Her legs were unsteady and sore from her frenzied run to the stones. She’d walked back as quickly as she could, clutching her side against a painful stitch. The Great Mare⁠—

—the impossible Great Mare⁠—

—hadn’t exactly made her life easier, but she’d certainly opened Madeleine’s eyes to a few urgent things. She had to find Hæra. They could figure the rest out later. Beathag…my teeth…

“Connor,” she called.

The beam of his flashlight blinded her. “Madeleine! What the hell happened?”

His voice was sharp with concern. She’d come to like him and Jim—they were kind and never showed the slightest curiosity about her relationship with Hæra. Around them, it was hard to feel ashamed, and easy to feel that everything was normal. That she was.

She held her hand in front of her face to block Connor’s beam and turned off her phone’s own flashlight. The battery was nearly drained by now. “Uh, well…”

“You’re covered in fucking mud!” Usually Connor and Jim avoided profanity around her. “You look as if you were blown about in that gale, were you outside? Jonathan said you were looking after Hæra in the cottage⁠—”

Madeleine looked over his shoulder, where the cottage lay, although she couldn’t see it in the darkness. Hæra must be there. “Um—yes. I need to…”

“But Jim went to look, and nobody was in there. We can’t find Jon or Hæra anywhere. Jim said the bed was covered in dirt and blood!”

He looked Madeleine up and down, clearly taking in the dirt that was on her too.

Oh no. Did he think she—? Madeleine grabbed her throat. “I’m looking for them too. Something happened.”

“No shite it did. Neither of them’s picking up on the walkie-talkie. The phones don’t work either. Jim’s gone to the village to fetch Isla and see if anyone there can call around.” His eyes narrowed. “Doubt all of them had their boxes cut.”

Please don’t let that be an accusation. Would he believe Madeleine if she insisted she didn’t know how to disable a phone box? “Where have you looked?”

“Everywhere. It took us a bit to realize they were gone—we were busy checking everything. There’s dead animals, some structural damage. Not like usual.”

“Um, okay, but we have to find⁠—”

“Something’s gone wrong,” he said. He looked her right in the eyes, his gaze even sharper than before. But something was missing from it.

Surprise.

Connor didn’t look in the least surprised or confused by this turn of events.

“It’s her, isn’t it? Something’s gone wrong with her. And you know whatever it is.” He took a deep breath. “You know whatever she is.”

Madeleine lost her breath. No denial found its way to her lips. She could only gape at him.