Page 15 of Taming the Highland Beauty

Gille tried to return Alastair’s smile, but flinched and brought her fingers to her brow, as though pressing against it might settle her dizziness. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Less than a day,” Callum replied, even though it had felt like forever.

“You were going to tell us why you think Oberon cursed you and why Lady Janet is fading from this world,” Orrick reminded her.

Gille struggled to sit, winced, then collapsed against her pillow once more. “Something Lady Janet did before she died is fracturing her memories. Those fractures are causing her to fade.” Her gaze returned to Callum’s. “Perhaps she created another rift like the ones you talked of earlier.”

“It is possible, but what could Mother have done to cause such trouble?” Orrick offered Alastair and Callum a pensive look that usually preceded him being lost in thought.

Callum swallowed hard, remembering his mother’s own confession that she had wronged Lottie. “I am positive it has something to do with Lottie.”

“I saw a memory of her running away from the healer into the woodlands,” Gille offered. “In the memory, they were both much younger.”

“God’s blood!” Orrick exclaimed. “It suddenly all makes sense.”

Alastair and Callum shared a confused look. “What makes sense?”

“It almost seems too fantastical to be real,” Orrick said, shaking his head as though still trying to work the puzzle out. “William wrote that only when all three worlds—fae, human, and selkie—had suffered a rift, would the harmony the MacLeods had long enjoyed begin to crumble.”

“What exactly are you saying, Orrick?” Alastair’s dark eyes held concern.

“Mother gave us the clue the other night when she told us the story of the selkie wife,” Orrick explained. “She somehow angered the selkie world.”

Gille gasped as her gaze flew to Callum’s. “That would explain the warning the large grey seal gave me when she almost overturned us in the water.” Gille’s voice was uneven. “The seal spoke to me in the same way your mother does. I could hear the seal’s thoughts.”

“I heard nothing,” Callum said with a frown.

“What did she say?” Orrick prompted, ignoring Callum.

“That the MacLeods always get what is coming to them.”

Silence settled over the chamber for several long moments before Callum stood, too restless to remain in his chair any longer. “Why did you hear this message, and I did not?”

Gille shrugged. “I am probably more in tune with nature, which is probably also why I was the only one of the three who stepped into your mother’s mist who was able to connect with her. Pearl and Aria were knocked out.”

“What happened when you did?” Callum asked, moving closer to Gille. “You said Mother’s memories are fracturing?”

“Aye. I truly believe that somehow weaving her memories back together will resolve any lingering attachments keeping her tethered to the human realm and perhaps by doing so, heal a rift or two.”

Callum gazed at Gille for a long moment. “You know how to do such a thing? Weave memories together?”

She remained quiet for so long that Callum thought she might not answer him when she said, “I am not certain, but I have helped to heal trees in the forest by weaving their injured parts back together with the morning dew. Perhaps that is at least worth trying.”

A muscle jerked in Callum’s jaw as his gaze moved to the shock of white in her red hair. “Would you have to reconnect with Mother’s incorporeal mist?”

“I believe so.”

Callum shook his head, and his gaze sought again the white streak in her hair. “It will most likely be dangerous to you. We could not ask that of you.”

“You asked me to help.” Gille perched on her elbows for a long moment before sitting up. “This is how I can help, Callum. And perhaps the next time I connect with her, I can determine if what Orrick said is true. If the fae, human, selkie, and spirit realms are all connected, then helping your mother might also help me.”

Still uncertain about putting Gille in danger again, Callum shifted his gaze to Alastair and Orrick.

“What do we have to lose?” Alastair said. “It is worth a try at least.”

Orrick turned to Gille. “If you are willing to take the chance . . .”

Gille’s fingers drifted up to the shock of white at her right temple and instead of fear, a smile lit her features with warmth. “If it means not changing my very nature in six more days, then it will be worth the risk.”