Page 12 of Blood Skye (Skye Druids #6)

Chapter Twelve

Carlyle followed when Devon stood and walked into the living area. Her face was pale as she sank into one of the chairs and tucked her feet against her. He lowered himself onto one of the sofas and rested his arm along the back. She tightly clenched the bottle of water in her hands. Regret slid through him, but he hastily shoved it aside. He refused to feel bad. The organization had taken his father to lure him back in order to use his fire walker abilities. Devon was part of that, willingly carrying out their orders. She had made her choice.

And he had made his.

“ Think of it this way,” he told her. “ When you return to the elders, you can assure them that we got nothing from you willingly.”

“ They won’t believe it.”

She wouldn’t look at him. As if he were the one in the wrong. Carlyle hadn’t wanted to use the spell. It had been his plan all along, but he had hoped he wouldn’t have to resort to using magic. But there hadn’t been another option. As Devon had so eloquently stated, they didn’t trust each other.

So , Carlyle had used the spell. And she knew what he had done. That meant it was time to get answers. “ Where is my father?”

“ I don’t know.” She bit out the words as if saying them brought great pain. Sweat popped out on her forehead, and her eyes were locked on a spot on the rug.

The spell wasn’t foolproof. Few knew of it, and fewer still could wield it. That didn’t mean it couldn’t be blocked. It was why he had cast it when Devon was asleep. It was an underhanded blow—one he wouldn’t have done if he weren’t desperate—but London was vicious and brutal. They wouldn’t hesitate to hurt his father.

“ Can you find out?”

Devon briefly closed her eyes. “ I don’t know.”

He watched her lips compress. She was fighting against speaking, so he gave her a little prod. “ What are you trying to keep from saying?”

“ Something has changed,” she spat and shot him a look that could’ve flayed him alive before focusing on the rug again. “ They came after me.”

He cocked his head to the side in disbelief. “ That wasn’t a ruse?”

“ If it was, they didn’t alert me.”

“ Do they think you’ve done something?”

“ I’ve only ever done as they demanded.”

Carlyle leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “ You haven’t done anything they could perceive as going against them?”

“ No ,” she stated emphatically, her gaze locking with his.

That made him frown. “ You’re completely loyal to them.”

“ Yes .”

He sat back, letting his palms slide on his thighs. “ Do you know the locations where they keep their prisoners?”

She pressed her lips together once more. Her entire body began to shake as she forcibly tried not to say the words.

“ You’re going to bust your stitches again. Just tell me,” he urged.

“ Yes ! Fine , I know!” she yelled before turning her head away.

Her curtain of midnight hair shielded her face from him. “ Fighting against the spell only causes pain. You can make this hard or easy. The choice is yours.”

“ You made certain I have no choice.”

“ You’re working for evil people.”

Her head whipped around, fury dancing in her dark eyes. “ If we’re evil, then so is your father. He is one of us.”

“ Many have been fooled. I think if others knew the truth?—”

“ They’d what? Run away in shock? Say they’ll never trust London again? Maybe the elders need to be replaced.” Devon rolled her eyes. “ Don’t be a fool.”

Cold rage swirled through Carlyle . “ I’m not the one deceiving, lying, and killing. You are. On their orders. You’re the fool here.”

“ How does that moral high ground feel?”

“ Pretty bloody good,” he retorted.

Her eyes narrowed. “ So , you haven’t deceived, lied, or killed?”

“ Everything I’ve done has been in pursuit of helping others.”

“ Everything ?” she asked softly.

Carlyle didn’t have to ask to know what she was referring to.

“ The file on you is huge. London watches their people diligently. They know what you did to the DI . Not quite so high and mighty now, are you?”

“ You read a report. You speak of things you know nothing about.”

“ I know you nearly killed that DI when he didn’t get you answers regarding Mabel Robinson .”

Hearing her name snapped the last shred of Carlyle’s control. He jumped to his feet and was before Devon in a second, his hands pressed into the chair’s back cushion on either side of her as he glared. “ Don’t ever say her name again. Do you understand?”

“ Yes ,” Devon reluctantly replied.

Carlyle pushed away and straightened. He ran a hand through his hair and stalked a few steps away. He wanted to retreat to his room and get himself under control, but he had begun things, and the spell wouldn’t last much longer. He had to get what he needed now.

A picture of Mabel filled his mind, her freckled face smiling up at him as she pulled him toward a new restaurant. It felt like a lifetime ago. A time when he hadn’t known the depths of the London Druids ’ depravity or the lengths the organization would go to.

“ Where is my father?” he asked again without turning around.

“ I don’t know.” There was a long pause. Then , “ Who was she? Mabel .”

He shouldn’t answer. It was a ploy to turn his attention away. But the past had been stirred up, and he didn’t want to hide from it anymore. “ A friend. No , she was much more than that. She was the sister I never had. Someone who deserved nothing but happiness and love.”

Carlyle closed his eyes and let the memory of the last time he’d seen Mabel play out in his head. The restaurant, the food, the laughter. The jokes. She always told the dirtiest jokes. He smiled, even as his heart clutched in sorrow.

“ I wasn’t the one who hurt her,” Devon said softly.

“ Hurt her?” He turned to face Devon . “ She was killed. Murdered . Her life ripped away. She called me that day. I sent her call to voicemail because I was doing other things. I didn’t check it until after I learned about her death. She was terrified, her voice shaking and reedy. She said someone from the organization approached her about something, but she didn’t want to do it. She was worried they would force her. Since you seem to know all about Mabel , tell me, what did they do?”

