The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,49

then come back for some real sleep.”

Archie was gazing out the window. “Da, is that the castle? You’ve been inside?”

“Aye, I hae been there, and yer mammy was there as well.” Magnus rolled onto his back with an arm across his eyes. “Are ye tired Archie?”

“Nope, I slept on the plane. What we going to do first?”

Isla turned upside down over my shoulder inserting her face near mine.

“Mama and Isla go?”

“Mama needs to sleep for just a bit, just a tiny bit.”

“Iwa not sleepy.” She gave me her most adorable frown.

Magnus chuckled, low and deep. “I will take them out for a walk.”

I sat up in the bed. “No, not without me. I’ll rally. We have to see it all together.” I collapsed back on the bed. “I’m just so tired.”

So while I napped for an hour, Magnus played a game with Isla and Archie.

We walked out of our hotel and headed toward historic Grassmarket. I asked, “Does it look familiar?”

“I canna decide, the shapes of the buildings, some of them are—”

I stopped short. “Magnus! That’s our pub, the hotel we stayed in was right there! Remember? This is the sign, basically. There was a deer, now it’s called the White Hart. Oh my god, you want to go in and get dinner? Hayley, Fraoch! This is where we came after we had been living in the wild for months and… we stayed here! Five hundred years ago!”

Hayley said, “That shit is cray-cray.”

Inside, we found a table near the front windows. When the waitress came to get our dinner order, I said, “We were here years before, we sat over there.”

The waitress seemed bored. Fraoch looked all around the room.

“It was like hundreds of years ago, practically,” I explained.

She said, “Yeah, it’s a really old pub.”

We ordered food. The ambience was a whole different thing: noisier, no fire in the hearth, uncomfortably crowded. I sighed happily, looking into Magnus’s eyes, holding his hand across the table.

Magnus said, “I am verra glad I got ye tae this pub. Remember the room we stayed in with the swaying steps?”

“I do! That was so great. Dangerous and great. It was freezing, remember?”

“I do, there was snow on the ground and a ferocious wind.”

I looked around the pub. It was unrecognizable. It all looked old but not quite that old. Like maybe two hundred years, not five.

Magnus and Fraoch exchanged a look. A faint jerk of Magnus’s head toward the door. Fraoch slid his chair out, jumped up. “I will return in a moment.” He headed for the front door.

“What’s going on?”

Magnus stood. “Naething, I will tell ye in a moment.” He stepped a few feet away and stood against the wall, watching the room.

Hayley and I met eyes. Then I looked around, trying to understand what had gotten them up from their seats, but the room was just a sea of people. I was appalled at how nonchalant and unobservant I had been.

Hayley was visibly relieved when Fraoch returned.

Magnus asked Fraoch as he took his seat, “Did ye see him?”

Fraoch said, “Nae, he must hae turned the corner, I could nae find him.”

I asked, “Who, what?”

Magnus leaned forward and spoke under his breath, “We hae been seeing men, one was in the airport—”

“He was accompanied by another man outside the hotel, now here.” Fraoch scanned the room.

Hayley said, “It could just be a tourist right?”

“Nae, he is trackin’ us.”

My stomach dropped. I wiped Isla’s mouth with a napkin. “That’s the only explanation?”

“Or tis a fae come tae steal us away as Beaty warned.”

“Oh.”

Thirty-one - Kaitlyn

“Up the steps, just a little bit farther.” I led Isla step-by-step but then halfway scooped her up to follow Magnus to the top. Hayley and Fraoch were behind us, Hayley calling, “I see why these are called the Lang Stairs, they’re lang as shit,” and laughing.

When I emerged at the top, there was Magnus across the battery, Archie beside him, both standing looking out over the view. Archie had begun to mimic Magnus in his gestures and stance — he would stand beside him with his feet planted, a little wee Magnus. He didn’t resemble him much, but his whole vibe matched. They seemed to grow more and more alike every day. The two of them together was enough to cause my heart to skip a beat.

I met them where they stood and Magnus wordlessly pulled me under his arm and kissed my forehead. I hung there, wrapped, holding him tight. It was a busy day, lots of