Chapter 31
ELENA PIERSON
The chilly water of the lagoon is like a brutal slap in the face to my senses, shocking away the lingering warmth of Lachlan’s bed right out of me. Standing on the smooth rock at the very edge of the underground lake, I peer down into the waters and gauge which area I want to take a sample of.
Wearing a pair of denim shorts and an oversized sweater along with a look of absolute determination, I clutch at the sterile plastic scoop and specimen jar.
“Alright, Lachlan,” I say, gazing down into the shallow water right at my feet.
“It’s time to turn this vacation into a scientific discovery and see what other hidden treasures your lair holds. ”
The water ripples beside me gently as Lachlan steps out of the lake’s deeper channel.
He towers over me in his human form, looking entirely at home, a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses shielding his eyes from the overhead neon lights of the cavern.
He walks up the submerged stone steps, the water sliding off his broad chest, powerful shoulders and swim trunks like a model in a very rugged, very supernatural tourism ad, and my stomach does a little dip of desire.
“You’re a relentless woman, my flower,” he says, an affectionate and sleepy smile tugging on his lips as he joins me on the ledge.
He completely ignores the chilly air, as if his internal temperature is unbothered by the cold morning climate of the cavern.
“One would think after a night of passion you’d want breakfast first thing in the morning.
But no, instead you want to play in the mud. ”
“I got over seven hours, and it’s not just mud Lachlan, it’s untouched prehistoric sediment,” I correct him, holding up the empty jar like the trophy it is.
“This whole cave edge has been perfectly sheltered from the outside world for more than three hundred years, and the silt there has been sitting completely undisturbed. I don’t think you understand that this layer of mud is a literal time capsule, and I don’t even have to dive to get it.”
Lachlan rests his chin on my shoulder and peeks curiously down at the smooth patch of gray and black silt resting just below the shallow surface.
“Right, only the very best of time capsule mud for my queen, and I won’t have you baring yourself for the icy swim either. Show me what I can do to help?”
“Just hold me steady,” I say, leaning back into his chest. “I just need to reach down and scoop a clean layer without violently kicking up any silt clouds. If we do, it’ll ruin the sample, so we need to be incredibly precise.”
Lachlan’s arms tighten securely around me, anchoring me to him against the slippery stone.
He pulls back just enough to look at me, his deep green eyes shifting from playful to incredibly intense and filled with pride. “Aye, clearly what you do is just a different kind of magic. You’re brilliant.”
My cheeks flush at the words. “Quit making me blush. Usually, people get bored once I start yapping about microorganisms and their habitats.”
“You’re the one tracking these tiny creatures across time, Elena. I’m merely stating the facts,” he replies calmly, his deep voice causing the hair on the back of my neck to raise with how he speaks in my ear.
I bend to kneel at the water’s edge as he keeps a stabilizing hold on me, his hands on my hips and gaze fixated on the silt as I lower the plastic scoop.
“Go on then, capture your wee monsters, my genius queen.”
“It’s actually really important,” I say softly, blushing a bit as I ease the tip of the scoop toward the black and gray silt.
“Back home at the university lab, I have a baseline of data from our local freshwater lakes. If I can compare this isolated sediment data to it, I can have a map of exactly how human pollution and environmental changes have warped modern microorganisms and their habitats over the last few centuries. Your hidden cave is a perfect before picture to the world’s after, essentially.
It’s the missing piece of my entire research project. ”
Lachlan presses a tender kiss to my neck, sending chills up my spine. “And you’ve been my missing piece for far longer.”
Focusing on my work to keep from melting into his arms and becoming distracted for the next few hours, I take a breath and steady my hand before gently sliding the plastic scoop into the sediment, saving history with my tiny jar.
With it safely sealed and packed away, we head back up the wooden stairway up the galleon, Lachlan carrying it like its spun glass, like he’s treating my master thesis with the same reverence he does his gold.
And honestly it kind of is, at least to me, and I’ve every intention of keeping this place entirely secret too.
