Visions of Skyfire

Chapter 34

“No.” The answer came back fast, imperious. Torin had long been the de facto leader of the Eternals. He was the one who had kept most of them from losing their minds during the long centuries of waiting. He was the one who had found his mate first. Their union had set them all on the course that had been charted for them eight hundred years ago.

And now Torin was a voice of reason when Rune really needed one. Because ever since he’d seen Elena’s body, he’d been half convinced that one of the hunters chasing him and Teresa was an Eternal. How else to explain the controlled burns? If he was right about that, then the Awakening itself was in a world of hurt.

“Not a chance,” Torin said flatly. “We’ve all been tight for centuries. We know each other too well. If one of us went off the reservation, then we’d all know about it. Damn it, Rune, this isn’t one of us. There’s got to be a sorcerer or a demon working with the hunters. It’s the only explanation.”

“Maybe.” But it hadn’t felt like a demon hit to Rune. “I didn’t feel any dimensional magic at the site,” he said. “No lingering trace of demon energy. And if there’s a stray sorcerer out there, why haven’t we heard about it?”

“Who the hell knows?” Torin’s voice got sharper. “It’s a big world, you know? All kinds of bad shit could be hiding out there. Hell, there’s always somebody trying to stop us and kill our mates. Why would a damn sorcerer be out of line?”

“True enough,” Rune acknowledged. A skittering sound caught his attention and he slowly swiveled his head toward it. His gaze swept the nearby area, then searched farther out, looking for a shadow that shouldn’t be there. A hint of movement in the blackness. But there was nothing.

“The Eternals are solid, Rune,” Torin said, his voice grim and hard as if he was trying to convince not only Rune but himself. “We’ve waited too long for the Awakening. Now that it’s finally here, there’s no way one of us would turn at this late date. Not when everything is finally on the line.”

Rune wanted to believe. He thought of the immortals, who were his brothers, and he couldn’t imagine any of them turning against the group. They had all been stalwart for centuries, banding together for strength. Their god, Belen, had created them for this very purpose. Why would one of them choose to throw his birthright away? And for what?

Still, his mind argued the point. He couldn’t come up with another explanation for what had happened to Elena. And a man made of fire was a pretty damn good one whether he liked it or not.

“You think I like even considering this? You’re crazy, Torin. They’re all my brothers, too. But crazy times can push anybody over the edge. And you didn’t see Elena’s body.” Shaking his head, he turned his face into the sharp October wind slicing across the desert, carrying the scent of sage. “The burns were deliberate. One half of her body. No more. Hell, it was like a line had been etched down the center of her. Magic was involved.”

“Undoubtedly,” Torin agreed. “But that doesn’t necessarily make the killer an Eternal.”

Rune shook his head again, hearing his old friend but still having doubts. “What about Egan?”

“Are you on crack?” Torin countered. “Hell, we just found out last month from that freak-of-nature witch Kellyn that she trapped Egan in a white-gold cage somewhere at the bottom of the f*cking ocean. And now you’re gonna blame him for this?”

“You think I want to?” Rune’s angry shout shattered the quiet of his surroundings and instantly he grimaced and lowered his voice. Sound traveled for miles in the desert and he didn’t need to help his enemies find them. “Damn it, I called Egan brother for centuries before he disappeared, but we’ve only got that ‘freak-of-nature witch’s’ word for it that she’s got him trapped. What if he’s the one who went rogue?”

“No f*cking way. Not a chance. I’ll never believe that of one of us. Turning our backs on who we are means turning from our witches. We wouldn’t turn on our mates, Rune.”

“But we won’t know that for sure unless we find Egan. Anybody have anything?”

“No,” Torin grumbled and Rune could picture his fellow Eternal, stalking back and forth, scraping one hand through his long hair over and over again in a fit of frustration. “There’s nothing. I put Odell and Cort on it a week ago, but we don’t even know where to start looking.”

“Can’t Shea do a locator spell on him or something?”

“Not without a focus. Something that belongs to Egan. And we’ve got nothing.”

“What about his place in Edinburgh?”

“You think we didn’t check?” Torin barked. “I sent Cort there to bring something back, but when he got there, the place was empty. Either that f*cking witch cleaned it out to prevent us finding him or—”

“Or,” Rune finished for him, “Egan’s the rogue and he went into hiding.”

“No, damn it. It’s not one of us.”

“Well, who, then?” Rune threw one hand up, called on the fire and watched his hand burn, as if he needed something to focus his rage on. “If it was a dark witch, I would have sensed her presence in Sedona. Demons leave behind trace dimensional residue and a sorcerer leaves astral energy. I could have tracked it.”

“Maybe. It’s a big city, man.”

“Not that damn big and whoever was there at Elena’s office was close to Teresa and me.” The flames on his hand winked out and again he was surrounded by darkness. All around him, silence reigned but for the small noises made by the creatures whose home he had invaded. “There’s something else going on, Torin. Something big—and it’s out there alongside the hunters and the feds.”

“F*ck me.”

A rueful laugh shot from Rune’s throat. “Yeah, that about covers it.”

He felt Torin’s mounting frustration as his own. But Torin was in Wales, on the other side of the damn globe, and wouldn’t be able to help even if Rune asked for it.

Torin sighed. “You need me to get a couple of the other Eternals out there to help?”

“No,” Rune said. He didn’t like thinking it, but damn if he wanted more Eternals around here until he was convinced they weren’t at the heart of this mess. He didn’t want to believe that Egan had gone rogue, but not even Torin could deny that it was a possibility. “I can handle things here. I’ll keep Teresa safe and we’ll accomplish our task. But I do think you should check into this.”

“No shit,” Torin said. “I’ll get Shea and her aunt Mairi on it. They can check the Sanctuary libraries.”

“Good.” That was something else they’d discovered only last month. The earth’s witches had maintained knowledge down through the ages and had stored everything they learned in dimensional libraries that any witch could access through a portal if she was close enough to one of the Sanctuaries. “Hope you’ve got some ideas, because I don’t have a clue what they should be looking for. If it’s not one of us—”

“And it’s not,” Torin said.

“Then we’re boned.” Rune shook his head. “There’s something new out there, Torin, and we need to know what it is.”

“Agreed,” his friend said. “Shea and Mairi will cover this with witchcraft. In the meantime, Mairi’s mate, Damyn, and I will hunt down a few of the other Eternals. See what we can find out. And we’ll step up the search for Egan. Damned if I’m willing to accept that he or any of us is behind that doctor’s death. We’ll figure out who the new player is.”

Rune slapped his phone shut and tucked it into the pocket of his jeans. He was no closer to an answer, but at least he wasn’t alone in his hunt now. Torin and Damyn would check on the Eternals in Europe. Rune would contact Finn and get him to do the same in the States.

He turned his head to stare at the rock formation nearly half a mile away from him, and he had to smile. It jutted into the sky, sharp and angled, like a fist raised skyward. Naturally Finn would choose to build his home beneath such a rock. The Eternal was always ready for a fight—and, Rune told himself, that would come in handy if this got any uglier.

Beneath that mountain Teresa was waiting for him. She had no idea that her precarious safety had just gotten a lot more complicated. He thought back to the massacre at the village and felt a ball of ice drop into the pit of his stomach.

Federal agents, police, violent civilians, witches, demons, sorcerers, even perhaps a rogue Eternal—they were all out there, just waiting for their chance at her.

But as long as Rune lived, no one would hurt his woman. He would kill any who tried.