Page 6 of Highlander’s Claim

“It’s you, hon!” cried Amanda without turning back. “You’re glowing! Because you’re beautiful!”

Jenny shook her head with a smile. The scent of lavender and grass became stronger. She looked around. A seagull sat ten feet away from her, watching her glass of champagne with a ferocious curiosity.

“Hey there, little guy. Are you seeing this glowing, too?” she asked. “Maybe you should have the rest of my champagne. Clearly, I had waaay too much.”

A shadow fell on Jenny. “Ah, finally, girls, look…” She raised her head.

A redhead in a hooded green cloak stood over her. She smelled strongly of lavender and grass. Where had this woman come from on a deserted island? Hmm…strange.

“You smell nice,” Jenny said. “Natural. I like it.”

The woman beamed. “Oh, thank ye. No one has ever said that to me. How kind of ye.”

“Do you see the glowing, or is it just me?” Jenny asked, pointing at the rock.

The woman giggled. “Oh, I see it, lass. ’Tis me who makes it glow.”

Jenny swayed. “Really? How?”

“My name is Sìneag. I help people to go through the river of time and find the person they’re destined for.”

Jenny blinked. “Really? How?”

“Doesna matter how. What matters is why. There’s a person for ye through that stone.”

Jenny shook her head. She was so drunk. She put her glass down on the grass, and it fell and spilled its contents. “Um… At the expense of repeating myself…again… Really? And how?”

Sìneag bit her lip to stop a smile and sank to her knees next to Jenny. She was so pretty. A delicate, strawberry-shaped face, green eyes with long eyelashes, porcelain-white skin. And those cute freckles on her nose and cheeks. “You’re beautiful,” Jenny said. “Something about you is so…different. Are you from another time, too? Maybe you’re a princess?”

Sìneag chuckled. “I’m nae a princess. I’m a faerie. And the man ye’re destined for is the chief of clan MacDonald of Islay, Aulay. A true Highland laird with a big heart.”

“And a big kilt…” Jenny giggled. “Sorry. Bad joke. So, he’d love me, you say? And yet, my husband said no man will love me until I stop being so selfish. And when he said selfish, he really meant independent. So, you’re saying Aulay would love me even if I worked a lot and didn’t give him babies?”

Sìneag smiled, but her eyes were sad. “He’d love ye if ye were old and wrinkled and dinna have a hair on yer head, Jenny. A Highlander’s love is forever. All ye need to do is place yer hand into the handprint.”

Jenny raised her eyebrows and studied the handprint. How drunk was she that she was letting herself believe all this? “So, you’re saying if I give a high five to this medieval hand, I’ll time travel?”

Sìneag nodded. “Aye.”

“What about my girlfriends? Do they have a hot Highlander waiting for them? Well… two of them are taken, but Amanda…”

Sìneag shrugged and said nothing. Jenny looked back over her shoulder. The three figures of her girlfriends were at the other edge of the island, a hundred or so feet away.

“Let’s go time travel, girls!” Jenny cried.

When none of them reacted, she turned back to Sìneag.

There was no one.

The seagull was still there, giving her an unblinking stink eye. Wind ruffled its feathers gently.

“Did you see where she went?” Jenny asked.

When the seagull didn’t reply, she shrugged, looked at the glowing rock, and high-fived the hand.

Only, instead of solid, cold rock, her palm went through empty air and fell forward and down into darkness. She screamed and flapped her arms and legs, trying to hold on to something, but there was nothing but wet, cold, damp air. And then she sank into oblivion.

CHAPTER 2