Chapter 33
“Come on. Come on,” Elias whispered anxiously, waiting for the phone to connect. He drove above the speed limit, uncaring if the cameras caught him . Time was of the essence.
“Hello?” Edie answered.
Elias didn’t want to make the call. He’d prayed that he would never have to. “Hey, sis.”
“Elias,” she replied happily. “It’s good to hear from you. Guess who’s on Skye?”
“Elodie. I know.” His gut clenched with dread. “She called earlier.”
There was a slight pause. “Oh. That’s great. I’m glad she took that step.”
He was, too. Elias just wished it was under different circumstances. “Has she told you that she’s no’ keen on staying at the cottage alone?” He hated lying, but now wasn’t the time for facts. There might never be a good time.
“I offered for her to stay with us, but she assured me that she wanted to be on her own,” Edie told him.
“I doona think that’s a good idea.”
“Why? Has something else happened?”
Elias heard the worry in Edie’s voice. “The attacks warrant her no’ being left alone.”
“She isn’t. Scott and Filip are with her. You might remember Filip’s brother. Kevin?” Her voice dipped with sadness as she said, “Kevin was murdered in Edinburgh recently.”
Elias’s gut clenched again. “Aye. I remember Kevin and Filip. Edie, look, I’m worried. I’d feel better if you could get Elodie and bring her to your place.”
“She has a car. She can drive. I can’t make her come if she doesn’t want to.”
He slammed a hand on the steering wheel. Fuck. Why did everything have to be so difficult? “I’m aware she can drive.”
“What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
So verra much. “Nothing,” he lied.
“Elias,” she stated in her best mom voice.
His control shattered. “How did you feel staying in that place? Alone? Why would you let her do it?”
“Let her?” Edie snapped. “I didn’t let Elodie do a damn thing. She’s a grown woman who makes her own decisions. And for your information, I lived in that house alone for several years just fine. Elodie will be fine, too.”
He gritted his teeth. “And the attacks?”
“The house has been warded. I’ve been assured she’s safe.”
“Even though Druids are being killed on Skye?”
“The cottage is more protected than my home, Elias.”
Elias shook his head, realizing too late that Edie wouldn’t help. “I’ll see you soon.”
“What? Are you saying…do you mean you’re coming to Skye?” she asked in disbelief.
“Yep.”
Elias disconnected the call and pressed his foot on the accelerator. He had too many miles to go to waste worrying about speeding.
Kerry stood on her back porch and looked at the sky. The sparks from the fire she’d built danced high in the air. She could stare at the flames for an eternity and never grow tired of watching them.
She had already chosen her next target. Perhaps she should’ve gone after them first, but it didn’t matter. They were just one of many who needed to be taken care of. Every time she thought about what the Druids would be in the future, she smiled.
“This is the first step of several,” she said.
Though she wondered why the Ancients had waited so long to move the Druids in this direction. Then she realized the answer: They had been waiting for her.
Well, she was finally ready.
She looked at the sky and found the moon, then frowned.
Kerry had usually waited until the early hours of the morning, but she didn’t want to hold off this time.
A smile pulled at her lips. Rhona and Balladyn were running around with the police, trying to find a connection.
The joke was on them because it would be too late before they discovered anything.
By the time they did, Kerry would be ready to remove Rhona and Balladyn.
She wasn’t foolish enough to simply banish them from Skye.
No, the couple needed to be killed. That would likely bring the rest of the Reapers and Death back to Skye, but Kerry wasn’t worried.
She would have the entirety of the Skye Druids standing with her.
There was no need for the Fae on Skye. There never had been. It was the first thing she would reverse once she took over.
It was getting harder to wait. Kerry wished she could strike out at all the Druids on her list with one attack, but there were simply too many.
Her power had grown tremendously, but she couldn’t yet do something that dramatic.
The Ancients had told her how to remove the Druids that didn’t belong so that she could gain power and respect.
It might be slower than she wanted, but it worked.
