Only last time the sun had been on the east side of the house, whereas now it was low over the west side. What, then, was causing that flash of light? I tried staring directly into the glare but I couldn’t see anything. Oddly, I found that I didn’t mind staring into that blinding light. In fact, the longer I looked into it the more reluctant I was to drive away. The trill of moving water and the wind chimes beckoned me to stay. I tore my eyes away and looked back at the house. Still quiet. Even the smoke had vanished. Maybe I’d imagined it before and the cabin really was abandoned.

I put the car into park and turned off the ignition. Without the noise of the engine the rush of water filled the air – a soothing sound that could lull a person to sleep. And yet I felt wide awake. The light from the water had woken me up, much as the energy I’d felt during the circle had.

I got out of the car, closing the door as quietly as I could, and walked down to the water, following a stone staircase that had been set into the steep bank. The riverside had been shored up by beautiful stonewalls. Crystals and round river stones were set in between square blocks of granite. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make the river accessible from the house, but judging from the layers of moss and wildflowers growing in between the rocks, the work had been done a long time ago. Unlike the house, though, which was suffering signs of decay and neglect, the stone walls and steps were lovingly – if eccentrically – maintained. Pots of fragrant herbs lined the steps and small clay figures and candles sat in niches inside the walls. At the bottom of the steps was a rustic bench made of twisted birch branches. I ran my hand along the wood, which had been polished to the smoothness of bone, until my fingers grazed something carved into the seatback – a pair of initials intertwined in a heart: L & Q. The initials were nearly as smooth as the rest of the wood, worn down by someone’s touch.

I looked away from the bench toward the stream. The flash of gold was still there, a bright spot under the water refracted a hundred times into gold waves by the current. Staring into it I experienced the warmth I’d felt lying under the willow tree with Liam in Faerie, the release I’d felt when the circle had joined hands and the gold light had moved through us. Both were moments when I’d been exposed to Aelvesgold, and Soheila had said that they sometimes found traces of Aelvesgold in the Undine.

Well there was only one way to find out. I took off my sandals and waded into the stream. It was cold, but given the heat of the day not unpleasantly so. The bottom was covered with wide, mossy stones. Not, thankfully, gooey mud. I inched forward carefully, exploring the surface of the rocky bottom with my toes, trying not to think about snakes. The current wrapped around my ankles, then my calves, like silk scarves seductively pulling me into the deeper water.