But Destroy cut her off, “If you say one more word about your godforsaken power, so help me…” he screamed at her.
Rowan nodded, “You’re right. It’s godforsaken — I am godforsaken. It’s how I know you’re not mine. You’re a good male. You deserve all the best. I’m not good for anyone.”
Destroy took a step toward Rowan, but she stepped back, holding up a hand to ward him off, “I’m evil.”
“You are not!”
Rowan walked closer to Enthrall, “Will you take me with you?”
Enthrall took a deep breath, “If you are sure.”
“No!” Destroy yelled.
“You can’t force her, Destroy. If she truly belongs here, she’ll come back to you,” a voice that seemed to permeate them all said.
“Lore, make her stay!” Destroy snarled.
“I cannot,” he responded, just before his mists became visible, and his form took shape.
“We have to go, or we’ll miss our train,” Enthrall said to Carolena.
Carolena stepped back into his arms, still holding onto both their suitcases. Rowan stepped closer, holding her own bag. “Please,” she begged, tears in her eyes.
Enthrall held out his arm to her, and she walked into his embrace.
“Tell him,” Lore said to Rowan.
“I can’t,” she said, a catch in her voice.
“Tell him!” Lore shouted, demanding her confession for Destroy.
Enthrall hesitated to give her time to do what Lore asked.
Rowan’s heart pounded, she felt compelled to tell him the truth, which was in actuality the last thing she wanted to do. But before she knew it, the words poured from her mouth. “I killed them. I killed them all, the children, their parents. So many bodies and at my hands. I didn’t mean to, but they all died. I’m evil, Destroy. They hunt me still — they’ll not stop until I’m dead. You deserve so much better than me. I’m not good enough for you. And that evil is what pulls you to me — not love. You can’t help it, it’s the power that attracts you. Let me go,” she ended on a sob.
Destroy was stunned, his eyes rounded in shock, his mouth opened ready to argue with her again, but no words came out. It was not possible, his Rowan was not evil, no matter her past.
Rowan saw the horror cross his face, the shock as he digested her words. She could no longer hold back her tears, they flowed freely down her face. She turned into Enthrall’s arm, he embraced both women and ghosted away, glad to get Rowan away from Whispers if she was indeed as she said, hunted. He had questions for her, himself, and he would get his answers.
Destroy stood there, searching desperately for words, any words that would convince Rowan that she was wrong, before she left him forever. Then before he could speak, she was gone. Enthrall whisked her away with Carolena.
Immediately he started to sprint across the clearing, in mind of following her. Just as he took to the sky, Carnage jumped from the ground, grabbing his ankle and snatching him from the air. Destroy struck the ground hard, but jumped back up, snarling. “I have to stop her!”
“No!” Carnage snarled right back at him.
“You will not!” Lore commanded. “She has left of her own free will. You will be the male you have shown yourself to be. You will watch over Whispers, you will prove your worth and keep your promise to Enthrall. If your female is worthy of you, she will return.”
“‘Es,” Carnage said, pointing at Lore, while he glared at Destroy.
“Would you allow Carolena to leave you?” Destroy shouted at Carnage.
“Carolena is his mate. They are bound,” Lore said.
“She’s mine, and we will be bound,” Destroy growled.
“Only if she comes back, Destroy. Allow her the freedom to choose,” Lore pressured.
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Then you’ll know that she’d have left anyway at some point,” Lore answered. “You have a responsibility to Enthrall, to Whispers, to all of us. You gave your word. Will you prove yourself to be the irresponsible, self-centered, worthless male we all thought you to be?” Lore asked.
Carnage rumbled low and deep at Lore’s insult to Destroy.
Destroy glared at Lore.
“Well? Answer me! What will you do?” Lore shouted.
Through clenched teeth Destroy answered, “I’ll keep my word.”
“Very good. Then get to it. Take control of yourself, be the male Enthrall left in charge.” Having said his piece and somewhat sure that he’d convinced Destroy not to follow Rowan, Lore misted away. The little gypsy had intrigued him with her admission that she was still hunted. He wasn’t altogether convinced that she was right, but if she was, he found he had to know who hunted her, and what they planned to do with her when they found her.
