Chapter Nineteen
I woke to find áedán already awake, propped on an elbow, and watching me. His fingers traced idle patterns on my shoulder. Behind him, light came through the window, gray and soft, the kind of Scottish morning that promised rain.
“You were muttering in your sleep.” He leaned over to kiss me and pulled back only a few inches. “Something aboot publication dates.”
“I was not.”
“You were.” His mouth curved. “It was adorable.”
I groaned and pressed my face into his chest. “I'm sorry. I can't stop thinking about it.”
“I know.” áedán stroked my hair. “It's all right.”
I leaned back and gave him a wincing look.
Even now, lying naked beside him, my mind was already racing ahead to what I needed to do that day.
Why couldn't this have been a routine preservation?
We could have been one of those happy couples I'd seen at the estate.
But no, my first assignment was with an incredible man who wasn't merely fading from being forgotten but was the victim of a methodical attack.
“An attack!” I sat up.
“What?” áedán sat up as well.
“The first changes happened in 1940, over eighty years ago. Assuming the person doing this didn't begin at birth, that would make them around a hundred years old, probably older.”
He frowned, but then his expression went slack. “They're not human.”
“We need to find the earliest published book that contains the sentence about truth.”
“We already know when the changes settled, isn't that enough?”
“That will help, but I want to be sure that the changes settled with the addition of that sentence. Because if that's true, those words are the key to saving you.”
áedán's hand stilled on my shoulder. “You're certain?”
“Ninety percent.” I shrugged. “Either way, it's another lead. Don't we have to follow it?”
He was quiet for a moment. “All right, but I don't know where to start.”
“I do.” I climbed out of bed.
“I guess that means no morning sex.” He pouted.
“Would you settle for a morning blowjob?”
“What will you be blowing?”
I burst out laughing. He frowned. I laughed harder.
When my laughter subsided, I went around to his side of the bed and motioned for him to sit with his legs over the side. With a raised eyebrow, áedán moved to sit on the edge of the bed. I knelt between his legs and took his limp cock in my hand. It immediately started to twitch.
“This is called a blowjob.” I bent my head and sucked him into my mouth.
A few minutes later, áedán lay sprawled on the bed, his legs hanging splayed over the edge. I rose to my feet, wiping my lips.
He grinned up at me. “I dinnae ken why you call it blowin' when you do more sucking, but I will remember the term.”
I chuckled. “So you can ask for it again?”
“And return the favor.” He winked at me and sat up.
We got dressed, áedán humming a tune as he did.
He made tea while I sat at his kitchen table, in front of my laptop, and went online.
I wanted to find other libraries like the Great Archive—places that might have kelpie books from the last century.
I searched for nearby locations that might be helpful and made a list.
“Where do we start?” áedán set a mug beside my elbow.
I looked up at him. He had on a dark green sweater that made his eyes luminous, and his expression was dreamy.
I realized he was still relaxed from the orgasm I'd given him.
In short, he was glowing. I wanted to take him back to bed.
My cock, thickening in my jeans, urged me to.
But áedán was my priority, not the pleasure he could give me.
I pointed at my list. “There's a small museum in Balloch.
They have a collection of nineteenth-century folklore journals.
Then the monastery library at Inchmahome Priory—they keep records of local legends.
After that, there's a private estate collection near Drymen, and the university archives in Glasgow.”
“That's a lot of driving.”
“Think of it as sightseeing.”
áedán studied my face. “You're obsessed.”
“I prefer 'focused.'“
“You're obsessed,” he repeated, but his tone was fond. “And you're going to work yourself into exhaustion if you're not careful.”
“I'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about.”
“Ethan.” He caught my chin, tilted my face up. “Remember what I said before aboot fading; it won't be this week. Or the next. You need to take care of yourself too.” He grinned. “I need you to keep up your strength.”
“I promise to take care of myself.”
“Liar.” áedán kissed my cheek. “But that's all right. I'll take care of you.”
An hour later, on the way to Balloch, I was still thinking about his words. I'll take care of you. It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me. As he drove, I watched him. He looked so rugged in his old, beat-up Land Rover.
Then another thought entered my head. “Why can't I see your magic now? I mean, the swirls of it beneath your skin.”
He glanced at me. “I can center it, pull it into my heart so I look human.”
