He wasn’t in the mood to bake any more, however. Thoughts of the Redcap and Cam’s predicament kept tumbling around his brain. He wondered if he could have done anything differently today. Had he actually been of help to Cam, or just a distraction? Would Cam have let his guard down, if he wasn’t busy keeping half an eye on Lachlan?
Lachlan knew something Cam would never admit to: that he found Lachlan’s newfound mortality incredibly distressing.
Lachlan could relate. When he’d been the monster, the lives of everyone around him had seemed upsettingly flimsy. Human bodies could break so easily and took so long to heal.
He’d found some purpose in protecting them, the people who visited his loch. The tourists waving their cartoon souvenirs would never know that the real Loch Ness Monster had dashed the brains of bloodthirsty kelpies upon the rocks, snapped the neck of a vicious grindylow, and chased off a multitude of other malevolent beings that had tried to invade his home.
For three hundred years, he’d been the most powerful creature around Loch Ness. A formidable leviathan, confident in his ability to defend his territory.
Lachlan curled up on the sofa, hugging his knees. A chill tickled his neck, sending a shiver down his flimsy human body. He hoped Cam was all right in the loch—knew he would be, because his body was built for it. It was Cam’s territory now, and Lachlan had become the guest in his world. Cam’s knowledge of magic was daunting, and Lachlan felt far out of his depth by comparison.
He’d been able to save Cam before, as the monster. He’d been useful. Cam had needed him.
Without the monster, who was he now?
Lachlan drifted into a fitful sleep. He dreamed of wading ankle-deep in an ocean that belonged to Cam; of diving down to save him from a trap of iron chains; of failing to swim, of sinking—and drowning.
Chapter Five
Cam was also dreaming.
It was a dream he’d expected, because some variation on the same theme had haunted him every night for the past month. He was in his Nessie form, swimming in the deepest, darkest part of the loch. Suspended in a vast, weightless expanse of nothing—more like outer space than water—he was searching for a way out. He swam on and on in darkness, his limbs growing heavy and tired. And then his lungs would begin to give… the pressure pushed at his airways until it forced them open and filled them with water. The pressure turned into fire, racing along his skin. Burning him from the inside out.
And then the eyes and the voice would follow. The woman Cam felt he knew but couldn’t place in his memory.Wake up, little witch.
A frantic and unfamiliar voice cut into the familiar vision.
‘’Ere buidseach, wake up! Wake up, I tells yer!’
Cam jolted awake on the loch bed, sending a cloud of peat swirling upwards from under his flippers. He stared groggily into the murk—and came nose to nose with a little man in a tattered tunic and a pointed, crimson hat.
Cam spat a surprised bleat of bubbles in its face and pulled back from the apparition.
‘Don’t be dreamin’ that face again, y’hear? Awful bad luck to haveherabout,’ it said. Its voice was thin and reedy, and slightly distorted as though travelling through the water. Which, perhaps, it was.
What face?Cam thought, still gathering his senses after the rude awakening. The Redcap’s black eyes glinted eerily in the gloom like polished pebbles.Hell, that thing is an awful sight to wake up to.
The Redcap sniffed haughtily. ‘Thatthingis yer new neighbour, and ye might mind taking a more polite tone t’wards it!’
Cam blinked. Was the beast talking nonsense or had it just read his mind?
The Redcap’s evil little mouth spread into a wide grin. ‘Beast,I can live with. You are one yerself, aye?’
Cam jerked in alarm. Likehellwas he going to allow this obnoxious creature to remain in his head. He bared his teeth and swept a flipper through the silt, driving a hail of stones at the Redcap. They passed through it, like a ghost.
The Redcap whistled. ‘Not polite. Not politeat all.And here’s me tryin’ to be friendly, with a mind that we might both benefit from gettin’ out of here.’
Its image began to fade away.
Good riddance,Cam thought, just as the Redcap’s first words came back to him. Had it recognised the woman in his dream?
A cackle drifted to him from the Redcap’s vanishing shadow.
Wait!Cam tried to shout in his head.Who is she? Why is she bad luck?
In the distance, the Redcap snorted. Just on the edge of hearing, Cam caught its muttering: ‘Witches is always bad luck…’
A witch.
