Page 27 of Proven By The Highlander (Highlander Forever #15)
CHAPTER 27
T he tunnel seemed to travel into the stone for quite a long time… though it was hard to get their bearings down here. The mystery of the light, at least, was resolved soon enough — every few feet there was a lantern set in the wall, glowing with an eerie light that made Caelan frown and squint. Interesting as it was, Leanne kept tugging him along, anxious to find out who on earth that woman had been. There had been something strange about her, something that had struck Leanne as not quite human… and she was itching to see if her hunch that they’d discovered a Fae creature was right.
But it was Leanne who stopped in her tracks when they rounded the final bend in the corridor to discover a cottage-sized cave hollowed out of the stone. It was lit by the same cheerful, flickering lanterns as the corridor had been, and it was set up for all the world like a cozy little cottage, complete with a kitchen at one side and a comfortable-looking fur-lined bed on the other. And there, rising to her feet from a chair at the kitchen table, was the figure that Leanne had seen in the hallway.
“Oh my gosh,” she breathed, her eyes widening as she took in the sight of the being. “You — you’re amazing.”
The creature — for she wasn’t human, that much had become clear — tilted her head curiously, causing her green hair to fall in a strangely liquid fashion over her pale shoulders. Was she naked? Leanne wondered. No — her pale, slender body was hugged by a clinging dress, so pale it almost looked translucent, but it seemed to cover her modesty well enough. She was incredibly tall, Leanne realized as the figure approached — almost as tall as Caelan, who was staring at her with the same mixture of shock and wonder that Leanne imagined must be on her own face.
But something was wrong. The creature’s nose wrinkled and she hissed prettily, a little like a startled kitten, recoiling from Caelan with evident distrust. Leanne blinked at him, not understanding, but he had sprung into action, murmuring apologies as he took the weapon from his belt and tossed it away behind him. It slid down the sandy corridor, and the being seemed to relax a little, moving curiously toward them yet again. Caelan breathed a word that Leanne didn’t recognize, but at the sound of it the being’s face lit up and she clapped her slender hands together with evident delight.
“Asrai,” he repeated, glancing at Leanne with a wondering smile. “She’s an Asrai. A water faerie.”
“Her name’s Melusine.”
That voice made Leanne start. It was low and rough and masculine, definitely not a voice that could belong to a creature like the one before her… but Melusine’s pale eyes had darted toward the bed at the sound of it, and Leanne could see a pleased smile curving her lips as she all but danced across the floor toward the bed. Leanne realized that she’d missed an important aspect of the room… namely, that the pile of furs had concealed a slumbering man, who even now was rising blearily to his feet. Long, dark blond hair, a pair of gray eyes, broad shoulders… he was as naked as the day he was born, which made Leanne flush and avert her eyes, but not before the unmistakable shock of familiarity had hit her. If it wasn’t for the beard, she’d have imagined she was looking straight at Caelan.
But that could only mean…
“Bram Grant, you bastard.”
Caelan was storming across the room, his voice louder than she’d ever heard it, and so full of rage that for a moment she was convinced that her lover was about to strike his miraculously alive brother dead right where he stood. His fist was clenched and his arm was raised when he reached Bram, and for a frozen moment it really looked like the naked man was about to be knocked out cold. But when that arm came down, instead of connecting with Bram’s jaw, it pulled the man into a tight bear hug. Leanne couldn’t stop the misty smile that spread across her face, and she covered her mouth to quiet the delighted laugh she couldn’t suppress. Beside her, Melusine had shrunk back at the sound of Caelan’s yelling, and she looked a little alarmed when the man pulled out of the hug and began shouting just as loudly right in his brother’s face about how worried he’d been.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Leanne murmured, reaching out to touch Melusine’s shoulder. The slender women froze at the contact, her pale eyes enormous… then she lifted one of her own hands to touch Leanne’s shoulder in turn. As she did, Leanne noticed that her fingers were webbed. “Incredible,” she whispered, giving Melusine another smile, which the Fae returned cautiously. And then, the two of them made their careful way across the little room to where Bram and Caelan were hugging again, Bram tugging his brother into a headlock and deliberately messing up his long hair. From the look of the plentiful wine glasses around the bed, he was at least half drunk… but he was alive, Leanne realized, her heart pounding with delight. He was alive and well.
