Balladyn rose and stood in her way to make her halt. He gently grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look into his eyes. “She could be doing all of this because she feels intimidated. The Skye Druids are known all over the world as the strongest of all Druids. You lead them, love. Think about that.”
“Stop being rational. It dims my righteous anger.”
He grinned.
Don’t forget about yourself,” she said with a ghost of a smile.
“Aye. There’s me, as a Reaper and the Warden of Skye. And then there’s us. Our combined magic.”
Rhona blew out a deep breath. “I suppose I see your point.”
“There’s also the fact that she may very well have evidence that Elias is a killer.”
“I don’t believe that,” Rhona said with a shake of her head. “Something’s not right about any of this.”
Balladyn gave her a soft kiss. “While I agree with you, you need to stay impartial until you gather all the evidence. I know you’re thinking about how Elias was nearly killed by the mist. To play Devil’s advocate, I’ll remind you that he came out of that with only minor scrapes.”
“And I’ll tell you that we’ve done no investigating ourselves. We have only her word. Elias hasn’t told us any details.”
“Is that because he’s guilty or because he has something he wants to keep secret? It could be both,” Balladyn cautioned.
She rolled her eyes. “I concede that he’s hiding something about the people he’s working with. If Elias is tracking the murders, that would put him in the locations where there have been Druid deaths.”
“Precisely my point.”
“Do you think he’s a murderer?”
Balladyn rubbed his hands up and down her arms before pulling her close. “He admitted that he’s killed in self-defense.”
“Both of us have, as well. You’ve been alive for thousands of years. You have to sense something.”
Balladyn drew in a breath and released it. “I don’t think he’s guilty, but there are too many things stacked against him. That gives me pause.”
“Things George instigated.” Rhona leaned back to look at him, anger sparking in her eyes again. “I’m tired of her dodging me.”
“Then don’t give her a choice.”
A slow smile spread over Rhona’s face. “Do you have something special in mind?”
“I could bring her here.”
“As tempting as that is, I’m certain that would put her on the defensive.”
His lips twisted as he thought about that. “It depends on if you still wish to work with her.”
“I want the truth. Whatever it might be.”
“Then perhaps I shouldn’t bring her to you,” he admitted.
Rhona ran her hands up his arms to his shoulders and then wound them around his neck. “I’ll tell her she has one more chance to arrange a meeting or we’ll do it for her.”
“I think that’s fair.” Balladyn released her so Rhona could send a text to George. There was an immediate response. “Well?” he asked.
Rhona smirked and tossed her mobile onto the sofa. “Tomorrow, two p.m. at Bog Myrtle Café.”
“She wants to be in public.”
“Is she afraid of what we’ll say?”
“Perhaps how we’ll react to whatever she says.”
Rhona rested her cheek against his chest, her arms around him. “At least there’ve been no deaths or sign of the mist.”
No sooner had the words left her lips than her mobile rang. Balladyn glared at the device on the cushions as Rhona answered it.
“Hang on,” she told the caller and held it out between them. “I’ve put you on speaker so Balladyn can hear you, Elias.”
The Druid cut out for a moment, then he said, “I wanted you to know that I saw the mist tonight.”
“Where?” Balladyn and Rhona asked in unison.
There was a brief pause before Elias said, “At Carwood Manor. I didna see where it came from, but it went directly for Bronwyn and circled around her a few times before going straight up into the air.”
“Bronwyn?” Rhona asked, her brows drawn together.
“I doona think she’s the one controlling it,” Elias hurried to say.
Balladyn caught Rhona’s gaze as he asked, “Why do you think that?”
“She didn’t want it near her, but she didn’t bat it away either. It almost looked as if it was investigating her.”
“Did it do anything to you?” Rhona asked.
“Nay.”
Balladyn noted that he didn’t elaborate. “Did you ask Bronwyn about it?”
There was a brief pause. “I wasna with her. I was…watching her.”
“Excuse me?” Rhona asked, her voice hard with outrage.
Elias sighed through the phone. “I know how that sounds but let me explain.”
“We’re waiting,” Balladyn replied.
“I saw a confrontation between some women and Bronwyn at the co-op the other day. They didna want her there or even living on Skye. It made me curious about her, and then Edie told me about her being drough. The next day, I saw Bronwyn have an altercation with a man. I didna hear the conversation, but the tension between them was obvious. So was the male’s threatening attitude. She never backed down, though.”
Rhona pressed her lips together as she considered Elias’s words. “That’s when you decided to check on her?”
Elias blew out a breath. “Look, I know I didna tell you what you wanted to know before, but I will now. Personally, I doona like the idea of it, but Sabryn suggested I tell you everything.”
“Who’s Sabryn?” Balladyn asked.
“The leader of the Knights,” Elias answered. “There are four of us. Well, five if you consider our cyber specialist. As I said, we’ve been tracking the murders. They’re all over the world, but they’re more concentrated in Scotland. We’ve amassed a great deal of data, but we’ve no’ been able to pin down exactly who is behind it. I can give you proof of the murderers we have helped the authorities catch. And, well, we find Druids. We help them when they doona have anywhere else to turn.”