“I’ll see to it.” Mrs. Muir touched her arm gently. “If anyone can pull Herself from this funk, ’tis you.”
Lynette patted the old woman’s hand. “Thank you. I’ll try my best.”
Mrs. Muir began to turn away and then stopped. “She doesnea have to be Goddess to hae us care for her. We’ve seen her magick—aye, we ken her power. To us, she will always be Herself.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Muir. My lady appreciates your fidelity.”
Mrs. Muir bobbed a curtsy before heading to the kitchen.
Lynette went to Neferet’s suite and retrieved a warm plaid wrap and then grabbed a down coat from her own room. She put on the wellies waiting near the door, lit another lantern, and then made her way carefully across the dark, rocky beach. The constant, dreary rain had stopped, but the wind had picked up so that the remaining damp seemed to penetrate into her bones. Lynette liked Scotland—but that didn’t mean she liked the weather.
“Hello, dearest.” Neferet didn’t turn as she spoke, but continued to stare out at the loch and the black outline of the Isle of Skye.
Lynette wrapped the plaid around Neferet’s shoulders. “I hate that you’re out here in the cold and wet.”
“It doesn’t bother me, but thank you.” Neferet glanced at her. “I know you’re worried—just as you know I am conflicted.”
“Will you please talk about it with me? I can help—if for nothing else than to just be a sounding board. And you know how good I am at troubleshooting. Give me a chance. I don’t think there’s anything we can’t figure out together.”
Neferet turned to face her. “I forget that I am not in this alone. It has been so very long since I had anyone who truly cared for me.” She paused and shook her head sadly. “Do you want the truth?”
“Always.”
“You are the first person I’ve had a real relationship with since my mother died when I was a teenager, just before I was Marked. I have not trusted anyone in that long. Forgive me for shutting you out.”
“My lady, please come inside. Let’s talk about it.”
Neferet nodded. “Yes, you’re right, dearest Lynette. But first, wait here a moment with me as I leave this offering for our wee Denise. My thoughts have turned to her often since we’ve been back. I—I believe I let her down. She gave her life for a quest in which I was unsuccessful.”
“Through no fault of your own!” Lynette insisted. “My lady, you did not know the extent of that creature’s madness. You couldn’t have.”
“But that is the problem. I should have known. I should have stopped and considered what would have happened to me should I have been entombed alive in darkness. I understand her madness. It would have been mine too. But I allowed the desire for power to blind me—and that cost wee Denise’s life as well as those five foolish young women.”
“Those five weren’t much of a loss.”
“Do not do that, dearest. Do not become so hard that killing no longer bothers you. Your ability to empathize with humans is part of what I love about you—part of what I need from you.”
Lynette hung her head. “I know. I’m sorry.”
Neferet hugged her briefly and then said, “Now, I got this lovely blue ribbon from Mrs. Muir, who said it was Denise’s favorite color.” From the depths of the pocket in the long, plaid skirt she wore, Neferet brought out a few dried lavender sprigs that were tied together with a slender velvet ribbon the color of sapphires.
“It’s fitting that she loved blue and is now a water sprite,” said Lynette.
“It certainly is. Would you like to place it on the water for her?”
Lynette shook her head. “Wee Denise would much rather it came from you.”
Neferet walked the few feet to the edge of the sleepy loch. “Wee Denise, this is to remind you that your Neferet has not—and will never—forget you.” She bent and put the lavender and ribbon on the surface of the dark water, then she and Lynette watched it drift away, but before it went out of sight it shot up in a little geyser of water that morphed into a sprite that flickered many shades of blue and gray and yellow as it cavorted across the surface toward them. When the little creature reached the shore, it flew up and hovered before Neferet and Lynette.
The sprite was the size of a woman’s fist. Its blue body was like a dragonfly’s, with a girl’s torso, and around its neck was the velvet ribbon as well as a delicate chain that held an occluded sapphire set in diamonds—the gift Neferet had given Denise before she’d sacrificed herself as payment to the sprites for opening the portal to the Other World.
“Wee Denise! I am pleased you heard my call,” said Neferet, smiling for the first time since they’d left the horror that they had released at the other Woodward Park.
“My lady! Och, I only have a moment to blether. I must warn ye of she who is thee.”
“The Neferet from the Other World?” Lynette asked.
“Aye, the monster. Oak is with her. She plans to come after ye. Beware, my lady! She willnae stop until ye and yur handmaid are dead.”
A terrible chill filled Lynette’s blood. “How soon? Is she coming here now?”
“I dinnae ken when—but soon! Soon!” The little sprite stopped speaking and her oversized eyes grew wide. “I must off! I fear what will happen if Oak catches me! Beware, my lady! Beware!” And wee Denise disappeared with a wet plop.
Neferet’s brow furrowed and she stared out at the water grimly before she lifted her chin and her expression cleared. “Come, dearest. We must talk. And we will need those news stories you brought with us from the Other World.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Quickly and silently, they went back to the manor house. Lynette tried not to be paranoid, but she had a terrible crawly feeling along the back
