Page 34 of The Rowan's Stone
He pats me on the shoulder, then sweeps past to pull Daire into his arms. “You were magnificent. If you and your cadre hadn’t brought reinforcements, we would have lost the battle and Alain would have won. The strategy you deployed was brilliant,” he praises. He points to the battlefield, and I watch them walk over and view the destruction. The enemy army is subdued, with Lucifer and the cadre’s forces rounding them up.
A flash of black teases my peripheral vision, and I turn to face Theron. Shocked, I scan every inch of him. Gone is the impeccably dressed, icy Fae lord. Instead, a fierce warrior stands in front of me. Wearing Fae armor similar to mine, every inch of his tall muscular body, including his powerful shoulders, is showcased in the fabric molded tightly to his body. Instead of his phone, his hand holds a magnificent sword made of the purest blue ice, and if that’s not surprising enough, more weapons are strapped in various places across his body.
When I inspect him, my breath catches. His blond hair lies carelessly disheveled, he’s wearing a couple days of scruff on his face, and his violet eyes are stormy and staring intensely at me. I’m not sure I’ll ever see him in the same light again.
Clearing my throat, I reach up and push back the few tendrils of hair escaping my bun. “Theron,” I murmur huskily.
One large step, and he’s standing directly in front of me, gripping my hips, while his violet eyes sweep over me. “Arden,” he returns gruffly, his usually modulated voice trapped in whatever emotion he’s currently feeling.
Feeling a tap on my shoulder, I glance up to find Fallon behind me. He squeezes my shoulders, and I lean back. After saving his life today, my emotions are pretty heightened around him right now. Touching him reassures me he’s alive and not buried under the damn mountain. I shiver, and both him and Theron move in closer.
Looking into Theron’s violet eyes, I watch them darken into a deep purple, and for the first time, I contemplate what he would be like in bed. I lick my suddenly dry lips, and an almost imperceptible smirk appears on his lips.
Valerian comes striding up beside the three of us with his hands clenched. Theron and Fallon step back, and he sweeps me into his massive arms and closes them tightly around me.
Boneless, I let him hold me up. “Whoa, my fierce dragon. I’m okay. I barely saw any action today,” I remind him. I cup his jaw, forcing him to look at me. “But you were truly magnificent, and I saw where you and Theron used shadows and Fae glamour. Callyx is going to be strutting like a peacock because you used his idea.” I notice a couple of shadows in his eyes, and if I take a guess, I’d say the dragons were the cause. “The dragons performed well, and it probably did them a world of good to see you as a warrior and king.” I stand on my tiptoes and kiss him, my lips lingering on his soft pouty ones for a brief second.
A roar sounds off to my left, and Valerian stiffens. He withdraws from my arms and walks to the edge of the ridge to stare at the dragons in the field.
“Hello, gorgeous,” Astor says from behind me. “I’m not surprised you ignored our request to stay home, but I’m a lucky man to be staring at you here on the edge of this ugly battlefield.”
I turn around and face him. “Astor,” I murmur, taking in the fatigue on his face. He was all over the place in this battle, fighting fiercely, and I’m sure his magic is low. I’m relieved to see he’s okay and willing to talk to me. I see several cuts on his hands and arms, which must have been deep if they’re not healed yet. I run my hands over them, healing each one. “I’m so sorry. For everything. I shouldn’t have taken you to Witchwood or asked you to watch me help your enemy.” I reach out and tangle my fingers with his. “And I know you don’t believe me right now, but family is the most important thing to me and you’re part of it. It doesn’t matter what happens, you will always be family. Always.”
He’s staring intently at me, so I know he hears the truth.
“I appreciate the work you did, and I want you to know I didn’t burn those papers. They’re safe. I’ll work with Theron when we get back to figure the rest out.” Tears clog my throat, creating a lump, forcing me to swallow several times while I try to find the words to set him free. I’ve been drawn to him since the day we met. His darkness andlaissez-faireapproach to life captivate me, but it is his intelligence and unexpectedly fierce loyalty to the cadre that makes me want the man behind the façade.
My hands clench and unclench as if they can feel him slipping away. “And…if what happened between us needs to stay simple, it can, but it will need to be the only time. I feel something for you, and it wouldn’t take much for it to grow deeper.” I couldn’t let him walk away without knowing he means more to me. His brown eyes are full of an emotion I can’t read. I lean over and kiss him on the cheek. “I love your green eyes.” Chuckling, I watch as he winces at the tiny lie, then I walk off to find the soothing comfort of Daire’s company.
* * *
We stayin the Underworld for a week, helping Lucifer clean up the battlefield and organize his court. He pardons most of the enemy, knowing they were merely pawns in Alain’s quest for power, as well as a few of the allies Callyx pulled from the prison. He executes others when their sworn allegiance proves to be insincere, thanks to Astor’s rune. Finally, he names Vargas his second-in-command, which brings tears to my eyes.
