Shoulder the Skye (Skye Druids #2)(35)
Author: Donna Grant

 

She observed him for a full minute before sighing, her shoulders drooping in acceptance. “Agreed. Anything we tell the other stays between us.”

 

“Aye.” He glanced over her head to the bedroom. “Between us.”

 

Bronwyn tucked her hair behind an ear. “What you saw was me opening the curtain between dimensions.”

 

“Bloody hell,” he murmured, his brain hardly able to register what she’d said.

 

A fleeting smile pulled at her lips. “I’ve gotten used to it. I forget that it’s shocking to others.”

 

“It’s astonishing, astounding, fucking incredible. I’m sure there are other words, but that’s all I have right now.” He ran a hand over his face, more flabbergasted by the second. “You can penetrate the veil between dimensions. That takes unimaginable power.”

 

She nodded. “It does.”

 

He watched her for a moment as things began to click into place. “And I’m guessing even more to keep Beth there.”

 

“Aye. A lot.”

 

“Is she injured?”

 

Bronwyn shook her head. “Think of it as resting.”

 

Elias was missing something. He was sure of it. But what he’d just seen boggled his mind. He needed time to think. It would come to him later. “If you can open dimensions, why use blood magic? Sydney would never be able to find her.”

 

Bronwyn glanced over her shoulder at the open door. “I don’t trust that. If Sydney can’t get into the manor, then it doesn’t matter if he gets a hold of me. He can do anything he wants to me, but I wouldn’t be in the house and be tempted to do what he wants.”

 

“Makes sense, I suppose. What happens when…?” He couldn’t even finish the sentence.

 

“What happens when the price for using the blood magic demands its due? Or if Sydney kills me?” She shrugged and walked around him toward the stairs. “I’ve made sure Beth will be released.”

 

“Let me help.”

 

“Nay,” she stated firmly.

 

Elias caught up with her in a few strides. “You doona have to do this alone.”

 

“You know why I won’t take your help. Why I won’t take anyone’s.”

 

“You’re risking a lot.”

 

“As much as I want to end Sydney, I’m not a killer. I couldn’t do it in Inverness before I welcomed the darkness in the ceremony to become drough. It doesn’t have control of me.”

 

She didn’t add yet, but it remained unsaid. They both knew it.

 

“What I can do is protect Beth and the house,” Bronwyn finished.

 

Elias knew all about sacrifices to protect one’s family. He’d done it for years. “At the cost of your life?”

 

“If I’d never been selfish and self-centered, I wouldn’t have left my father. I certainly wouldn’t have taken up with Sydney. Then Dad wouldn’t have been killed, and Beth wouldn’t have been sucked into Sydney’s world. So, aye, I’m willing to pay the price.”

 

“There’s no use looking back on things like that. Trust me.”

 

She walked around him once more and descended the stairs. “Looking back is all I can do. There is no future for me.”

 

He didn’t point out that she’d made sure of that by using blood magic. That would be rubbing salt in the wound. Elias hurried down the stairs and moved in front of her again. She came to a halt, her irritation clear as she glared at him.

 

“Go to Rhona. Explain everything. She and Balladyn can help,” Elias begged.

 

Bronwyn quirked a brow. “Really? That’s what you think I should do?”

 

He hesitated at the sound of her voice pitched higher and the fact that she feigned her enthusiasm. “Aye.”

 

“In other words, I should go running to someone else every time there’s a problem?”

 

“That’s no’ what I said,” he began.

 

“And perhaps you should take your own advice. I don’t see you contacting Rhona,” she quickly said over him.

 

Damn if she didn’t have him there. Elias watched her walk around him a final time. He followed her slowly. He knew there was no saving Bronwyn, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to try.

 

She could tell him to stay out of her business all she wanted. He would even allow her to believe he did just that. But he wouldn’t stand idly by and watch someone attack her. Because Sydney would return. And the next time he came, he’d likely bring more Druids with him.

 

They hadn’t expected him the first time. No doubt the group would be more aware of their surroundings the next go-round. It wouldn’t do them any good when it came to the Knights. They had perfected their approach. One way or another, Elias would make sure Sydney Russell never bothered Bronwyn or Beth again.

 

As for Beth and the blood magic…he didn’t know what to do. But he knew someone who may.

 

He paused when he reached the bottom stair. The click of the parlor door behind Bronwyn told him he was alone. He sat on the riser and pulled out his mobile. Each of the Knights had memorized the other’s contact information, so there was no need to program them in.

 

Elias put in Sabertooth’s address and wrote the email asking for anything on the use of blood magic, as well as any reversals. Within seconds of hitting send, Sabertooth replied with: On it.

 

Next, Elias called Sabryn. He put the phone to his ear and got to his feet to walk outside into the garden.

 

“Is everything still kosher?” she asked in greeting.

 

Elias thought of what he’d just learned. It was far from all right, but he kept that to himself. “It is. Just checking in.”

 

“Well, your name is on everyone’s lips.”

 

“Bloody hell. I need to contact my sisters.”

 

Sabryn made a sound in the back of her throat. “You can’t.”

 

“I have to get some kind of message to them.”

 

“I figured you’d say that. Saber says he has an idea.”

 

That perked Elias up. “What’s that?”

 

“He’s going to hack into their computers and leave a message. By the time he’s finished, it’ll be routed through so many countries the authorities will never be able to trace it back to him or us.”