Beyond the Highland Myst(627)

"Try not to gape, ka-lyrra. They're only human. Mortal. Puny. And married. Both of them. Happily."

So much for fixing Elizabeth up, Gabby rued, glancing up at Adam. His hand was resting possessively in the small of her back, and he was looking down at her with an unmistakably irritated expression that looked a bit like... jealousy? The sin siriche du— jealous of two human men? Over her? The notion seemed so unlikely to her as to be impossible; nonetheless, it made tiny breaths clot up in her throat.

"I'm not gaping." she managed to say, and really she wasn't, because as soon as she'd looked back at Adam, she'd realized that though the two men might be gorgeous for humans, they were nothing compared to him.

Take those two men, merge them together, sprinkle them with Fae dust, brush them with ten times the simmering sensuality and elemental danger, and that's Adam Black, she thought.

"Dageus, are you seeing..." the taller of the two began, with a disgruntled note in a voice deep and laced with a thick, soft burr.

"Rather like the faint, misty outline of a lass, Drustan?" his golden-eyed twin finished for him, with the same sexy accent.

"Aye," the one called Drustan said, scowling.

"Aye," Dageus agreed.

"Oh!" Gabby exclaimed. She'd forgotten about Adam's hand at the small of her back (deadly man, he'd gotten her so used to his constant touching that she was now more likely to notice its absence than its presence!). Then again, how could the MacKeltars see her at all? she wondered, frowning. Because they were Druids? Heavens, she had so many questions!

Slipping away from Adam's touch, she hastily apologized to the two tall, dark men. "I'm so sorry. I keep forgetting that I disappear when he's touching me, because nothing disappears for me. I guess we probably gave your butler a bit of a fright." At their blank looks, she forged on. "I'm Gabrielle O'Callaghan," she said, stepping forward and offering her hand, "and I know you don't know me, and I know this all probably seems quite strange, but I can explain. Could we maybe sit down somewhere? It feels like we've been traveling forever."

The men exchanged glances. " 'We'?" the one called Drustan said warily.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Drustan," a petite woman with straight silvery-blond hair and fringy bangs pushed past the towering Highlander, "where are your manners?"

A second woman, also petite, but with long curly hair streaked with copper and gold, emerged from behind the other twin, and they both hastened forward to greet her.

"I'm Gwen," the silvery blonde said, "and that's my husband, Drustan. This is Chloe and her husband, Dageus."

"Pleased to meet you," Gabby said, suddenly feeling like the queen of grunge, confronted by the two beautiful women. Here she was in an elegant castle, with four elegantly dressed people, she'd been traveling nonstop for a day and a half— or at least she thought she had; the time zones had gotten her rather discombobulated— and four plane changes and hours of stressful driving later, she looked it. Her hair had slipped out of its clip hours ago and she could feel it poking straight up from her head in back, she had no makeup on, and even the wrinkles in her clothes had wrinkles. She shot Adam a withering look. "I can't believe you didn't tell me we were going to a castle and that all these people would be here. Look at me, I'm a jet-lagged, bedraggled mess."

"Um, excuse me, but who are you talking to? And you're not a mess," Chloe assured her. "Believe me, Gwen and I have been in our share of scrapes and felt bedraggled ourselves, and you're not bedraggled. Is she, Gwen?"

Gwen smiled. "Hardly. Bedraggled is being in the full throes of nicotine withdrawal, and after a week on a bus with a group of senior citizens, falling into a cave, and landing on a body."

"And then getting tossed back a few centuries, with no idea of what's going on," Chloe agreed. "Naked, too, weren't you?"

Gwen nodded wryly.

Gabby blinked.

"I gave you my plaid," Drustan protested indignantly. " 'twas ne'er my intention to send you back bare as a wee bairn, Gwen."

Gwen gave her husband a loving glance. "I know," she said softly.

The one called Dageus tossed his head impatiently. "All of which is neither here nor there. To whom do you speak that we canna see, lass?"

Tossed back a few centuries? Naked? What? Good heavens, were these people like Adam's half-Fae son, displaced in time? Her own life, her little corner of the Tri-State was looking increasingly normal to her with each passing day.

"Tell them, Gabrielle." Adam urged impatiently.

Blinking. Gabby nodded. "I have one of the, er… fairies here with me— "