Breath of Yesterday (The Curse Series) by Emily Bold Read Free Book Online Page B

another time traveling to visit the human realm?”
    “Well, there are a few.” Roy nodded, only to object right away. “But those are old stories without any tangible proof.”
    “Ha! That’s where you’re wrong! When I was a child, my mother always warned me to never play too far away from the house. Otherwise the fairies would come and get me—just like they had this American lady who disappeared without a trace by Craigh na Dun. Three years later, dressed in rags, she turned up at the exact same spot where she had disappeared. It caused a real sensation and was all over the papers at the time.”
    “Still, that’s no proof at all.”
    “All right,” Sam said, “let’s pretend for a second that Alison is right and that there exist tears or openings in the fabric of time. How would we go about finding them? And how would we operate them? How could we possibly find answers to these questions?”
    I couldn’t believe that we might waste our energy on something as silly as that, especially with Payton’s life on the line. On the other hand, a Scottish boy, damned to eternal life, was enough for me to look at outrageous things like time travel and witches as something within the bounds of possibility . As I had experienced firsthand, more things existed between heaven and hell than we could possibly imagine. Something like time travel almost seemed trivial in that regard.
    “None of us has any knowledge of such things, but we can try to find out if there is a chance,” Roy declared. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and uncover something, but even then there’s no guarantee that it’s true and that Payton can in fact be saved. But it’s worth a try, so let’s get to work.”

    Two hours later back at the castle, Payton and I sat with Sean in the Great Hall. Old books and scrolls were piled high on the big banquet table in front of us.
    Since we now had a starting point, we all felt much better and had quietly decided not to give up. A freshly delivered pizza was to feed us for the next few hours so that we could put all our focus on our research.
    “Time travel?” Sean pondered. “That seems a bit unrealistic, even to me. Are you sure we’re not wasting our time here?”
    By now Payton had lost all color in his face, and he frequently needed to stop for a break. His fever ran high, and the medication didn’t seem to work at all. We had to hurry.
    I pulled the next big tome close to me and flipped open the heavy leather binding. The first page was beautifully written in quill by an artful hand, but I couldn’t decipher any of it. Those Gaelic or Celtic words, written in narrow letters and spread across the entire page, made me groan. I wasn’t of much help, given that I didn’t speak any of the old tongues.
    “Anyway, what are we going to do if we really do find a tear in the fabric of time?” I asked, grabbing a slice of pizza.
    Sean looked up from the book in front of him and, in turn, snatched a slice of pizza from the box. Payton, who was soaked in sweat, walked around the table and sat down beside me. I thrust my half-eaten pizza slice into his hands and took a fresh one from the box.
    “I would of course try to get Vanora’s blood somehow,” he said out loud.
    “How do you imagine that?” I asked. “Do you want to walk up to her and tell her you’ve come from the future and that her blood is your only hope? Makes no sense! Besides, what would you then do with her blood? Drink it? Eww!”
    Payton shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    Sean was already on his second slice and pointed the floppy end of it at his brother. “That’s not how it would work. Right now you’re in no condition to pull off something like that. Travel back in time? I mean, look at yourself! You need to conserve your energy, and there’s no way you’d be able to face any of the dangers that we used to experience back in the day. No way.”
    “But I have to at least try. I have no other choice!”
    I pressed Payton’s hand