“I know. I don’t like it either. We’ll just sit tight until the storm blows over, and then we’ll figure something out.” She checked her phone. Of course, there was no signal. Wasn’t that just lovely? “No good deed goes unpunished, Aylryd. Remember that as you walk life’s path.” Of course, Lexi had never listened to that motto. After all, Mammaw had raised her to be helpful to anyone in need.
“As soon as the rain stops, we’ll walk the rest of the way to Mr. Seventhson’s place. We have to be close. We’ve been on the road for over an hour.” Even though she knew most folks would think her crazy for discussing everything aloud with the cat, she didn’t care. It made her feel better, and feeling better counted for a lot at the moment.
Aylryd jumped into her lap and curled tightly against her. She hugged the kitten, trying to console it. Even though she knew it was fruitless, she tried to start the car again and failed. “I know…I know, but we’re going to be all right. The rain will pass soon. It’s already getting lighter. Then we’ll start out.”
She eyed the narrow dirt road highlighted directly in front of the car by the headlights. Which reminded her she needed to shut them off before she drained the battery. She flipped the switch, then realized the headlights weren’t doing that much good, anyway.
At least the road hadn’t gotten to the point of being sloppy, muddy, so she wouldn’t sink up to her knees whenever she got out. The rain slackened, but the eerie gray mist returned, rolling in thicker than before, rising and swirling all around as if someone had strategically placed buckets of dry ice all over the road and along the treeline. The place looked like a spooky movie.
“Well…here goes nothing.” She tucked the cat under her arm and got out of the car, thankful for her red cowboy boots that had seen a day or two of rough weather during the years she’d had them. “I guess we just need to follow the road if we can figure out where it is through all this fog.” Her steps stirred the mist like steam swirling up from a boiling cauldron. “What a perfect place for a horror movie, eh, Aylryd?”
The cat rumbled with a low growl.
Lexi agreed completely. The bone-chilling sense of having been this way before made her shiver and wish she had worn a heavier coat instead of the denim jacket that Mammaw had embroidered with horses and Vinemagic Horse Farms’ logo across the back yoke. It might not be stylish, but it was treasured, and she never traveled without it.
The only sound was the last of the rain pattering down through the leafy canopy of the forest. Other than that, the silence was ominous and deafening.
“Hmm…must not get much traffic up here.” She shifted Aylryd to her other arm. For some silly reason, it felt as if he was getting heavier. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she told herself under her breath.
He started squirming and softly growling, gently digging at her to be put down.
Ever so gingerly and without taking her gaze off the darkened woods, she crouched and placed him on the ground. “If you run off, you’re on your own. I know it sounds cruel, but I don’t know this place, so I’m not going to be running after you when I don’t know where I’m going. Understand?”
It was almost as if the kitten understood, because he walked beside her better than any dog taught to heel.
“Well, aren’t you the good boy?” Squinting, she spotted the faintest flicker of lights up ahead. “Maybe that’s Mr. Seventhson’s house. It doesn’t look much farther. I hope Mairwen warned him we were coming.”
The feline grunted with a much deeper growl than before and definitely looked larger.
Lexi halted and rubbed her eyes. “Now is not the time to hallucinate. I ate breakfast. My blood sugar shouldn’t be low or anything, and I haven’t had any antihistamines since the flight. Stop allowing the environment to get into your head.”
The wind picked up, sending the misty fog swirling even faster and drawing it upward in twisting columns that danced across the ground.
The faintest strains of otherworldly violin music joined the gentle shush of the steady breeze, keeping time with the ghostly dance of the fog. Lexi halted again and shuddered, scrubbing her arms to rid herself of the unearthly chill. That was the same song that always played in her dream. The song that swept her into the muscular arms of a tall stranger whose face she never could quite recall upon awakening. But his voice, she would never forget the deep, lilting timbre of his voice as he spoke in a language she couldn’t understand. But whatever he said in her dream alwaysfeltright. The words, even though she didn’t know what they meant, had rung true to her heart. His unknown language sang to her soul.
