Page 35 of After Midnight (Skye Druids #7)

Chapter Thirty-One

Edinburgh

The world became distorted through the windscreen as rain pelted the glass incessantly. As the wipers swiped it away, all was clear again for an instant. But it didn’t last. It never did. Beth had learned that the hard way.

She had always been an optimist, someone whose glass was half-full. If the world gave you lemons, you made lemonade. That’s the type of girl she was. Life was one escapade after another, waiting to be revealed. It was all about the timing.

Or so she had once believed.

She’d had blinders on. There were stretches of time when she wished she still wore those rose-colored glasses, but they were fleeting periods.

She knew the truth now, and there was no going back.

She gazed at all the people hurrying through the rain, under umbrellas and raincoats, with no idea what was happening around them.

Their rose-colored glasses were firmly in place and would never be dislodged. Even when the world crumbled to dust.

They were fools. Sheep led by imbeciles with neither power nor wisdom.

Very few had any idea what life was or why anyone was even alive.

They only cared about the latest fashion, the next tech gadget, or the luxury flat they couldn’t afford.

They popped out children on autopilot like candy from a machine, thinking it furthered the human race.

It was utter shite.

Beth’s gaze shifted to her reflection in the passenger window. She touched her brown hair, now growing out from the pixie cut she had favored for so long. It had fit her facial structure, but that haircut was for the na?ve, immature girl who had accidentally blundered into truth and reality.

She stared into her pale brown eyes before observing her heart-shaped face, the pouty lips Sydney had loved, and the cheekbones she had gotten from her mother. That girl was gone forever. Beth couldn’t name what she was now, but she was different. And certainly not just a woman or a Druid .

“ There she is, ma’am.”

The sound of Madeline’s voice jerked Beth out of her musings.

She turned to the front seat, where her formidable bodyguard sat behind the wheel.

Madeline’s black hair was in its usual slick bun, and she wore all black, all the time.

There wasn’t a stitch of color in her very limited wardrobe.

Not a pink bow on her panties, no white lace on a bra.

Not even colored stitching on her socks.

Just drab, basic black. Yet it worked on her.

Tall and intimidating, Madeline was as loyal as they came.

For the moment, at least.

“ There ,” the bodyguard pointed.

Beth followed Madeline’s finger to see a slender, stylishly clothed, middle-aged woman stride from the Balmoral Hotel .

She had an old-money air about her as she paused to speak to an attendant.

Her straight, blond hair was cut to emphasize her classic features, the length hitting just past her shoulders.

Everyone around the woman hurried to anticipate her needs. She never had to ask for anything. She didn’t even pause as a gray Rolls - Royce pulled up, and the door was opened for her. She slid inside before the car sped away.

Madeline discreetly pulled from their spot along the curb and followed. The Rolls drove straight to the warehouse where George conducted business. Madeline found a place to park as they watched the woman exit the car and enter the warehouse.

“ That’s twice in two days,” Madeline said.

Beth lightly drummed her fingers on the door’s armrest. “ And you’re sure you heard her accent?”

“ I’m positive. I know a posh Brit accent when I hear it. The London Druids are here.”

“ So it seems.”

“ What do you want to do?”

Beth drew in a breath and released it, considering.

She had an agreement with George in order to get revenge on Bronwyn and take Carwood Manor .

But the need for retaliation wasn’t as strong as it used to be.

She had gotten Sydney out of that horrid mental institution and removed all the drugs from his system. But it had cost her.

After all of that, she hadn’t held on to him. Because he no longer factored into her future. She had loved him. She was sure of that. And she could still recall having such feelings. But she couldn’t remember what they felt like any longer.

George was using her, just as Beth was using George . And the Druid would attempt to betray her. It was inevitable. Because Beth had the one thing everyone wanted.

“ I don’t know,” she finally answered Madeline .

She turned to look at Beth . “ I’m not sure you need George and her Druids anymore.”

Beth watched her bodyguard’s dark eyes dart to the side.

Unable to help herself, Beth looked at the large, thick book beside her.

There was no title—no wording at all on the cover.

The leather was smooth in places as if thousands of hands had caressed it before daring to view the pages. She had been one of those.

Everyone coveted the book. It had been fought over, stolen, hidden, found, and fought over again—a never-ending cycle—but the book only showed its true power to a select few.

All who heard about it became obsessed with finding it, believing the legend that it held all the answers.

Those who obtained it and peeked inside became entrapped.

Few were strong or brave enough to walk away from the tantalizing lure.

One look. That was all it took for the power within to seduce and entice her.

It had changed the course of her life. There were spells from both mies and droughs .

The book was a bible, a grimoire, and a compendium all rolled into one.

Everything a Druid could ever want to know or learn sat within its thick pages. It did, indeed, hold all the answers.

But the price for the answers was steep.

Each time she read from it, it stole a piece of her. She both yearned to read more and recoiled at the thought. She was well and truly within its grasp. The only way out was through. She didn’t know what she would become, but it no longer mattered. It had too much of her now.

“ Beth ?”

She tore her gaze from the book and looked at Madeline . “ You’re right. We don’t need George .”

“ Do you want me to find out why the London Druids are here?”

Beth lifted the book from beside her and set it on her lap. She could feel the power radiating from it, urging her to open it and absorb more of its knowledge. It wanted to gift her ancient spells that hadn’t been spoken in thousands of years.

She flattened her hands on the cover and closed her eyes.

The book pulsed as if it had a heartbeat, like a living, breathing thing.

How could it be anything else? It held the knowledge of Druids long past, where there hadn’t been black and white, good and bad, mies and droughs .

A time when there were shades of gray, and a Druid was just a Druid without being labeled.

Someone weaker than her wouldn’t have gotten this far. The book had shown her all those who had come before and ventured to learn, only to die when it became too much. She was the exception. She would take all the knowledge, hold all the power. All she had to do was open the cover again.

Her hands trembled. The magic within her was more potent than ever.

She thought about Sydney standing in her office, his brown eyes searching hers as he looked for the woman she had been.

He wasn’t the same, either, though. Both had been altered irrevocably.

She thought about him walking away without a backward glance.

It was only then that she realized she didn’t need him. She didn’t need anyone but herself. She didn’t even need Madeline . She’d wasted so many years chasing one boy after another, defining her life by relationships she may or may not have had. That’s what blinders did.

Beth lifted the book’s cover and heard the leather creak softly.

The book’s influence seeped from its pages and the very ink written upon it.

She didn’t need to flip through it to look for what she wanted.

The book already knew. The pages turned themselves, flipping rapidly until they suddenly stopped.

She gazed down. The words were written in a language she didn’t understand, but her eyes were pulled toward the drawing of the Fairy Glen .

The letters blurred, rearranging before clearing so she could read them.

She scanned the page and the two following it before softly closing the book, her hands still gripping it firmly.

Beth knew from experience that it would be hours—maybe even days—before she could release it again.

At one time, she’d believed it some sort of spell.

Now , she knew it was the book exacting its price from her.

The fear that knowledge had once brought grew less and less.

Soon , she wouldn’t tremble before opening the book, she wouldn’t set it aside, and she wouldn’t stop reading.

That day was much closer than she’d expected.

“ What did it tell you?” Madeline asked, her voice soft and eyes wide with excitement and a little fear.

“ We need to return to Skye .”

Madeline’s brows rose. “ Now ?”

“ Now .”

She nodded before facing forward and pulling the car back onto the road.