AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ella thought about collecting shells from the beach and using magic to try and find the man but dismissed the idea at once. Whoever he had been, he hadn't stuck around to be discovered.
She would get out of the shower and fix her leg. That was the priority. Then she would check the damage to her beautiful lighthouse.
* * *
The Scarth Lighthousehad been on its strip of beach for centuries. It had been run by a member of the family since the first brick was laid. The whole thing should have been run by Ella's father with Deidra's death, but Ella was the only Scarth left.
Strange little Ella, who didn't like being touched and who no one in the nearby towns wanted anything to do with. Unless it was to find a wayward husband or talk to a dead aunt. That was business.
Ella had been born with gifts like Deidra but far more powerful. After the accident that had claimed her parents' life and turned Ella's hair white, her abilities to read objects had gone into overdrive.
Psychometry was a family gift, but Ella was so sensitive, she could touch a person's hand and know every dark thought in their heads. It had left her with a reliance on gloves in public and the inability to really get physically close to anyone.
Over the years, she learned to block it out to a certain point, but after her last failed relationship, she had done away with the whole damn business of other people.
She could read another in her sleep, their dreams becoming her own. She would wake up and have memories in her head that didn't belong to her. No one liked to be with someone who could roam around their heads whenever she liked.
Ella hadn't experienced any visions or memories at all with her rescuer. There was simply…nothing. Not a trace of him except for the knowledge that he had saved her and eyes bluer than a summer sea.
Maybe itwasthe god of the sea, she thought as she placed the final stitch on her calf. The cut wasn't as deep as she had feared, but it would make climbing the stairs of the lighthouse a right bitch. She wrapped a bandage around the cut, and after being satisfied it wasn't about to fall off, she made another coffee. Something told her she was going to need it.
"Please no structural damage. Please no structural damage," she chanted and went outside.
The ocean was calm again, and the sun hurt her eyes even through the tint of her sunglasses. The house was built around the tower of the lighthouse and didn't look like it had been touched by the creature. The tower itself had some paint off it and was covered in an ammonia smelling slime from where the kraken had wrapped its tentacles around it.
Shielding her eyes, Ella looked up further to the the small balcony that was around the top of the lighthouse. The guardrail was bent to hell. She would have to go up and check it for herself, but so far, everything else looked good.
There was no sign of the carcass of the kraken, and with any luck, it would wash up on someone else's beach so she didn't have to deal with the stink of it.
It took twice as long as it usually did to climb the winding staircase to the top of the lighthouse. Ella was limping by the time she reached the top.
The North Sea was a shining sapphire blue before her. It was a sight she never got tired of. Everything seemed so peaceful after the violence of the storm the night before. She opened the door to the balcony. It hadn't been loosened, and only the guardrail needed repair. She had foolishly gone out to get a better look at the strange shapes she had seen in the waves. She should've looked straight down first. It was almost like it had been climbing up the tower just to get to her.
Probably attracted to the light, she thought. She still typed an email out to the Coast Guard and reported it in. Since the fae princes had returned, and the strange monsters had been released into the world again,everythinghad to be reported.
The fae were working with the government to actively try and clear the waters of monsters, but Ella doubted that they would ever get them all. The sea had gotten that bit more dangerous.
Once the email was sent, Ella got to work to check the lights were still working and the electrical equipment hadn't been damaged.
By lunchtime she had a fever and had slowly made her way back downstairs for paracetamol and more water.
By afternoon, her leg had swelled up so much, she had to take off her jeans. She was trying to find her phone to call for help when she sagged to the floor and didn't get up again.
3
When Mananan was in the north, he always made a point of staying with Bayn. Mananan didn't have many soft spots, but one he did have was for his nephews. Bayn especially was the most like him, down to their blue-black hair color and zero tolerance for bullshit.
Bayn's mate, Freya, was perfect for him. Warm, fierce, and beautiful, she put up with none of his shit and could see past all of his gruffness. She was also the cousin to Elise, Kian's mate, and the pair couldn't be more suited for his nephews.
It made him think of his little brother, Kynan, who was still the best of them even in death. He had been the youngest, and he’d had Kian’s diplomacy, Killian’s charm, and Bayn's ruthlessness. Mananan still wasn't over his death and didn't think he ever would be.
Grief was a strange thing that attacked with claws and teeth when he least expected it. Being around his nephews meant he couldn't hide from missing Kynan the way he could in Faerie.
Mananan had gotten in late the previous night and was slow to get up the next morning. He wondered if the little lighthouse keeper had woken up yet. He felt a twinge of guilt for leaving her, but she was breathing and alive, and that was his obligation fulfilled. He had thought that after killing the horde creature, the obsession with that stretch of ocean would leave him. It hadn't, which begged the question, what was in those waters that he was missing?
It was midday by the time he went downstairs to the kitchens. He could hear Freya and Bayn talking together in easy conversation.
"Look who is finally awake," she said when Mananan entered the kitchen. She flicked her long golden braid over her shoulder. "The servants told us you had come in late, and Bayn wouldn't let me wake you up."
