Chapter 30
It startedwith a kiss after Nicolas showed me the grave of Grayson’smother.
Only a simple headstone marked the place where he’d buried her. I knelt at the stone and brushed away leaves, touching the cold, gray rock, thinking of how many wasted years this woman had spent, only to reconcile at the last minute with herson.
And then, filled with sorrow, I started to weep for all he hadlost.
All I hadlost.
Nicolas took me back to the lodge porch, sat me on the steps and embraced me, letting me cry in hisarms.
And then, the kiss. Perhaps meant to comfort, it turnedpassionate.
I kissed him back. The campground sign swung lazily in the breeze, lopsided on one chain. It was slightlyeerie.
He brushed back a lock of my hair. “What’s wrong,Sienna?”
“I don’t know. It feels like something is coming. A storm.” Although it was barely past one in the afternoon, a heaviness lingered in the air and darkness shrouded the campground, as if clouds permanently hovered in thesky.
Nicolas glanced around, his expression changing. Maybe he felt it as well, the darkness hovering in this deserted, sadland.
Suddenly the wind shifted, blowing from the north, a coldness in the air that felt unnatural. Stiffening, I sat up and tugged at his arm. “We must leave.Now.”
The coldness brought with it a gray mist drifting over the land, creeping up to the stairs of the campground office. Droplets formed in the air and then seemed to freeze, falling down likeicicles.
My cold fingers wrapped around Nicolas’ arm. “It’s toolate.”
The mist cleared and standing in the driveway I saw my worstnightmare.
Kallan. Mybrother.
His long silver hair spilled down to his waist, his violet eyes glowing with purpose. Kallan wore leather leggings, vest and shirt. Armor to battleme.
I could not breathe nor think. My entire body wentnumb.
When you have dreaded something for so long, facing that horror can be a relief. Nicolas fumbled for his cell, called Grayson and barked out anorder.
“Son of a bitch.” Nicolas hung up his cell phone and tucked it into his jeans pocket. He pushed me behind him. “Sienna, I’ll hold him off. Get my bike, ride back to Timber Wolf. Doit!”
When I was 21, I killed my entire family out of self-defense. Only my brother Kallanescaped.
Ever since then, he’s been on my tail, waiting. Watching. I’ve run for years, but now it was toolate.
I had led him into the perfect arena for taking meout.
The abandoned campground rippled with powerful, ancient Fae magick. A powder keg waiting for a Fae match to light thefuse.
Kallan was thatmatch.
Grayson may have tapped into that magick toward his land and defend his people. But he was not a pureblood. Only a pureblood Fionn Fae could activate the true evil lyingbeneath.
The same evil that had activated when I stepped onto that land – the evil that lured little Carmen into the glen. It was not my intention to stir the ancient power and use it. But my presence had ignited it all the same simply because I am Fionn. The old magick reacted the same way yeast will rise fromheat.
Having the campground as a ready source of humming power meant Kallan could tap into it and use it the way a wildfire will consume dry brush. Enough fuel and the fire will grow out of control. Unless something stopsit.
I was the only one who could stopKallan.
He made no attempt to advance. He stood there, watching. Waiting. For what, I do notknow.