Page 5

A few streetlamps lit the sidewalks that lined Thornhill Village’s seawall.

Madeleine had brought her travel flashlight anyway.

You never knew when you’d need extra help to pierce the darkness.

A scarf would have come in handy too, but apparently Madeleine’s was floating somewhere in the North Sea.

When Ava had confessed its loss, Sister Agnes hadn’t said I told you so , but it was clearly implied.

It was past ten-thirty at night.

The sun had recently set, and clouds drifted back and forth over the moon and stars.

It was colder too. It wasn’t the nicest situation for a stroll, but Madeleine needed to clear her head of the words that kept tumbling around inside it.

Sister Madeleine, help me .

That voice couldn’t have been real.

She hadn’t recognized it, and when she and Ava had returned to the group, nobody was missing.

Who else could have called her by name?

She must have hallucinated it.

So it was a complete mystery why she was sneaking out to that same spot in the dead of night.

No. She wasn’t sneaking out.

What a silly idea. She was a grown woman, and her duties were done.

She’d left a note in her room, and she had her no-frills cell phone.

All the girls were safely ensconced in the Merryweather Hotel, a tiny establishment that was notably less expensive than hotels and inns on Orkney’s other islands, which was why she’d chosen it.

Once they’d arrived on Jorsay, Madeleine had realized why accommodations were both sparse and cheap.

It was the least appealing of all the islands, at least visually.

The landscapes were scrubbier, the ruins smaller, and the cliff faces less dramatic.

Then again, the other islands probably didn’t have beaches that talked to you.

Madeleine swallowed hard.

She had to be sensible about this.

Every place had legends and wild stories, including here.

Before the trip, she’d read a book on Orcadian folklore.

There were stories about little troll-like creatures called “trows” that lived under earthen mounds and could either bring blessings or work mischief, depending on if you pleased them.

She’d read about sea serpents big enough to shatter continents and about giants that bestrode the islands.

Worst of all was a witch who’d created a deadly local whirlpool by swinging around two dead bodies at the bottom of the ocean.

One of the bodies was that of a man who had spurned her love.

The other was the woman he’d preferred instead.

Even though it was only a folktale, it made Madeleine shudder.

Thank heavens such a wicked creature couldn’t truly exist. None of it was real.

She just had to prove that to herself.

Nevertheless, Madeleine shivered in her coat as she continued down the sidewalk toward the shore.

The island was small, and if you were willing to take a long-ish walk, you could reach the stone circle and settlement—and the beach.

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered.

It seemed like an understatement.

What was she going to do if something called to her again?

Walk straight into the ocean?

She shouldn’t be doing this.

Madeleine was a woman of both faith and reason.

Neither dictated that some demonic presence waited on the beach to do her evil.

Nevertheless, this was the definition of borrowing trouble.

Forget ghostly voices; as a woman walking on her own in a strange place, she was much more likely to be in danger from her fellow man than a supernatural force.

Before she’d left the hotel, she’d paused by the unattended front desk, where she’d seen a pair of scissors and stuffed them in her jacket pocket.

Madeleine felt the weight of her thievery now.

They wouldn’t be much of a defense weapon, and they didn’t speak well of her commitment to turning the other cheek, but she’d return them later.

Nobody had to know.

She wouldn’t turn back.

She couldn’t, until she reassured herself that this was nothing.

This was absolutely nothing at all.

This couldn’t be coincidence.

It couldn’t just be luck.

The Great Mare must have heard Haera’s prayers.

In disbelief and wonder, Haera watched Sister Madeleine walk along the seawall over the shore, flashing a beam of light in front of her from a stick.

She hadn’t expected this when she’d returned to the surface, knowing she’d be safer after dark.

The fishing boats had docked and the beachcombers had gone home.

This was the best hour to approach the village so closely.

There was no plan. She’d only known that this might be the only chance she got.

She’d go ashore in the darkness and keep to the shadows.

If she were spotted, she’d run.

She was faster than any land horse that had ever lived.

It was worth the risk.

She’d thought also of coming ashore and taking human shape, but that still posed the problem of having no clothes.

Haera’s human form wasn’t strictly human , per se—she was just as invulnerable to the cold as she was in her real form and didn’t need coverings to keep warm.

