“Sorry, but we’ve got to get everything downstairs and go over all the steps. It’s nearly four.”

“Sawyer is going to build a house on the island, and live there, and I can live in the water, so we can be together.”

“Love finds a way.” Touched, Sasha moved in to hug them both. “A good and loving way. And don’t think moving to some deserted island in the South Seas will stop us from visiting.”

“Counting on it,” Sawyer told her.

“But now, get moving. We’re getting antsy.”

“Five minutes.”

It took a little longer, but they hauled everything down, steered Doyle’s motorcycle in from the side room.

“At least I’ll be able to ride this again once we’re in Ireland.”

“I like riding the motorcycle.”

“Anytime, Gorgeous.”

“Until that happy day, we’ve got three hours and . . .” Riley checked her watch. “Thirty-two minutes until sunset. If we’re going to do this, we’d better do it.”

“One more thing. Sasha’s last vision.”

“Sawyer, no.” Alarmed, Annika clutched at him. “She is a god.”

“And Bran and Sasha took her down pretty hard in Corfu. This time it looks like it’s my turn. My risk, my choice—that’s what Sasha said, that’s what we explained to everybody. I’m making the choice, and I have to believe I can do it, buy us that time. But I’m going to need help.”

“Whatever you need, brother,” Doyle told him, “you’ve got.”

“The timing has to be close to perfect, and I need to get close enough to her to connect.”

“She could rip you to pieces.” At Riley’s words Annika turned her face into Sawyer’s shoulder. “Sorry, really, but we’ve got to be straight. Maybe we wait, take more time to plan it out.”

“It’s now. I’m sorry, too.” Sasha reached out to stroke Annika’s hair. “But it’s now. For the star, for the battle, for the risk.”

“She could rip me to pieces, but I’m banking she won’t, especially if Bran softens her up a bit.”

“And that I will, my word on it.”

“I get close enough, when she’s softened up some, I pull her into a shift, and when we’re clear, I disconnect. It can work.”

“You’ll be alone,” Annika stated.

“No.” He used her hand to tap his own heart. “Okay, everybody gear up—except for you.” He tipped Annika’s face, kissed her.

They strapped on the equipment Riley and Doyle had carted up from the boathouse—the hard way. And though it still made him wince, he waited while Annika tossed her pink dress aside.

“There may be a little jolt. I’ve never gone from solid ground to underwater.”

“And in 1742,” Riley added.

“Time’s set, just remember it’s a wilder ride than just a location shift. And when”—he deliberately didn’t say if—“Anni has the star, the trip back’s going to be just as wild. Stay close, stay together. The tighter we are, the easier it’ll be. Be ready.”

He put on his mask, adjusted it, slipped in his mouthpiece. With the underwater pistol on one hip, the diving knife in his belt, he took Annika’s hand.

With another look at his friends, Sawyer nodded. Closed his eyes. And activated both compass and watch simultaneously.

It had a kick, bigger than he’d expected. Then again, he’d only traveled simultaneously with one companion before this.

The air whistled, rushing by him, through him, around him as he gripped Annika’s hand, as he kept the connection with the others gripped tight in his mind.

The world turned, or so it seemed, revolving faster, faster, as years whizzed by like the air.

For a moment he thought he heard the song, and the sighs that blended with it. Then water swallowed him, swirled over him, slapped at him.

And dark fell deep.

Night, he thought, and a moonless night at that. Riley hadn’t taken any chances. And he hadn’t considered the lack of light in the cave.

He felt Annika’s hand still in his, and the brush of her tail against his legs. But the others . . .

A light glowed, suspended above Bran’s palm. When Bran waved a hand over it, the glow increased.

Relieved, Sawyer slowed his breathing, tried to orient himself.

Without sun or moon, with no light to reflect, the cave would be dark as a tomb, not that pretty, almost unearthly blue he’d seen in all the pictures.

But he could see Annika smile as she swam around them, as she nudged them all closer together.

And she tapped her ear.

Sawyer started to shake his head, but he did hear it. Faintly, a chorus of sighs, as if the water itself breathed them.

Still smiling, her eyes brilliant and beautiful, she gestured down. With a twist of her body, a liquid swirl of her tail, she swam straight down, and into the dark.

Stunned, he went with instinct, kicked hard after her. But in seconds, even with Bran’s light, he couldn’t see her.

She went deep, and oh, it was heaven to take the depths again. The sighs echoed around her now, and now she understood words hid in them.

We wait. We wait.

And in the songs lived pleas.