“Aye.” Aveline smiled in agreement. She toyed with one long curl of hair, winding it about one finger as she coyly tilted her head. “I’ve been noticing ye seem to be having a bit of trouble accepting the legends of the MacKay clan.”
“Are you a ghost?” Nessa pressed her clammy hands to her throat. She hadn’t eaten very much today. Could low blood sugar cause hallucinations? She swallowed hard and took a deep breath to try and clear her head. Was she losing her mind? This day just kept getting worse.
“Oh, nay.” Aveline shook her head, frowning as she toyed with the dials on the dashboard of the car. “When mother appeared to ye…she is a ghost. But I am an immortal. I canna die.”
Nessa’s blood pounded in her ears. She had hit sensory overload. She covered her face and thought back to the woman at the goddess Brid’s well. “Now wait a minute. The woman in the woods…that was your mother, Rachel?”
Aveline smiled again in agreement and folded her hands in her lap as she settled against the seat of the car. “Aye, Mother wanted to meet ye. She also pops in from time to time to help people along their way.”
Her hand to her chest to settle her pounding heart, Nessa struggled to catch her breath. This wasn’t good. She couldn’t breathe. She really needed to calm down. Aveline meant her no harm. Perhaps she could tell her a thing or two. If Nessa passed out from not breathing, she couldn’t ask any questions. She had to breathe. Being an immortal, maybe Aveline could provide some insight as to how Nessa could bring some order into her life. Nessa inhaled a slow, deep breath. Much better.Why not?she decided, and turned to speak with her shimmering guest. “What can you tell me about Latharn MacKay? Any ideas as to why he keeps showing up in my dreams?”
Aveline’s smile faded to a frown. She stared down at her folded hands. “I canna tell ye much. But I will tell ye this: ye need not ever fear him.”
Her fears forgotten, Nessa huffed in aggravation and slapped her hands on the steering wheel. “That’s the same thing your mother told me. That and I just needed to look into his heart.”
Aveline’s pale blonde brows arched in a thoughtful look and she gave a slow nod of agreement. “Mother is right. Look into his heart. Ye will find everything there ye need to know.”
Nessa banged her fist upon the steering wheel and shook her head. “I don’t know how to look into his heart! I’ve been dreaming about him since I was eighteen years old. I didn’t even know his name until your mother told me a few days ago. If I can’t even figure out his name after ten years, what makes you think I’ll be able to figure out what’s in his heart? And answering questions is my job.”
As silent giggles shook her shoulders, Aveline smiled and clapped her hands. “What fire! What passion! Trust me, Mistress Nessa, ye will find the way destiny means ye to travel. Ye must be patient and listen with your heart.”
Nessa turned in the seat and glared at Aveline. “Isn’t there something you can tell me about your brother? Isn’t there anything else I might need to know?”
Aveline gave a wistful smile as she faded from view. “I am verra sorry. At this time, I can tell ye no more. But know there are many MacKays watching over ye, both in this world and the next.”
Nessa whacked the steering wheel again as Aveline disappeared. Clenching it in a strangle hold, she grumbled out loud as she started the car. “Fat lot a good all of those MacKays are doing. So far, all they’ve done to help me is told me his name and I shouldn’t be afraid.” She thought she heard the faint sound of ethereal laughter as she squealed her way back onto the road.
ChapterTwenty
“Where have you been?” Trish met her in the driveway, yanking open the door before the car rolled to a complete stop.
“What’s the matter, Mom? Did I break curfew?” Nessa taunted as she gathered her things from the car. The last thing she wanted to hear right now was one of Trish’s lectures about how she should live her life. She wasn’t in the mood. If Trish had any survival instincts at all, she’d back off and leave her alone.
Trish circled Nessa like a dog herding sheep, stumbling as she walked backward up the steps leading to the porch. “If you were with Gabriel Burns… You’ve got to listen to me. You’ll just end up regretting it. I found out a thing or two about our newfound friend. He’s a worthless piece of—”
“Not that it’s any of your business,” Nessa interrupted, shooting Trish a meaningful look she knew Trish would never take to heart. “But I went to the Wi-Fi Café to see what the Internet could tell me about the MacKays.”
“Why didn’t you just ask them?”
“Not those MacKays.” Nessa shot Trish an impatient look as she slid her laptop onto the table in their room. “The history of the MacKay clan and all the legends surrounding them from the 1200s up until present day.”
“Oh…those MacKays.” Trish shrugged a shoulder. “Well, what did you find out? Anything interesting?”
Nessa chuckled as she bent to rummage through the tiny fridge. Memories of legends of time-traveling witches, cursed lairds, and Aveline’s sudden appearance ran through her head. From everything she’d discovered today, her dream Highlander had once existed. As she fished her way farther into the depths of the fridge, a shiver of excitement ran up her spine. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Rising with a soda in her hand, she winced as she popped the tab. “By the way, since you mentioned him, I think I also finally got rid of Gabriel Burns. There was just something weird about that guy that set my alarm bells ringing into super squall mode.”
Trish’s face lit up in complete agreement. “That’s what I was trying to tell you. He’s physically abusive. He tried to strangle Fiona and then Brodie almost killed him.”
Nessa froze, holding her soda in midair as she stared over the can at Trish. “What? When did this happen? I was only gone a couple of hours.”
Her eyes growing wider with every word, Trish plopped down in one of the tall wooden chairs and plunged into her tale. “Fiona and Gabriel were engaged to be married. She said he was a control freak but she didn’t know just how cruel he was until he snapped on the night of the wedding rehearsal. She was thirty minutes late because she’d had a flat tire. He took her into the alley and almost killed her for what he considered shaming him in front of his friends.”
Trish jumped up from her seat, waving her hands in the air. She became more animated with every word. “Brodie came along and pulled him off her. Nearly killed him from what I understand.”
“Wow.” Words failed Nessa as she pulled out a chair. So that explained the negativity surrounding Gabriel Burns. A stifling darkness always followed the man. He emitted a coldness that just couldn’t be explained. She sent up a silent thank-you to the fates and heaved a sigh of relief.
Raising the soda to her lips, she paused, the can midair. Wait a minute. What Trish said didn’t make sense. “Then why isn’t our buddy Gabriel lounging in prison for trying to kill his future wife?”