But actual humans did, and she’d attract attention if she walked around without insulation.

Besides, although she knew how to transform in theory, she hadn’t done it yet.

As Haera understood it, it was an instinctive process, powered by will.

It couldn’t be that difficult, but it would take practice to walk gracefully on two legs.

Or it would have done, if Sister Madeleine weren’t heading right toward her.

It seemed Haera wouldn’t have to come ashore or transform.

She just had to call out again.

Although…that was much riskier here, so close to the dwellings.

Night it might be, but humans were often roaming around.

Sometimes they had animal companions who were more perceptive than they.

The last thing Haera needed was a noisy dog drawing attention to her.

It would be better to wait for Sister Madeleine to go somewhere quieter and more solitary, like that beach.

That was, if Sister Madeleine was going to the beach.

She could change direction, and if she did, Haera might never see her again, and the Great Mare would never bestow another favor on one who so foolishly threw away a gift.

Near to where Sister Madeleine walked, a set of stone steps led down from the seawall to a small, old wooden dock.

Currently, the dock’s only occupant was a shabby, tiny boat.

It would be simplicity itself to swim beneath the dock, hide there, and call again to Sister Madeleine.

Then, Sister Madeleine would investigate.

She couldn’t not . She’d been curious on the beach.

Haera snorted in amusement as she ducked below the surface and swam for the dock.

Sister Madeleine had spoken of a “calling” that had guided her to her current life.

It seemed appropriate that a second calling would remove her from it.

Considering how she’d described her days, Haera would be doing her a favor.

Come to me. She swam, curling around the current as easily as an eel.

Come to me. I’ll devour you, you’ll become part of me, and we’ll fly for centuries.

Together .

She swam beneath the dock.

The pilings were slimy and sharp with barnacles.

The waves slapped against the wood.

They were low but still strong enough to lift her up and down when she surfaced, bumping the top of her head against the dock’s wooden slats.

She was perfectly hidden.

There would never be a better time.

“Sister Madeleine,” she called again.

“Help me.”

Madeleine was imagining things.

Hallucinating. If she told anyone, they’d put her away.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t move as she looked out over the dark water, where the voice had come to her.

What a voice it had been!

Deep, rumbling, like a wave crashing on the rocks.

Vaguely feminine, if she had to specify, but…

Not quite human.

That was the thing.

It hadn’t sounded human .

Madeleine had never heard a voice like that in her life.

Maybe Hannah hadn’t been too far off the mark with her worries about magical forces.

Madeleine should walk away right now.

She wasn’t one to worry excessively about the devil, but she worried just the right amount, and this seemed like his work.

What else could it be?

What else, indeed?

She closed her eyes and crossed herself.

“Hail Mary,” she whispered, “full of grace, pray for me now. Protect me and intercede for me as I…” She took a deep breath.

“As I do something absurd. But if you’re the one who’s calling to give me an answer?—”

(An answer?

What was her question?)

“Then let me receive the lesson with grace. Amen.”

She crossed herself again and then swept the flashlight’s beam down toward the sea.

She saw nothing unusual: just a small wooden dock with a lone dinghy bobbing next to it.

“Hello?” Madeleine called.

“Are you there?”

That wasn’t what she’d meant to say.

She’d meant to say, Is anyone there?

Not to address this other presence as if it were an acquaintance!

She waited. No reply.

Madeleine must have imagined it after all.

That was a relief. It was not a disappointment.

Her life left little room for adventure, and that was just fine.

She was only tired from shepherding a bunch of teenage girls all over Scotland, the remarkable scenery punctuated by arguments, complaints, and panic over lost objects.

She turned to go.

As she did, she heard another cry.

Not like the last one at all.

It was short and sharp, sounded pained, and had no actual words.

In fact, it had sounded like nothing so much as…

A neigh?

This couldn’t be happening.

Not here, not now.

Haera tugged her head again, sharply, and got an even sharper pain in return, although this time she managed not to cry out.

That was difficult, because it hurt.

A lot.

It hurt a lot when your mane got tangled in the slats of a dock because the waves pushed you up in just the wrong place, and now you couldn’t move because you were stuck in the most humiliating position possible right as your greatest dream was on the cusp of achievement.

Nothing could make this worse.

Except another Each-uisge spotting her here.

Maybe Asgall, who might kill her.

