Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
Mason’s heart lodged in his throat as he met Rowen’s pale blue gaze.
The gold in her veins had dimmed when she woke, but it glowed brightly beneath her skin once more.
He didn’t know what she was doing, but he didn’t want her in that room, especially after hearing the sounds.
Yet he recognized the resolve in her eyes and had grudgingly relented.
However, he intended to stay close. Just in case.
She faced the wall once more as the crack burned brighter. He blinked and rubbed his eyes when he thought he saw Rowen begin to fade out of sight.
“What the hell?” Scott asked behind him.
It wasn’t just him. The others saw her vanishing, too. Mason lunged forward, only to have hands grip him, keeping him back. “ROWEN!”
But it was too late. She was gone.
He yanked at the hands holding him and slipped free to rush to the spot she had been. He waved his arms around, hoping it was just some trick of the light and she was still there. But she was really gone. And this time, it wasn’t just her mind that had been taken.
“Where is she?” he demanded as he turned in a circle. He spun to the others. “Where the fuck is she?” he bellowed.
Silence met his question as the group stared at him, too shocked to speak.
Then, Finn said in a soft voice, “She’s on the other side.”
“How do you know that?” Mason asked. When Finn didn’t immediately reply, he strode to the Irishman and gripped him by the front of his shirt. With his nose pressed to Finn’s, he demanded, “How do you fucking know that?”
Suddenly, there were hands on Mason again, this time attempting to pull him away from Finn while others held the Irishman, though he never once tried to defend himself against Mason.
“I feel it,” Finn finally replied.
Everyone stilled at his words, the room going deathly quiet. Mason stared at him for a long moment before releasing him. It wasn’t Finn’s fault that Rowen had vanished. Mason dragged in a shuddering breath and glanced at the wall. He had just gotten her back. How could she be gone again?
He swallowed against the growing ache in his chest and asked Finn, “Is she…hurt?”
“Nay,” Finn answered with a shake of his head.
“How can you be sure?” Rhona asked.
Finn shrugged. “I…I’m not sure. I just am.”
“I want to go after her,” Mason stated.
Finn’s brows snapped together. “You can’t.”
“Watch me.” Mason stalked to the wall and began tearing at the crack like a crazed person.
He knew it was delusional to think he could reach Rowen, but he had to try. He had sat idly by her bed and waited. He couldn’t do that again.
A sliver of wood punctured his finger, sending pain shooting up his arm, but he didn’t slow. He kept ripping wood away, and when that became too difficult, he punched it. Over and over again. Mason heard his name being shouted and felt hands trying to stop him, but he fought against all of it.
Until he found himself pinned to the floor on his back.
Through all the shouting, he heard her voice calling his name softly.
Mason stilled and looked through the bodies on top of him to see Rowen.
There wasn’t a scratch on her. She gently touched Scott and then Killian, both of whom released him and moved away.
Then she put her hand on Elias, Finn, and Theo.
Once they backed up, Mason realized that someone was beneath him, their arms wrapped around his neck.
“I suppose I can let go now,” Carlyle murmured.
Mason rolled to his feet when his friend loosened his hold. After he helped Carlyle stand, Mason turned to Rowen and raked his eyes over her. She looked normal. No longer did her veins glow. She reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze.
He drew in a shuddering breath. “Where did you go?”
“I’ll explain all of it,” she said before looking around the room. “No one has to worry about anything getting through again.”
“You killed the monster?” Kirsi asked hopefully.
Rowen gave a small shake of her head. “I shored up the wall. As long as we don’t open it again, we’ll be safe.”
“I’m eager to hear how you did that,” Balladyn said.
Mason couldn’t stop looking at her. Her touch was strong, but she was pale. “You need to eat something.”
“I am hungry,” Rowen admitted with a wan smile.
Carlyle headed out of the room. “I can take care of that.”
Once in the kitchen, Mason sat next to her at the table. Bronwyn put water and a glass of whisky before Rowen. To his surprise, Rowen tossed back the liquor. Her face puckered as she swallowed.
Carlyle moved about the kitchen, putting together different plates of food from the fridge and placing them on the table to be shared. Except for Rowen. He made her her own plate, piled with food. She took a few bites and, after a deep breath, began her story.
For the next half hour, the room was steeped in silence as Rowen spoke. Every word painted the being in sharper detail, and with each revelation, the unease thickened. Mason sat frozen, his jaw tight, his feelings alternating between fury on her behalf and pride at her strength.
Carlyle silently refilled Rowen’s plate twice, and each time, she devoured the food with a kind of desperation that only someone who had come too close to death could understand.
Her voice never wavered, even when her hands shook.
When she finally finished, the weight of what she had seen lingered over them.
“I must say, it’s impressive that you fought that thing alone,” Elodie said.
Filip twisted his lips. “Are we sure Rowen is who she says she is? What if she joined the evil and is here to deceive us?”
“I’m not,” Rowen said calmly.
Scott shrugged. “It’s a valid question. It did have you, and it sounds exactly like something it would do.”
Mason looked around to see everyone’s reaction. He didn’t like the doubt he saw reflected back at him.
“You should question me,” Rowen replied. “I’ve come face-to-face with the evil, and I can tell you that it will use every trick it knows. The only thing I knew for certain was the being itself. I didn’t trust anything else. And none of you should, either.”
