Ailith blinked hard and something tightened in her throat.
Edan nodded. “Arne said there’s a separate cottage that isn’t being used, so they have plenty of room. Roger is considering going with them. Tristan is adding a tower for more room before winter. He asked if I would be interested, and I would like to get away from Islay.”
He stared out over the loch, all that had happened fresh in his mind—the fears, the creatures, the threat of the unknown—it was all too much to bear. He couldn’t handle going through it all again. “I will heed my sire’s warnings.”
“Verra well. Be happy and kind, my children. I hope to see a wedding soon?”
Ailith blushed and Edan nodded.
He kissed Ailith’s cheek again. “Not yet, Erena. We’re just getting to know each other without screaming banshees and faery hills.”
“Understood!” The faery rose, the butterflies joining her again as she departed, thrilling Heilyn. “Enjoy your time together. I will be returning, as things are not settled on Islay yet, which is another reason I think you’ve made the right decision. Keep that sweet child safe.” She raised her arms and dissolved into the clouds.
“Do Broc and Merryn have bairns?”
“Aye. And so do Brynja and Hagen. Heilyn and Milo will have many playmates.”
Ailith’s heart soared a wee bit, knowing they would be closer and on the same isle, yet still a few hours apart.
And what would happen if her parents decided to return to Grant land? That possibility she hadn’t mentioned yet to Edan.
Ailith set Heilyn down, and she ran back onto the beach to find a stone to toss into the water. She found her task and repeated it over and over again, delighting in each new splash like it was the first. Edan took both of Ailith’s hands, tugged her close, and said, “I don’t want to be that far from you.”
“Then stay with us. There’s plenty of room at Duart. I’m certain of it.” She would not beg. She would not press. She had checked with the chieftains. She knew what they would say.
But this was Edan’s decision, and only his.
Chapter Forty-One
Edan
Later that night, Edan sat in his sister’s cottage in theirclachan. Milo was in the corner, curled up on a pallet, his thumb in his mouth. Heilyn had joined him. The two had fallen fast asleep. Roger had come over from his own cottage when he’d heard Edan was on his way, Gormela staying back with the other bairns. Roger and Arne sat at a nearby table.
“You seem bothered, Edan,” Catrina said. “What is it?”
“I need to tell you about Da.”
Catrina said, “Edan, he said not to go to Islay, and we did. We should have stayed on Jura. What’s happened has been horrible for both of us. I don’t know why Dabelievedit to be so, but it did prove true.”
“I do know. Ailith saw the vision. I know exactly what happened, and I need to tell you.” He’d spent so much time trying to convince everyone that his father’s tales of bad faerieswerefalse, that faeries didn’t exist, that it seemed only right to tell all he’d learned from the seers of the Woven Circle.
“Years ago, ourclachanwas dying. The summer had been dry, our crops failed, and Da met up with someone in Finlaggan, trying to find a way to save our family.”
Roger smirked. “Did he make a bargain with the devil?”
“Something like that. He had to promise them something, and they would bring their crops back to life, enough food to feed them and to have extra to put into storage. Da jumped at the opportunity, not realizing he was dealing with the Unseelie.”
Catrina stated, “What did he wager?”
“His first-born son.”
Catrina gasped. Roger stared at him wide-eyed. “You?” his brother asked. “He wagered your life?”
“Aye, my life for the lives of our wholeclachan. But when I was born, he couldn’t do it. He told Mama he was going to take me to Jura, and she was to come when she was hale again.”
Catrina bolted out of her chair. “Oh my goodness. Edan…”
Edan told them everything. He explained their father’s bargain, of his flight to Jura, of the iron in his blood. He watched as decades of confusion and resentment toward their father melted away, replaced by a horrified understanding.