An orca probably wouldn’t come this close.

The greatest likelihood was that she’d be stuck here until morning, when the humans would see her, and the Each-uisge ’s existence would be known.

Her carelessness could mean the end of her species.

Then discovery must not happen.

She’d pull until her mane ripped off and her scalp bled.

No matter how much it hurt, she couldn’t put the herd at risk.

She braced herself, her sharp teeth grinding together, prepared to pull?—

Footsteps on the dock.

Haera froze. Her ears pricked up until the wood bent their soft tips down again.

Those were human feet wearing their hard coverings—shoes—moving in beats of two, not of four as beasts did.

She caught a scent on the ocean breeze.

A scent she already knew by heart.

“Hello?”

Sister Madeleine’s voice sounded much less apprehensive than it had before.

Now it sounded confused.

Haera held perfectly still.

She mustn’t, couldn’t move until Sister Madeleine left.

Any hope of tricking her was gone, but the possibility of death by humiliation remained.

If anything could be worse than discovery by humans in general, it’d be discovery by this human in particular.

Haera’s human, or the one who should have been hers.

“Hello?” Sister Madeleine repeated on top of the dock, and then she gave a soft groan.

“You dummy, is a horse going to talk back?”

If only she knew.

“Moreover,” Sister Madeleine continued, sounding irritated even though she was only talking to herself, “you’d see a horse, wouldn’t you?”

Then came the flash.

A sudden, sharp beam of light shone from the top of the dock and glided over the dark waves in a circular shape.

After a second, Haera realized it was harmless and had come from Sister Madeleine’s little stick, but that was a second too late.

She’d already startled, splashed about, and made a noise.

“Oh!” Sister Madeleine said.

Curse it to the depths and back.

Maybe Haera hadn’t been blessed by the Great Mare after all.

This could be punishment for daring to go against the natural order of things.

What was worse: getting caught here, or Asgall being right?

The wood creaked as it bowed when weight was put on it—just slightly, but it was enough to put pressure on Haera’s head and make her tail thrash in protest.

There came another flash of light.

Intolerably bright. Right in her face.

Blinded, Haera reared her head back.

The tug on her mane hurt, but at least she hadn’t bared her sharp teeth.

“Goodness,” Sister Madeleine gasped.

The flash disappeared, but it took Haera’s eyes, designed for the darkness of the deep, a moment to adjust again.

“You poor thing! How in the world did you get under there?”

Haera’s vision resolved.

She blinked rapidly.

Sister Madeleine’s face was before her, only a fin-stroke away, and it was upside-down.

She’d bent over the side of the dock.

The long cloth atop her head dangled down too, brushing the surface of the water.

Her eyes were very wide.

They were also very green.

Haera blinked again. Sister Madeleine’s eyes were as green as the grass on Jorsay’s shore.

Did all humans have eyes that were such a remarkable color?

“Well, never mind that,” Sister Madeleine said briskly.

“It’s more important to get you out. I’m sure somebody’s looking for you.”

Not yet, but they would be.

Eventually, her absence would be noticed, and someone would be sent to look.

When her crime was discovered, the Sire might call for her to be torn to pieces by her fellows.

Asgall would be first to volunteer.

The light shone in Haera’s face again.

This time, she closed her eyes before she was blinded.

“Looks like your mane’s caught,” Sister Madeleine continued, sounding a bit amused by the worst thing that had ever happened to Haera.

“Maybe you should keep it short like we do.”

Behind her closed eyelids, Haera could still see the light roaming over her face.

Thank the depths it wasn’t penetrating far enough into the water to show her tail.

As far as Sister Madeleine still knew, Haera was a beast of the land.

“I should call someone, but…”

Haera bucked her head in protest and neighed.

“Good grief, calm down.”

Sister Madeleine’s face disappeared.

The dock creaked as she redistributed her weight on it, right above Haera.

“You’re just caught, that’s all,” Sister Madeleine said.

If she thought Haera was a land horse, why was she still talking to her, as if a dumb beast could answer back?

It must be another human eccentricity.

Then she laughed softly.

“I wonder if this is why I found these scissors? Maybe I’m meant to rescue you. The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

The who?

The what? What were “scissors”?

Haera mustn’t panic. There had to be a way out of this.

