Page 54 of Alec

The girl appeared again, this time at her side, but she now appeared as semi-transparent as Olivia.

“What happened to her?” she asked. “I mean, you?”

“It didnae hurt, if that’s what you reckon. ’Twas as if I’d been set free from a trap I didnae ken had caught me.” She looked at her, her big brown eyes filled with sympathy. “’Twas the same for you when your màthair died, aye?”

“Yes. No.” Fear streaked through Olivia. “Are you the one who shoved me into the pit?”

“Och, no, lass. I’m but the first one that demented fack murdered in his war with the McKeran, killed just after I took refuge in their old threshing barn.” The girl’s mouth took on a bitter turn as she regarded the tiny bits of herself scattered on the platform. “I tried and tried to pick up the pieces and put myself back together, but never could I manage it.”

“If you were able to do that, how can you be dead?” Olivia asked cautiously.

“I’m no’ alive, either. I’m between.” The girl gestured around them. “Since the day he cast the curse, my power, ’tis strongest here, but no one ever comes. ’Tis why I made the MacBren stay, so I might bring you and Alec here.”

Something about the girl seemed tragic, and also oddly familiar. Olivia sensed that she meant no harm, but didn’t entirely trust her, either. “How do you know the war master?”

“I ken everyone at Dun Talamh. The stinky bastart didnae guess that I’d come here, or that the curse he cast on the clan, ’twould destroy my flesh.” She lifted one opaque hand and regarded it sadly. “He drove my spirit to seek a new body. ’Tis how I became between, lass.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand,” she said.

“In time you shall,” the girl promised. “I need you to remember what I’ve said, and all you’ve seen when you awaken. Use me to destroy the matriarch, and that shall end them all. ’Tis up in the oldest watch tower. After, tell Alec, Lady Ava and Tasgall everything from the dream. Can you do thus for me?”

“I don’t even know if Alec and I can get back to the stronghold,” she said. “What do you mean by the matriarch?”

“The first that came with you into the trap.” The girl beckoned for her to come to the window and lifted the shutter to point toward the watch tower. “It sits on a sill there, making more.” She then glanced down at the MacBren’s encampment. “That stubborn old fool shall soon leave with his brutes, and no’ return until just before summer. I pray the clan succeeds in breaking the curse before then, for many shall perish.”

“Can you explain everything a little more? I really don’t understand you,” Olivia begged.

“Soon you shall.” The girl’s body grew even more transparent. “Farewell, lass.”

A moment later she found herself perched on an outer wall at the top of one of the castle’s tall towers, where the wind blew with a biting cold edge. Across from her stood Alec, a hood shadowing his impossibly handsome face. Snowflakes speckled his long dark hair, and when he held out his hand she saw his bloodied fingers were twisted and broken.

Dinnae fear me, lass, he said, his beautiful eyes glowing like jewels in the shadow of the hood. For we’re the same, I vow.

Although Olivia wanted to run to him, something had frozen her body, making it impossible for her to move. The beetles must have found them. What happened to you?

He pointed down at an old barn outside the castle’s outermost wall, where a towering, heavyset old man stood holding a heavy coiled black rope. My lady màthair ran away and left me with him.

The ice paralyzing her suddenly melted away, and she jumped down from the wall and hurried to him, putting herself in front of him so he couldn’t see the man with the whip anymore. The tower changed into a yard of dirt in front of an old, decrepit barn. All around them fields filled with golden grain stretched as far as she could see.

The heavyset old man approached them, uncoiling the black rope he held, which in reality was a whip. Get away from that eejit.

I won’t let him hurt you, Olivia promised Alec.

He died long ago. When she glanced up at him his sculpted mouth formed a smile so sad tears spilled over her lashes in response. Don’t cry, lass.

Get away from that boy, you little tramp. Mae came out of the barn to stand next to the big old man, a padlock in her fist, her eyes burning with that contempt for Olivia that seemed to take bites out of her flesh. Get away from him or you’ll have punishment for a month this time.

Alec took her into his arms and turned her so she couldn’t see her aunt. Ever and always you’ll be safe with me, my dreòlan.

The way his hands moved against her arms made Olivia painfully aware of how close they were. Mae would have strangled her if she’d ever found out what she was thinking right now. Then he released her, and she was alone again. She turned to see a much younger, thinner Alec carrying two enormous bales of hay out of the old barn, his back bowed with strain.

Olivia rushed to take one of the bales. Let me help you.

’Tisnae for you to do, lass. He dropped the bales and took hold of her hand. They’re coming as soon as my grandsire retires for the night. You must hide when they do. Hide in my chamber and open the door for no one.

He looked calm, and yet a terrible sorrow shadowed his eyes. I don’t understand.

Alec cupped the back of her neck with his hand. I cannae shield you from them when they come.

You don’t have to. This close to him she could have simply turned her head and brushed her lips over his, but she settled for lacing her fingers through his. Why don’t you come with me?

He chains me every night, and then they come, my dreòlan.

Olivia opened her eyes to see Alec looming over her, his expression worried. It was day again now, as greenish-yellow light filled the stables, and a cool breeze came in through the open window. She smiled at him, and then muffled a groan as she tried to sit up and her well-loved body protested.

“I have got to train you to sleep in a regular bed,” she said without thinking, and then covered her mouth with her hand and looked over at the open doors below.

“The danger, ’tis over now. The MacBren and his lot departed at dawn,” Alec told her as he supported her with one arm. “Only we cannot return to the stronghold.”

She stiffened. “Why not?”

He helped her up and, after she’d dressed, he guided her down the stairs and out of the stables. The castle rose in front of them, immense as ever, but most of it now lay trapped within a thick layer of the same glassy white substance that had encased the frozen maids. From some of the window slits dozens of ice beetles poured out, flying to other parts of Dun Talamh or crawling down to another opening, leaving tiny snow tracks in their wake.

“’Tis near overrun now,” Alec said softly. “And I’ve no’ a clue how we may destroy the creatures.”

Olivia didn’t, either, but she wasn’t prepared to give up yet. “We’ll figure it out. First let’s get inside before they seal off the last of the arches.”

Before they left she bent down and gathered a handful of the salt from the floor where the fair-haired girl had fallen.