Page 16 of Dawn Unearthed

Chapter Five

Sage

Even though I had slept the night before, I felt as though I were coming out of a fog. And not merely because of everything that happened the day before. It was as if a veil had been lifted from my gaze, and everything I had thought was real for so many years now had a different tint to it.

What Rome, a man I didn’t want to think about just now, had said was right. Every little moment when I made a wish and forced change came back to me. Every time I needed help, every time I thought about my ink…each moment I saw something out of the corner of my eye that didn’t look real.

Magic... magic was real?

Why did I keep thinking about Rome? Why did it feel as if I needed to see him? As if he were what I had been missing all this time. Nothing made sense anymore.

After the events at Rome’s, Aunt Penelope had taken me to her house and set me up in the guest room. Somehow, I’d been able to fall asleep. I hadn’t thought I would. Now I stood in her kitchen, wearing pajamas I didn’t even remember putting on and staring at my aunt.

“All of this is real,” I whispered, looking at her and then at the now no-longer-moving ink on my hips.

Aunt Penelope sighed and handed me a cup of coffee. “Yes. I had hoped to introduce you to Ravenwood and its quirks a little slower, but the storm and you meeting Rome as you did changed everything.”

Her use of the wordquirksnearly made me smile. Shifters, magic, and witches? That seemed far more than an oddity. My brain snagged on Rome’s name, however, and I blinked, remembering the rest of the day. “I don’t understand. I touched him, and it felt as if I had been shocked. As if he were a downed powerline. Yet, that doesn’t make any sense.”

My aunt smiled, her expression knowing. She was gorgeous and looked a decade younger than her fifties, her dark hair framing her face in a pretty bob. She had my eyes,the Prince eyesshe called them. And unbeknownst to me before yesterday, there was also magic under there. “I think for that metaphor to work,youmight be the downed powerline, darling.”

I shook my head, trying to catch up to this abnormal conversation that seemed so normal to her. There was so much I was trying to understand. It was as if I’d been living two lives for my entire existence. I needed to bring them together. “He was hurt. And then, somehow, he carried me back to his place.”

“Bears can do that,” Aunt Penelope said, taking a sip of her coffee. I blinked.

“Bears, as in…?” They’d called themselves that before, but I had hoped maybe it was some slang I didn’t know and not something else I’d have to figure out on my own.

“Rome is a bear shifter. Just like his entire pack. Or perhaps they are a clan. I think it depends on the bear you speak to as to what they’re called, but they’re a pack—at least on this side of the equator.”

I let out a breath, trying to remain calm. If I panicked, I’d only scare myself and probably my aunt. I could do this. I could be rational about the irrational. “The bear I saw…it wasn’t just in my dreams?”

“No, but I don’t know who you saw. It could have been Trace or Alden since the brothers are always around one another. They’re triplets. Rome has two very handsome brothers who look exactly like him. As you well know since you already met Trace.”

My ovaries nearly exploded at the thought, and I held back a frown. I needed to get control of my attraction to the very sexy, very large, verybear-ystranger. “I remember Trace. I don’t know if I met Alden. So, they can shift into animals and don’t eat people? And I’m a witch? Hence the water bubbling everywhere and me needing to pass out, right? Oh, and the tattoos that appeared out of nowhere and move. And this is all supposed to make sense.”

“I think it’s finally going to make sense for you. There were reasons I always kept up with you, Sage, and not only because I love you. You are like my own child, my favorite niece.”

I snorted, even as my heart warmed. “I’m your only niece.”

“Okay, you’ve got me there. But you must understand that you came to Ravenwood for many reasons, and not simply because you needed a fresh start. And not merely because I wanted you here. Because this is your home.”

I swallowed hard, then looked down at my hands as I set my coffee mug down. “I don’t want to believe you, and yet, unless I’m having a shared delusion with everybody or haven’t woken from a coma, I saw things yesterday that I can’t explain away. I saw the wind in Rowen’s hands. I saw that bear come at me. And I felt the pain in my side as my tattoos moved. Tattoos aren’t supposed to move.”

“Yours do. It’s your anchor.”

“Anchor?” I repeated.

“All of those in our world, the supernatural and magical, have anchors. Mine is this.” She pulled up the sleeve of her blouse to reveal a tiny dandelion planted in the earth but blowing in the wind. My lips quirked into a smile, awe filling me. “Yours are the waves on your hips and the abstract fish that swim around your body. They anchor you to the water you have an affinity for. The others will have air or earth or fire somewhere on their bodies, inked into their skin not by a needle but by the magic they were born with. It usually shows up around adulthood and is an important moment in a witch’s or sorcerer’s life. Shifters have anchors representing their animal form, as well, but I’m not sure when they show up on their bodies since they can shift at a young age. Of course, young witches and sorcerers can do magic, so maybe the anchors aren’t tied directly to power and strength at all. It’s a personal moment for those with an anchor.”

I couldn’t help but want to see what Rome’s bear anchor and bear form looked like. After all, he was the first person I’d met in my new home, other than my aunt. He was an anchor himself.

At least, that’s what I told myself.

“That means Rome has a bear on him somewhere. One that showed up one day.” I was following along, going with it because I didn’t know what else to do. I had seen it, the magic, and I couldn’t let my eyes keep lying to me. My tattoos had appeared one day, and I’d told myself I must have drunkenly gotten the ink. And yet, they had never hurt. I hadn’t even had to help them heal. They had simply appeared.

I had lied to myself and Rupert when I said it was something I had chosen to do. Only it hadn’t seemed like a lie at the time.

Since I believed in many things, I had always known that magic could be real in the abstract. Though I had thought it was some faraway, out-there thing. Not something within me. I still didn’t know if I quite believed that. Rowen seemed all-powerful, all-knowing, and I’d seen her wield her magic.

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