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“Where?”

He threw a long leg over the stallion’s head and dis hands closed around her waist; he lifted her froround and she sent up a silent, tiny prayer of hope

Maybe she was co white walls of a hospital room

Or maybe not Maybe she was still trapped in a place that didn’t exist, and when she opened her eyes, she’d see, what? A log cabin? A tepee? A corral full of piebald ponies?

She took a deep breath And forced herself to look At the torrent of rain falling from a leaden sky…

And at all the rest

There was no hospital roo cabin Well, not unless you called a sprawling, lass, a cabin There was also a corral A huge barn And a side yard

Not a dream Not a dream Not a dream

And not a coh about cars and trucks to have populated the side yard with a bright red car so long and low she knew it had to be foreign, a black pickup truck and what she figured was a battered Jeep

Each vehicle bore a license plate Each read “Montana” And each read—each read…

Sienna’s heart leaped into her throat She swung toward Jesse

“The date,” she whispered “What’s the date?”

He stared at her Maybe he hadn’t understood her She knew her voice sounded choked She cleared her throat, not certain she could forain But she didn’t have to

His eyes narrowed “What now?” he said coldly “Is this another part of the game?”

“No game Just tell me, please What’s the date?”

“June 22, as you well know”

“Not June 21? The solstice…”

“It fell on the twenty-second this year That only happens—”

She could al from her head “It only happens every four hundred years I know that”

“So?”

“So…” She licked her lips There was only one last question to ask, but she was afraid to ask it “So the last time it happened the year was—the year was 1975”