Beathag turned to where Asgall and Jonathan lay on the beach, and then she looked back at her daughter. Hæra tried to lift her shoulders, perhaps in defiance, and didn’t succeed.

“Please,” Madeleine heard herself say, with no idea of a follow-up. Was there anything she could say that might save Hæra, save them both?

Hæra gave her a horrified look, which suggested not. “Madeleine. Go!”

Did Hæra think Madeleine could outrun a vengeful Each-uisge? Madeleine’s disbelief must have shown on her face because Hæra said, “I can slow her down. I’ll stop her, I’ll…” She lurched toward Beathag, holding out her good arm like a shield. Blood dripped down her neck. “Mother. Look at me!”

Beathag was already looking. She seemed unmoved by her child’s injuries. “You think to defeat me like this, when even your father fell before me?”

Hæra stopped dead. Her mouth opened, as did Madeleine’s. “What?”

“I saw his fascination with humans. Your father talked ceaselessly of them, admired them. He called the human he took, that sea captain, his ‘other half.’” Beathag took a step toward Hæra and pawed the ground again. “Would you say the same thing?”

“Yes,” Hæra said with no hesitation. “I would. I do.”

“Alban was mine. He was my mate, mine for life. The other Stormhorses never spoke of their humans as he did. And when I saw him infecting you and…” Her head swung back to Asgall’s body. “I couldn’t allow it. I knew I would lose him forever if I didn’t act.”

“What do you⁠—”

“And so I killed and ate him.”

The only sound was the wind. That, and the ringing in Madeleine’s ears. She looked on helplessly as Hæra and Beathag faced each other, one tall and proud, the other shivering and small.

“Now he is always with me,” Beathag said. “I lost him to gain him. I made that sacrifice. That is the measure of my love.”

Hæra appeared speechless. Madeleine certainly was. Beathag regarded Hæra for a moment that felt too silent and too long.

“I don’t love you enough for that,” she said.

Hæra staggered backward. Beathag didn’t appear to notice; she merely turned and paced toward Jonathan and Asgall. When she reached them, she bent her head and took Asgall’s leg in her mouth. Then she began to drag him toward the sea.

After a couple of feet, Asgall’s grip finally released Jonathan, who continued to lie on the sand and look sightlessly at the stars.

Hæra said nothing. Did nothing. She just watched with a dull expression as Beathag dragged her brother’s body away, farther back into the breaking waves, until the ocean swallowed both of them, and they were gone.