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I couldn’t explain the experience, the peculiar opening of my mind or tapping of my senses. But all three of them there with me—I felt like I knew them all and knew them thoroughly.

It overwhelmed me, and I couldn’t think of anything else to say, or to ask. I didn’t think I could remember how to stand.

Dana leaned down to murmur in my ear. “Stay with me, kid. You’re opening too far. You’re not used to this. Get a grip on it. Hold it down, or it’ll sweep you away. ”

Then she returned her attention to the beast seated before us. “Come home. You are tied to that land, not to this place. This is a place that was lost years ago. It will drive you mad if you stay here. It will break your heart. Go back to those who need you. They are lost without you. They are being dishonored without you. ”

The man with the spade. The man who killed the last heir.

“Yes. ” I gathered my wits enough to spit out the answer. I felt Dana’s hand on my shoulder, and it was strong. “He’s looking for something on the fields. He won’t quit until he finds it. He’ll tear up the hills and run his shovel through the remains of the dead until he’s stopped. Will you let him do this?”

I should not.

“Will you stop him?”

Can I?

“You can,” I assured him. “You can. Please—please go help them. ”

“We tried,” Benny said.

“We failed,” Dana added. “We’ve added another dead to your number. This is what it’s come to without you. ”

The last heir is dead. There is no more contract.

He said it slowly, turning the words over in his head or in his mouth.

A light went on in my own head, and the words that rattled there came tumbling out. “Then there are no rules anymore. You don’t have to stay, and you don’t have to abide by anyone’s terms but your own. Don’t you want to hurt the man who treated your”—I used his word, then—“your children with such disrespect?”

“Eden,” Dana said, and this time it was definitely a warning.

I did want to hurt him. But I could not.

“Because of the pact. But now there’s no pact. And there’s nothing to stop you from going after him. ”

“Eden!”

I could hurt him if I wanted.

“You sure could. And maybe you should. He’s hurting people, Sentry. He’s killing people because he wants something and he’ll do anything to get it. We tried to stop him, but we couldn’t. We weren’t strong enough. ”

I could hurt him.

He sounded far away now. I liked it. He was thinking.

“Nothing’s stopping you. You can protect them. You can help them. You can stop the man who’s doing this. Please—they need you. We need you. Will you go back to Chickamauga? Will you go and take care of them?”

I…I do not know. Do you command me?

“No. ”

But you are like the holy woman who first called me. You see with the same eyes. You could command me. There is no one else to do so.

“No. You’re missing the point. Command your own damn self for once. ”

He rose to his feet then, in a movement that was shockingly fast for a monster so large. His hair sprawled and waved like a hula skirt, settling over his shoulders and grazing his belly.

And without a word, he vanished.