“Come along, Aylryd. Maybe that music is coming from Mr. Seventhson’s place.” She hoped so. Or maybe she didn’t. If this was her dream playing out…She shook her head.Nah. Can’t be.She glanced down for reassurance from the cat and halted. The orange kitten was gone.
“Aylryd?” She turned in a slow circle, futilely trying to see through the darkness of the strange forest. If this were midday, she didn’t want to be stuck here during the night. “Aylryd, kitty. Come on. Remember, I said I wasn’t veering from the path to catch you?”
At least she hadn’t planned on veering from it. The ground felt a lot grassier and less gravelly than before. She crouched and patted what really needed to be the roadway. Her heart sank as her fingers brushed across the soft leafiness of the forest floor. “Lovely,” she muttered as she slowly rose. “Aylryd? Please come back.” She didn’t care that she sounded pitiful. She needed a kindred soul in this frightening adventure.
A deep rumbling purr that was loud enough to make the air seem to vibrate caused her to freeze in place and go silent. That was the purr of a big cat, as in an enormous lion or tiger-sized feline. She had heard that purr often enough while doing an internship at the Cincinnati Zoo. She swallowed hard and scolded herself. That couldn’t be a lion or a tiger. Scotland had neither. The only wildcat known to frequent the Highlands was a little larger than a good-sized house cat and was on the endangered list. She forced a laugh. “Yeah, right. A lion or a tiger.” Her imagination had kicked into overdrive because of the circumstances.
She walked faster, moving toward the lights flickering through the trees. Maybe Mr. Seventhson was having a summer party or something. He would let her use his landline. Mairwen could come pick her up, and the rental place could have the car towed. With any luck, Aylryd would find his way to her. After all, she wasn’t exactly in stealth mode. Anyone who might be the least bit interested in hearing something in the woods couldn’t miss her crashing through the undergrowth.
And then the occasional purring became a ground-shaking roar that made her squeak and clap a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. That was a big cat. Most definitely. She wondered if one had escaped from a zoo or something. She stumbled faster across the rough ground, ploughing through the bushes and praying that whoever those lights belonged to lived in a house with sturdy walls and doors. Doing her best not to panic and break into a hard run, she snapped off branches and picked up rocks as she traveled. It wouldn’t be enough to frighten off the cat, but it might distract it long enough for her to shinny up a small tree out of its reach. While she realized that both a tiger and a lion could climb a tree if they wanted to, it was her sincere hope that the big cat wouldn’t bother, since tree climbing wasn’t their favorite thing.
The lights were getting brighter, and it seemed like the trees were thinning. She moved faster, lengthening her stride without breaking into a panicked run. She didn’t need to run. That would tempt the cat even more, triggering its predatory instincts to attack.
A house. No. Not a house. A freaking mansion that bordered on the size of a castle was up ahead just a little farther. Fantastic. She would be safe inside those walls. The music was coming from behind it. Maybe in a garden or something. She didn’t care. At least someone was home. She reached the door, grabbed the huge brass doorknocker with both hands, and banged it as if her life depended on it—because it did.
The magnificent door, oversized and decorated with inlaid swirls of gold and bronze, slowly swung open. She debated bolting inside, then chose not to. No. She would be polite. At least as long as possible. “Hello!” she called out before it fully opened. “Is this the Seventhson residence?”
“This is Sevenrest,” a small, balding man informed her. “Home to Prince Jeros Seventhson. How may I help you?”
“PrinceSeventhson?” Mairwen hadn’t said her friend was a prince. And what country was he the prince of? Lexi couldn’t place the name Seventhson. Of course, that really didn’t mean anything. The man could be the prince of anywhere he wanted to be as long as he allowed her entry behind what looked like a very nice, sturdy door. “Could I come inside, please?”
An earth-shaking roar underscored her request, making the sedate man on the other side of the threshold come to life. “Indeed, miss. Hurry.” He swung the door open wider.