After all the years of sitting back and waiting to be acknowledged, for someone to see who she was, it had finally come to pass.
No more would she fade into the background.
No more would she put others’ needs ahead of hers.
Look what that had gotten her. Exactly nowhere.
And stripped of the only thing that had ever mattered to her.
She couldn’t wait to see Rhona’s expression when Kerry finally revealed everything.
Kerry lifted her face to the sky. The chilly wind brushed against her cheeks.
She felt them redden in response. She took a deep breath, letting her lungs expand as far as they could before slowly releasing it.
For years, she would sit quietly with her eyes closed and silently beg for the Ancients to speak to her.
Now, they spoke without her having to take such extreme measures. Each time she thought about how they had chosen her, how they had picked her out of thousands of Druids, her entire body tingled with delight.
“It’s going to be a good night,” she told the Ancients.
They were listening. They were always watching and listening. They had seen the Druids’ downfall and had begun planning. Soon, everyone would be reminded who the Druids were. Then, the fear and respect would come.
Just as it always should have.
“Your target is waiting,” the Ancients said.
Kerry rubbed her hands together. There was no need to delay this time. Besides, it would be over before anyone even realized what had happened.
The spell fell from her lips as the mist formed and started to slip toward its objective. The dark night hid the mist, masking it from those who might be looking. They would be out of the way soon. To think they had fought her—and won. That was the last time that would happen.
The mist moved quickly, keeping low as it slithered over the mountain to the other side of the island.
It found its destination and slowed. Kerry closed her eyes, watching it play out in her mind’s eye.
The mist went to the door and tried to slip underneath, but it couldn’t.
It then moved to several windows with the same outcome.
Anger tightened Kerry’s lips as the mist slid to the back door, but its entry was barred there, also.
“The Reaper worked quickly to ward houses,” the Ancients said.
Kerry shrugged. “I doubt he got all of them.”
She turned the mist on the next name on her target list. Just as she suspected, the Reaper hadn’t yet reached this home. The mist entered easily. It went room to room, pausing when it reached the first bedroom. It rose before leaning over to look at the adolescent who slept peacefully.
“Young minds are easily swayed,” the Ancients reminded her.
Kerry turned the mist away from the three children in the home to focus on the parents. Their door was closed, but that didn’t stop her. The mist filled the room and hovered on the ceiling. The couple slept soundly. They wouldn’t for long. She gave the silent order.
The mist formed a long column and dropped to the floor to encircle the bed.
The brush of air soon stirred the couple, but by then, it was too late.
The mist had them in its grip. The mother opened her mouth to scream.
The father’s eyes bugged when he saw the mist enter her before bursting from her chest. He tried to shout to the children, but he quickly followed his wife into death.
Elodie woke, choking. She grabbed her throat and tumbled out of bed to land hard on the floor.
Her eyes watered as she continued coughing.
She kicked her legs free of the covers and scooted as far from her bed as she could get.
With her back pressed against the dresser, she eyed her mattress.
She could’ve sworn something had been pinning her down and trying to choke her. Not around her neck but inside.
A shiver went through her. She suddenly needed to get out of her room. Elodie scrambled to her feet and fled. She tripped in her haste and slammed her shoulder against the corridor wall. She swallowed, but that only brought on another fit of coughing.
She made it to the kitchen and flipped on the lights. Her hands shook as she filled a glass with water. She turned to face the hallway as she drank some of the liquid. Her mind was trying to sort out what had happened. Another nightmare, to be sure. But this one felt real.
Very, very real.
The sweat that covered her soon had her shaking.
She wished that Scott were here. She could use his solid embrace.
His calm voice. But he wasn’t. She was alone.
Elodie lifted her chin and walked to the front room.
Thankfully, the fire still roared, proof that either Scott or Filip had spelled it. She should thank them. And she would.
She walked to the sofa and grabbed the throw to huddle beneath it. There was no way she was going back to her room. Maybe Elias had been right. Perhaps she shouldn’t be at the cottage alone.