“I think we do.” Kenneth pushed a paper toward me. “It was inscribed on one of the stones.”

“So we could beat him there.” Excitement thrummed through me as I picked up the paper. It was a map. Familiar, but with an element I didn’t recognize. “A hill?”

“Not just any hill. A burial mound,” Kenneth said.

“Near my mother’s house? Really?”

“That’s what it says.”

I frowned. “She never mentioned it in all of her stories. She would have found it.”

“Perhaps she did, but didn’t make much of it because it’s just a mound of earth.”

“That’s possible. There were a lot of amazing places around there. The sea caves, dolmens, cairns. Maybe she just didn’t register it. But no one has ever excavated it? Humans love to dig up things like that.”

“I imagine it’s protected so they couldn’t find it. Easier to hide than the contents of a stone circle.”

“Good point.” I checked my mobile for the time. Midmorning. “Shall we go now?”

Lachlan nodded and stood. I picked up the map that Kenneth had copied from the book, recognizing a few of the landmarks.

“I’ll keep working on this.” Kenneth patted the book.

“How about you take a nap?” I said. “You could use one. The bags under your eyes could serve as luggage on a transcontinental trip.”

A smile quirked the side of his mouth.

“I second that,” Lachlan said. “You’re no good to me if you’re unconscious from exhaustion.”

“All right, all right. Good luck out there, and call me if you need anything.”

“Will do.” Lachlan led the way out of the library, and I followed.

“What did you do with the guy you caught?” I asked as we walked down the hall.

“Going to leave him here for now. Eventually, I’ll turn him over to the authorities.”

“Good plan.”

“Did you sleep well?” The concern in his gaze burned into me.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. How are you doing with the curse?”

“Turning the conversation to my issues now, are you?”

“It usually works.”

“Noted.” He shrugged. “I’m fine. Mordaca’s potion is holding me over.”

“And when it doesn’t?”

We’d reached the main hall and were still far enough away from the others that he stopped and turned to me. “You know what happens when it doesn’t.”

I swallowed hard, my gaze going to his. There was no fear in his eyes, nor sadness. He’d accepted his fate, perhaps because he’d had to visit the same upon his father.

Regret, though. I could see that.

“What?” he asked.

“What do you regret?”

His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I can see it in your eyes. The thought of what could happen makes you feel regret.”

A short breath escaped him, and he looked away, as if he didn’t want to say.

“Tell me,” I insisted.

“You think that’s a good idea?”

Getting to know him better? Probably not, but I didn’t care. “Tell me.”

“I’ll regret making my pack put me down. I’ll regret not knowing you better.”

I drew in a shallow gasp, not knowing what to say to that. I would regret that, too. But should I admit it?

“I—”

“Don’t say it,” he said. “Whatever it is, don’t say it. This is hard enough without knowing how you feel. Unless you’re planning to tell me you despise me?”

“No. I wasn’t going to say that.”

“Then let’s go.” He turned and strode through the room, heading for the doors.

I followed, feeling like I was chasing after a destiny I could never have.

15

Eve

 

* * *

 

We used a transport stone to travel to my mother’s village, appearing at the edge of town as we had the first time.

“Are we running out of those?” I asked.

“I bought more from Mordaca.”

At a pretty penny, I was sure.

The morning was cloudy and dim with the scent of rain on the air. Damp green grass suggested that the rain had already come, but I imagined it could be back without troubling itself too much.

I pulled the map from my pocket and looked at it. “It says the burial mound is supposed to be in the forest behind my mother’s house.”

“Hopefully, trees haven’t grown through it.”

I nodded, thinking of the destructive power of the roots. Whatever was in the mound would be ancient, and with any luck, undisturbed.

We set off across the grass, the sound of the crashing sea growing louder as we neared the woods on the cliff. It was a strange forest, seeming almost out of place with its location, and perhaps this burial mound was the cause.

I intentionally gave my mother’s old house a wide berth. For some reason, the place made me sad, and I wanted to avoid it if at all possible.

When we reached the forest, dark shadows stretched in front of us. The trees were ancient and gnarled, relatively stunted things for their age. No doubt they’d been bent and battered by the sea winds.

“Do you feel that?” Lachlan asked.

I nodded. Magic seemed to float in the air, growing stronger as we walked into the woods. Noise rustled in the undergrowth—small animals, I hoped. There were no longer any large predators in the Scottish wilderness, at least as far as humans were concerned. There were plenty of magical beasts, but they’d been hidden from human eyes by a spell crafted long ago.

They wouldn’t be shy about showing themselves to us, however.

As we made our way deeper into the forest, something began to tug at my soul—a familiarity. It drew me toward the right, and I followed it.

Lachlan joined me. “Do you feel something?”

“Not sure what, but I think we need to go this way.”

“You may sense the Moon Stone.”

“I think you’re right.”

When we reached the edge of a clearing, I stopped. A grassy mound of earth sat in the middle of it, about seventy feet across and almost as wide.

“We found it.” Surprised flashed through me. That had been easy.

As I stepped forward, the trees in front of me sprang to life, gnarled roots rising out of the earth to form humanoid figures. Magic sparked around us, fierce and threatening. Soon, dozens of the guardians barricaded the way, blocking the mound. I was filled by a nearly uncontrollable desire to run and forget this place ever existed.

Perhaps this was what had happened to my mother.

Lachlan drew a long dagger from the ether, clearly intending to cut away the roots.

A deep sense of wrong filled me, and I laid a hand on his arm. “No. We can’t.”

“Then what do we do?”

I frowned at the root figures. They weren’t attacking, but I had a feeling they would if we threatened them or their charge.

“If this is the Moon Stone, then maybe I’m meant to have it,” I said. “Or at least, I wouldn’t be the one to threaten it, right?”