I felt responsible for the death of a family and the fracturing of a brotherhood. I felt as if I’d betrayed the men who’d raised me when my own father had abandoned me for brighter pastures. I’d played their emotions against each other and thought no more of them than as pawns in my silly game of love.
In truth, I’d loved both of them. And I’d ruined them.
I rushed along Leith’s seashore, my bare feet picking over the moss- and heather-lined path before it turned to salty stones.
My toes welcomed the smooth rocks, soothing in their chill. I thought of all the moments Roderick and Alaric and I had played at the feet of these waves. Hiding and seeking until our lungs ran out of air and we dropped into the grass and watched the clouds pass in the sky.
Our memories, so innocent to end in such a tragedy.
I moved to the edge of the cliff, fingering the tiny amethyst gem my mother’s family had passed down for centuries. An old witch’s incantation came to me then, one my mother had cooed to me on repeat since the time I was a newborn. She’d sung the words like a prayer, a mischievous smile turning her lips.
“From ash to dust, from salt to Skye, fore every lovelorn maiden across these shores must die.”
With my last breath, I whispered a finalI love youinto the sky and jumped into the sea.
Fable
Alder.
My mind raced with the questions I had for him. I launched myself off the couch in the library, one of the wolfhounds adjusting easily to my absence before falling back to sleep comfortably. I shoved my sneakers on to my feet and pushed out of the doors and into the dark night. I didn’t care what time it was; the moon was full and brightly lit the path. I moved hurriedly along the edge of the graveyard, feet quickening as the shadows of the headstones loomed taller. When I reached the point of the loch where I’d fallen in before, I stayed clear of the dark waters and moved down the narrow footpath that led to Alder’s cottage.
I edged around the giant boulder that partly obscured the path at the base of the loch before his cottage came into view. It glistened with dew like something out of a fairy tale, and I instantly thought of all the warnings of fairy children and kelpie luring unsuspecting victims to their demise. It was strange to me that such a beautiful land could foster such dark tales. Maybe Alder was right. Maybe it spoke to the blood that’d been spilled for centuries on this patch of earth. Whatever the reason, I had more questions, and I knew he was the only one who could answer them.
Poised to knock on his front door, I sucked in a breath and then jumped back when the door swung wide open and Alder stood in the moonlight. He was naked from the waist up, his tautly muscled torso wide as a brick wall and scarred as if he’d endured a thousand lashes from a whip.
“Fable?” His single word sent an energetic thrill through me.
“I—” My eyes followed the scars as they curled around his biceps and shoulders. Where had they come from? And why did some still look as angry and red as if they were only recently healed? “I finished the legends book.” He simply nodded, eyes catching my gaze.
I stepped forward, palms outstretched to place a hand at the center of his chest. The scars were raised, like healed welts on top of older scar tissue. He covered my hand with his warm one, lacing our fingers and then dropping his head. Moonlight shadowed his eyelashes and caused what looked like more dark scars along his angled cheekbones.
He was dark, beautiful, and so broken.
“How did you get these scars?”
“Ask your questions. I’ll answer any of them—but not that.”
The pain emanated from him in waves. He moved down the steps, clutching my hand and forcing me to follow him. I did. I would follow him anywhere, I realized now. He walked us behind his cottage and along a thicket of woods before edging around the base of a small glen. Just as I was about to ask where we were going, we curved around the edge of a hill and came across a fissure of rock and granite that cut through the surface of spongy peat.
“The fairy pools?”
Alder nodded, settling first me on the rocky edge that hung over the clear pools of water and then himself. “It’s one of the most active spots on Skye.”
“What? Like a portal?”
Alder shrugged. “You finishedThe Fairy Lover?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t romantic at all. It was dark. It was suicidal. I expected some sort of warning with a morehopefulending.”
“Meh, hope can be deadly.”
“And sometimes it’s the fine line between survival and despair.” Alder huffed at my words, eyes trained on the swirling jetties of crystalline water below our feet. Where the water was smooth at the center, a spray of stars from the sky was reflected in an almost mirror image. “Why bring me here, then? To the most beautiful place on Skye, if things like beauty and hope are deceptive?”
“Beauty and hope hide what the eye is not yet willing to see.”
“Alder! Stop talking in riddles and look at me.” I forced his eyes to meet mine. They flickered with something dark as they trained on me. “Why do I feel so connected to Olympia Aberdeen?”
Alder clenched his jaw and shuttered his eyes. “There’s more to be revealed.”
