Page 83 of The Last Kelpie

“You left a note?” I was shaking from adrenaline, fear, and rage. “You left a bloody note like some tragic hero in a bad film, and you thought I'd just let you ride off into the sunset?”

“It's dawn.”

“Sunrise, whatever! It's a saying.”

“Fine.” He took a step toward me. “And aye, I thought you'd let me go because you're smart enough to know this is the right thing.”

“The right thing?” I laughed, and it came out harsh. “The right thing is running away to die alone in the mountains?”

“I'm not running away. I'm protecting you. I thought if they saved me, I could come back.”

“What are you trying to protect me from?”

“From me!” The words exploded out of him. “Damn it, Ethan! I watched my family fade. All of them. I held my brother in my arms while he disappeared. It haunts me. I dinnae want that for you.”

“So you'll just disappear by yourself? You'll fade away where no one can see you, and that's supposed to be better?”

“Aye.” His jaw was tight. “You deserve a normal life. You deserve someone who wullnae forget your face, who wullnae wake up one morning and not ken who you are. You deserve—”

“Yeah, I read the fucking note. You don't have to regurgitate it! A normal life? I'm in the Velasca, you idiot! And you don't get to tell me what I deserve.” I closed the distance between us. “You don't get to make that choice for me.”

“I'm trying to protect you.”

“You've spent six hundred years protecting strangers.” My voice broke. “You've guarded the loch, saved children, and kept people safe even when they forgot you existed, even when your myth turned monstrous, and they believed it. It's time for someone to protect you.”

“That Forgotten who attacked me was my brother, Ethan. What if he was warning me?” Áedán's voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “What if he was showing me what I'm aboot to become? What if—”

“Stop the what-ifs.” I grabbed him by his upper arms. “Stop it. You're not going to become that.”

“You dinnae ken that.”

“Yes, I do, because you're not alone. The Velasca is fighting for you. I am fighting for you. Caelum says that one person loving a myth is stronger than a thousand who just believe in it. And I love you, Áedán.” The confession came out rough, with none of the polish I hoped to give it. “I love you, and I believe in you. You. The man who fights with machines and fixes bridges. The man who's been alone for years and still believes people are worth protecting. I love you, and I'm not letting you disappear into the Highlands to die alone because you think that's what's best for me. I assure you, it is not.”

The silence that followed was enormous.

Áedán stared at me. His mouth opened. Closed. His eyes twitched and filled with hope. “You shouldna said that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I love you too.”

The world tilted.

“I've loved you since that first night at the Velasca Estate, when you kept working even though you were exhausted. You kept working for me. And I looked at you and thought, he's finally here. The one I've been waiting for.”

I kissed him.

Áedán made a sound against my mouth—surprise or surrender, I couldn't tell. Then his hands were in my hair, and he was kissing me back with all the love he'd finally admitted to feeling. I pulled him tighter against me. We ground our bodies together, groaning and grasping. On the side of the road. I eased back as that thought occurred to me, and we stood there, panting as we stared at each other.

“I've lived a long time, Ethan. I'm okay with dying. I just dinnae want you to see me like that.”

I cupped his face in my hands. “It's too late now. You told me you loved me. So, you don't get to run away. You don't get to decide you're not worth fighting for. Not anymore.”

“Ethan—”

“No! I'm going to protect you now. And you can just fucking deal with it!”

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were wet. “Okay.”