Stone Guardian

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Have ye ever considered shifting into the form of a storm kelpie?” Seonaidh splashed down on the bench beside Torin, crossed his shimmering legs, and lifted his pale blue face to the incessant rain. “Ye seem to spend a great deal of time soaked to the skin. Ye’d be much more at home if ye became a kelpie.”

Torin swiped a hand across his face and shoved dripping hair out of his eyes. “Are ye here for a specific reason, Seonaidh, or did ye just stop by to nettle me with your useless words of wisdom?”

Stretching his long thin arms across the rain-slicked back of the slatted wooden bench, Seonaidh closed his eyes and smiled as beads of water rolled down his face. “I’m here to help ye since ye’ve allowed your emotions to addle your senses. While yer sitting on yer arse soaking up all this blissful water, yer fine lady borrowed the groundskeeper’s truck and left from the other side of the building.”

Torin glared across the street at the white block building. The watered down sides of the rain-swept structure almost glowed through the gray sheets of the torrential downpour. “Ye lie. I see one of the torches shining in the main window. She must still be inside.”

A sense of uneasiness gnawed his gut into a cold knot, much worse than the chill of the vicious spray of the water stinging against his skin.

“They leave that torch lit every night, ye hard-headed fool. I heard one of them call it an aut-o-ma-tic sensor or something like that.” Seonaidh didn’t lift his dripping head from the back of the bench, just settled more comfortably against the slats and basked in the glory of the storm.

Betrayed. The emotion choked him like a cruel demon refusing to unclench its soul-sucking fangs from around his windpipe. She must’ve sensed him waiting between the dimensions, known he was there and refused to acknowledge his existence.

Damn the woman. He’d abided by her wishes. He’d backed away and given her a bit of time to herself even though every fiber of his being screamed that they were quickly running out of time. Every moment spent out of her presence in this chaotic world chipped away at his weary soul.

The old woman of the moors had outdone herself this time. How had Cailleach na Mointeach cursed him with such an undeniable need for Emma? Why had the old goddess been so cruel? He suffered with longing, his heart ached with loneliness when he wasna sparring with Emma’s exasperating temperament.

A heavy sigh deflated him even more as he rose from the bench. Weariness bore down like a yoke of iron across his shoulders as he shook like a dog to settle his sticking clothes better against his drenched body. An impossible-to-ignore chill settled over his being. Something bad was about to happen. He felt it in his bones.

“Since ye seem to be so all knowing, Seonaidh, did ye happen to see if she took the road home or did she head in another direction?”

The relaxed water spirit lounging on the bench stirred a petty sense of envy through him. Wouldn’t it be grand if he didn’t have a care in the world other than blessing the folk of Lewis with a bountiful harvest from the sea?

Seonaidh opened one eye and extended a long dripping finger toward a narrow lane to the south. “Nay. She took the path running alongside the sea. Verra unwise, if ye ask me, during this strong a storm. ’Tis a treacherous route that’s known to wash away when the water comes down this fast.”

“Why did ye not tell me sooner?” Alarm shot through Torin’s body, tensing his muscles as though battle drums had just sounded.

Storm kelpies lurked in such dangerous passes and they’d delight in tormenting Emma. ’Twould be a fine coup for their lot if they succeeded in stealing her away.

“Ye didna ask.” Seonaidh yawned as Torin shifted deeper into the in-between.

He had to find her. A sense of dread coursed through his veins as Torin raced across the dimensions. Damn that lazy water spirit. The fool had no sense of urgency.

Torin’s guardian amulet burned hot against his skin as he skimmed along the planes. Good. The hotter it burned, the closer he was to Emma. And if it burned, she also still lived.

Folding the dimensions, Torin launched his essence around the last bend; the amulet nearly sizzled against the skin at the base of his throat. His gut lurched as he shimmered to a stop and scanned the storm swept landscape.

The sight up ahead stole the very wind from his lungs. A darkened truck sat stalled out and wedged in between the banks of a washed out gully. Debris-filled water foamed and swirled almost to the top of the tightly closed windows.