Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Rowen was transfixed by Mason’s story, unable to look away from him as she imagined what he had gone through. He glossed over the fight, but she could imagine how brutal it had been. Maybe that’s why she was unprepared when he looked over at her as he spoke the last sentence.
“I was running,” she said into the quiet that followed, staring into his eyes. “I still don’t know why I turned your way instead of the other. It didn’t make sense to remain so close to headquarters, yet I did.”
“Fate,” someone said.
She pressed her lips together and remembered the others in the room as she tore her gaze from his.
“For months, Brenna—the leader of Salish Druids—has been receiving invitations from London to visit. She ignored them for a while, but then we began seeing things in the chat rooms. There were discussions among our group about what we should do. It was decided that we needed more information.”
“And that meant sending someone,” Rhona said.
Rowen nodded. “Some volunteered, but my aunt said I should go.”
“Why you, in particular?” Sabryn asked.
Rowen shrugged. “Aunt Maelin is a dream weaver. I don’t know if someone visited her, or whether she visited someone.
She never told me. All she said was that I had to come, and that I had to travel alone.
I balked at first. Something about London reaching out bothered me.
It isn’t as if Druid groups don’t talk to each other, but it was just… ”—she shrugged—“off.”
“Because they’re off,” Carlyle murmured.
Rowen shot him a fleeting smile. “London offered to buy a ticket and arrange where I would stay, and that’s where I put my foot down, as did Brenna and my mom.
We booked my trip, and before I knew it, I was on my way.
” She clasped her hands in her lap. “Things were fine until I was to meet the London Druids.”
“At a meeting?” Carlyle asked with a shake of his head. “Why not before, with only a few Druids? Maybe even an elder or two?”
Mason grunted. “It was done strategically. They wanted to show her their numbers and strength.”
“That was my thought,” she told Mason. “Dread filled me the entire day leading up to the meeting. Even when I arrived and was greeted by a woman named Ella, I wanted to flee.”
Ferne rolled her eyes. “Ella Howard? If that’s who they sent to greet you, I would’ve run, too.” She looked at Mason. “She was the brunette with the high-pitched voice, flitting about all the time, trying to be everyone’s best friend.”
“She wouldn’t have been my first choice,” Mason said with a wrinkle of his nose.
Rowen scratched her cheek before she tucked her hair behind her ear. “Ella took me around and introduced me. I just wanted to observe, but they acted like I was already a part of the organization. It made me incredibly uneasy. On top of that, Ella wouldn’t leave my side.”
“I wonder how many others they’ve done this to,” Rhona questioned.
Theo sighed. “There’s no telling.”
“How long did you stay?” Ferne asked.
Rowen picked at her fingernail, noticing it had a slight chip in it.
There was suddenly a soft pressure against the top of her thigh, and she glanced down to see that Mason had moved his hand so his pinky and ring finger were against her leg.
Just as she had done to him. At his calming gesture, warmth spread from her chest outward.
“Long enough to hear Thomas speak.” She darted her gaze to Carlyle.
“The more he spoke, the more I knew I had to get out. When I rose from my seat, Ella started to follow. I said I needed to use the restroom, but she still practically walked me to the door. Had it been anything but a single toilet, I believe she would’ve come in with me. ”
Distaste distorted Elias’s face. “They didna want you getting away.”
“That’s what concerns me,” Bronwyn stated.
Rhona sighed. “There are a great many things about London that worry me, but this certainly stands out.”
“How did you get away?” Carlyle asked.
Rowen chuckled. “I used to sneak out of my house, and my mom was ruthless about trying to stop me. She never caught me, and though it’s been a long time since I had to call upon those resources, I did it.
When I finally came out of the bathroom, I saw that people were milling about again.
I hid behind some others and worked my way from room to room until I found my way back to the front door. I left my coat and ran.”
She paused and swallowed. “Ella had hinted at knowing my flight times, as well as where I was staying, so I didn’t feel comfortable returning to the hotel.
I was considering my next move and how to get home as I went around the building.
That’s when I saw Mason stumble out of a door and crumple.
Then I saw the blood. He had been hurt by the people I wanted no part of, so I went to help him. ”
“Not many would’ve done that. Thank you,” Ferne said.
Carlyle dipped his head. “It was very brave of you.”
“The brave part came after she got me on my feet,” Mason said.
“We saw that. Actually, we saw everything from the time Rowen ran out of headquarters,” Ferne said.
Rowen frowned in confusion before realizing that Kurt had likely hacked the cameras. “You were testing us to see if we would tell you the truth.”
“We were being cautious,” Rhona corrected her. “The fact is, you didn’t have to help Mason, but you did.”
