eyes sparked in the dim afternoon light. Ariana gasped.
“Has she gone mad? Did we do that to her?” she whispered, pulling him further away.
“No, it’s not her at all. She told me I called her— it, I don’t know. When I accidentally did the memory spell after the ball. Something’s in there fixing what we broke. I don’t know. She’s maddeningly difficult to understand. It’s like she’s teasing me.”
“Teasing you?” Ariana repeated, aghast. “Do you mean being flirtatious?” She pressed at her stomach as if she might be sick.
“No, like a child. Like your bratty brothers.”
“What do we do?”
He peeked over at Maria, who’d found what looked like a gnarled spoon. He knew if she wanted to hear what they were saying, she could, yet he still lowered his voice further.
“There’s nothing to do,” he said firmly. He shuddered, too ashamed to tell her what had happened in the Povest village. “She’s in charge, make no mistake. We just have to wait until she’s ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“God knows. But she wants to go to Scotland, very badly. I convinced her to come here first because I thought you could help.”
Ariana shook her head vehemently. “I don’t dare. If your cousin and that lot couldn’t help her, how could I?”
He was surprised to see how fearful she was, but he had to remember he was somewhat used to the Maria thing now.
“Then we need to keep her happy until she releases the real Maria.”
After a long silence, Ariana covered her face with her hands, rubbing her tear-mottled cheeks. “Scotland,” she said. “Scotland’s good. I was going to leave tomorrow anyway. I don’t know if my parents know about this…” she waved her hands at the debris. “Cook was so distraught, I barely got any information out of her save that they were already gone when it—” she stopped abruptly, unable to say the word. “She wanted me to stay with her at her daughter’s house, but I can’t now