Chapter 20
Seated on the train, Enthrall and Carolena were on one side, Rowan facing them from the other as they looked out of the window, waiting for the train to pull out of the small station.
Rowan watched, hoping in spite of her belief that she was no good for Destroy, that the male would show up and tear her from the train to stay with him. But she knew he wouldn’t. She wiped another single tear from her face as it tracked its lonely way toward her chin. He saw her for what she was now. She’d given him the truth, so she knew he’d never again see her the same way.
“Who is hunting you?” Enthrall said quietly, but forcefully. He didn’t like that Rowan was hunted and had been sheltering in Whispers. If the hunters were any good, they could feasibly stumble upon all of Whispers in their attempt to track her.
Rowan turned her eyes from the deserted wooden platform outside the windows, “I’m sorry?” she asked.
“You said you are hunted. By whom?” he insisted.
Rowan looked down at her hands now folded in her lap, “The story I told Destroy is true. There were a few survivors, children who are now adults. They mean to avenge their siblings, their parents. They began to search for me with their father. Once their father died, they took up his cause.”
“Are they dangerous? How adept are they?” Enthrall asked.
Rowan raised her head, her eyes meeting Enthrall’s intense glare, “I don’t know. I’ve not seen them since I was a child. But they’ve never stopped. We moved often to evade them, and luckily they’ve always remained one step behind, but I honestly believe that was thanks to my grandmother’s interference.”
“Is your grandmother like you?” Enthrall asked.
Rowan nodded, “Yes,” she said quietly.
Carolena’s hands nervously flitted in her lap, picking at her cuticles, her thumbs tapping at her fingers in an absent-minded rhythm. She glanced out of the window a time or two, but was obviously very anxious.
Enthrall reached over, taking her hand in his, “All will be well, Carolena.”
Carolena turned to him, smiling, “I know, I just hate leaving Lily and Carnage. I hate leaving home.”
Enthrall patted her hand where it sat in his, “We’ll finish up and get you home as quickly as possible. Take a deep breath, enjoy your travels.”
Carolena nodded.
“And we will find the most amazing gifts for them,” Enthrall added.
“You’re right. Thank you, Enthrall,” she said.
Enthrall shifted his eyes to Rowan, his smile vanishing, his glare reappearing, “In the meantime, tell us all the details of your story. I must know what may threaten my people.”
Rowan looked as though she would object, but Enthrall leaned forward, his eyes glowing, “And make no mistake, you will tell me. Everything. Or I will deliver you to your hunters myself,” he paused for effect and to be sure she understood him, “Am I clear?”
Rowan, her eyes wide, knew absolutely that he would do anything to protect his people and that this was all it was about, agreed, “Yes, you are.” She sighed, “I will tell you.”
Enthrall settled back, still clasping Carolena’s hand, to listen to Rowan’s tale of how she came to be who she was today
and what exactly that meant for Whispers and the trouble she may have brought, though unwittingly, to their door.
Rowan took a deep breath and started her story, her eyes taking on a far away look as she returned to the place she spoke of, inhabiting another place and time, though her body sat with them still.
