“I’m not touching it. In case of…fingerprints or whatever. Is that the right thing to do? I don’t know.” Madeleine pushed away a frizzy lock of hair. She looked a fright. “I can’t think straight. I’m so tired, but we have to keep going. Can you climb?”

Hæra had last taken these stairs on four legs. It would be easier on two. “Yes.”

“Then we’ll get you to the car. There’s a blanket in the back seat, I think. Then I could—should I go to the police?”

Hæra didn’t think much of the police. They’d never bothered her, but Jonathan had always told her to stay out of their way in case they asked the wrong questions. Now they would be likely to ask different questions. Probably the right ones.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said as they climbed. Gritty sand dug into her bare feet on the concrete. “It won’t change anything.”

“The heck it won’t. I actually think we should go back to the farm.”

“But Jonathan⁠—”

“Isn’t going anywhere,” Madeleine said gently. “We can ask Connor and Jim for help with him. They’ll know more about how the island handles this kind of thing.”

“There isn’t ‘this kind of thing.’ How can we explain any of this to them?”

“Um…we might not have to explain as much as you think. I’ll tell you in the car. Okay, next step.”

Carefully, they made their way to the top of the stairs. Madeleine had parked near the seawall. The village sat in the background, the streetlamps dark like everything else. No other people were in sight.

At the top, Madeleine went to unlock the car while Hæra leaned against the railing for support. She looked over the railing, down to where the dark sea thundered, and to the sand, where Jonathan lay without Asgall. Her brother had released his grip at last.

“Hæra?”

Madeleine sounded anxious. It tugged at Hæra’s heart, but not with the wild urgency she’d known as an Each-uisge. She’d have done anything to save her mate from fear or harm. No, she hadn’t known the witch would turn her into a human—but if she had, she’d have made the bargain gladly.

Would a human make the same bargain? She turned slowly to see Madeleine right behind her.

Madeleine put a hand on her arm. “Come on. Let’s go home.” Her voice was as soft as the fuzz on a new leaf.

Maybe not every human would have made that bargain. But Hæra would, again and again, in a heartbeat.

“Yes,” she said. “Home.”

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO