Page 8 of King’s Reckoning (Blind Jacks MC #5)

Dawn broke over the clubhouse as Rowan watched Abby trace symbols on the mysterious box with trembling fingers. Even battered and exhausted, the woman moved with the kind of familiarity that suggested she'd spent years studying these patterns. Which, according to her, she had.

"Elena enhanced the original protections,"

Abby explained, her voice hoarse from the night's events.

"Added layers of safeguards that only certain people could breach. Blood-locked, she called it. That's why it responded to you, Rowan. Why it recognizes King's touch."

"And yours?"

Reed asked from his position by the door. He hadn't relaxed since they'd arrived, treating Abby like a potential threat.

"I helped design some of those safeguards."

Abby's fingers found a particular sequence of marks.

"Back when your mother and I were still trying to understand what we'd found. Before we realized how dangerous that knowledge could be."

The box hummed beneath her touch, that same high-pitched resonance that had affected Rowan earlier. But this time it felt different—less hostile.

"You said Mom came to you the night she left,"

Rowan said, watching Abby's face carefully.

"Why? What happened?"

Abby's hands stilled on the box. For a moment she looked much older, weighted down by memories.

"She found something in The Archive. Something that changed everything. A truth about this land, about power itself. Something worth dying to protect."

Her eyes met Rowan's.

"Something worth leaving everything behind to keep safe."

"Including her daughter?"

The words came out sharper than Rowan intended.

"Especially her daughter."

Abby's voice softened.

"Elena knew they'd use anyone close to her to get to The Archive. That's why she split it up, hid the pieces with trusted brothers. Why she encoded everything so carefully. And why she made sure you'd be ready when the time came."

"Ready for what?"

King demanded. He'd been silent until now, watching Abby with an unreadable expression.

"What was Elena protecting us from?"

Before Abby could answer, Barbara burst into the room, her usual professional calm shattered.

"We have a problem. A big one."

She spread satellite photos across the table, recent images of the territory surrounding the club. Red circles marked locations Rowan recognized from her mother's journal.

"These energy readings,"

Barbara said, indicating spikes on accompanying charts, her voice thickening with urgency.

"They match what we detected from both boxes. But they're getting stronger. Like something's waking up."

"The resonance patterns,"

Abby breathed.

"They're connecting. Calling to each other."

"What does that mean?"

Reed asked.

"It means we're running out of time."

Abby tried to stand but swayed, still weak from her injuries. Rowan caught her arm automatically.

"The Archive isn't just historical records or buried treasure. It's a key to something older. Something powerful. And now that the pieces are being gathered..."

She trailed off as more brothers burst in. Ace's expression was grim.

"Devils on the move. Multiple groups, heading for locations all over the territory. They're searching for something."

"The other pieces,"

Rowan realized.

"They're going after all the graves at once."

"Not just the Devils,"

Darkness added, joining them.

"Blackwood's men too. And others—groups I don't recognize. Professional teams, heavy equipment."

"They're all converging,"

Barbara said, marking new points on the map.

"These energy signatures are drawing them somehow. Like moths to flame."

King's jaw clenched.

"How many graves are we talking about?"

"Seven,"

Abby said quietly.

"Seven pieces of The Archive, buried with seven trusted brothers. Flash's was the first. The warehouse held the second. Five more waiting to be found."

"Or taken,"

Reed pointed out.

"If these energy signatures are detectable..."

"Then anyone with the right equipment can track them,"

Barbara finished.

"And from these readings, they're getting easier to find."

Rowan studied the map, her mind racing. The locations formed a pattern—one she recognized from her mother's journal.

"It's a sequence,"

she said.

"The graves aren't random. They're laid out in a specific order."

"Yes,"

Abby confirmed.

"Elena chose the locations carefully. Each piece has to be recovered in the right order, or..."

"Or what?"

"Or very bad things happen."

Abby's voice was grim.

"The kind of things that got her killed."

Silence fell at that. Rowan felt Reed shift closer, offering silent support.

"We need to move,"

King said finally.

"Hit the next location before they do. Rowan, you and Reed take point. Your mother's journal is our best guide to these sites. Ace, coordinate with other chapters, get us enough manpower to cover multiple locations. Barbara, keep tracking those energy signatures. I want to know the second anything changes."

