“Milo!” Arne was directly behind him.
“Da! Unca Eda.”
Edan took him from her arms and hugged him. The boy grabbed hold of him with both fists and didn’t let go, smiling at his father behind him. For one moment Edan’s face was pure relief, and Ailith watched it and felt something loosen in her chest.
Then Edan looked up, handing Milo to his father.
His eyes moved past her to John. Back to her, then to the disappearing hill and back to John again. The relief drained out of him like water from a broken vessel, a silence remaining that told her exactly what his thoughts were—Heilyn.
“Heilyn.” His voice was barely a sound. “Where is my daughter? Tell me you found her, Ailith. Where is she?”
Ailith’s legs gave way. John caught her, and then her father was there, pulling her against him, one arm solid around her shoulders. She couldn’t speak. She pressed her face against her father’s chest and let the tears come because there was nothing else left.
“I’m so sorry, Edan. I searched for her. I couldn’t find her.”
The wail that came out of him burned a hole in her soul.
She’d failed. A total, utter failure. A row of bairns she could not help. What would they do next?
Ailith couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t bear to see the hatred that must lie in Edan’s eyes. She couldn’t stand to see his affection for her slip away.
It would break her heart.
Chapter Thirty-One
Edan
As they reached Edan’sclachan, Catrina and Roger were waiting outside for them. Edan heard his sister’s scream of joy from a distance. Arne handed Milo down to his mother, a laddie who was clearly excited to be home again. “Mama. I home.”
Only Ailith, Edan, Arne, Lia, and Dyna accompanied them to Edan’s home, the others anxious to return to their own cottage. Ailith, Edan, and Dyna would continue their journey shortly.
Alasdair had suggested Edan return on the morrow, but Edan declared his right to be part of any decision. “You’re going back in, are you not?” he pressed.
Lia replied, “Of course they are. I cannot go myself, but we will make another journey to the underworld to free your daughter and the others. We will return on the morrow. We will take this time to reflect on what happened and see if anyone can ascertain what opened Milo’s cage, since Ailith doesn’t know exactly how it happened.”
Once she’d hugged Milo and kissed both his cheeks, Catrina handed him over to his father. “Heilyn, Edan?” she asked.
Edan whispered, “Ailith couldn’t find Heilyn.”
“You didn’t go in with her?” Catrina pressed.
“I couldn’t. Gruin wouldn’t allow me inside,” Edan replied.
Dyna dismounted and pointed to a group of chairs outside the homes. “Come, sit for a moment.”
Ailith followed, her shoulders slumped, a sight that pained Edan deeply. He knew it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t find Heilyn.
Once they were all seated, Dyna said, “I’ll let Ailith explain.”
Arne joined them. “Milo is with Roger,” he stated. “I need to know who did this.”
Lia patted a chair, and Arne settled into it, giving Ailith his full attention.
“John and I went inside the hill after Gruin took the three banshee hairs,” Ailith began. “But he refused to allow Edan inside.”
“I heard that, but why?” Arne asked. “I didn’t understand.”
Lia said, “I think there’s something in his blood. Edan stepped close to Gruin after he sliced his palm, blood running down his arm, but Gruin reacted as if he’d been burned. He couldn’t get away fast enough. This is something we have to determine. We don’t understand why yet, but when Edan stepped close to the faery hill, the ground shuddered under our feet, and we feared the hill might collapse.”
