“Open the boot and help me put the food away,” he gasped. “We’ve got to make the place neat. And then you’ve got to scrub up while I start cooking. We’ve not got much time.”

“Make the place neat? Time for what?”

“Not what. Who.” Jonathan grabbed Hæra by her forearms. There was sweat on his forehead. He shook her, and then he laughed. “Your Sister Madeleine. She’s here. I saw her at Annie’s Crafts, ran right into her, no warning. She was just there.”

Hæra’s human ears rang with the force of a kirk’s bell.

“She’s here,” Jonathan repeated, his eyes bright as the sun off the water. “Do you understand what I’m saying? Sister Madeleine is back.”

Return to me. Sister Madeleine. The green eyes. The dark veil. The husky voice, the proud face, the strength of character.

The blood. The mouth. The sea, the sea, the sea.

Return to me.

“If you’re joking,” Hæra whispered, “I will eat your heart.”

Jonathan seemed unfazed. He was still smiling. “I expect you would. No joke. I swear by God it’s true. And guess what?”

“What? What?”

“She’s not just on Jorsay. She’s coming here. She’s coming to dinner tonight.”

Hæra forgot every polite human habit Jonathan had ever taught her. A cry escaped her with the force of an ocean that slammed against a cliff, fighting to change its shape. She bent at the waist and braced her hands on her knees. Her eyes stung with salt for the first time in years. Her face burned, her chest ached, and she cried out again.

Jonathan’s hand gripped her shoulder. “Oh, lass. My lass. Shush now. All’s well. It’s everything you hoped for, isn’t it?”

Not yet it wasn’t. Sister Madeleine was somewhere on this island. And if Jonathan was to be believed, soon she’d be within reach. Close enough to touch, to smell, to seize. To taste once more.

No. Hæra must not. She must not. Humans weren’t like that, Sister Madeleine wouldn’t like that, she wouldn’t understand. Hæra just had to wait a little longer. The first step was to have Sister Madeleine in sight again.

She’d waited this long for her woman. She could wait longer to get what she wanted from her.

As soon as she figured out exactly what that was.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

TWO HOURS EARLIER.

“You made it!”

The relief in Becca’s voice was palpable. Madeleine smiled at the phone display as she sat down on the hotel bed. “I think I did. I’ve been traveling so long, it’s hard to be sure.”

“You spent last night in John O’Groats, right? On the mainland?”

Madeleine chuckled. “The word ‘mainland’ is a bit confusing out here. The largest island is named Mainland too—and locals call it the Mainland.”