Seeing as there are various undisclosed cave systems in the area, it shouldn’t be hard to keep the exact location that I took the sediment behind a lot of coding walls and restriction areas, keeping it scrubbed from public view entirely.
Scientists rarely care about where things were found and usually just want the findings to maintain credibility, which keeps Lachlan’s home safe.
We step into the main galley. Just as I pass the heavy iron stove, a sudden frantic succession of vibrating starts in my denim shorts pocket that nearly makes me jump out of my skin. “Crap,” I mutter, reaching to grab it.
I’d forgotten I pocketed it from my backpack earlier when I was grabbing my kit and specimen jars.
There is absolutely no cell reception down here, but the ship’s ancient stove must be acting like a weird localized lightning rod for data because the moment my feet touch a specific floorboard, a huge stream of backlogged test messages flood my screen at once.
They’re all from Natalie.
Natalie: Hey girl hey, just wanted to check in. Love ya.
Natalie: I know it’s only been a couple days, but I miss your face already.
Natalie: Hey just checking in again. Message me back.
Natalie: Hey! Starting to get worried…
Natalie: Hey, so remember after your trip to Colorado and I made you pinky promise me that you’d always check in every four days from now on… right, wtf?
Natalie: Elena, where are you??
Natalie: Hello, are you alive?
Natalie: Good morning! Where tf are you?
Natalie: When you get home, I’m shoving a smart tag up your ass. No you don’t have a say in it and I’m purchasing latex gloves right now.
Natalie: Added to cart. And guess who didn’t buy lube.
Natalie: Your brother is beginning to panic and is talking about calling Interpol.
Natalie: If you’re in a pit somewhere taking samples and got distracted, I’m going to kill you myself.
Natalie: Seriously text me back or I’m launching a search.
I rapidly tap at the screen, keeping my feet in place so I don’t somehow lose the microscopic sliver of service I have as my stomach sinks with each new message.
Elena: I’m alive!
Elena: Completely fine I promise! There’s just zero reception in this cave I’m at, but I just got a great specimen sample and it’s going to make the lab data look like garbage.
My heart gets a small flutter in my chest when I notice her dots appear instantly, dancing wildly before a wall of text pops up.
Natalie: Oh thank god, where the hell have you been?
Natalie: If you don’t tell me you magically fell through a rock into Jamie Frasier’s arms, I am so through with you. I’ve been having to talk Collin down daily from sending out a rescue party, and your brothers aren’t happy.
I gaze up at Lachlan and grin, thinking he does very much look like a rugged highlander.
He leans against one of the heavy timber beams of the ship, his arms crossed over his chest and a worried look on his face, and he most definitely could pass for a Scottish warrior built to smash furniture and take on an army.
Elena: I’m actually bringing a guest home back to the states with me.
Natalie: Oh??
I glance over at Lachlan again, and wonder just how we can get home quickly. He didn’t seem to mind the plane when it was fit for Frank Stein. I wonder if there’s a way for us to charter a private plane. Natalie would know, she worked as a travel agent for a bit.
Elena: Yeah, do you know which commercial airline has the biggest seats and leg room, or if we can somehow book a private plane?
The three dots dance for a long agonizing few seconds.
Natalie: Why? You usually fly basic economy everywhere and then complain about the complimentary pretzels. Okay, leg room? Exactly how big is this guest of yours?
Natalie: If you want maximum leg room you can book British Airways first class or Virgin Atlantic has suites too, they basically give you a private pod.
Natalie: Did you fr find an outlander in the mud to bring home?
Elena: Something like that lol. Just warn Collin I’ll be bringing someone. And don’t worry. I’ll be home in a few days.
I slide my phone back into my pocket before the signal can vanish entirely and lock gazes with my favorite monster. “How do you feel about a first class flight?”
He shrugs, bouncing the muscles of his pectorals when he does. “As long as it’s bigger than the last biscuit tin, I shouldn’t have any complaints.”
I grin and bite my lip. My brothers are going to lose their minds.
Lachlan Macbeth
“Oh, I can’t wait to show you around. We can even go by my favorite spot in the lake, if you’re up for it, and can meet a couple of people at the college, but we don’t have to if you don’t want to.
My family is enough socializing for anyone, and if anything gets to be too much, I have an apartment nearby and we can just stay there,” she says, her tone filled with excitement.
“It sounds grand,” I say, giving her a soft smile.
I glance down at the heavy oak chest that sits on the deck of the ship, all my spoils dotted around the place. I look around the stone cavern of my home, at the damp walls that glow with the faint ethereal brightness of the cave moss that shines softly on the curve of Elena’s cheek.
It’s been incredible to be home, and for a long time before my confinement to the moat, this cold, quiet cavern had been my sanctuary, a place to get away from the human chaos. But what I feel for this place and its vastness feels small in comparison to what I feel for her.
My home is no longer a stationary location; she’s a moveable woman who wants to take me to her homeland, and I’ll move heavens and earth to give her what she wants.
I reach out and pull the modern piece of plastic from the wooden shelf I placed it days ago and hold it between my fingers.
“First class or rent out a big plane like Frank’s for a time, but I cannot keep using his card,” I murmur, my voice echoing back to me from the high stone ceilings.
“Using it feels untoward now that I’m back home with all my wealth, and I won’t be a parasite on the back of Frank’s fortune. ”
Elena suppresses a smile and leans against the ship’s railing. “Lachlan, Frank’s a billionaire and practically owns the medical world with his pharmaceutical empire. I doubt he’ll bat an eyelash at the travel expenses.”
“It’s the principle of the thing,” I insist.
Now that I’ve my own gold hoard within arm’s reach again, keeping Frank Steins black card feels like a heavy weight on my chest. I gesture toward the corner of the cavern deck and at the gold she knows well by now.
“I’ve centuries of doubloons and solid gold bars sitting right here.” I point to the glittering mountain. “I want to exchange it properly, and I want this paper cash humans have or the digital numbers. I want to buy you dinner with my own coin and not Frank’s.”
Elena sighs gingerly and steps across the creaking boards to reach me.
“Lachlan you can’t just walk into the Bank of Scotland with a sack of gold like a pirate.
They’ll ask questions and the government will want taxes, and the media will want to know where a ridiculously handsome man got a mountain of treasure. ”
I shove the card back onto its resting place.
“Then we find a way around the rules and paperwork,” I say soothingly, looking down at her.
“I missed it here, but my home is wherever you are, Elena. I’ll follow you anywhere, but I still want to fund my own expenses, even if it means dealing with the terrifying world of modern banking. ”
Suddenly, I recall that Maren would have some contacts and know what to do, and I snap my fingers loudly. The sound ricochets around the damp cavern walls like a boom, as excitement unfurls in my veins.
“Wait,” I say, a grin breaking across my face.
“We may not need to move a pirate sack of jewels at all. You know Maren used to spend half her time navigating coastal towns and the other half the seas. She doesn’t just dabble in finding lost things for people, she’s handled all sorts of odd trades, and I’d wager she knows exactly how to convert the hoard pile into something a modern airline will actually accept. ”
Elena arches her brows and a spark of hope lights up in her blue gaze. “Your cousin? Lachlan, that’s wonderful. She was amazing when she helped us get our stuff back. Do you think she can get us a meeting with someone discreet to exchange it?”
“If anyone knows how to launder pirate treasure through the supernatural underground, it’s her,” I say, relaxing my shoulders.
I head into the pirate’s quarters and rummage until I locate the mobile phone Whitley gave me for emergencies, only to see a glaring ‘no service’ icon in the upper right corner of the device.
“But I’ll need to get topside to reach her,” I add, sliding the phone away and pulling Elena into my arms. “The signals don’t usually pierce the ceiling of my home.
We’ll have to head up to the surface and my stomach is roaring.
Surely, we can find a local spot to grab a fry-up for breakfast. Why don’t we have a hearty breakfast and message her over a warm meal? ”
“As much as I love the heart-covered swimwear and glasses,” Elena says, a playful glint in her eye as she gestures to my attire, “we should probably get properly dressed before we face the locals. Don’t you think?”