When we leave, he hitches a portal back to The Abbey with us.
Once we’ve all rested for a couple of days, we gather in the VIP lounge, whiskeys in hand. I sit on the couch, Theron and Valerian sit on either side, and Lucifer sits across from me with Daire by his side, while Astor and Fallon sit on each end.
My hands tighten on the glass while my leg bounces up and down. I decide to walk through my experience first. “As you are all aware, right before I came to The Abbey to ask for Theron’s assistance, we were attacked by assassins in our home. They carried the last Killian blade with them, which was my signal to come here,” I remind them. “But something odd happened during the attack. After Solandis and I defeated them, we managed to capture one of the assassins, a demon. When Solandis started to question the demon to find out who sent him, a phantom hand reached into our pocket dimension and yanked him into a hole the exact same way it did with Alain. It terrified Solandis and me. Solandis is extremely powerful, our home well protected with wards and spells, and she’d never have thought someone could breach it so easily. She thinks it’s either a blood spell or a powerful geas activated with specific triggers.”
Lucifer frowns thoughtfully. “It could be. Did your assassin say the…name?” he questions, not wanting to speak the word Prime aloud.
I try to think back to the exact conversation. “We asked him to reveal his source, and he explained it would be his death. Suddenly, his body stiffened and he panicked. He opened his mouth to speak, but the hand cut off his air and he didn’t get the words out. Then he was gone.” I shiver, remembering the feeling of helplessness.
Taking a drink of whiskey to calm my nerves, I remember Alain’s last moment. “Did you understand Alain’s last word? I couldn’t tell, but I’m not the best lip reader.”
Lucifer closes his eyes but shakes his head sadly. “I’m not sure. Right now, I can’t think about it without losing myself to my emotions, but I’ll keep trying.”
“And what do you know about the person? Or the name?” I press, knowing he has some knowledge. “Maybe we should call it ‘Primary’ to prevent us from accidentally saying the wrong name?”
He sits there for a minute, staring intensely at each of us as if weighing our ability to hold a secret. I get the feeling he shares little with outsiders. “A few thousand years ago, I wanted more power, and an old demon jokingly told me the only way to get more power was to become the…Primary. I became fascinated with this unknown entity, and while I found several mentions of it in the archives, I could never find out how to find or how to become it,” Lucifer explains. “I put it aside for a while. Then, about twelve hundred years ago, I felt a shift in the universe. At first, I thought it was because my grief was finally lessening and I was rejoining the world, but the feeling wouldn’t go away. I felt this immense pressure to redress the imbalance, but I wasn’t sure what I needed to do or how. I searched for answers in my personal archives, and when I did, I noticed all the documents I had on the Primary were missing. No matter who I asked, nobody had even heard of the Primary, nor did they know anything about the imbalance. I negotiated with several leaders to search their libraries to see if they had answers, and that’s when I discovered some of their archives had been destroyed or were missing as well. Not just records relating to the Primary. Pieces of history had disappeared. Someone went to a lot of effort to destroy or rewrite the past.”
“A portion of the witches’ archives were destroyed by a fire during the same timeframe. I thought it was Gemma Perrone, the seer, but now I wonder,” I tell him. “So approximately twelve hundred years ago, the Primary was making deals left and right. Archives disappeared or were destroyed, eliminating documented knowledge of the Primary and the history during that time period, and you felt a shift in the universe,” I summarize, listing the key points from our discussion. “Fast forward to present day, and the source of my attempted assassinations seems to be the Primary.” I groan and give a half-hearted laugh. “Well, that’s not scary as hell.” Valerian must think so too, because he curls his arm around me and squeezes tight. “What do I have to do with it?”
Theron leans forward, his gaze intent, and reminds me, “The MacAllister massacre also happened a little over twelve hundred years ago. Up until that time, the witches were powerful, outnumbering almost all of the races. Only the Fae and demons had larger populations, but we also bear few children. Eventually, the witches would have become the largest group. The massacre immediately decimated their numbers. It also inadvertently put them on the path to lesser power.” He glances over to Valerian. “Valerian became King of Dragons, and twenty years later, the old dark Elven king died without heirs. Another family took up the reins of power. There was definitely a monumental change in power around the same time period, but I don’t understand the imbalance. Light and dark still existed for each race.”
Lucifer’s eyes are narrowed while he thinks about the additional facts Theron added to the mix. “I’m not sure, but there has to be something we’re missing.”
Theron nods. “We’ve only checked the official libraries, but maybe someone’s personal library will have answers. We could send inquiries to our networks. Tell them we’re searching for any records from a thousand to fifteen hundred years ago. We don’t need to tell them why.” Theron furiously sends off a few texts.
