He nodded. “Then you used your magic to bring yourself back to life.”
She wasn’t sure if it had been her magic.It was more likely the curse had worked its “magic” to make sure that I played my part in the 108-year cycle, she thought. But now that she was dead, a feeling of hope washed over her. If she were right about the last part of the fairy song, her sacrifice had broken the curse.
At that moment, a dark beam of green light encircled her, like a lasso hovering just around her middle. Her hands began to glow with a bright blue light. Taking a deep breath, she reached out and touched the green thread of light surrounding her. As her fingers grazed its edge, it quickly split and disappeared like a rubber band being cut. A lightness came over her, and she knew deep within that she was now free from the curse that had held her captive for centuries.
She looked at her grandparents. Colin was surrounded by a blue halo of light that she now recognized as magic. She understood now that the glow she had seen on the night of the car accident and over the past week had been her magic lighting the way, helping her, guiding her. The realization filled her with a sense of peace, as if the pieces of the long-lost puzzle were finally falling into place.
Colin beamed at her and said, “You did good, lassie.”
Nora stepped forward to go to them and leave this in-between place when she heard a song breaking through the darkness. This time, however, it was not that of the fairy but a song much older, a melody of life, death, and rebirth. She didn’t understand how she knew this since it was in a language she did not recognize or understand. She turned back toward the darkness, to face the direction from which the song came. It called her, beckoning her to follow. She looked back at her grandparents.
“Go, follow the song,” Colin said.
“Where will it take me?” she asked, worry filling her words.
“To where you are meant to be,” he said.
“Goodbye, my dove, until we meet again,” her grandmother called out to her as she grew farther and farther away without either of them moving.
Soon Nora found herself alone again when a dove appeared. It hovered before her, then flew into the darkness toward the sweet melody, guiding her forward.
******
Alistair stood, frozen in place as the moon’s glow lit the devastating scene before him. His eyes welled with tears, and as he brushed them away with his sleeve, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Looking down, he saw Nora’s arm move slightly, and then her leg. He looked up to question the Cailleach, but she was gone, like a whisper in the wind.
He gazed down at his feet, relief washing over him as he realized they were no longer encased in ice, and he was free to move. Wasting no time, he stepped forward and knelt beside Nora. Gently cradling her head in his hands, he watched as her eyes fluttered beneath their lids, and her chest began to rise and fall with her returning breath. Tears of joy welled in his eyes.
Nora’s eyes slowly opened, and she looked up, dazed. Alistair’s heart swelled with a mixture of relief and love as she met his gaze. Without hesitation, he pulled her into an embrace and kissed the top of her head.
“Oh, thank God,” he muttered as he felt the warmth of her body radiating toward him.
“Alistair,” she said. Taking his face in her hands, she pulled him into a kiss, tears sliding down her cheeks.
“Are you okay?” he asked, reluctantly pulling away.
“Yes, I feel fine,” she said as she looked down at her wet clothing and touched her right leg as if to make sure she was truly herein the physical realm. “I don’t understand. I shouldn’t be here. I figured out the fairy curse. Only an act of self-sacrifice under an eclipse could break it.” Lochland jumped up and began licking her face before Alistair had a chance to answer.
“I’ll explain it all later, and you can explain this whole fairy curse thing to me. But first, let’s just get you inside and out of those wet clothes,” he said, helping her to her feet.
They made their way slowly across the icy loch back to the cottage, their path lit by the moon. Just as they stepped foot on the shoreline, the lights in the cottage flickered on, along with the rest of the houses around the loch, peppering the shoreline like fireflies.
“Power’s back,” Nora said, smiling.
“Seems so,” he said under his breath as he turned to look toward the center of the loch where they had just been. It was still, no water creature or Cailleach to be seen. Just ice and moonbeams.
Chapter Sixty-Four
The Final Look
They spent the night wrapped in each other’s arms, talking by the fire, neither of them wanting to let the other one go. Nora told Alistair the entire story of the curse from the beginning to the point they found themselves at now. Alistair had no recollection of any of his past lives, but after everything he had seen that night, he didn’t question her even once. Instead, he relayed his own story of how the old woman from the hillside had been the Cailleach and that she had somehow brought Nora back to life with the help of a creature in the waters of the loch.
They finally fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning only to be awoken shortly thereafter by the bright beams of sunlight streaking in from the large windows. For a long while they stayed curled up in each other’s arms, both silently thinking.
The power was back on, which meant the roads were probably cleared, and they could leave. No longer locked away in the little bubble the storm had created, they both realized real life would come crashing down in an unforgiving wave. The curse was now broken, and their souls were no longer tied together. Where did that leave them? Nora still felt a connection to Alistair, but now that their souls were unbound, did he still feel the same about her? She tried to push the negative thoughts aside and focus on the little time they had left together, but no matter how hard she tried, worry came sneaking back to the forefront of her mind.
“The roads must be cleared,” Alistair said, ending the silence and saying what they both were thinking.
“Looks like we’ll catch that bus back after all,” Nora said, not at all sounding happy about it. “I’m not sure I’m ready to leave yet,” she admitted.
