Hæra wouldn’t know how to do it, though. If there were rituals or customs attached to the gesture, she’d give herself away. Sister Madeleine would certainly know all about it. She’d probably put her mouth against many other humans’. They would have tasted her lips.

The thought turned Hæra’s blood into fire—her natural enemy. The image of the woman in black in a human’s arms…leaning into the embrace, giving herself to another…

No. Never again. That wouldn’t happen ever again. Sister Madeleine had officially touched mouths with her last human. Hæra would see to it.

From this moment on, nobody would devour Sister Madeleine but her.

CHAPTER THREE

A few streetlamps lit the sidewalks that lined Thornhill Village’s seawall. Madeleine had brought her travel flashlight anyway. You never knew when you’d need extra help to pierce the darkness.

A scarf would have come in handy too, but apparently Madeleine’s was floating somewhere in the North Sea. When Ava had confessed its loss, Sister Agnes hadn’t said I told you so, but it was clearly implied.

It was past ten-thirty at night. The sun had recently set, and clouds drifted back and forth over the moon and stars. It was colder too. It wasn’t the nicest situation for a stroll, but Madeleine needed to clear her head of the words that kept tumbling around inside it.

Sister Madeleine, help me.

That voice couldn’t have been real. She hadn’t recognized it, and when she and Ava had returned to the group, nobody was missing. Who else could have called her by name? She must have hallucinated it.

So it was a complete mystery why she was sneaking out to that same spot in the dead of night.

No. She wasn’t sneaking out. What a silly idea. She was a grown woman, and her duties were done. She’d left a note in her room, and she had her no-frills cell phone. All the girls were safely ensconced in the Merryweather Hotel, a tiny establishment that was notably less expensive than hotels and inns on Orkney’s other islands, which was why she’d chosen it.

Once they’d arrived on Jorsay, Madeleine had realized why accommodations were both sparse and cheap. It was the least appealing of all the islands, at least visually. The landscapes were scrubbier, the ruins smaller, and the cliff faces less dramatic.

Then again, the other islands probably didn’t have beaches that talked to you.