Think, think, think …

Then came a sharp sound, followed by another tug at the knot of Haera’s mane wedged between the planks.

It hurt—she thrashed?—

“Be still!” Sister Madeleine called from above.

“I’m just trying to help you!” In a lower voice, she muttered, “You silly thing.”

Before Haera could find some way to die of mortification, there came more tugs and more sharp sounds.

With each tug, the pressure on her scalp lessened, and when a hunk of her mane dropped into the water, Haera realized she was being cut free.

Each-uisge lore told of human weapons that could slice through hide.

Did Sister Madeleine have one of those?

The pressure on Haera’s scalp suddenly released.

With a splash, she fell below the surface as Sister Madeleine, somehow, freed her from the trap.

Oh, thank the Great Mare for her mercy!

Haera’s tail beat in relief, pushing her forward as she plunged deeper underwater.

Time to go. This had officially been her last visit to the surface.

This mortifying episode was over for good, and nobody would ever have to know about it.

Oh, saints. Madeleine had killed the horse.

Somehow. She must have.

The moment she’d cut its mane, she’d heard it go under the water without another sound, instead of splashing around as she would have expected.

She’d thought that if the horse had swum under the dock, then it’d be able to swim out again.

Horses could swim, couldn’t they?

She’d seen them in movies and on TV, fording rivers and such.

But obviously this one couldn’t.

Maybe it had been too tired.

And she’d drowned the poor creature she’d only been trying to help.

Why hadn’t she sought assistance instead of trying to solve the problem on her own?

When would she ever learn?

There was nobody here to help now.

She was all alone. Just her and her damnable pride.

“Hello? Horse?” The words escaped her before their own absurdity could stop them.

Madeleine lunged for the opposite edge of the dock where the dinghy bobbed.

Maybe if she got in the little boat and looked into the water she’d see the horse, although what she was supposed to do if she did, she had no idea.

Throw it a rope? Pray for it?

There was no time to go for help.

As it happened, she didn’t see anything, because a number of factors converged at once.

For one thing, she was using one hand to grapple for the flashlight.

For another, the edge of the dock, which she grabbed with her other hand so she could peer down again, was slippery.

For a third, she flung herself forward much too quickly and with her full body weight.

All of these factors combined into one hellish moment in which Madeleine tripped, fell, dropped the flashlight, smacked her head on the dinghy’s edge, and plummeted right into the water as everything went black.

The water bobbed around Haera as a sudden burst of weight displaced it.

Something had fallen in.

She turned.

And she watched in disbelief as Sister Madeleine’s black-clad form fell beneath the surface.

Sister Madeleine’s body was still, not striking out to save herself as most humans would.

Couldn’t she swim? Or had she actually jumped in to find Haera after calling to her?

It only took a moment to realize neither possibility was true.

Sister Madeleine was sinking, not moving.

Soon, she would drown.

She saved me.

Haera tore toward Sister Madeleine, her tail propelling her in two powerful strokes.

She took hold of Sister Madeleine’s coat with her teeth.

The material pressed against her, along with something harder—a band of beads around Sister Madeleine’s waist.

She had to act quickly.

It didn’t take humans long to drown.

Sister Madeleine’s body drifted and rolled as Haera pulled her to shore, to leave her there and try to forget this had ever happened.

A brood mare she would be after all.

The Great Mare willed it so.

Then, a scent filled her nostrils.

Rich. Potent. Even more intoxicating than what she’d smelled earlier on the wind.

Sister Madeleine’s forehead was bleeding.

Haera had a mouthful of cloth, but her lips pulled back to expose her teeth as she began to salivate.

Her hide prickled as if a thousand air bubbles had just popped in its hairs.

The scent of Sister Madeleine’s blood called to her more seductively than any siren, and Haera would know, since she’d heard the sirens.

Sister Madeleine’s head lolled gently in the water.

Her body twitched. Her blood smelled incredible.

She was the most delectable, edible creature in all the seas.

And she had saved Haera’s life.

With a growl, Haera swam for the shore, just a few more lengths away.

She’d have to drag her woman onto it, and for that, she’d need to grow a pair of hind legs.

She’d done it before, but only underwater and out of curiosity.

Time to test the legs on land.

By the Great Mare, she wasn’t just breaking the surface.

