Aiden was sinking into darkness. The cold black well water swirled over his head as he was lost in that place between the living and the dead. Every moment of his life, both large and small, good and bad, played across his mind in brilliant colors, as if in one final quest to find meaning in it all.
He felt each lash of his father’s whipping cane, the cool water of the fairy pools knitting his soul back together, the smiles on his brothers’ faces as the three of them ran free in the hills in those rare moments when they knew peace. The feel of the fresh heather in his hands as he presented a bouquet to his mother. The way she smiled as if that simple act had taken every sorrow away from her, even if only for a few hours.
He relived the night Rosalind had fled into the darkness and the le