But what the hell was he doing down here?
“C’mon,” Bram said after a pause in which he took in the bemused expressions of both Melusine and Leanne. “Let’s all have a little something to eat. Seems like a chat’s in order, huh?”
It certainly ranked among the stranger dinner parties Leanne had ever attended. At the head of the table sat Melusine, as graceful as any queen, gently passing around cutlery and then a series of dishes upon which strange, elegant dishes were artfully arranged. When exactly she’d made them was not clear… but at the creature’s gentle urging, Leanne sampled the first plate curiously before her eyes widened with delight. Bram was smiling fondly at the green-haired woman, who was returning his gaze with evident warmth.
“Melusine’s the best cook I’ve ever known,” he said firmly. “Even edges out our dear mother, Caelan, and you know I wouldn’t say that lightly.”
“How did you two meet?” Leanne heard herself asking, fighting the urge to laugh at the banality of the question.
Bram chuckled, glancing sidelong at Melusine, then murmuring something in a beautiful, sibilant language that Leanne didn’t recognize.
Caelan, beside her, looked thunderstruck, and she nudged him for an explanation.
“Melusine speaks Gaelic?” he said aloud, for Leanne’s benefit.
Bram nodded. “I’ve had to brush up, that’s for certain. But she’s more than worth the effort.” He smiled soppily at her.
Leanne couldn’t help but grin… though part of her wondered if she looked that stupid when she smiled up at Caelan.
“In answer to your question, Leanne, we met underwater. She saved my life.”
“She did?” Caelan asked flatly. “This was when you fell off the boat, right?”
Bram nodded easy agreement. “I really thought I was a goner. Fell off the boat, smacked my head hard on the way down, saw stars… must’ve passed out for a moment. When I came to, I was at the bottom of the Loch, staring up at the shape of the boat far above me. Think I even saw the Monster swim past, can you believe it? I couldn’t believe I hadn’t drowned. But then I saw her.” He beamed, reaching out to brush a piece of errant green hair back from Melusine’s pretty face. “She was waiting for me to wake up, sitting there all pretty on the rock at the bottom of the Loch. She’d cast a spell when she’d seen me sinking, you see? I can breathe underwater now. Can’t speak, though… which was why she brought me back here. Once I realized it was Gaelic we had in common, I was able to make my gratitude clear, and … well, one thing lead to another, and … lord, how long’s it been? A few weeks at least? You all must have been worried.”
Leanne looked up at Caelan, who looked just about frozen to his seat. Whether it was with shock or rage, she couldn’t quite tell… but the fading smile on Bram’s face told her that he was beginning to realize his error. “A few weeks?” Caelan repeated, his voice soft and deadly.
“I mean… it’s hard to keep track of time down here, what with the lack of sunlight.” Bram gestured weakly to the ceiling. “And there’s the matter of a barrel of Sidhe wine that sweet Melusine has been kind enough to share with me. Let me just say… we’ve found more than a few pleasant ways to spend the time.” He chuckled, then murmured a quick translation in Gaelic, which seemed to make Melusine giggle, too. It was a beautiful, unearthly sound. Leanne could see why the man had been so smitten by his rescuer.
“It’s been nearly two years, Bram,” Caelan said flatly, his voice hard as glass. “Two years without so much as a word from you. We all thought you were dead. I thought—” He swallowed hard, and she could see his eyes burning, bright with tears. “Years! And you didn’t think even to send word that you were alive and well?”
Bram looked thunderstruck. Half drunk or not, she could see real, vivid fear on Caelan’s brother’s face, and knew immediately that he was speaking the truth when he said he’d lost track of time. It was an awful lot of time to lose track of… but where the Fae were concerned, time was something of a loose prospect, wasn’t it? Hadn’t she learned that when she’d traveled more than four hundred years without realizing more than a few hours had passed?
Melusine rose gracefully to her feet, and Leanne was surprised when the Fae woman took her by the hand and drew her along with her. She looked back over her shoulder at the men — Bram had his face in his hands, and Caelan was sitting stiff as stone in his seat. Melusine’s meaning was clear… the men needed some time to themselves, to reconnect as brothers. Leanne met the woman’s strange pale eyes and nodded her agreement.
She only hoped the two of them would be able to get through the hurt of the last few years and see this miracle reunion for the gift that it was.