She was actually going on land .

For a moment, she hesitated.

This seemed a literal step too far.

But then Sister Madeleine’s body bumped against hers again, reminding Haera what a life debt was.

On land she would go.

Her front hooves brushed against the rocks, and she began to transform her tail.

It split painlessly in two, its muscles assuming new shapes, its fins becoming sharp rear hooves.

Together, her four hooves touched the seafloor and then propelled her onto the shadowed beach as she dragged Sister Madeleine’s body ashore.

It was…heavier up here.

Everything was. Without the water buoying her, Haera’s own body seemed to weigh her down, to say nothing of Sister Madeleine’s limp form.

Haera was more than equal to the challenge—the bodies of the Each-uisge could withstand the pressures of the deep—but already the world of things with legs was different from anything she’d ever known.

So this was land.

Sister Madeleine groaned as Haera dragged her over the small rocks and pebbles.

This wasn’t like the sandy beach she’d visited earlier.

Everything was hard and bumpy.

The rocks were slippery and unpleasant beneath Haera’s hooves.

They must feel worse against Sister Madeleine’s softer form.

How soft was it? What would it be like to touch human skin—or to wear it?

Now well out of the water, Haera opened her mouth and dropped her burden to the ground.

Sister Madeleine moaned again.

More blood trickled from the cut on her forehead.

By the depths, to drink it!

But if Haera bent her head to sample what she craved, she’d be lost. They both would be.

What began as a taste would end as a feast.

Sister Madeleine’s eyelids fluttered.

She coughed, and water came out of her mouth.

In a moment, she’d wake up and see a horse looming over her, bigger than any horse on land.

And this time, she might notice that the horse had glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth.

Haera needed to leave without a word, without a taste.

Unless…

Unless.

Madeleine’s head hurt.

Everything hurt, especially her chest. She was cold and soaking wet.

She coughed, and that was wet too, although her chest felt better as her air passages cleared.

Her mouth was salty.

Where was she? What had just happened?

There had been a dock—a horse?—

A woman’s face loomed over her.

Very close.

And with a sudden movement, the woman lay on top of Madeleine, not quite squashing her into the hard rocks beneath her back but definitely pinning her down.

In the darkness, and with Madeleine’s swimming vision, it was impossible to make out the woman’s features.

But long hair fell over her shoulders in a wet curtain around Madeleine’s head.

The woman’s eyes seemed to…

to glow, almost, in a color Madeleine couldn’t make sense of.

A hand touched the top of her head.

The woman bent down, and Madeleine whimpered at a sudden, sharp sting.

She must have a cut on her forehead?

It burned, and the woman had just licked it.

The woman made a low, soft noise.

Like a moan.

Madeleine moaned too, mostly because she couldn’t figure out how to form words.

The woman took her hand from Madeleine’s forehead.

She cupped her face and lowered her head.

Her lips pressed against Madeleine’s own.

She tasted of salt, smelled of the sea.

Her body was solid and warm and— naked .

A naked woman was lying on top of Madeleine, between her spread thighs, her breasts pressed to Madeleine’s own as she kissed her with a hot mouth.

For a moment, the pain and cold vanished.

Only the heat of the kiss was real.

It spread through Madeleine’s limbs, warming her like coffee on a cold morning.

It called her hips upward, until they rubbed against the weight atop her.

She raised her knees, cradling the naked woman between her thighs—unthinking, instinctual, something she’d been waiting to do all her life.

Madeleine’s deepest, most secret dreams had suddenly come true, here on a stony beach.

This time, her moan wasn’t one of confusion.

There was nothing confusing about how good this felt.

Before she knew what she was doing, she was lifting her heavy arms in their soaked sleeves to embrace the stranger.

She felt wet skin, surprisingly warm, taut with muscle.

Was this what it was like to touch a naked woman?

Softness and strength all at once?

Blessed—no, divine ?—

The woman seized Madeleine’s hands and pressed them to the ground.

Kept kissing her. Her teeth curved over Madeleine’s lips and chin as if she were about to bite down, and she moaned again.

She was so strong that Madeleine couldn’t have struggled even if she’d wanted to.

Madeleine couldn’t imagine struggling.

She didn’t want to do anything except lie here beneath this—this?—

She remembered now.