“Then you showed it to me on purpose?”
“Of course.” áedán winked at me. “I hoped you'd find it attractive.”
“I found it and still find it very sexy.” I stroked a finger over his hand.
“Then my plan worked.”
I laughed and settled back in my seat, using my cellphone's GPS to direct him. áedán made it sound as if he had seduced me, as if he had wanted me from the beginning. I hoped it was true, but it was so hard for me to believe. Then again, wasn't it my job to believe in the impossible?
I tried to relax and enjoy the drive to Balloch.
We traveled a winding road that hugged the loch's shore, so the scenery was beautiful.
áedán drove with easy confidence, one hand on the wheel, the other resting on the gearshift between us.
Balloch was pretty close to áedán's cottage.
It only took about fifteen minutes to get there.
The museum was housed in a converted stone cottage near the loch's edge. Rather small for a museum, but then it wasn't for the public. None of the places on my list were. Or, at least, the collections I was interested in weren't. I'd gotten us access by mentioning I was with the Velasca.
Since we were so close to Balloch, I'd asked Margaret Finch, the curator, if we could come by immediately, and she agreed. So, it didn't surprise me when the door opened at our approach, revealing a woman in her sixties with steel-gray hair and sharp eyes.
“Ethan Clarke?” She looked me over as I got out of the Land Rover.
“Yes, that's me.” I motioned to áedán. “And this is my associate, áedán.”
He inclined his head.
“Come on in then.” She led us to a back room lined with filing cabinets and archival boxes. “Folklore journals from 1900 to 2000. Help yourselves. Just wear the gloves.” She didn't hover, just turned and left.
We spent three hours going through the boxes.
áedán sat across from me at the small table in the room, turning pages with careful precision.
He read faster than I expected, his eyes tracking the text with focused intensity.
But although we found the sentence about truth yielding, the book it was in had been published in 1990. Not early enough to be the first.
After leaving Balloch, áedán wanted to have lunch, and then it was too late to head to Inchmahome, which was on an island in the middle of a lake. So we went back to his cottage.
After parking, we headed around the cottage, but áedán kept walking when we reached the front door. I assumed he wanted to go for a swim, so I turned away.
“Ethan,” he called back. “Come with me.”
“What?”
He glanced over his shoulder and grinned.
That's all it took for me to go running after him. We went down to the dock and undressed, leaving our clothes in piles. My heart was racing, eager to experience breathing underwater again. I held out my hand to áedán.
He took it. “I'm going to take you to the stones again.”
“Why? Do you think the memories may have returned?”
“Nae.” áedán bit his lip. “I want to make love to you amidst the stones.”
“Underwater?” My eyes went wide.
He nodded. “Their magic will guide us. Protect us.”
“áedán—”
“It's not a marriage, Ethan.” áedán let go of my hand. “It's just a very old blessing.”
“áedán—”
“I understand if you dinnae want to. It's all right.”
“For fuck's sake, áedán! Just let me speak.”
He went still. “Go on then.”
“I'm honored that you want to share this with me. I'm ecstatic that you want to protect us.” I took his hand and squeezed it. “Now let's go. My balls are shriveling in the cold air.”
áedán burst out laughing and then nodded. “As you wish.”
We jumped into the loch together. áedán's magic spilled through me immediately, driving away the cold.
I breathed in and smiled at him. With the sun still out, I could see many feet down, the water tinted green, and áedán glowed softly within the filtered light.
He looked like a fairy or an old god. And he wanted to make love to me within a ring of ancient stones.
It felt like I wasn't just believing in fairy tales anymore; I was living one.
áedán led me down along the same path we had taken before.
But this time, I saw so much more. Fish swam past us, as large as my forearms. The loch contained many species, including trout, salmon, and pike.
I didn't know enough about fish to recognize which ones we saw, but they were lovely underwater, their scales shining silver.
And then we lost the sunlight. The darkness of the depths took us, but áedán's light guided us down to the bottom, where the stones waited. Just as they had before, their carvings glowed, providing even more light. I shivered, knowing what we were there for, and my cock hardened.
We entered the center of the ring, and áedán brought us to a stop. Hovering over the rocky bottom, we went vertical and stared at each other. The stones brightened as if they sensed us there and bathed us in magical light.