Elena blinked, a little thrown off by the sudden shift in topic. Still — Una had confided a lot in her, by confirming that she was a Fae creature. She didn’t want to push her with a long list of questions. They’d come back around to whether or not she’d been present in the future, in Elena’s time — if maybe she’d seen what happened to the two murder victims. “Well, yes. It seems like a serious condition. We don’t want people dying.”
“But it doesn’t affect women, or children,” Una said, her voice sing-song. “Why concern yourself with the fates of men?”
Elena sighed. How was she supposed to explain to Una, who was clearly so traumatized by men, that they weren’t all as bad as whoever had harmed her? The woman’s list of enemies was getting longer by the minute… men, the Sidhe, anything made of iron… “Some men are worth saving, Una. Plenty of men.”
“So young,” Una murmured, stroking her face. “Still so kind, still so naive. I’ll keep you safe, sweetheart.”
“What happened to you, Una?” Elena asked, touched by the protective look Una was giving her. “Why do you hate men so much?”
“Years and years ago, men like your Brendan with weapons of iron drove me from my castle, drove me from my home. Drove me before them like vermin fleeing a fire. No pity in their hearts, no kindness in their eyes. They wanted to rule these lands, my lands, so they stole them from me. Now, they dig their cruel iron blades into the soil, they destroy the forests, they turn nature into their tool and their plaything. Elena, you’ve seen it. You’ve seen the future, I know it in you. A world on fire.”
Elena blinked at her. “Are you — are you talking about the twenty-first century? My time?”
“Is it not human men who dig the rock from the ground and burn it, who choke out the sun and overheat the earth? They set the world alight, Elena. They destroy for their own satisfaction, their own indulgence. They treat the Earth like they treat women… playthings, for their amusement. A creature to be kept as a pet — or harmed, if it suits them. They ravage her the way they ravage women — willing and unwilling alike.”
Elena was shocked. Una had clearly travelled far into the future, if she knew so many details about the environmental issues that were becoming increasingly more of a problem in the twenty-first century. And the argument she was making… well, it was persuasive. Elena couldn’t think of any counterpoints. It was true… men were destroying the planet, burning coal, relying on methods of powering an unsustainably destructive lifestyle, and disaster was close at hand. Maybe a wasting illness wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for a few of the billionaires who were choking the life out of the world, she thought, surprised at herself for that sudden, callous thought.
She shook herself. Whatever was happening in the future, that wasn’t her concern right now. The problem was here and now — in sixteenth century Scotland. And a farmer who cleared enough trees to plant a crop to feed his family was not the same thing as a billionaire who was allowed half of the Amazon Rainforest to be burned down so he could afford his tenth private jet, even if Una seemed to believe that one would lead naturally to the next. Elena wasn’t a politician or a judge — she was a cop. And it was her duty to find out who was inflicting this harm on the people who were suffering it, and to bring them to justice.
“Did you used to rule these lands, Una?”
“Aye, in another time, another place. The Sidhe have sealed off all travel to those times. I cannot go back. I just drift, rudderless, through the world.”
“Una — have you visited my time? The twenty-first century?”
“The towering buildings of glass and chrome,” Una whispered. “I’ve seen them in your eyes… I’ve seen them, yes. Seen you and your allies in dark blue. Seen you try and fail to do good, in a world that will not allow it. A world of men. I can help you, Elena.”
“Una, I was investigating a murder, back there,” Elena said carefully, scanning Una’s face to make sure she wasn’t about to panic and disappear into the night again. “Back in my time. Two men, found dead, wasted away. Witnesses reported seeing a woman with long red hair, in a long green dress. Could that have been you? Did you see something? Did you know something about the men who died?”
“Long red hair and a long green dress,” Una murmured. “I suppose that could have been me. But Elena, it could also have been you.” She smiled, her dark eyes twinkling. “We’re like sisters, you and I.”
Elena couldn’t help but smile at that idea. “I always wanted a sister.” She tried to steel herself. “You’re avoiding my question.”
“I don’t think you want to know the answer, my dear, my sister in spirit. Not yet, anyway. You’re not ready to know everything about me. But you will be.” She touched her face again, smiling softly even as Elena struggled to make sense of her cryptic commentary. “You and I will have so many long talks in the nights to come. I’m so glad I met you, Elena.”
“Una —”
But she was gone, as quickly as she’d arrived — and Elena was left with even more questions than she’d started with, staring into the fog.
Chapter 41
She heaved a deep sigh, not particularly wanting to head back into the castle just yet, even though the night air was cold, and she could feel her fingers going numb. Why was it so strangely difficult to get a straight answer out of Una? She always had such concrete plans about the questions she was going to ask and the answers she was going to try to get… but then, as soon as Una was there, looking at her with those black eyes in the moonlight, it was like all her detective training went out the window and she wound up just having a casual chat with a girlfriend. It was frustrating… but she felt like she’d made a little progress tonight. Una was a Fae creature, she’d confirmed that much. That certainly made sense, given that she’d disappeared when Elena was wearing the iron token in the sash of her tunic. But she hadn’t been very specific about what kind of Fae creature.
