“How did the witches get down there, then?”
“The witches? Stop with that shit, Fable, come on.”
“You don’t believe the witch story?”
“Which one? There are so many witch stories, I’m starting to think they’re all just dumb and dumber examples of madness and hysteria.”
I sighed, wondering how I’d taken Alder’s storytelling so literally when both of my feet were obviously planted in this real world of Harris. Of course, Alder spun metaphors like cotton candy, something so out of the ordinary and endearing that I ate them up like the treat they were.
A beam of light haloed around Harris’s shoulders as he moved closer to me. His face obstructed by blinding sunbeams, he said, “Whatfableshave you been telling yourself to sleep at night, Fable?”
I groaned at his double meaning in reference to my name. “I hate my name for this reason. Fables aren’t anything more than lies told to placate the masses.”
Harris leaned away, his grin pulling at the edges of his lips. “Didn’t peg you for such a cynic.”
“It’s this place!” My voice rose with indignance. “When the sun shines, it shines hard at Leith. But when it rains, it pours. I have a headache. I think all the damp air and dark walls are making me sick.”
“Well, let’s go for a walk, then. All day, you and me. Maybe we can even get these two mutts to come along for protection.”
I forced a smile, following Harris off the steps and into the grass that surrounded the old stone structure. We walked shoulder to shoulder, one of the dogs following us for a while. We passed the graveyard and abbey ruins, waved at Keats as he plucked weeds from the small garden where he attempted to grow tomatoes and squash, and then sucked in the salty air with grateful lungs as we approached the cliff.
As we neared the edge, I leaned over, only to have Harris grip my arm.
I pulled his hand away, feeling the chill despite the rare Scottish sun that spread around us. Why did being in Harris’s presence today feel repulsive in a way it hadn’t the day before?
A palm spread at my back, warmth derailing my thoughts as a vision of my dream from last night seemed to pop into my skull. A shiver of awareness ran through me as I realized I’d dreamed about Alder and me here last night. That was the dream that’d woken me up. So real, it felt more reality than make-believe as I thought about it now.
I gasped for a few shallow breaths before I rooted myself in the morning moss and peat beneath my old red sneakers.
“Fable?”
I swallowed, aware again that it was Harris at my back and not Alder. Alder’s warning came back to me then—watch yourself.
Maybe I’d made a mistake coming here with Harris; was that what my dream was about? I hated that Alder’s dark presence had invaded my waking hours and my nighttime ones. How could I shake him if my subconscious was so hung up on his mysterious ways?
I pressed my lips together, swiping at beads of sweat that’d formed on my forehead. “I’m okay. Too much salt air goes to my head.”
Harris spun me in his grip, eyes crawling over my face. “Are you sure you’re okay? Do me a favor and never get that close to the edge again, okay?”
I nodded, finally realizing that I would be smart to heed their warnings.
“So, how about those caves?” I forced a weak smile.
“You’re insane, Fable. Next levelbananas.”
That forced a laugh out of my throat. “You’re not wrong.”
He assessed me a moment before replying, “Look, there’s a path that leads down to the rocks. Some insane high school kids wander down there and party sometimes, and some of them are stupid enough to build bonfires and get well and properly pissedon the boulders and fall off. I’ll take you down the path, but that’s it. You’re a fool if you dare go farther.”
I nodded, eager for any of his guidance.
“Be careful on the rocks. Always assume they’re slick. That’s the fatal flaw of most of the people who fall into the water. Everything is a slippery slope around here.”
Listening quietly, I pondered his words alongside Alder’s. Looking at the narrow physique of Harris, I couldn’t help realizing that the sheer size of Alder made me feel safer. His ability to protect me if I did slip and fall on the rocks was unrivaled between the two of them, but that didn’t make him my protector any more than it made Harris my monster. In fact, it seemed more the other way around. Alder was the giant obstacle in my path to truth about the nature of my family’s tragic past in this area, forcing me to confront facts in my dreams and in reality that I wasn’t ready to confront, either in myself or in my life. And what did that make Harris? The man I’d bantered with so easily yesterday now felt like no more than a fun distraction as I pursued the past and the secrets cemented in Leith’s walls.
“Have you readThe Salt Witchyet?”
I shook my head as Harris came to a halt in front of me.
