Page 29 of Swords and Curses

"All of them, so watch your back if you think to cross them again." Rosa locked the door behind her, feeling like she'd just made another enemy.

Just one more to add to the list, Wylt.

Rosa fought the urge to hunt Eldon down for most of the morning. By afternoon tea, she tried to touch him again with herpower, but there was only some void of emptiness. Rosa pulled on her jacket and headed to the cottage. After receiving no reply from her knocking, she opened the front door and let herself in.

"Eldon?" Rosa hesitated only a second before heading upstairs. "You better be wearing pants up here, because if not, I'm going to see your bare Welsh ass."

She opened the bedroom door, but the bed was undisturbed, as if it hadn't been slept in at all.

"Where the hell…Backdoor," she whispered before texting Balthasar and heading for the lake.

Nimue pacedthe cell for as long as the chains would allow. Her legs felt weak from disuse, and her body ached from the beating that the queen's warriors had given her.

Tiring out, she sat down on the crib and clutched at her head. It was as if she had double vision, and she had two tongues. She hadn't wanted to provoke Rosa, but she had no control over what she was saying.

She wanted what she had wanted for the past thousand years—Merlin. Seeing him at the lakeside was like watching a miracle. Flesh and blood and alive.

A searing pain lashed through her head, and she heard the Autumn Queen's chuckle.Do not pine for the family you will never have. After what you did, they will never love or trust you again.

"Get out of my head!" Nimue pleaded.

I am a part of you now, girl, and your will is my will, your eyes my eyes. You failed to deliver the Seren Du family to me once, and I will not tolerate your failure again.

"Bleddyn will know what you've done to me, and he'll stop you."

The queen's retaliation was sharp and agonizing.He will not even know that I am here, and you will not be able to tell him. He is not the man you think him to be. He will never forgive or save you for what you did to his love.

"Be silent, witch!" she screamed at the walls of the cell. She needed a way to tell Bleddyn everything and convince him that she'd been used.

Even if you earn Bleddyn's forgiveness and he welcomes you back into his family, he will never look at you the same again, my broken, deformed creature.

It wasdusk when Eldon stumbled out ofThe Lancelotand shuffled his way to the Tor, fighting the urge to shout incoherently at the tourists milling about in Wellhouse Lane. Heaven above, he hated and loved the place, unable to shake it even when his memories were in ragged tatters.

Haven't you punished me enough?Eldon thought as he climbed the Tor and found a quiet spot to sit against the tower. With a complicated motion of his hands, the floodlights illuminating the tower went out, cloaking him in comfortable darkness.

"Of all the people you could have chosen to bring back, why her? Why not someone useful? I thought I had been doing well in the last few months. Now this…" Eldon said to the night sky, the anger and confusion burning through him.

"Who are you talking to?" a small voice asked through the shadows.

"A god with a unique sense of humor. How did you get here?"

"You were the one silly enough to show me your ley line. I used it."

"I'm surprised it let you…irrelevant. Why are you here?" Eldon asked gruffly.

Rosa sat down on the damp grass beside him. "You were gone," she replied. "I needed to know you were going to come back."

"You've got some strong abandonment issues, don't you?"

"I was dumped in a boarding school with no memories after my father died and was left on my own for bloody years. You could say I've pretty good reason to have my issues." She took a silver flask from her pocket, took a swig, and offered it to him.

"Isn't this Saul's?" Eldon gave her a questioning look.

"He was a moody jerk this morning, so I picked his pocket. He always has the best whiskey."

"Good lass." Eldon had been drinking all day, but he still took a large mouthful.

"So what now? Are you going to hide out here and sulk?" she asked.

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