Chapter Twenty-One

Rosalyn curled her toes against the shale beneath her feet, trying for a few moments longer to keep herself from sliding into the foaming sea. She had tried making Oberon see the error of his ways, but without success. Perhaps it was time for her to appeal to his vanity instead. “If you kill everyone who you feel has ever wronged you, then who will be left for you to rule over? If they are all gone, you will be the king of no one. The king of nothing. And you will cease to be of any importance in either the human or fairy realms.”

Oberon’s eyes widened as he stared at her with a mixture of surprise and irritation. “I will find new subjects.”

“Where?” Rosalyn latched on to the weak logic she had exposed. “All of Fairyland will turn against you when you take your revenge on their mothers or fathers or children.”

“I will steal human children and make them my new sons and daughters. I will start with the MacLeods.” Oberon’s blue eyes glittered dangerously but behind the danger there also lingered doubt.

“Humans do not give up their children so easily. If you take another of the MacLeod children, it will be you who suffers in the end. With Aria and other magical helpers, the MacLeods will be especially diligent in protecting future offspring,” she said with a renewed confidence.

“You think you understand humans and fairies so well, do you?” A ruddy flush came to his cheeks. “On one hand, you would have me forgive those who wronged me, or have me admit I was wrong. On the other hand, you claim humans, especially the MacLeods, will fight with their last breath before losing a child to me again.”

“Now that they know it was you who took Keiran from them nine years ago, yes. They will fight you and win.”

Oberon’s gaze narrowed. “Are you willing to stake your life on that?”

It was Rosalyn’s turn to frown. “What are you saying?”

“I propose a game. You against me.”

What did she have to lose? If she remained here in this unreal but yet treacherous seascape much longer, she would die. “Explain this game.”

“I hide something for you to find. I will give you a map with clues as to its location.” He snapped his fingers and an hourglass appeared. “If you can find the object before the sand runs out, I will no longer seek revenge on the MacLeods and the fairies who tried to kill me.”

“And if I fail in this quest?” she asked.

He smiled a calculating smile. “I get to keep Fiona’s baby and any children you and Keiran might produce.”

A shiver raced down Rosalyn’s spine. “No, keep Fiona and her child out of this.”

He snapped his fingers again. “Too late.”

Fiona appeared beside the fairy king, floating above the slippery rock that was still relentlessly pounded by the sea. Terror filled Fiona’s expression as she looked about her, biting back a scream.

“Return her to Dunvegan,” Rosalyn challenged.

“She is already a player in this game, so, no.” The fairy king shrugged. “I will allow you a helper.” He snapped his fingers a third time and Keiran appeared, hanging suspended above the churning water near Fiona.

“No!” Rosalyn’s heart soared at seeing Keiran once more, even as desperation constricted her throat. “Not Keiran. Have you not tortured him enough for one lifetime?”

Oberon laughed. “Would you like me to bring someone else into this game?”

“No,” she said, forcing a calmness she did not feel. How had Keiran survived such deviousness for so long? “If we are to play a game, then let it not be here. Take us somewhere we will not have to fight the environment as well as you.”

“Done.” Oberon snapped his fingers and instantly she stood in the centre of the fairy circle where she had come face to face with Oberon for the first time. “You seemed to like this place.”

Rosalyn looked around her. Keiran was still suspended above the ground by Oberon’s magic, and Fiona... Rosalyn’s heart thundered in her chest. “Where is Fiona?”

Oberon’s gaze became steely. “She is the object you and Keiran will have to find. If you do not, her baby is mine.” The fairy king snapped his fingers once more. A map appeared at her feet. Keiran tumbled to the ground. Oberon vanished.

She had no choice but to play this cruel game with the fairy king. Fiona and her babies’ lives depended on it.

Keiran rolled to his feet. His gaze shifted to her. His brown eyes warmed, and the hint of a smile pulled up the corner of his lips. A moment later any pleasure she imagined there vanished, and a sombre expression took its place. “Are you really here?” Concern laced his voice as he closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms. “Oberon did not hurt you?”

Fear and longing shimmered through her. Only moments ago, she had thought she would never see him again. “I am well, though I am not certain for how long. Oberon is using us as bait in a cat-and-mouse game.” She pulled out of his arms to pick up the map at her feet. “He has hidden Fiona. We must find her.”

Keiran looked at the map in her hands and smiled. “You know why he brought me to you?”

She shook her head.

“He thinks I cannot read. That you will be alone in trying to find Fiona and that you will fail.”

At the confidence in his gaze, a hope blossomed inside her. “And he has no knowledge of the fact that the women of the castle have been teaching me about fighting and strategy.” She moved her hand over her skirt and patted where her dagger was sheathed, only to feel nothing. “My dagger.”

Keiran brought his hand down to his scabbard, looking up sharply. “My sword is missing as well.” He frowned. “When I found you back at Dunvegan you were as still as a statue, and yet when Oberon brought me to you, you were perched on a rock in the middle of a churning sea. On the earthen plane, you were present and absent at the same time. And now I am here with you. Does that mean I am also here and back at Dunvegan as well?” he mused, talking out the situation before them.

