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that seemed to pulse from all around him.
    The light was different here, the colors of the glade richer than mere shades of gray. The scent of the green and growing things was all wrong for this time of year when the harvest had past. She had heard tales of magic within the Caledonia Forest, but had given those stories no credence until now.
    â€œAre you a
Sidhe?
Do you aid the
Sidhe
to torment me?” His gaze tracked over her features. “You are beautiful enough to be an Otherworldly fae.”
    â€œA
She?
” Lily repeated, confused. She peered up at the strong angle of his jaw and wished to trace her fingers along the planes of his face. “Is that a family name? Your enemy?”
    â€œThe S
idhe
are my immortal enemies. A race of fae folk who doomed me to walk through time and seek souls to draw into their world of infernal magic.” His expression grew impatient, his whole body tense. “Tell the truth. Do you have
Sidhe
blood? Do you aid them? Is that why you can see me?”
    Stunned by his rapid questions, Lily shook her head. “What madness is this?”
    â€œI demand an answer,” he urged, his voice utterly serious.
    â€œNo!” She stepped back, away from whatever madness gripped him. Away from the urge she still felt to touch him. “I am not your enemy. I do not understand what you are suggesting.”
    Light seemed to stream all around them, the sounds of a river rushing nearby filled her senses. It was all wrong how bright it was in this forest. Like she’d stepped into a dream.
    â€œA woman,” Iain said softly. He laid a warm hand on her upper arm and she could almost feel the tension ease from him as if a great weight had been lifted. “You are a mere mortal woman. Yet here you are.”
    His touch felt real enough. It grounded her when nothing else made sense.
    â€œYou are a ghost, aren’t you?” She knew it wasn’t a rational explanation. But what else would account for him in his Highlander plaid and his warrior’s form? “You are a ghost and I can only see you because I’m going mad.”
    â€œI am no ghost.”
    â€œI wanted to ask you a favor, only you cannot possibly—” She cut herself off, refusing to give her ludicrous plan any more thought. “That is, why would you think I could be anything but a mortal woman?”
    â€œMortals do not usually see me. At least, not for long stretches of time the way you can.” He led her deeper into the forest, toward a leafy bower someone must have built for reading or picnicking.
    â€œMortals. You say that as if-” She shook her head, confused.
    â€œI am not like you, Lily. I was cursed to walk through time forever after I crossed into
Sidhe
lands to search for my sister who was taken from my family.” He held aside a low-hanging vine. “I have been alone these last hundred years. Doomed to live without the comforts of a wife or the rewards of children.”
    She could not think of a way to reply, especially as she genuinely liked Iain. “I may be young, sir, but I am not naive. Nor given to flights of fancy.”
    Her fears that he was a ghost aside.
    â€œI do not suggest that you are.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw with rough impatience. “You want to know why others cannot see me, it is because of the curse. I have become more like a
Sidhe
than a man over time. In fact, I carry the light of my hated enemy within me at all times.”
    She’d wanted answers. She’d never expected…this.
    â€œYou expect me to believe that you have lived one hundred years?” She could not reconcile his tale to any logic she knew. Although, even as she thought as much, her gaze roamed over his garb. His warrior demeanor. They reminded her of another place and time.
    â€œLonger if you count my mortal life before I changed to…” He shook his head. “Whatever I am now. I live to protect others from my fate, as