CHAPTER 30
Cemetery by Auld a′chruinn, Present-Day November
The days of fall were colder and rainier than they had been in previous years, and the trees had already lost most of
their leaves. As fast and unrelentingly as the leaves were losing color and floating to the ground, Payton’s strengths
were also fading. Luckily, the days where he would throw up anything he ate were behind him. But only because he had
stopped eating altogether. Instead, he would now bleed from the nose every time he sat up or moved in any other way. His
skin was sallow, and his eyes were glassy with delirium.
Still, he smiled every time a new memory flooded into this mind. A memory of Sam. It didn’t surprise him how hard he
had fallen for her from the first moment on—because she was his fate, his destiny.
Sean, on the other hand, seemed to only have very faint memories of Sam. He sincerely hoped that his weren’t just
figments of his imagination, created in his mind only because he so desperately wanted to find her.
So many days had passed and she hadn’t returned yet. Was that even possible? Would she be able to come back? Roy hadn’
t found a way to help Sam, either. The memorial stone wasn’t doing anything mysterious, nor was there any other hint as
to Sam’s disappearance. Which was why Roy, the great scholar, had returned home to Aviemore empty-handed. But he gave
his word to go through his records once more with a fine-toothed comb. He promised to be in touch should he think of
anything else.
Payton didn’t take any of this in. He just leaned against the Five Sisters stone and found his escape in his memories.
Nonetheless, he did know that time was running out in the same way that the leaves around him were falling mercilessly.