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David couldn’t take his eyes from her face as the blood pushed through his veins in a slow thumping surge. The pace of the music picked up and he kept singing even though time had come to a grinding halt.

Don’t leave me, stay with me,

I will love you forever

Through time itself.

He sang the words without thinking about them until he reached the end of the chorus.

How fucking appropriate. Except for the bit about love.

How the hell had the woman from the twenty-first century turned up here in front of him at the fucking 1971 Glastonbury Festival? She had bewitched him and now he had a major problem on his hands. She must have known about the stones all along. He spun around at the end of the song, caught Bear’s eyes, and nodded towards Megan.

Bear’s eyes widened and he mouthed back at David. “How the fuck did she get here?”

David shrugged, and Bear launched into the drum roll that began the final song of their set.

David closed his eyes. Sweat soaked his shirt and the usual gimmick at the end of the last song was to pull his shirt off and throw it to the crowd.

This is going to be the performance of my life.

He took a deep breath, cleared his mind of everything but the song, and let the words fill his soul. The music dropped off and a hush fell over the crowd. They knew what was coming. Slim hit the guitar pedal and a series of long mournful notes hovered in the air. David stepped to the front of the stage and let the microphone stand go as he slowly peeled his shirt off and threw it into the crowd. A roar from below filled his ears as the drums kicked in. He picked up his guitar and looped the strap around his neck as Slim hit the deep notes on his bass guitar. The music reverberated through the night air and surged through his blood. Heat filled him from within and he had never felt more alive than he did in that moment. The night, the people, the pulsating music joined in one wave and he was at one with the universe. The muse was back and the synergy among the band, the music, the words, and the crowd was complete.

Pure, clean energy filled him. The connection had been made.

He reached the end of the chorus and a euphoric haze filled him. David stopped singing and let his gaze drop to Megan. The noise from the crowd surged as they sang the words.

Her eyes were fixed on him and her cheeks were flushed. Joy filled her expression and he realised that she felt it, too. Picking up the microphone, he sang the next verse. A shaft of pure sexual desire ran through him and his feelings poured out through the words of the song and the crowd roared in appreciation as he gyrated on the stage.

One final spin and the words died away with the music. David reached out and brushed his fingers across the dozens of hands stretching across the front of the stage as he ran from left to right. He paused when he came to where Megan stood.

He knelt down on one knee and held his hand out to her, calling loudly over the noise of the crowd.

“Don’t move. Stay right here.” She looked up at him and he squeezed her fingers between his.

“I’ll be down in less than five minutes,” he said.

She nodded, her dark eyes glittering with emotion.

David waved to the crowd as Bear gave one final drum roll and the next band moved on to the stage. The lead singer from Fairport Convention grabbed the microphone and yelled to the crowd. “Hey, guys and gals, do Davy Morgan and his band rock or what?”

A huge cheer went up as the crowd chanted for more and David took the microphone back for a moment. “More later. We’re back on in the morning,” he promised with a wave. “Don’t go away.”

He looked across at Bear and passed him his guitar as he ran off the stage and headed for the steps.

God, Megan, Don’t move. How the bloody hell did you get here?

For the life of him, he had no idea how she had found the gate. But she obviously had. Had the McLarens told her? Alice must have told her family about it, although she had sworn no one else knew. And now he had to get her back to the cottage before dawn and find his way back to the festival because it was bloody hard to find the correct lines and markers at the wrong time of day—as he’d discovered a few nights ago when he had come home to find Megan on his porch. Dawn, dusk, and midday were the easiest, if not the only, times to cross through the time gate.

“There’s no way she can stay. If she gets lost, I’ll never find her and she’ll never find her way back by herself.” Panicked, he tore down the steps.

“David, wait.”

He stopped dead as Holly appeared and grabbed his arm. “Not now. I have to go.”

“I have to talk to you.” Holly’s eyes were unfocused as she stared at him and her words were slightly slurred. “It’s real important.”

He looked down at her and she raised her hands to grab each side of his face. “David, you were beautiful. You did yourselves…the best…the best...”