Not that Elena was enough of a Fae expert to understand even if Una had explained what she was. Was she Seelie or Unseelie? From what Darter had said, being one or the other was more of a political affiliation than something bound up in who you were… the Seelie were good, and benevolent to humans, where the Unseelie were mischievous or downright violent, and meant humans harm. But surely it could be more complicated than that? Surely a political position had more to it than whether or not you liked human beings? There must be more going on for the Fae than just that.
So Una was a Fae. But was she Seelie? She hated the Sidhe, that was for sure. And the Sidhe, at least according to everyone in the castle, were kind of the ruling class of the Seelie Fae. Did that mean Una was Unseelie by default? But she hadn’t done any harm to Elena, despite having ample opportunity to do so… and she seemed to pity and care for human women and children, at least, even if she’d reacted with rather shocking coldness to the idea of human men wasting away and dying of an awful disease.
She just didn’t know enough, she thought heavily, turning around to climb the stairs. She still didn’t know enough, even after all this time. God, it was frustrating. How was she supposed to make a life here in medieval Scotland when she couldn’t even get a handle on the basics of the supernatural creatures who lived among the people here? She was sorely tempted to go to Brendan, to confess everything, tell him about the strange woman she’d been meeting with on the docks. He was a good man, wasn’t he? He’d understand Elena’s position — he’d see that Una was as much in need of protection as a creature like Darter, he’d understand how frightened she was of men with cold iron. Wouldn’t he?
Or would he simply assume that she was a monster, like all the other Unseelie creatures that came through the Loch, and try to hunt her with cold iron again, like so many men had before him? Elena shivered at the very thought. Poor Una had been so brave to come so close to the castle to speak with her… had overcome so much old fear and trauma. How could she betray her trust by revealing her existence to the very kind of man who’d caused al
l that pain? No — until she was absolutely sure that Brendan could be trusted to be kind to Una, she couldn’t reveal her existence to him. If that meant lying, then so be it.
A useful step would be to solve the problem of the disease, of course — that way, when she went to Brendan about Una, he wouldn’t leap to any foolish conclusions about Una being the key to solving the mystery. What if he took her prisoner and interrogated her to find out what she knew? Una had vaguely hinted that she might know something about what was going on with the disease, and if Elena told Brendan that, she wasn’t sure she could trust him not to overreact. But if the disease was supernatural in origin, maybe if Elena visited her again, she’d have some clues to share?
She was so lost in thought when she slipped through the doors to the castle that she almost didn’t see the man standing in the middle of the hall, his arms folded and an angry look on his face. She looked up at the sound of a pointed cough — and froze as she looked Brendan right in the eyes. This looked bad, she knew. It was the middle of the night, she was here, alone, slipping back into the castle through the front door when she’d promised she was heading straight to bed.
“Elena Cross, what on earth are you doing out at this hour?”
“I — couldn’t sleep,” she said, hearing how insincere she sounded and swearing to herself. Get it together, Elena. Una’s counting on you to make this convincing. “So I went for a walk.”
“Around the courtyard?”
“Yeah.” She hesitated… what if the guards had seen her? What if Brendan found out later that she’d lied to him? Best to be as honest as she could. “Then I went down to the docks to look at the moonlight on the water. It always calms me down.” That made sense, didn’t it? Men assumed women were always doing irrational things like that, didn’t they? Her father was certainly dismissive of every odd habit she’d ever had, waving it away as just a quirk of her gender. Why did she get so annoyed with her father when she’d been spending time with Una?
“You went down to the docks. In the middle of the night. By yourself… just to look at the water?”
“Yeah. Why else would I go down there?” She tried for a joke. “What, are you worried I’m meeting a lover, or something?”
“I’m worried about you meeting a monster,” Brendan said levelly. She froze, her heart pounding — did he know? Had he seen her? But no — she searched his face — that wasn’t what he meant. “The Burgh is right down there, Elena. We have Nessie on guard, sure, but she can’t be everywhere… do you have any idea what kind of dangerous creatures come out of the Burgh? Not every night, true — but often enough that you’d be in danger down there. Did you even let any of the guards know you were going down there?”
“I didn’t want to bother them.” She ground her teeth. “I can handle myself, you know. I have a good sense for danger. If there was some monster crawling out of the Loch…”
“Do you even know what kind of creatures are out there? They’re not all just goblins and kelpies — though those are terrifyingly dangerous, too. There are other things… things none of us even know about. The Fae have all kinds of powers. They can bewitch your senses, control your mind… you might not even see the danger coming before it takes hold of you. At least you have the iron on you,” he added, sighing. “That should ward off the worst of it… but still, you shouldn’t be taking such risks.”
She kept her eyes trained on his face as he ranted, moving back and forth and gesturing with his hands. She had worried that he was suspicious of her for going out into the night, that he suspected something about Una… but it seemed more like he was just worried about her safety, what with the supernatural threat from the Burgh. On the one hand, there was something almost nice about that, that he cared enough to worry about her. But on the other hand — and much stronger — was a feeling of resentment, deep in her stomach, that he still seemed to think he knew better than her about what she should do to protect her own safety.
