Page 32 of Wild Scottish Fortune

“Of course, my beauty. You’re right, she’s obviously your sister.”

Nobody had ever called me their sister before, and yet, the word warmed me in a way that I hadn’t known it would. Granted, this woman towered over me both in height and size, not to mention the clear strength of magickal power that emanated from her, and I very muchdidwant to be her sister. She felt safe to me. Pulling the blanket more tightly around my shoulders, I gave her a tentative smile.

“You know about magick?”

“Ooof, child. Iammagick.” Miss Elva threw her head back and laughed that rolling laugh again and waved a hand in the air. “Do you not see this fabulousness?”

“I’ll admit, I’ve never seen a tartan caftan before.”

“Do you like it?” Miss Elva preened for me. “I made it before the trip. I’m a fashion designer as well as a practitioner of magick.”

“It’s pretty fabulous.” It was at that. I’d never be able to pull it off, but Miss Elva owned the look.

“Now, honey. Tell me what that was all about? If it wasn’t for Rafe having a fit while we were driving by, I’m not sure we would have stopped in time.”

“I saw you. Before I went under again.You…saved me. A hero.” I turned to the ghost who sniffed and pretended to look unaffected.

“Can’t let a pretty lady drown, canI? Though you don’t hold a candle to my lovemountain, of course. Could use some more meat on your bones. Do they not feed you here? Oh, you must be poor. The poor were always so skinny in my time.”

I raised my eyebrows. There was a lot to unpack, and I wasn’t sure which of his comments to respond to.

“Rafe! Take the compliment and shut up. You can’t be calling people out on their body size. Or their money. Ignore him.” Miss Elva gave Rafe a sharp look.

“Well, I’m sorry if I’m just a bit annoyed having to ride around withthemall day.” Rafe fumed, raising a hand to the husky men by the car.

“You’re just mad Rosita didn’t come on the trip. Doesn’t mean I can’t have my fun.”

“Nothing stops you from having your fun, lovemountain.”

“Damn right, Rafe. Best way to live your life.”

I blinked, staying quiet as they argued back and forth, certain this was one of the weirder days of my life. Clearing my throat, I interrupted a tirade from Rafe about the level of nakedness of their car companions.

“The Kelpies are a threat to Loren Brae, but we’re working on subduing them. So long as you don’t go in the water, you should be safe.”

“Is that right? Huh. That’s just fine then. But that wasn’t a Kelpie that tried to kill you.” Miss Elva raised an eyebrow at the water and shivered.

“It wasn’t?” I mean, it had happened so fast, I couldn’t really say.

“Similar. A water creature. Likely a nuckelavee.”

“A what?” This was all new to me.

“Child, don’t you know your myths? Nasty beast. Dark, dark energy. Creature of the sea, but often terrorizing those on land. Sometimes as a water horse as well. But not Kelpies. Kelpies were sometimes known to be helpful. A nuckelavee, ooooh, honey. Nasty, nasty beast. Mm-hmm.”

“Fun to ride though,” Rafe said, pretending to wave a fake lasso in the air.

“You didn’t ride a nuckelavee, Rafe.”

“I most certainly did!” Rafe exclaimed, fury thundering his face. “How do you think I got to her so fast?”

“Mm-hmm, wasn’t what it looked like from the shore.”

“You couldn’t see. Tell her, Orla.”

“Um, well, I was kind of drowning, so it was hard to see what was happening, but it did look like you were riding a wave toward me.”

“See? She saw me riding something.”

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