Mason grinned. “You got us to the storage unit and got me stitched up.”
Rowen only had to close her eyes to picture him lying on the narrow cot, soaked in blood, his skin ashen. He had skirted death. Sidled right up to it and danced with it, only to walk away. She still didn’t know how he had done it.
“On top of all of that,” Mason continued, “you drove through the night and got us here.”
There was something in his voice, a kind of awe that she had never heard before. She turned her head to him and got caught in those mesmerizing gray eyes of his.
“Thomas will know you’ve come to the isle,” Carlyle said.
Mason looked away, breaking the spell. Rowen tried to get a hold of herself. He felt beholden to her because she saved his life. There was nothing more to it than that. The sooner she acknowledged that, the better.
“We had nowhere else to go that London couldn’t get to,” Mason said.
Concern deepened the lines on Ferne’s face. “What about the estate? What about Billings?”
“I kept him out of it,” Mason told her.
Carlyle snorted. “Billings knows more than you think he does. But I also know he’ll die before he gives up anything on you or Ferne.”
“It’d better not come to that,” Ferne murmured.
Mason’s hands curled into fists on his legs. “If Billings or any of the staff is harmed in any way, I’ll track down everyone who had a part in it.”
“I’ll join you,” Carlyle stated.
Finn said, “We all will.”
Everyone in the room nodded their heads in agreement.
Rowen wasn’t sure if that meant they believed Mason or if they still doubted his intentions.
It was hard to get a read on things, especially when friendships dated back decades.
She decided it would be in her best interest to stay vigilant.
There was none of the unease she’d felt in London, but that didn’t mean these people were her friends.
She wasn’t even sure what her relationship with Mason was.
“You should know that London has reached Skye,” Rhona replied.
Mason tensed beside Rowen. “How?” he asked.
“That would be my fault,” Kurt admitted reluctantly.
Sabryn put her hand on his arm from their spots on the sofa across from Rowen.
“It isn’t your fault.” Sabryn looked at her and Mason.
“As you know, London has been seeking out other Druids for years. They wanted my family, specifically my father, who was a senator. They sent Kurt and his brother so one of them could seduce me in hopes of swaying Dad if he didn’t readily agree. ”
“Which he didn’t,” Kurt pointed out.
Sabryn shook her head. “No, he didn’t. I fell for Kurt, but things went south with us when I discovered that his family had played a part in my father’s death.”
“Oh, my god,” Rowen murmured.
“I was meant to be with my father that day, but I didn’t go.” A flash of pain contorted Sabryn’s face. Kurt took her hand and covered it with his as she said, “I then went to England in search of Kurt.”
Kurt nodded, and they shared a quick look.
“I wanted distance from my family. Mum was high up in the organization, and at the time, I believed everything she did was to propel her upward. I made a pact with her that if they stopped trying to kill Sabryn, I’d have nothing to do with Sabryn.
I had no intention of doing that. When I learned that she and Carlyle had become friends and were helping Druids, I made myself indispensable to them as a hacker. ”
“It wasna until recently that we discovered the person we knew as Sabertooth was actually Kurt,” Elias said.
Finn grinned. “As you can imagine, that didn’t go over too well.”
“My brother, Parker, was after me,” Kurt explained. “I thought Mum had sent him to find me, but he was trying to kill me. I came to Skye to warn the others, and Parker followed.”
Sabryn’s face filled with sadness. “Diana, his mother, eventually made her way here. That’s how we learned that Parker was no longer following her instructions.”
“He’s taking orders from Thomas?” Mason asked.
Kurt shrugged. “Maybe. I didn’t get a chance to ask him before he tried to kill me by using some kind of spell. I found out later that he’d murdered Mum.”
Rowen realized that Mason had been right. The Skye Druids were fighting other Druids, but not for power. They were fighting to live.
“Is Parker still on the isle?” Mason asked.
Kurt shook his head. “The facial recognition program I’ve been running has put him in Edinburgh.”
“That’s only part of our problem.” Rhona handed Mason her phone.
He read it before passing it on to Rowen. The screen was a news story with the caption:
ANCIENT MAGIC AWAKENS: ISLE OF SKYE’S DRUIDS UNLEASH GLOBAL DEBATE.
A quick read detailed a battle that had taken place on the isle. Rowen’s gut clenched as she raised her gaze to Rhona. “What does this mean?”
“It means that while we’ve done our best to keep the things happening here a secret, it has been leaked,” the leader said.
Bronwyn crossed her arms over her chest. “We think it could be Parker.”
“There’s a spotlight on us now,” Rhona continued. “And it’s going to make fighting the evil even harder.”
Rowen steeled herself. “What kind of evil?”