Tide - By Daniela Sacerdoti Page 0,50

we’re together, we’ll be just fine.”

They stood in silence for a minute, Sarah’s head on his shoulder, then he spoke again.

“Sarah.”

“Yes?”

“Do you ever dream of going away? Somewhere far away from all this? Somewhere entirely different. A new life.”

“What brought this on?” she asked softly.

“I’m not sure. Just … thinking.”

“Away from my home, no. I love Scotland. Away from being a Midnight …” She sighed. “Yes. Yes, of course I would. It’s not an option, but I wish I could. Why, are you planning to run away with me?” She smiled.

“I’d love to. You and me. Some place where nobody could find us.” His voice trailed away.

Sarah slipped her arm around his waist. She could feel his sadness and didn’t know what to do about it. “We can’t run from what we are.”

“I don’t know. Maybe there’s a way. Maybe together things can be different for us.”

Sarah didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t think of the future now, she couldn’t think of going anywhere, being anywhere but Islay. They stood entwined, taking in the beauty around them, heavy burdens on both their minds.

Suddenly, Nicholas interrupted Sarah’s thoughts. “Look!” he pointed to a group of seaweed-covered rocks shining with rain and seawater. A lone seal was sitting there, watching the ferry with its round, black eyes. Sarah met the seal’s gaze and they looked at each other for a few moments before the seal slipped into the water and out of sight.

“A spirit of the water?” asked Sarah dreamily.

“Maybe. Not one of mine. If they were near, I’d know.”

“A free one, then.”

“Lucky for them,” whispered Nicholas, and Sarah was left wondering what he meant.

24

Midnight Hall

The shape of my eyes,

The shape of my arms

The way my hair flows

And the way I stand –

All this from you, and still

I don’t know who you are

“We need food, and peat for the fire,” said Sean. They were just off the ferry, standing beside the cars – Sean’s black Bravo and Nicholas’s huge monster of a Jeep that reminded Sarah of her parents’ car, and not in a good way.

“No need. Mrs McArthur has everything ready for us,” replied Sarah.

Sean’s eyes narrowed. “Is she a Gamekeeper?”

“No, but my parents trusted her just as if she’d been one,” Sarah reassured him.

Sean nodded. “Let’s avoid drawing attention to ourselves as much as we can, anyway.”

Elodie turned her face to the sky. She was wearing a white jacket that swamped her slender frame. She looked deceptively delicate in it. “Do we have far to go? I think it’s going to snow.”

“It won’t take more than an hour.” Sarah pointed along the coast, beyond the heathery hills. “Hopefully we’ll be there before it starts snowing. Follow us.”

She’s acting like herself again, thought Sean, watching her climb into Nicholas’s Jeep. If this is the Islay effect, long may it last.

Sarah leaned back in the seat and let her eyes and mind wander. She took it all in with a sense of hunger, wanting to swallow it all, the sea and the soft, moist hills and the sky above, so wide, so free.

“Did you come to Islay often when you were a child?” asked Nicholas after a while.

Sarah blinked, coming back to herself.

“Yes. A lot. Then …we stopped coming all of a sudden. That was when my parents started going hunting every single night. It was relentless. Looking back, I knew there was something wrong, I could feel it. I just didn’t want to admit it. And they never explained.”

“Never mind. It’s all in the past now.”

Sarah sighed. “Thing is, my past won’t really go away.”

“Yes.” Mine won’t go either. My mother is still with me, thought Nicholas, his mind suddenly whirring with memories. And so is—no. Don’t think of her. It will just break you.

“That’s why I’m here,” Sarah continued. “To find some answers about the past. My parents hardly told me anything, my grandmother was a mystery. There’s an aunt I never knew I had. I just don’t know …”

“… Who you are,” Nicholas finished for her.

“Yes. You read my mind.” Sarah turned to him and her heart leapt. His profile was so handsome, flawless against the wet car window, and beyond it, the stormy sea. His eyes were like obsidian, and his hair blue-black against his ghostly white skin. He looked like some forgotten god of a lost civilization, or someone out of a vision.

And he is, thought Sarah. After all, he did come to me in a dream. And he doesn’t look quite … human, she couldn’t