AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Evelyn sighed, her tears all spent. She sulked to Aster’s workstation and poured herself a glass of honeysuckle wine. She sat, taking in the last projects. A pathos propagated to the left. A fiddle and fig sapling recently potted. A bushel of pinecones bagged for selling.
Evelyn buried her face in her hands, gritting through the heartache and anger. She’d never see her friend again, hear her bubbly laughter, or appreciate that wide smile. She hated the vampyr, hated the White Lady, and wished she knew which one had killed Aster.
To the right of the table, a stack of books and notebooks sat, notes scattered about. Evelyn caught the list she’d written weeks ago, listing the first two murders. Aster had added to it in her handwriting, the attempt on Tessa and death of Sheila. Evelyn wanted to vomit. How cruel was it that Aster had written this list, not knowing her name would be added to those who’d died?
Evelyn flipped through other notes, discovering that not only had Aster learned the unknown word in McKenna’s journal had been “lady” as well, but she’d also dug up significant research on the mysterious woman. Evelyn scanned over the documents, completely immersed in Aster’s findings. She read over her neat handwriting, flipping through the pages more than once to be sure.
Fucking flames.
She and Kade had been wrong all along.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Kade
Kade sat under a tree that grew upon a hill just above Callum. The town appeared empty and silent. After Aster’s funeral, the townspeople had left the rest of the day to mourn. Silver lined the horizon where the sun dipped low, past the luminous clouds stretching for miles against a darkening sky. The earth seemed to mourn too with shadows and silence, recognizing the beacon of light it had lost.
Kade hurt from the loss of a friend, but he hurt most for Evelyn. The sight of her horror leaning over Aster’s body would haunt him, and he hoped his mate would never feel such pain ever again. Yet, with the murders and their impending fight against the vampyr back in Sorin, Kade’s hope felt futile.
Movement below on the path leading to his perch caught his attention. Evelyn’s black hair blew in the breeze. She hugged her dark green sweater closer to her figure as she climbed to meet him. His chest swelled at the sight of her. No matter what she came to tell him, even if she hadn’t changed her mind, he was glad she had sought him out.
“However did you find me?” he said.
She gave him a small smile and plopped next to him. With her near, Kade calmed, relaxing with a deep exhale.
“Miss Patricia,” she said. “Though you’re not exactly inconspicuous in your werewolf form. Half the town saw before you shifted. If ships were at sea, I bet they’d even spot you, too.”
Kade bumped his shoulder against hers, appreciating her mood. She turned to him, gray eyes roaming over his face like she could read his soul. She ran her hand through his hair, brushing her fingers over his beard. She held his cheek as she made him look at her.
“Kade, I have to see this through.”
“I know,” he whispered. Of course he did. His brave mate. He should never have suggested she do otherwise.
She picked at the grass. “But after this is all over, I will return to Sorin with you. I swear it. I want there to be an ‘us’, too,” she said.
Kade shut his eyes and pulled Evelyn into him. She sat between his legs, her back flush to his chest. Kade rested his chin on her shoulder, breathing in her warm and sweet scent.
“Whatever your coven, sisters, or my pack throw at us, we will get through it. Together. I will be by your side, Evelyn.”
“I know. I wouldn’t have survived the last two days without you.”
“I am sorry. Aster was . . .”
“Special.”
“Yes.”
The two of them sat in silence. Being together, Kade realized, was enough. Always would be. He’d not known Aster like Evelyn had but had met a fair share of people in his time. Aster had been special, was special. Magic like hers was rare, and he’d not soon forget. All his life he’d trained to defeat the darkness and nothing of late had swayed that desire, only deepened it.
Night was on the prowl. Lights down in Callum twinkled like fallen stars coming to life. The deep blue of the sea diverged to black. Rumblings of thunder in the distance matched the intensity of the wind.
“As much as I’d like to sit here in your arms for all my days, there is something I came to tell you,” Evelyn said, turning to face him.
“What is it?”
Evelyn pulled out a folded stack of paper from her pocket, handing it over to him. He opened the pages, scanning the notes as she explained.
“All along, we thought it was a vampyr, but after the cliffs, we started to question if it was the White Lady,” she said. “Aster was one step ahead of us. She’d fully translated McKenna’s journal. Apparently, the White Lady had once been a witch during the Great Burnings. She had wanted to use dark magic against the humans, but her coven refused. Eventually, worried about the power she’d succumbed to, they tried to bind her magic. The account of it gets murky, but there have always been whisperings that she’d never really died. Screams in the night, shrieks before people died like she’d manifested into a ghost. She earned the name banshee.”