“Is such a thing possible?” Rosalyn asked.

Keiran nodded. “In a dream state, aye.”

She drew a sharp breath. “Oberon mentioned that if I died in my dreams I would die in life. So, all of this is a dream?”

“A dream where there are deadly consequences if we fail.” Keiran’s gaze dropped to the map. “Let us look at what we are up against, shall we?”

The map had been fashioned on aged parchment, making it appear as though from ancient times. The inscribed coastline around Dunvegan was obvious to Keiran and would have been even before he could read. Around the geographical outline of the coastline, rivers, harbours, and forests, were colourful images of fairies.

“This is more a work of art than a directional tool,” Keiran said in frustration. There were no place names, no writing whatsoever. “If Oberon gave us this challenge because I could not read, then why not have words on the page?”

“Perhaps that is what he wants us to believe,” Rosalyn said, as she began to see certain patterns repeating in the design of the fairies. By folding the map in one place, she brought two of the patterns together. A letter started to form. Her heart soared. Perhaps they might outwit the trickster yet. “We must fold these images on the map.”

“Oberon would not make it that simple for us.”

Still, Keiran studied the map, and while he did, Rosalyn shifted her gaze to the hourglass Oberon had left behind. One-fourth of the sand had already drifted downward. “Time is slipping away.”

“Our worrying about that will not help us keep our wits about us,” Keiran said, then raised his gaze to hers. “I have an idea. Look at the compass rose on the map. It shows the four cardinal directions. Perhaps we try folding the parchment like that.”

Rosalyn began folding the paper, aligning her folds with the needle of the compass specifying true north as their landmark. When no words appeared, she frowned and unfolded the map. “What other landmarks on this map can we use?”

Keiran searched the area. “Orrick told me there are two waterfalls near here. Is there any indication of them on the map?”

“No, only rock formations,” she said with frustration. Fiona was counting on them to figure this out and protect her unborn baby.

Keiran tapped two fingers over the rock formation of Castle Ewen. “Fold the map with this as the landmark.”

“Look, letters start to appear!” Rosalyn frowned. “But they do not make any sense.”

“Try folding it again using an eight-point compass rose with the four cardinal directions and the four intercardinal directions,” Keiran suggested.

As she folded, her excitement grew. Letters started to form. They were written in a fashion that reminded her of old English scripts she had seen in some of the older books she had read from her brother’s library. They often had an initial letter at the beginning of the chapter that was bold and ornate. She could make out the letter L, then as she kept folding a V appeared, followed by an E, and finally an O. “Love.” Her shoulders slumped. “That is not much of a clue.”

Keiran frowned and reached for the map. He turned the folded parchment upside down and now the word read Pain.

“It is an ambigram. These words are so ornate, they can form two different things when looked at from two different directions.”

Rosalyn released a frustrated breath. “How does that help us?”

Keiran pointed to the map again. To the faint X that showed on not one, but two places a short distance from them. “I will speculate these represent two waterfalls. I would wager he has hidden her behind one of them.”

Rosalyn looked back at the hourglass. Time in the form of sand slipped through faster than she would have liked.

Striding to the hourglass, Keiran tried to set it on its side, to slow time for them, but the timepiece would not budge. “If we cannot stop time, then we will simply have to find her in the time allowed.”

“But, I mean, ‘pain?’ That word scares me, Keiran, for both of us.”

“Do not lose hope simply because one of the words Oberon used as a clue was pain. Aye, we have both had our fair share of disappointments in our lives, but we are not the same people we once were.” He pulled her close, holding on to her as if they had all the time in the world. That sizzle of heat she always experienced when they touched passed between them. “We will defeat Oberon if we stand together.”

She tipped her head back to look up at him. “We do this together.”

He released her and took her hand as they headed through a sea of green hillsides for the waterfalls in the distance.

“You said there are two? How will we know which waterfall to search?” Together they clambered down a steep incline.

Keiran sighed heavily. “Oberon expects us to split up, to each search one. That we will not do because I am certain that will lead us to the pain part of Oberon’s message. We make a choice and pray it is the correct one in our allotted time left.”

From the path, they could see both waterfalls and two trails leading in separate directions. At the end of one path was a large waterfall, with rushing water that flowed into a stream that joined with the water from the second smaller waterfall. “Which will we choose? The larger one, or the smaller one?”

“Oberon would believe we would choose the larger, so I say we head towards the smaller one,” Keiran offered, guiding them in that direction.

A seed of doubt lingered inside Rosalyn. She stopped, forcing Keiran to do the same. “Or does he think that is what we will expect him to do, so he will do the opposite? And we will find Fiona behind the larger waterfall?”

Keiran’s expression turned grim. “One of us has to make this decision and both of us will live with the outcome, whether good or bad.”

Rosalyn swallowed roughly. “This is the pain portion of Oberon’s message. A choice we must make to save or lose someone we love.”

“Since you were the focus of Oberon’s revenge against me and the MacLeods, it makes sense that he would gear this choice towards your logic instead of mine. I trust you, Rosalyn. Let us follow the path towards the larger waterfall.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips. “Our past is gone. All we have now is the present. And our future awaits if we can claim it after this madness is through.”

