"How? She's simply vanished. She doesn't need me anymore and you said it yourself it's a curse. It was bound to happen anyway," Connor hated that he sounded as if he had given up. Was this how he wanted his story to end? Another broken heart to blame that damned Aengus MacLachlan for everything that went wrong with him? How was the dead guy to be blamed if Connor was not moving his butt to even go out of his room, let alone be in charge of his life?
"I cannot understand today's youth," Grandpa shook his head as he barked a laughter. "Man, you make great music and you've met a good girl who has inspired you to get up and get better. And still, you think if she's not picking her phone she has vanished? It's not the phone and not even the curse, Connor. Where is your role in your own life then?" Grandpa did not say anything else. He just left leaving Connor with the heavy decision.
Connor lay in his bed composing for another day. Ironically, he could not even thing or sing about anything else. The new song was just bursting out of him, as if the words were written long ago and it simply downed on him right now. He was singing about a highlander's curse, but he knew it was not about a guy in the past who had betrayed his heart - his song was about himself.
This time, when he got up and grabbed his crutches, he suddenly knew why all of this had happened. He was back to the same situation where he believed Aengusˈ story had ended—with his girl gone and no way to get in touch with him. If back in the past it had been the woods and the vast lands that hid her from him, now he had only the gadgets and Internet to blame. Connor suddenly knew he was not going to give up. He knew one solution that was obvious as bright daylight. He needed to take the train, travel one hour and even if he'd end up knocking on every single door in her town, it would not take him as long as a lifetime without her.
With his guitar as his companion for this journey, Connor MacLachlan took the train. As the doors closed and the vehicle carried him away to his dream. Maybe he wasn't sure how he was going to find Anthea. He wasn't even sure whether he was ever going to be able to recover completely or restart his career as a musician. Connor MacLachlan knew one thing though. He had found love that was worth risking all of it and fighting for it. He wasn't coming back until he found her. If one family trait never failed him - that was his stubbornness. And right now, Connor MacLachlan felt like a warrior filled with determination and fueled with love. What could possibly stop him now?
Chapter 9
"Is this him?" Cait shoved a piece of paper into Anthea's face. The paper was ignored. Now was a good day to interrogate her on whatever it was. She pushed it aside without looking. Who could possibly be on that torn piece of paper that could be an interest to her. Nothing was interesting to her anymore. From the look of it, the paper was a poster or some event announcement.
"I don't know," Anthea muttered.
"You will know if you look," Cait insisted. "Is this your guy?"
"I don't have a guy," Anthea said shaking her head still stubbornly refusing to look at it.
She never knew she could be so stubborn. She could simply look at the poster, say something and be done with it. But no, she had to argue until Cait—the one last friend she had left in her life—would get tired of her and walk away. Maybe stubbornness was a contiguous disease that one could get falling for another stubborn person. Or it was just the result of being foolish and letting go of that one person she cared for. Either way, Anthea did not see a cure for her newly acquired disease.
"Don't be silly, please," Cait said. Her friend was intent on not letting her live her boring life today. "This guy has been playing in the pubs and bars in the town every night saying that he is searching for his girlfriend who has disappeared on him. He calls himself the Cursed Highlander. Does that ring any bells? Hello?"
It did. Anthea finally dared to look at the poster from the corner of her eye. There was a picture of Connor sitting on a bar stool with his guitar in his hands—proud and beautiful as always.
"Alright, that look answered my question." Cait jumped off her chair and pulled Anthea's hand. "Come on now, we're gonna go get pretty and attend a nice concert tonight."
"No, no and no," Anthea said as she tried to remain on her seat. Cait was much stronger than her, though. She regretted that she spent more time in front of her laptop than in a gym to avoid such humiliating situations. "I did leave him for a reason."
"Alright," Cait said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And I believe you did not even think to explain that reason to him, did you?
Of course, she had not. She had run away as a coward. She had been so confused about all those stories of magic and curses and his expectations of her to have powers to reverse the curse that fleeing and hiding had seemed the one right thing to do. She had failed to think about him and how he would feel about her vanishing into the thin air. For some weird reason, she had thought that he'd be happy without her—back with his band and his ex-girlfriend. Yet, here he was searching for her.
"I don't know what to say to him," she objected for one last time