Theo tapped a finger on the table. “Then how do you suggest proving to us that you’re on our side?”
Rowen’s smile was fleeting. “Trust is a tenuous thing. It isn’t something to be given.
It’s something that’s earned. I stood in battle, but it wasn’t beside any of you.
This fight was done on my own. I know in my heart where I stand, and I intend to prove that to you.
” She looked around the table. “To all of you.”
“Tell us about the being,” Rhona urged.
Rowen took a deep breath. “It didn’t lie to me.
It laid out everything and even showed me what I could do.
I don’t think it gave Kerry or Edie false promises either.
It was almost…kind,” she said with a wrinkle of her nose.
“At least, at first. It believed that showing me the power I could wield would be enough to turn me.”
“It did with Kerry,” Balladyn said.
Rowen glanced at the table. “It acknowledged that. It said that it sees the thing we want most and gives it to us.”
“And yours isn’t the power you’ve discovered?” Carlyle asked.
Mason shot him a dark look, even as he admitted that it was a valid question.
“No,” Rowen answered. “It isn’t. It couldn’t get into my head as it did with Kerry and Edie, and I don’t think it was able to see what I really want.”
Song asked, “And what might that be?”
“Peace. Happiness.” Rowen briefly met his gaze. “Affection. Once the being realized I had no interest in any kind of power or authority it offered, the threats began. It went for the jugular, to the thing that would hurt me the most.”
Killian shifted in his chair. “And you didn’t cave?”
“I attacked,” Rowen replied. Then her gaze slid away as she bit her bottom lip. “I had the opportunity to kill it, but I hesitated a second too long. It escaped, and the next thing I knew, I was in the room upstairs.”
Jasper leaned forward, his face blazing with anger. “Why would you hesitate? Do you no’ know what this thing is? It could’ve stopped all of this.”
“I don’t think it could’ve,” Bronwyn said.
Elodie shook her head. “I don’t either.”
“Still, it would’ve been nice to have it gone,” Willa said.
Remorse colored Rowen’s face. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“It was your first battle. You made it back to us with information. That’s something to celebrate,” Balladyn said.
Ariah asked, “Is the magic really yours, then? Or is it from the being, like it gave to Kerry and Edie?”
“It’s mine, though I can’t prove it,” Rowen replied. “But I believe it’s recruiting others.”
“From Skye?” Rhona asked worriedly.
Rowen shrugged. “From Skye and elsewhere. They wanted me, and I wouldn’t put it past them to have finagled a way to get me here.”
“This is all kinds of fekked up,” Finn murmured.
Rowen turned the glass of water on the table with her fingers. “They said I was afraid to reach for the full depth of my magic. And they were right.”
“What changed?” Filip asked.
“They issued a threat.” Rowen’s head swiveled, and she looked straight at Mason.
His breath left him in a rush. His lips parted, but the words lodged in his throat.
Disbelief warred with a flicker of something dangerously close to hope.
Could she really care for him? The thought alone made his heart stumble, a raw ache surging in his chest. He dared not hold on to the possibility too tightly in case it shattered and wrecked him completely.
Rowen sighed and continued. “I didn’t believe them at first about being reincarnated, but I do now.”
“Did they give you a name of this Druid you’re supposedly reincarnated from?” Balladyn asked.
Rowen shook her head. “No, but the name came to me later, when I was fighting them. Siofra.”
The Reaper’s eyes widened in shock as his face went slack. “Siofra? Are you sure?” he questioned insistently.
“I am,” Rowen replied.
Mason frowned at this turn of events. He looked between the usually unflappable Reaper who wore a fierce expression of foreboding and Rowen, who sat serenely, only a small furrow marring her brow.
Rhona turned to her husband. “Do you know that name?”
Balladyn never took his eyes from Rowen as he said, “I’ve heard of it. I never met Siofra, but I know someone who has.”
“Who?” Mason asked.
It was Rhona who guessed, “Erith.”
Balladyn nodded and finally slid his gaze to his wife. “She would know. I’ll go speak to her.”
And then he was gone.
“Who is Erith?” Mason asked.
Carlyle stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles. “Oh, just the leader of the Reapers. She’s also known as Death.”
Sabryn rolled her eyes at Carlyle. “She doesn’t pay much attention to humans. It’s the Fae Erith focuses on.”
“Balladyn and others like him reap Fae souls,” Rhona explained. “Erith is judge and jury, and the Reapers carry out her orders.”
Mason rubbed the back of his neck. “Is Erith some kind of deity?”
“She’s the closest thing to it,” Elias said.
Rhona twisted her lips. “Actually, her race is called the Star People. They can travel anywhere in the universe, and their power is unmatched. So, yeah, they’re what most would call gods and goddesses. Erith, while formidable, is a good person.”
“I take it there are those who aren’t,” Rowen said.
“Without a doubt,” came a new voice.
Mason jerked upright in his chair and looked toward the back of the kitchen, where Balladyn stood next to a petite woman with wavy, midnight hair hanging to her waist and lavender eyes.
She was so beautiful that Mason could barely look at her.
Without a doubt, he knew he was looking at the leader of the Reapers.