Staring into his brown eyes, she felt his belief in her and clung to it. “We will.”

They took the path to the left. As they approached the waterfall the muted sound of rushing water filled the air. They turned a bend in the path and came to a rock face with a waterfall snuggled into its side. The grey shale surrounding the waterfall glistened with spray. Foamy water tumbled downward, splashing noisily into a naturally made pool that then flowed into the stream beyond.

Looking beyond the beauty of the setting, Rosalyn frowned. “I do not see Fiona.”

“Oberon would not make her easy to find.” Keiran nodded towards the water. “We will have to go through the falls, and hope there is a hidden cave behind the water where she waits for us. Come.”

Her thoughts moved back to the hourglass for a moment before she tightened her grip on Keiran’s hand and followed him into the water. They waded waist deep before they were forced to release their grip on each other and swim through the plunge pool.

“Ready?” Keiran asked as they approached the falls.

Rosalyn nodded and, holding her breath dove beneath the splash, praying for an undercut with air to breathe on the opposite side.

When she came up, Rosalyn was overjoyed to see an open space in the hazy light. She drew a deep breath and searched for Keiran. He was not beside her any longer. She searched the water behind her, then dove beneath the water to see he had become trapped by something on his way into the cave.

Nothing.

Rosalyn dove again and again as fear snaked through her. Where was he? Because he wasn’t below the water. She broke through the water again and searched the cave. He would not have had time to get out of the water before her, would he? Her heart soared when she saw a shadowy figure on the small shelf behind the waterfall. As the figure crept towards her, she cried out, “Fiona!” Relief flooded her even as her desperation to find Keiran left her raw and aching. Oberon had made finding the young woman not difficult once she and Keiran had chosen the right path.

Love and pain,Oberon’s message had been to them. Tears came to Rosalyn’s eyes as the love in her heart swelled, momentarily assuaging her fear at Keiran’s absence. She had loved Keiran from the moment she had first looked into his eyes as she lay dying. And in that moment, it did not really matter if she could love him every day for the next year, or if she were lucky enough to love him for the rest of her life. She would take what joy she could and cling to it for as long as he would let her.

Then another idea occurred to her as she scrambled onto the ledge where Fiona perched. “It is glad I am to see you safe.”

“You came for me,” Fiona said with a tremor in her voice. “I tried to leave this place myself, but I cannot swim.”

“It does not matter,” Rosalyn said slowly. Oberon somehow had known that. Oberon knew many things. And Oberon was a trickster. Rosalyn looked down at Fiona’s arm and noticed the absence of her bracelet. Had Oberon tricked them all into removing the protection of the silver they had worn? Rosalyn’s eyes narrowed for a moment, but then she gave a little rallying shake of her head, and added, “I believe I know how we can get out of this place, but I will need you to trust me.”

Fiona nodded, relief sparking in her gaze. “I do trust you.”

Rosalyn pressed her lips into a thin line. “I apologise for what I am about to do to you, Fiona. Believe me, it is necessary.” Rosalyn brought her hand up, and slapped Fiona hard across the cheek.

Fiona gasped and her eyes went wide. She brought her hand up to cover her cheek, and in the next moment, she faded away.

Rosalyn allowed herself a quick grin before she jumped back into the pool of water and swam to the other side of the waterfall. Fiona was only partially in this magical in-between place Oberon had taken them to. From what Keiran had told her about her own body frozen in time in the old keep, she had determined that only by causing Fiona pain would the woman wake from her enchanted slumber and be right where she belonged, back at Dunvegan.

Rosalyn broke through the surface of the water on the other side of the plunge pool, hoping beyond hope that she might see Keiran. But he was nowhere in sight. Oberon must have taken him while they had been under the water, relocating him somewhere else in this strange in-between place. What other explanation was there for Keiran’s absence when he had been right beside her not long ago?

They had played Oberon’s game and had found Fiona, yet Rosalyn could not really say they had won because now Oberon had taken Keiran from her. “Oberon, you have reneged on your promise to send us home.”

The hourglass suddenly appeared at her feet, the sand frozen in place, reflecting that she’d beat the fairy king’s timeline. “Where is Keiran?”

A breeze suddenly kicked up behind Rosalyn, pushing her along the path she and Keiran had taken before. Rosalyn did not fight the wind. Instead, she let it carry her along until she was back in the Fairy Glen, heading towards Castle Ewen, where the wind died as quickly as it had come.

Ahead of her Castle Ewen dominated the landscape. That was where she would find Keiran. She did not know how she knew this, but she did. Perhaps some of Keiran’s fairy-touched nature was rubbing off on her?

She steeled herself for what came next. It was time to take a stand against Oberon or he would continue to pursue Keiran, and all the MacLeods. They would never know a moment’s peace.

Rosalyn broke into a run. A part of her soul had died along with her parents, and half her heart had died in a Scottish forest—then Keiran had entered her life. And something new had grown inside her, something she never wanted to turn away from again.

She was no longer afraid.