Embrace the Magic (The Blood Rose #2)(48)
Author: Caris Roane

Their presence gave him something else to focus on besides his desire to haul Samantha to his bedroom and either give her a good talking to about how she need to shape up and make a decision to stay, or to throw her on the back and prove who she belonged to once and for all.

Instead, he let her precede him while he remained near the front door hoping for his temper to cool. At the same time, he felt that same vibration in the air, that something wasn’t right, that something big was going on.

Vojalie gave him one long look then focused all her attention on Samantha as the latter shared the events of the evening.

Ethan turned away from her and contacted Finn. How does it look out there?

Something’s on the wind. Hell, I thought with the Invictus retreating at Caldwell, we’d be settling down for the night. Instead, I don’t know.

I felt it, too, all the way back to my house, which is where I am, by the way.

And you’d rather be here.

In the air, yes, patrolling. I’m about ready to crawl out of my skin.

Samantha okay?

Yeah, she’s fine. Chatting with Vojalie.

Well, that’s good. She’s safe. Odd that Ry didn’t show up.

Yeah, I thought he would.

Hold on. One of my men is signaling me. I’m out near Sweet Gorge. Looks like we’ve got Invictus sign, just a small party.

Check in later.

Will do.

When the conversation ended, Ethan rubbed the back of his neck. Damn, but didn’t he hate this, standing around like a fool, waiting for a bomb to drop.

Samantha, who had sat down on a couch opposite Vojalie glanced up at him. “What’s wrong?”

He paced now and couldn’t seem to stop himself. “I don’t know. Invictus out at Sweet Gorge, for one thing.”

“You want to go out there, don’t you?”

He stopped and faced her. “I do. Finn’s there now.”

“Then you should go.”

Vojalie said, “But shouldn’t you maybe use Samantha’s faeness and check for a vision?”

Samantha’s brow rose and she held her hands apart as she met his gaze, then her gaze grew cloudy and she rose from her chair. “I see something.”

He moved toward her, hurrying down the stairs. “Okay tell me.”

When he caught her hands, her eyesight seemed to clear and she said, “I saw a number of dead out there, at Sweet Gorge.”

“Was I there?”

“You were looking down at them.”

“And you?”

She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t there.”

“I’ve got to go.”

“Go.” She even gave him a little shove.

“I’ll leave five Guardsmen here to watch over the house.”

She nodded.

He hurried back to the door and closed it behind him. He left instructions for his Guardsmen to stay on alert and patrol only the immediate vicinity and to let no one in, then he flew hard in an easterly direction toward the place his family had died forty years ago.

*** *** ***

Samantha felt that something was wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. For one thing, she’d never quite seen Ethan like this before, as though every nerve in his body had been lit on fire. He always had an edge, but this was something more.

She turned to Vojalie who sat forward in her chair watching her closely. “What is it?”

Samantha shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like the state he’s in. It didn’t seem natural to him. Did it to you?”

“Ethan was always quick to move.”

But Samantha had been with him very intimately for the past several days and she’d tapped his personal frequency. This wasn’t just his usual energy, his drive toward his care of Bergisson. No, something was wrong.

Her mind slid over all the events that had happened, about Ethan and their connection, the recent salvation of wraith-bonded realm-folk, and earlier in the conservatory when Ry had almost had her.

What was it she’d felt then, that dark fae force?

Images rushed through her mind again, of the massacre at Sweet Gorge. She could see it all now, as Ethan must have seen it so long ago.

She willed herself to grow very still. She blocked the images, setting them aside. She needed to understand something very clearly right now and it had to do with her mother and what happened the night Ethan’s family was killed.

She turned to Vojalie. “I’ll be in the conservatory reading my mother’s journals.”

“At least take one of the Guardsmen with you.”

“Good idea.”

Once Samantha had a vampire in tow, she returned to the bedroom she’d been given when she first arrived at Ethan’s house. She sorted through her mother’s journals and chose the last one written about Bergisson, before she left for good.

Taking it to the conservatory where the Guardsman patrolled the edges of the vast, plant-filled space, she sat down on the bench nearest her door and scanned the last several entries.

Andrea had experienced confusion. Horrific images had rolled relentlessly through her mind, day and night, past visions that had transformed into real events, disasters imprinted forever on her memory.

And Samantha could relate except for one thing: Andrea never spoke of an ancient fae entity interfering with her, or muddling her mind. She did however say more than once that she didn’t know how much more she could take.

The final entry was now familiar to Samantha, because Andrea had been inundated with images of a terrible massacre at Sweet Gorge, images that Andrea had been sure had occurred a hundred years prior. More confusion, dizziness.

But Andrea had laid the state of her mind down to grief, the images she believed belonged to the past, her confusion of mind. So, she’d made her decision. She’d needed a change. She’d needed to leave Bergisson.

Samantha stood up, the journal falling from her lap to the pavers at her feet.

She got it. She finally understood exactly what had happened to her mother. The fae of unknown but ancient and dark origin had been afflicting her for months, but Andrea hadn’t understood what had been going on, what had been happening to her.

She reached her hand toward the Guardsman, but only then did she realize that once more the conservatory was full of strange waves and movement. The Guardsman lay prone on the floor, still breathing, but clearly unconscious.

She smelled the ancient fae now, a terrible stench like something that had rotted at the bottom of a garbage bin.

Then Ry appeared, holding out his hand to her. “Come, Samantha. It’s time to fulfill the best part of my plans for you. We’re going to Sweet Gorge and finish what should have ended there forty years ago. You and I can do this together because my fae friend will help us. She’s promised untold riches and power once we bond. But come. Let me fly you to Ethan so you can say good-bye.”