“My… abilities, manifested themselves very early on. I could call small animals to me, lift my hand in the direction of a toy, and it came to me. When I was angry, wanting something I couldn’t have as most children do, the walls rattled, and pictures and vases and such would crash to the floor. As I grew older, I was able to do more. I grew and so did my ability to manipulate the world around me. At first, I was just another little girl, like all the others in our kumpaniia. Then the other parents began to notice things were different with me.” She shook her head, shrugging, “There have always been those among us who had more gifts than others, but with me, it was so powerful, so early, that they were afraid of me. I never had to court the magics like others did. I didn’t have to learn them, to lure them and bind them to me. They just were — and I didn’t even try. Looking back now, I think that the adults’ fear of me, of what I may do, may be able to do, is what started the whole thing. At four years old, creatures of all manner took to following me around, waiting for me to see them. To gift them whatever it was they yearned for. My grandmother saw them, knew they were there. She was afraid they’d run away with me so she made a charm, warded it with what I thought was a protection spell and tied it around my neck. I wore it every day, every single day. Others saw them, too. And they saw the things I could do. I could call the birds and the butterflies to me. I could call the rain down upon my grandfather’s garden when it was too dry. I could spy the most delicious apple in the top of the tree and by wiggling my little finger at the top of the tree could cause it to break loose from its branch and drop into my waiting hands. The adults started talking amongst themselves. They said I was too dangerous, that I would be their downfall, attracting the attention of the evil in the world — those who were always looking for more — and bringing them down upon our kumpaniia. They said that I’d bring the very Ancients themselves to our doorsteps. I guess their children heard them, and as children so often do, adopted their fears. Isn’t that what children do? Learn from the examples of their parents?” She looked sadly from Enthrall to Carolena. When neither responded, she continued with her story. “The children who used to play with me, now scorned me. They called me Witch, threw rocks at me. Said cruel things to me. Chased me away. They shoved me down and hit me, whenever they happened to find me outside without my parents. I was confused, scared, and I was so angry. That anger grew and grew. I didn’t know what I’d done to make them hate me so. I was still the child I’d been when they were my friends. After months of this, I finally stopped trying to be one of them. I stopped trying to play with them. I no longer went to the campfires our people so enjoyed. The music and revelry no longer enticed me to come closer and commune. It made my heart hurt, I was no longer welcome. My family was left on the outskirts of everything, no longer a welcome part of the kumpaniia, but they were afraid to cast us out completely.
One day, I was lost in playing with a little green lizard that had come to say hello. He allowed me to pick him up, and I sat him on my shoulder. The kumpaniia had danced and sung into the night, so I was safe to wander around, just be a child. Surely, they’d sleep late that morning. Most did, but others didn’t. A small group of the other children were up and around. Unbeknownst to me, they’d watched me for some time, waiting until I was further away from the camp we lived in at that time. Soon, though, they made themselves known. One of the older boys shoved me from behind. I fell forward, not having time to catch myself. One of the girls rushed me while I was on the ground, standing just above me while I struggled to stand and throwing her handful of rocks at me. As I got to my feet, they started screaming taunts at me, punching me, throwing things at me. The little lizard on my shoulder clung tightly, hissing at all of them as they jumped nearer and jeered at me. I was crying, terrified, angry. I’d done nothing to deserve this.” She looked up at Enthrall, “No one deserves that.”
Enthrall watched Rowan tell her tale, his jaw clenched, his eyes afire, wanting to annihilate the lot of them for torturing a child that way. “No, they don’t,” he said softly.
A single tear escaped her eye as she resumed her story, she allowed it to run unchecked down her face, “The oldest boy, the first one, he reached out and shoved me down again, and as he did, he grabbed the little lizard from my shoulder. He threw the lizard onto the ground and stomped him. I jumped to my feet screaming, crying out that they had stomped him to death, but they just laughed. One of the girls slapped me, telling me to stop screaming, stop acting like a baby, I deserved nothing better and that I’d wanted to play with them — didn’t I like to play with them now? Then she snatched the charm my grandmother had made me from my neck. And the clouds began to gather. The winds picked up, and the sky grew dark. As my anger grew, the storms grew. The thunder rolled as I bent to gather my poor little lizard friend in my hands. I cradled his poor broken lifeless body as I glared at them. They began to realize that I was no longer