Devon’s throat moved as she swallowed, but she didn’t look away. “ Sometimes , it’s better if we don’t know.”

He laughed, though there was no humor in it. That was what years of guilt and grief did to someone. “ She ran from them. She was on her way to me. Thanks to Saber , I learned that she was trying to ring me. The call never connected because her car swerved into the oncoming lane, and she was hit head-on.”

“ That isn’t your fault.”

“ I don’t carry the blame.” It was a lie. He would carry it until the end of his days. “ I blame the elders and their fanatical ways of trying to get what they want.”

Devon placed her feet on the floor. “ You assume we were trying to get to her.”

“ I know you were. Again , thanks to Saber . He pulled up the CCTV footage. I saw the two men go up to her flat. I saw them chase her when she ran out the back. And I watched as they followed her in their car, weaving between traffic to get to her. I even saw the moment they bumped her vehicle, sending her spinning into oncoming traffic. I recognized the men because they had been inside my father’s home a few months before.”

“ Neither of us was there. We can’t know what really happened.”

“ I may not have heard their words, but I can piece it together. So could you if you but open your eyes. Why are you so loyal to them?”

She lifted her chin defiantly. “ They gave me a home.”

He didn’t miss the sweat that broke out on her brow or the tremble in her lips. She was fighting the spell again. Why , though? What about the organization didn’t she want him to know? “ Just a home?”

“ I had nothing and no one.”

“ That doesn’t mean you give them blind faith.”

She gave him a flat look. “ Is that not what children do with their parents?”

“ They aren’t your parents.”

“ How do you know? Because I’m not white like you?”

Carlyle lowered himself onto the sofa once more and stared at her over the coffee table. “ The color of your skin means nothing to me. Who can help me find my father?”

“ The elders,” she answered immediately.

“ Can you get that information from them?”

She shook her head. “ They would never tell me.”

“ Why does London want to use my fire abilities?”

Her lips trembled as she shook her head. “ Stop this. Please .”

“ Tell me,” he demanded, though he kept his voice soft.

She clenched her hands into fists. “ I’ve already told you. They want to annihilate Skye .”

“ There’s more you aren’t saying. Tell me.”

“ That’s all I know. Stop !”

He stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles as he leaned back. “ This sucks, doesn’t it? Being forced to do something against your will. Imagine all the other Druids in the world experiencing something similar in the name of power.”

“ Include yourself in that. You sneer at the elders for being so underhanded, but you’re doing the same.”

“ I warned you that I would do whatever was necessary. You gave me no choice. Believe it or not, I don’t relish this. You’ve admitted the depth of your loyalty to the organization. There is nothing you could say without this spell that I would believe. Where is my father?”

She blew out an exasperated breath. “ I don’t know.”

Carlyle noted the ease in her body. She wasn’t trying to hold back. She knew nothing. He got to his feet. “ There is only one way in and out of the bunker. The door requires a spell to unlock it, so don’t bother trying to escape. Explore the rest to your content. There is another section below us with a couple of bedrooms.”

“ The farther I am from you, the better,” Devon replied as she pushed to her feet and walked away.

She didn’t ask where the stairs were, and he didn’t offer. Neither wanted to be near the other right then. Carlyle walked to the bar and leaned his forearms on it. He rubbed his eyes with his thumb, feeling dirty, tainted. Vile . The truth spell might have been his only alternative, but he had hated every second of it.

He lifted his head and locked his gaze on a bottle of Dreagan whisky. It had been Mabel’s favorite. She had toured the distillery twice, neither of them aware that it was the home of the Dragon Kings . He grinned as he walked around the bar and took down the bottle of twenty-five-year-old scotch, rubbing his thumb over the double dragon logo. She would’ve enjoyed meeting the Kings . And they would’ve adored her.

Everyone loved Mabel . If she knew someone, she loved them. She had the biggest heart of anyone he had ever met and was kind to a fault. He’d never heard her speak ill of anyone, not once—even if someone hurt her. It just hadn’t been in Mabel’s nature. She had been needed in this world. Instead , she had been snatched away too early.

Carlyle poured himself a finger of whisky and tossed it back. Then he poured another. He swirled the amber liquid in the tumbler. Mabel might still be alive if he’d answered her call. He’d been in London . So close, too. Instead , he had been more concerned with seducing a girl. If only he could rewind time and take that call. No matter how many people told him it wasn’t his fault, he knew it was. Mabel had needed him. He had promised to always be there for her, and the one time she asked for help, he had let her down.

He hadn’t believed the news about her death when it reached him. He didn’t remember how he got from the bar to her flat. Once there, he’d rushed inside, calling for her. He shouted until his throat hurt, searching every room, expecting her to pop out and tell him it was all a jest.

But she hadn’t been there.

That was when he remembered her call. He fisted his hand, remembering how it had shaken when he dared to look at his mobile. His throat tightened at the sight of the voicemail.

There was time missing in his memory. He didn’t remember leaving Mabel’s or getting back to his flat. He didn’t remember destroying his place or the cops busting in. One moment, he was at Mabel’s . The next, he was on the floor of his flat with several police officers on top of him, trying to restrain him.

His father had brought him to their country house, and everyone watched Carlyle carefully after that. He’d listened to Mabel’s voicemail a thousand times, hearing the wobble of fear in her voice, the urgency. The dread. And all the while, he had been having fun. He held it together until the funeral and then left in search of answers. It’d brought him back to London , where he’d met Sabryn .

But nothing could bring his friend back.

“ I’m sorry, Mabel .”