She’d fallen. Hit her head.

She must have gone into the water.

Nobody else had been there.

She would have drowned, if not for this unnaturally strong, long, shadowy…

“Angel?” Madeleine croaked.

There was a pause. The woman’s—the angel’s?

—breath blew hot against her mouth.

Her lips moved against Madeleine’s as if she were about to say something.

Then, Madeleine heard a voice in the distance, a man’s voice.

“Hello there!” it called.

“What’s going on, then?”

The angel hissed.

She squeezed Madeleine’s wrists, and then one of her hands let go to tug at Madeleine’s waist. The rosary beads there loosened, and Madeleine felt them slide from around her.

She tried to speak and only managed to whisper, “Wh…”

A warm mouth brushed against her ear and whispered three words that would haunt Madeleine for the rest of her life.

Then she was gone, and Madeleine could hear only the crash of waves upon the shore.

Rocks poked her in the back.

She looked dizzily up at the stars as clouds passed over them, her mouth tingling, her forehead burning.

“Bloody hell!”

Another person knelt next to her: a man, this time.

Madeleine couldn’t see his face clearly either.

“You’re one of those Sisters, aren’t you?” he said.

“I’ve seen you lot about. What were you doing in the—sweet Jesus, aren’t you bleeding, then. Damn, what do I do when…” He leaned in.

“Can you hear me?”

She could certainly smell him.

There was alcohol on his breath.

Madeleine wrinkled her nose and groaned.

Now that the angel was gone, the pain was coming back, along with the unpleasant taste of salt.

Her mouth was dry, her tongue thick.

“Right, anything broken? Can you sit up? Come on, now.” The man slid one hand beneath her back and hauled her to a sitting position.

She yelped at the ache in her head and her back.

“That’s a girl. Stay awake, all right? My name’s Jonathan.” His voice was slurred.

“Sit here and I’ll fetch Sue Kilbright. She’s a nurse.”

“Yes…thanks…” Finally, she could manage proper words.

She looked around, blinking, and coughed again.

She could see better now, but it was still dark save for the streetlamps, which seemed a hundred miles away.

Where was her flashlight?

Probably still on the dock with the scissors.

She should get the scissors.

They weren’t hers. It wasn’t right to steal.

“Wasn’t somebody with you?” Jonathan grunted as he propped her up straighter.

She guessed that he was significantly older than she—in his sixties, maybe.

“I’d have sworn blind I saw two of you, but maybe I was seeing double. I’m a bit worse for wear. I’m not usually,” he added quickly.

“An angel,” Madeleine muttered, turning her head to look back at the waves.

“There was this horse…” She pointed to the dock, to the dinghy.

“A horse in the water, and then a woman…she saved me, and she said…”

“A horse in the water?” An odd note entered Jonathan’s voice.

His grip on her tightened.

“And then a woman, you said?”

“Yes, and she—” Madeleine touched her forehead.

It stung, and her fingertips came away dark with blood.

“She said?—”

“Never mind what she said,” Jonathan growled.

“Fuck, we’ve got to get off this beach. Come on!”

He put his arm around Madeleine’s shoulders and stood up with a grunt.

He seemed none too steady on his feet, and for a moment they seemed about to fall back down, but then he caught himself.

“Ah, hell. Let’s go. Quickly now.”

Madeleine couldn’t approve of his language, but she did appreciate the sentiment.

As they made their way to the steps, although her head continued to ache, it also became clear.

And with the slow agony of clarification came the fear.

What in heaven’s name had just happened to her?

If that had been an angel—an angel in a woman’s body, a woman’s naked body that had lain atop Madeleine and awakened her most secret, shameful desires—well, what kind of angel would do that?

“Why were you alone on the beach this late?” Jonathan asked as they reached the bottom stair.

“You must’ve had a reason. Did you see something? Hear something?”

Madeleine had no good answer to that.

“Just out for a walk,” she mumbled.

What else could she say?

She couldn’t tell him about the otherworldly voice.

Bad enough that she’d already babbled about the angel.

She had to think about that further before she told anyone.

Like the Virgin Mary did in Luke’s gospel, she’d ponder mysterious things in her heart.

She’d especially ponder the three words her rescuer had breathed into her ear, captivating her, tethering her soul and her wonder to this place forever. Return to me .