"What about me?"

Abby asked.

King's eyes were cold.

"You're staying here. Under guard. Until we know everything you know about Elena's death."

"You still don't trust me,"

Abby said softly.

"After all these years."

"Trust is earned,"

King replied.

"And you've got a lot of explaining to do."

"Wait,"

Rowan interrupted.

"If we're hitting all these locations, we need to understand what we're really dealing with. What's actually in The Archive? What got Mom killed?"

Abby sighed, sinking into a chair. Her injuries were catching up with her.

"The Archive contains proof of something that existed on this land long before recorded history. A source of power that shaped everything that came after. The original inhabitants knew about it, learned to work with it. Then the Europeans came."

"What kind of power?"

Reed asked.

"The kind that changes people. Changes places."

Abby's eyes grew distant.

"The kind that lets you do things that should be impossible. Elena and I...we saw it happen. Saw what it did to the men who found it. That's why we knew it had to be protected."

"From who?"

Rowan pressed.

"From everyone. Government agencies, private corporations, organizations so secret they don't officially exist—they've all been searching. For decades. The Devils are just pawns. Blackwood works for people much higher up."

"That doesn't explain why Mom had to die,"

Rowan said, her voice hard.

"No,"

Abby agreed.

"But this might."

She pulled a worn envelope from her hospital gown.

"Elena left this with me, said to give it to you when the time was right. When you were ready to understand."

Rowan took the envelope with trembling hands. Inside was a single photograph—her mother standing in what looked an old tunnel network, deeper than the ones they'd found. Behind her was something that made Rowan's eyes hurt to look at—patterns of light that seemed to move even in the static image.

"That was taken the night before she disappeared,"

Abby said quietly.

"She'd found something in the tunnels. Something that proved everything we'd theorized about The Archive was true. And they knew she'd found it."

"They?"

King demanded.

"The ones who've been watching all along. Waiting. The ones who killed Flash when he got too close to the truth."

Reed straightened.

"Flash's death wasn't random?"

"Nothing about this has been random,"

Abby said.

"The Devils targeting specific graves, Blackwood showing up now—it's all connected. They're making their move because they know what's happening. The pieces of The Archive are waking up, calling to each other. Soon they'll be impossible to hide."

Barbara's equipment beeped urgently.

"Energy spikes increasing across all locations. Whatever's happening, it's accelerating."

Rowan studied the map again, her mother's codes swimming through her mind.

"The next piece…it's in the old church cemetery. The one that burned down in '95."

"During the first Devils war,"

Reed added.

"Convenient timing."

"Nothing convenient about it,"

Abby said.

"That fire was set to cover up what they found in the crypts. What Elena helped hide there."

King's phone buzzed. A message from their scouts.

"Devils already moving on the church. Three vehicles, heavily armed."

"Blackwood's people too,"

Ace reported.

"They're converging from the north."

"Then we go now,"

Rowan said firmly.

"Before they get what they're after."

King nodded.

"Reed, take a team through the old tunnel system. They connect to the church basement. Rowan and I will create a distraction at the main entrance. Darkness, coordinate with other chapters, set up a perimeter. No one gets in or out without us knowing."

"And me?"

Abby asked again.

King's expression hardened.

"You've got one chance to prove your loyalty. One. Tell Ace everything you know about the other locations. Every detail. If anything you say turns out to be false..."

"I understand."

Abby's voice was quiet but firm.

"I've carried these secrets long enough."

Rowan felt Reed's hand on her shoulder. "Ready?"

She looked at the photograph again—at her mother standing at the edge of something world-changing. At the truth that had gotten her killed.

"Ready,"

she said.

"Time to finish what Mom started."

They moved out under cover of pre-dawn darkness. Rowan rode behind Reed, the familiar rumble of his bike oddly comforting. Other brothers fell into formation around them - a small army of chrome and leather, prepared for war.

But as they approached the burned-out church, Rowan couldn't shake the feeling that they were missing something. What had her mother found in those tunnels? What was hidden in The Archive that was worth killing for?

And most importantly - what would happen when all the pieces finally came together?

The answer, she suspected, would either save them all or destroy everything they were fighting to protect.