“I don’t see how you’ve given me any choice.”
“There’s always a choice.” Cliodhna shrugged. “It’s simply a choice of your sister’s life.” The image of Cliodhna started to fade, and her temper escalated. “I’ll ask you one more time, do we have a deal?”
“Yes.” Lyra spat the word out as if it were food that displeased her. Cliodhna started laughing as she disappeared. Lyra jumped into the water where her apparition had been, slapping the surface of the river and cursing when it splashed everywhere.
“Damn you, Cliodhna! Damn you!” Lyra spun around, confirming the goddess was gone, and dove under the surface of the river. She began swimming towards Edinburgh, whisking up the current. She didn’t know where to start looking for the second prince—this was the first she’d heard of Calum having a brother—but Edinburgh was as good a place to start as any.
I’ll make you a deal of my own, queen of banshees. You’ll return my sister to me, and I’ll return your soul to the afterlife.
CHAPTER FOUR
Pippa and Emmett were going to drive Theo insane. He didn’t want to be ungrateful for their support, but he was starting to wonder if his mental stability was worth it. That being said, the pace of Theo’s life hadn’t slowed down, and it didn't look like it was going to anytime soon.
Pippa and Emmett were offering invaluable help in agreeing to go on this adventure to Minch. Still, their constant bickering and making up had Theo thinking about the consequences of attempting this journey on his own.
“I’m serious,” Pippa complained from the front seat of Emmett's Jeep. “I didn’t know I was mated to a psychopath.”
Emmett groaned, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. Theo started praying under his breath in the backseat.
“I’m hardly a psychopath.” Emmett snorted. “I like putting on one sock and one shoe, and then doing the other foot.”
“Everyone knows you put on both socks and then both shoes. This is insanity!” Pippa looked ready to pull her hair out, and Theo was trying to determine how serious the couple’s argument really was.
He reckoned it was not very serious.
“I like doing things to completion!” Emmett’s voice rose, but Pippa only smirked.
“Yeah, you do.” She placed her hand on Emmett's knee as he drove, and Theo started coughing.
“So, uh, how much longer?” Theo interrupted, grateful that only the first leg of their journey was in an enclosed car.
“Oh,” Emmett glanced down at his GPS, “only about fifteen minutes or so.”
Theo nodded and whispered another prayer of thanks under his breath.
They had departed from Edinburgh nearly three hours ago on their way to Loch Ness. From there, the plan was to travel alongside the network of rivers and streams that would eventually lead them to Minch.
Theo tried to drown out the sound of Pippa and Emmett mindlessly going back and forth from bickering to flirting. He placed his head against the cool glass of the window and tried to calm his racing thoughts. A little over a week ago, he hadn’t met Calum. He hadn’t thought he had any way to break Cliodhna’s curse and had been afraid of her minions jumping out of showers and street puddles. Now, he was still concerned about their plan to free him from Cliodhna’s grasp, but he had a family.
The word was still foreign to him, but the sensation wasn’t. The minute Calum pulled him into an embrace, he realized what he’d truly been looking for all this time wasn’t answers. It was simply his brother.
Well, except that I do need answers.Theo corrected himself.But you know, the more important part is the brother thing.
The nanny who spent her years raising Theo from infancy was a kind woman who was incredibly old-school in her ideas about child-rearing. She wasn’t cruel, but oftentimes relied on the philosophy of a ‘stiff upper lip.’ When Theo saw how quick Calum was to cry, without any regard to who was around him, itexcavated something even deeper in Theo’s heart that he didn’t know was there.
When they had departed that morning, Calum had been running around like a mother hen. It didn’t help that Fern was encouraging him and fussing after Theo like her own kin.
She is your kin now.Theo reminded himself. His chest swelled at the reminder.
Calum nearly changed his mind every five minutes about whether or not he would join them. He didn’t want to let Theo out of his sight, which was another suite of emotions Theo wasn’t prepared to deal with. It turned out that when you were isolated from your family for most of your life, your brother’s immediate acceptance of you really messed with your head.
Finally, Emmett had to remind Calum that the best thing he could do was rally support from his position in Edinburgh. Calum backed off and threw himself into what Fern called ‘prince mode,’ and started mumbling about to-dos and lists under his breath.
Calum hugged Theo tightly as Emmett and Pippa climbed into the Jeep, reminding him to update them often and to stay safe. He was crying again when he let go. Theo was surprised when Fern threw her arms around his neck, too, making him promise that he'd come back.
It was a lot to process for someone who had spent the first twenty years of their life in near solitude.
Theo was about to start overintellectualizing his feelings, as one of his therapists had called it, when Emmett got his attention.
