I sighed, sitting back on my feet and using the arm of the sweatshirt to wipe at the mix of sweat and tears in my eyes. A dark circle of soot now covered the center of the embroidered letters of the university. I could get a new sweatshirt, but knowing I’d been so close to death on Leith’s grounds again left me feeling on edge. I wondered if there was a rental available in the village. Maybe I could continue my research far away from Leith’s walls. Every nook and cranny felt cursed with some sort of possibility for disaster.
The only problem, Leith was meant to be my accommodation.
I doubted I had enough money in my savings account to cover eight weeks of rent somewhere in town.
I thought of Alder, imagining he might take pity on me and let me use his guest bedroom for a night or two. If he even had one. My thoughts then circled to Harris, the idea of his warm face and vibrant eyes staring back at me an enticing one.
Just as I was about to pull myself together and put out the fire before heading to the pub for a chat, a flash of color caught my eye.
The flowers.
The ones I’d just tossed on the ground had been pushed with force across the floor at me.
My voice shook with fear. “Hello?”
No reply came, at least not one that was directed at me. Instead, the gentle humming cadence of a small child filled the room. I felt the haunted tone of it down to the marrow of my bones. Cold fear jerked at my muscles, imploring me to leave, but my curiosity carried me away.
I crawled on my hands and knees a little deeper into the shadowy corner. “Who are you?”
The child’s voice grew louder, more frenzied as she read.
I recognized the lines forming out of the ether then. They were pieces of Annie’s story. The story of the little girl who’d been left to perish in Mary’s Close was now echoing around the room. The speed with which she spoke made it clear she’d read this story before, as if she knew it by heart.
I crawled a little deeper into the shadows in search of the origin of the words. Without realizing how lost I was, my hand formed around the toe of a small leather shoe. A shoe with a tiny foot tucked inside. My eyes adjusted to the dark as a form seemed to materialize from the darkness.
“Two sisters went to the well, and only one of them fell.”
The way she singsonged the rhyme caused goose bumps to pebble at my neck. Terror pricked my veins as empty dark shadows where her eyes should be stared back at me.
“Two sisters went to the well, and only one of them fell.”
“Who?” I begged. “Whose sister?”
A crack of thunder shook me out of my trance, causing me to jump and push off the floor and cross the room. Without thinking twice, I ran down the hallway and up the twisting stone staircase that led to my keep. When I reached the drafty room, I buried myself under the blankets of the bed and willed myself to sleep. I begged for a sweet dream or a nightmare; anything would be better than this.
Slow breaths pulled me into a trance when I imagined the dark twinkle in Alder’s gaze when I made a corny joke. The hard angle of his jaw and wisps of hair that curled at the ends begging for my fingers. He elicited such conflicting emotions from my body and mind. I’d quickly become too addicted to the butterflies that whizzed around inside my rib cage when he was nearby. Sleep pulled at the edges of my mind, and the legends called to me as I hovered at the edges of wakefulness.
Deep breaths drew me deeper as visions of what looked like a young Alder at the side of the loch materialized into something otherworldly. The loch melted into a small shimmering pool surrounded by the tips of rocky crags. The fairy pools. I recognized them instantly as two small girls in matching plain black bathing suits giggled and dove into the deep water.
The sound of static hit my ears, like old wires making a bad connection.
The vision grew crisper, my heart hammering as I realized I was caught between some land of memory and dreams. Only, these memories weren’t mine, were they? They felt familiar. The spray of freckles and soft waves of strawberry-red hair on both girls gave me the sense that I didn’t just know these children. They were connected to my story; I just didn’t know how.
The running water that trickled from the small waterfall and into the crisp waters of the largest fairy pool was so real it felt as if I was experiencing it myself. I bent, dipping my fingertips along the edge of the cool water. I grinned as I felt it ripple along my fingers. The girls didn’t see or notice me, chatting and swimming in a lower pool that was fed by the waters of the largest at the base of the waterfall.
“Mama says the water grants wishes.”The smallest girl watched as the bigger of the two drew figure eights in the waves as she treaded water and said, “Someday I want to live at Leith Hall. Then we can ride horses and swim all day. When I’m the baroness of Leith, you can move in with me. I’ll give you the haunted room.”
“The haunted room?” The little girl looked no older than six, her round eyes saucers as her lip trembled with fear. “But I’m afraid of ghosts.”
“I know, Lisabet. Every room in that place is probably haunted. We all have to face a ghost now and again anyway.” The eldest of the two drew her hands back like a monster and cackled. “Don’t fear, I’ll always protect you. Besides, the worst they can do is tickle you to death!” With that, she descended on her little sister, and they splashed and swam, fits of giggles echoing off the sides of the freshwater pool around them.
“They’re so sweet, they make me want a sister.”
Both girls turned then, eyes holding mine. “Want to swim?”
“Me?” I choked, shocked that they could hear me. That I was actually talking to the girls in my dream. “No, I… I can’t—”
“Well, if you lean any closer, that’s what you’re about to do.” The eldest girl cut through the water with incredible speed, her dripping wet form at my feet and clutching at the rocks to hoist herself out of the pool. A shriek spat from my lips as I stumbled back into the moss, landing on my bottom and crushing my eyelids closed as I willed myself to wake up.