She fought it down, a little surprised by the strength of it. What was it about a man wanting to protect her that was filling her with such unease? It was because she wasn’t thinking of Brendan as just a man, she realized with a shock of recognition. She was thinking of him more seriously than that. As a partner — as someone she was thinking about spending a lot more than just a few afternoons with. She was worried about how he was treating her in case it became a trend in a longer-term relationship.
And as if on cue, he sighed, dropping his hands. “I’m sorry. I know this sounds condescending. I want you to know I trust you to take care of yourself, truly. I’ve seen how watchful you are, how observant… I don’t want you to think I see you as a defenseless child. I’m just… on edge, with all this business with the sick men.”
“So on edge you stayed in the foyer until the middle of the night on the off-chance you’d catch me coming in from a walk?” she asked, a little amused despite herself.
He gave her a guilty grin. “Sort of. I also wanted to see if there were any pastries in the kitchen to steal, but Blair chased me off. I don’t think that woman ever sleeps.”
“Did she come through the Burgh, too? Definite Sidhe vibes.”
“You know, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Suddenly, they were smiling and joking with each other. What was that about? How did she feel so comfortable with him, when he’d just basically told her she wasn’t allowed to go walking at night? But he hadn’t, really, had he? He just wanted to make sure she was safe.
“You’re not, are you?” he asked suddenly, giving her a sheepish look from underneath his eyebrows.
“Not what?”
“Going down to the docks to meet with some lover,” he said in a rush, as though embarrassed to even be asking it.
She couldn’t help it — she giggled. “Seriously? You’re worried I’m going to meet some guy? When would I have even had a chance to meet another man? Unless —” She clappd her hands over her mouth, her laughter intensifying. “No, Brendan, you’ve caught me. I was meeting… with Father Caleb.”
He snorted laughter. “Don’t tease me.”
“Our love affair is as tempestuous as the waters of the lake —”
“Elena!”
“He’s going to leave the priesthood for me! We’re going to live in the village and have lots and lots of babies —”
And suddenly Brendan was on top of her, grinning as he pulled her into his embrace and kissed her full on the mouth. Successfully silenced, she grinned back, leaning into the kiss, a lot less nervous and overwhelmed than she had been that first day they’d kissed… and a lot more enthusiastic. She could feel her heartbeat picking up as the kiss deepened — she could feel him controlling his breathing, his hands moving across her body, not quite dipping low enough to be obscene… but clearly there was a desire there he was holding himself back from. She felt dizzy. Could they do this? Could she just lead him up to her room, spend the night in bed with him? Or maybe his room… it was possible he had a bigger bed than her, and it would be nice to have room to spread out…
And then the thought of Una flashed across her mind, clear as daylight. She cleared her throat, pulling away from him — he made a sound of protest, but when she stiffened he released her, breathing hard, but respectful of her unspoken desire for space. He smiled down at her, looking a little dazed. “Sorry. Got a little carried away.”
“It’s late,” she said softly. “I should — I should turn in.”
“Aye, aye. Me too.” He looked a little disappointed — but he hid it with a smile. “Oh, listen — I’ve guard duty tomorrow, but would you like to accompany me on a ride the day after? I intend to visit the village to check on the sick men.”
“Sounds good,” she said brightly. “Goodnight, Brendan.”
“Goodnight, Elena.”
She took a deep breath once she was up the stairs, trying to calm her pounding heart. That had been a close call — she’d done a pretty good job of distracting him from what she was up to, bu
t the sooner she got this case figured out, the better.
She was falling far too hard for Brendan to keep lying to him like this.
Chapter 42
It was a long, restless night. Elena kept dipping in and out of strange dreams, finding herself one minute running through the Scottish countryside in pursuit of an elusive figure just out of reach, the next minute pounding the pavements of Baltimore with some kind of enemy on her heels. None of the dreams made any sense — she could never quite get a handle on what was going on. Every time it felt like her dream self was about to make a breakthrough, the scene would dissolve and shift, as though she’d gone through a door into another time, another place. Brendan was there, sometimes, shouting at her from a Baltimore street corner or calling down to her from the castle battlements, but whatever happened she could never make out the words he was saying. It was like static or white noise was obscuring him, but she could tell from the expression on his face that whatever he was trying to tell her was incredibly important.
When the sun crept over the window ledge, she sat up in bed, irritated with what a terrible night’s sleep she’d gotten. A guilty conscience was terrible for sleep hygiene, she supposed, irritable. But the dreams seemed to be trying to tell her something that she hadn’t considered. The woman in the green dress, the one she’d been chasing after as a suspect in the future… what if she was the murderer? What if she was causing this disease that was wasting men away here in Scotland, and seemed to have claimed two lives back in the future? Was that possible? And if it was… did that mean Una was a suspect in the case?
Why didn’t I considered this before? she thought, frowning a little. It seemed pretty obvious now she looked at it — Una was a Fae, presumably with strange powers, surely it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that she could be the cause of the disease. But for some reason, Elena kept feeling her mind sliding away from that conclusion, like water from a duck’s back. Surely not. Surely Una wasn’t a murderer. Sure, she detested men… but she was frightened of them, she didn’t want them dead. Did she?
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