Story Spotlight: “They Stole My Love Last Night” by Alexandra J. Brandt

In “They Stole My Love Last Night,” Alexandra J. Brandt brings us to the wind-lashed coast of the Isle of Skye, where a granddaughter joins her Granmarie on a bittersweet return to the White Skye Inn—a place where grief, music, and fae magic still linger.

When a young woman returns to her family’s inn on the Isle of Skye, she’s drawn into a haunting shaped by grief, healing, and fairy music that still echoes through the mist. What she finds is a garden where memory stirs and a love story that never fully ended. This lyrical tale blends second-world folklore with quiet emotional depth.

The garden is at once strange, and familiar.

The part nearest the entrance has been redone, with paving stones on the pathways and pretty, orderly arrangements of the flower beds. But there is a second gate, and we are both drawn to it without speaking.

I find myself humming under my breath. It’s the same faint piece of melody that came into my head earlier, but I can’t remember why I know it or what it is. I can only assume it was one of Grandpa Mac’s tunes. It’s beautiful and sad.

Before we open the second gate — to the wilder, greener woods beyond — Granmarie suddenly stops and turns to me. “What’s that you’re singing?”

I blink. “I’m — not sure. It’s just stuck in my head.”

“So you’ve been hearing it too,” she whispers. She looks ahead, into the trees, then back at me. “Jessamyn, what did you see in the window earlier today?”

“I — I don’t really know.” Even though I’ve wanted to get Granmarie alone, it’s so I can talk to her about all the strangeness in her face and try to find out how she’s truly doing. Not talk about the strangeness I’ve been experiencing.

But the way she asks the question tells me that maybe the two conversations are one and the same.

About the Author

Alexandra Brandt spent most of her childhood dressing up in fairy wings and parading in front of the mirror telling stories to herself. Not much has changed: she still loves a good costume, and tells herself stories every day.

When not spinning tales, reading, or debating worldbuilding details with her writer husband, Alex dabbles in book cover design and graphic design for select clients. She occasionally sings in a choir, and always welcomes any excuse to sit down and play tabletop games—from D&D to board games to cards. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Find Alexandra at: alexandrajbrandt.com

The Haunting Thread

With ghostly music and magical weather woven through the Scottish coastline, this story evokes the ache of what might have been—and the quiet power of revisiting love, place, and legacy. The magic here is subtle, emotional, and deeply personal.

Read the Story

“They Stole My Love Last Night” appears in Haunted Places, available now from Blackbird Publishing.

📚 Buy the book from your favorite store

If you liked…

• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett—for its folkloric warmth and academic-meets-fae tone
  The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip—for lyrical prose and mythic emotional depth

…then you’ll enjoy “They Stole My Love Last Night”—a fae-haunted return to love, place, and the songs that never leave us.

📘 Also featured in Haunted Places: “River of Renewal” by Kari Kilgore, a tender, magic-tinged story of emotional healing in a place that remembers who you are.