—
I ran for as long as I could, then continued at a jog, and by the time Urquhart Castle came into view, had slowed to a stumbling walk.
The sight of it gave me a second wind, and I sprinted down and then up the slopes of the moat, through the gatehouse, and across the scrubby weeds until I was at the top of the Water Gate.
Hank was on the shore, leaning over his camera with a raincoat tented over his head. Ellis was in the boat, which was half in the water. For a moment I thought he was preparing to get out, but then I realized they’d already unloaded their duffel bags, and the rope was coiled in the bow. He was heading out onto the water.
I hurtled down the hill, and before either one of them knew what was going on, leapt into the bow of the boat. I landed on my knees in collected rainwater and smashed my rib cage against the bench.
When I lifted my head to scrape the wet hair away from my face, I found Ellis staring at me in open-mouthed shock.
“Maddie! What the hell?” he said.
Hank came out from under his raincoat. “Jesus Christ! What the hell are you doing here? We told you this wasn’t a good day.”
Past the bench, on the bottom of the boat, was the miniature monster, with its curved neck and prominent eyes, its long fin and olive-green body.
I launched myself across the bench and grabbed it.
“Is this the reason?” I said, waving it over my head.
“Maddie, put that down,” Ellis said through gritted teeth.
“Gladly.” I threw it over his shoulder, as far from the boat as I could. It lay bobbing on its side, and I laughed. “My God, it doesn’t even work.”
Ellis just stared at me.
Hank sighed dramatically. “Ellis, grab that thing, will you? We’re running low on plastic wood. Maybe you could work on controlling your wife while you’re at it.”
Ellis picked up the oars and began rowing toward the model, his eyes fixed on mine.
“Hey, Hank!” I shouted, my voice cracking with the effort. “I want to talk to you! This business of controlling me. Does that include having my frontal lobe turned into a soufflé?”
Hank rolled his eyes. “For crying out loud, Maddie. He just wants you to stop acting like a lunatic. If you can manage that, he’s not going to do anything.”
“That’s not what you thought yesterday. What’s changed since yesterday?”
“He’s just frustrated—we’re all frustrated!—and we’re all saying things we don’t mean, including you. Especially you. But we’re about to get out of this hellhole, so could you please just try to hold it together for a few days longer?”
“Was he frustrated when he called the courthouse? Because two policemen from Inverness came about half an hour ago to arrest Angus.”
Hank looked up sharply. “Ellis? Is that true?”
“Why the hell are you asking him?” My voice, overtaxed, came out in broken shards. “Do you think he’s suddenly going to start telling the truth? He lied about being color-blind to get out of the war, for Christ’s sake!” My words echoed back to me, bouncing off the hills on the opposite shore.
Ellis stepped over the middle bench. I saw his closed fist coming at my head, and the next thing I knew I was lying in water at the bottom of the boat, my vision filled with starbursts.
“Jesus Christ, Ellis!” Hank shouted. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
I lay huddled in the bow, waiting for my sight to return.
“Get that fucking thing back here right now! Ellis, I mean it! Get back here!”
“Gonna have a quick word with my wife first,” Ellis called over, almost cheerfully.
“Ellis, if you don’t bring that boat back this very second—”
“There isn’t much you can do about it, is there?”
I hauled myself up on my elbows, my head wobbling. We were a dozen yards from shore. Ellis was sitting on the middle bench, staring at me, smirking.
“So it’s true,” I said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You can see color.”
He shrugged. “So what? It doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter?”
“No one else will ever know. But don’t fret about your appointment, darling—the facilities are quite luxurious.”
“Ellis!” Hank bellowed from shore.
“Once I get off this boat,” I said quietly, “you’re never going to see me again, except maybe in divorce court. You’ve got nothing left to hold over me.”
“Oh, but I do. You’re incapacitated, which makes me your legal guardian. All I have to do is call the hospital.”
“The hospital can’t take me away if they can’t find me, and they won’t.”
“Ellis! Turn around!” Hank roared.
“Oh, and by the way, Angus couldn’t be arrested for poaching at Craig Gairbh because he is the Laird of Craig Gairbh,” I continued. “I suppose that makes you cousins of some sort, although I fail to see a resemblance.”
We locked eyes, as if seeing each other for the first time. The water lapped against the side of the boat, which was starting to bob.
“Ellis!” Hank bellowed. “For God’s sake, turn around!”
“Leave us the hell alone, Hank! I’ll bring the boat back when I’m good and ready!”
“Look!” Hank screamed, and his voice was so guttural, so uncontrolled, we couldn’t help ourselves.
He was filming furiously. He stuck his other arm out from under the raincoat just long enough to point. “Over there! It was long and black and curved. It came up for just a moment—the wake has to be at least sixty feet long! Holy shit! This is it! I’m getting it! I’m fucking getting it! Ellis, this is going to be fucking spectacular!”
Ellis’s expression shifted and he twisted in his seat. I grabbed the edge of the boat and leaned over to look. Something large, dark, and rounded was moving quickly beneath the water. By the time I realized it was rising, it had rammed the bottom of the bow and flipped me into the air.
My mouth and nose filled with water before I fully comprehended that I was beneath the surface.
The cold was shocking. Thousands of bubbles, both big and small, rushed past me. It was air escaping from my clothing, and since I knew the bubbles must be going up, I must be facing down. I bucked instinctively in an effort to right myself.
The bubbles slowed, which meant that my clothes were becoming saturated. My one and only thought was to get free of my coat, but while I could bring my hands together in front of me, my fingers were too cold to obey. I could find the buttons, touch the buttons, even feel the thread that kept them attached to my coat, but could do nothing at all about unfastening them. Eventually, my hands drifted helplessly away.
I looked up at the surface and, as though through thick, wavy glass, saw Ellis standing in the boat holding an oar. It sliced through the surface and came to a stop against my chest.
With enormous force of will, I managed to bring my hands back in front of me and locked my fingers around its shaft, just above the blade. I kept hold of it and, after what seemed like an eternity, wondered why I wasn’t moving toward the boat. Bewildered, I looked up and saw Ellis’s determined face through the millions of tiny strands of peat in the water.
He wasn’t saving me. He was making sure I stayed under.
I tried to push the oar away, but it was futile. He moved it to the center of my chest and pushed me deeper still, until a final stream of bubbles escaped my nostrils. My consciousness flickered, the surface receded, and then there was silence.
What happened next was like being sucked into an inverted waterfall. An arm swooped firmly around me and I was propelled upward, exploding through the surface with a deafening crash of waves. Then I was being hauled through the water, quickly, from behind.
“Hold on, mo gràdh, I’ve got you,” Angus said directly into my ear. His free arm backstroked steadily, his legs pumped furiously beneath us. I tried to take a breath, but my chest wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t even lift my hands to hold onto his arm.
My eyes drifted shut, and I fought to keep them open. One moment, I saw clouds churning and rolling above me looking for all the world like a living thing; and the next, nothing.
Clouds, nothing. Clouds, nothing. And finally, just nothing.