“Are you different?” Hæra asked. “Or are you more your true self than you’ve ever been?”

“Wow. You’re deep when you’ve had a drink or two.”

Then Madeleine slid her right arm into the crook of Hæra’s left one. That put them even closer together.

Hæra managed not to stop in her tracks. This was even more intimate than when they’d held hands in the Skara Brae museum. She’d done that so the crowd wouldn’t separate them—a thin excuse, but at least it was one. There was no excuse now for Madeleine to link their arms together. Hæra wasn’t about to protest. A few days in, and there was already nothing like Madeleine’s touch.

“I’ve been pretty deep, yes,” she said, thinking of the marine abysses into which she’d plunged until her body couldn’t withstand the pressures. The witch’s whirlpool had been deep too. By now, Hæra understood enough of humans to know Madeleine meant metaphorically deep, but the two experiences felt similar.

“I’m sure you have been. Given what you’ve told me about your upbringing, I bet you’ve been to some pretty deep places. Maybe some dark ones.”

Dark. Yes. Hæra hadn’t seen the sun for years after she was born. The witch had looked up with no light in her hollow eyes as two corpses whipped around her. And Calder, Asgall, and Beathag had tried to kill her in the dead of night.

Hæra turned her face from the sea. “Let’s get farther inland, toward the village. You must be chilly in the wind.”

“I think I’m getting used to it. And the wine helps. And you.”

Hæra looked down at Madeleine to see her looking back. The lowering sun turned her eyes the color of spring grass again.

“You’re warm,” Madeleine continued. “On the night we met, you were standing outside without even wearing a jacket.”

Oh dear. That had been a careless slip on Hæra’s part. “I was cold, I just didn’t show it. In fact, I’d like to get out of the wind myself.” She tugged gently and turned them away from the dock toward Thornhill. The closer they got to evening, the more dangerous it was for her to be within sight of the sea. She’d already indulged herself too much today.

Madeleine went without protest and kept her arm linked with Hæra’s. Together, they climbed an uphill paved path that led to a wide alley between two brick buildings. The alley would lead up to the main street, and from there it was only a few blocks to Madeleine’s hotel.