crying, rather I was angry. The winds howled, our wagons rocking with the force of it. Their parents began to emerge from the wagons. Some calling out, searching for their children, others coming out to check the sky and the suddenly developing storms. The sky was black now, dark grey clouds roiling across it, the winds whipping in every direction, the thunderous rumbling shaking the very ground we stood on and the lightning flashing. The oldest two boys ran and hid in the woods before I realized they were gone. The rest of the children tried to run for shelter, but I raised my hands, freezing them in place. They could scream, they could cry, but they couldn’t run. Their parents tried to save them, but I stopped them in their tracks, too. The lightning was crackling all around us, the rain now pounding down in sheets, several of the wagons we traveled and lived in were picked up and tossed about the encampment. My parents and my grandmother came to me, trying to calm me, trying to stop the storm. But it wasn’t me. I wasn’t making the storm. Yes, I was making the others stay out in the storm, but I’d not created it. Then the threats started, the curses, the adults threatening my family, telling them they were no longer welcome and that I shouldn’t be allowed to live. That I was evil, dangerous to all who were near me. They demanded that my family make me stop terrorizing the other children.” Rowan huffed, and shook her head slowly, remembering, “I stood there, beaten, bleeding and bruised, yet I was terrorizing them.” Rowan swallowed and her voice took on a broken, cracked quality, “The two older boys came running out of the woods toward me, slashing at me with large sticks. I screamed and ducked, trying to cover my head with my hands. My concentration broken, the others were suddenly able to move. But instead of running away, they ran toward me. My father was helping fend off the boys; my mother screamed and started trying to pull me away and toward our wagon. One of the boys struck at my mother with a large tree branch and hit her face.” Rowan paused, chest heaving with labored breath as she remembered, her hands gripping the seat on either side of her legs. “I don’t know what happened — there was a blinding flash, followed by several more. Thunder crashed, and the rain was driven sideways. Screams and anguished cries filled the air. The scent of, of… seared flesh filled my nose, flash after flash of blinding light filled the now blackened morning sky and the air around us.” Rowan stopped talking, her lower lip trembling. Slowly she raised her eyes to Enthrall’s, “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I was just so angry. I didn’t know what would happen. I didn’t even realize it was me doing it.”
“Your charm was not a protection charm was it?” he asked.
Rowan nodded, smiled sardonically through tears, “Yes, it was. It was for their protection. It was a charm to keep my powers under control. To limit me. When they removed it, I lost all control.”
“Which is why you refuse to use your gifts
now,” Enthrall said.
Rowan nodded, “If I let them loose, I can’t control them. They take over, and I put everyone in danger. They are evil.”
“They’re not evil, Rowan. You were just a little girl. You were angry, hurt, emotional. And your gifts had been harnessed and contained. When finally they were freed, they sought vengeance for you with the strength of a dammed river breaking through. A well-deserved vengeance,” Enthrall added.
“I’m evil, Enthrall. Because of me my family has roamed ever since. Unable to make a home anywhere. We left Romania because they had to hide me. The survivors of that day vowed revenge. They won’t rest until I’m burned alive. I’m a Witch; the only way they’ll stop is if I’m burned. So we moved often. Each time hoping that we’d be able to stay a little longer. Most of the time we were unable to find suitable work. The embarrassment of not being able to provide for his family turned my father into the man he is now. It’s my fault. That’s why I volunteered to indenture myself, work off his debt. I caused it.”
“Bullshit! You are not evil, Rowan,” Enthrall stated emphatically. “Your powers do not draw evil to you. Your powers sought to protect a small child who was unable to protect herself. The creatures that are drawn to you? That’s very simple — you’re a natural witch. The elements flow through you just as they do the earth and skies. All manner of creature is drawn to you because you represent life and virility, innocence and purity, light and peace. Not because of evil.”
Rowan looked at Enthrall through tear-filled eyes, hope just beginning to peer at him through them.
Enthrall nodded, “Truth, Rowan. Heed my words. Truth!”
Carolena had been sitting quietly, clasping Enthrall’s hand tighter and tighter as Rowan spoke, her heart breaking for the little girl Rowan had once been. Her words making Carolena happy that she’d left Lily safe at home with Carnage. She couldn’t imagine anyone treating Lily the way Rowan had endured for any reason, much less because she was different. And Lily was most definitely different. Carolena let go of Enthrall’s hand and lunged forward from her seat, enveloping Rowan in a tight hug. “No one can hurt you anymore. You’re one of us and we protect our own. No one will ever threaten you again.”
Destroy, Book 2, Whispers From the Bayou Page 16