Heat, page 15
E2 merely smiled. “You’re a TruthSeeker. Seek.”
“Seek what?”
“You’ll know it when you find it.”
Esther grabbed E2’s arm when she went to turn away. “Are you here because of what the Druid did to me?”
“Yes,” she replied. “The Druid inadvertently unlocked a door and let me out. I’ve been trying to talk to you ever since.”
“So you weren’t a monster?”
E2 shrugged. “That depends on who you listen to.”
Esther was taken aback at the candid response. “What do you mean?”
“Learn to listen to your heart. The answers you need are here,” she said, touching Esther’s chest. Then she touched Esther’s temple. “And here.”
“I feel like I’m talking to Yoda. I just want answers. I want my memories to stop being jumbled.”
“You’re doing some of it yourself.”
Esther flattened her lips and glared. “And my missing memories?”
“Only the Druid who took them can replace them.”
“Oh. That’s awesome,” Esther said with a roll of her eyes. “I’m trying to sort through my memories in order to find her. I can’t do that when they’re all jumbled up and switched around.”
E2 simply looked at her. “You’re a TruthSeeker.”
“So you keep saying. I need to seek,” Esther said and nodded.
When she blinked, E2 was gone. Esther turned in a circle, but there was no doubt she was alone. It took a second to see that the darkness had vanished, as well.
She stood in the middle of a crossroads with large corridors and other hallways in front of, behind, and on either side of her. There were seemingly thousands of doorways, as well.
Now this place she recognized. It was her mind, and behind each doorway was a piece of her life. But where did she begin? Which portal was the one she needed to uncover the Druid?
Did she want to know what E2 had meant when she hinted that Esther wasn’t the daughter of the Norths? Or perhaps she should try and find out what a TruthSeeker was. She needed answers to all those questions and more.
The light above her began to dim. She felt herself being pulled awake, and she fought to remain asleep to find those answers. In the next second, her eyes opened, and she looked up at Nikolai. His pale blue eyes were filled with concern as he searched her face.
He smoothed his hand over her hair. “You were screaming in your sleep, and I couldna wake you.”
“What was I yelling?”
“Seeker.”
The longer she was awake, the more the event with E2 seemed like a dream. Except she knew it wasn’t.
“What happened?” Nikolai asked.
Esther shrugged and reached for him, burying her face against his neck. “I don’t know.”
“But something happened?”
“The monster I thought was in my head was me.”
There was a beat of hesitation. Then he asked, “You?”
“Another version of me,” she said and lowered herself back to the floor. “She said she’s been locked away, but the Druid accidently released her.”
Nikolai raised an auburn brow. “What else did she say?”
“That I’m Henry’s sister, but she alluded to the fact that my parents might not be my parents.”
“Hmm,” he murmured.
Esther licked her lips. “She also said I was a TruthSeeker.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know, but I want to find out.”
Nikolai’s lips lifted in a half-grin. “Then let’s get started.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
TruthSeeker. The word ran through Nikolai’s head over and over. He’d never heard anyone called such a name before, yet somehow, he knew that the term was uniquely Esther’s.
Waking to hear her screaming and thrashing about had frightened him. And when he couldn’t wake her, he’d feared the worst. Finally, she’d opened her eyes, and the clarity he saw in her brown depths made him believe everything she divulged.
While they had breakfast, she told him of E2 and everything that had happened while Esther slept. What Nikolai kept tripping over was how E2 said she’d been locked away.
A mortal might look at such a situation and say that Esther had multiple personalities, but he knew that wasn’t the case. In fact, E2’s imprisonment had the stink of a binding spell.
Once Esther went upstairs to get ready for the day, Nikolai opened his mental link. “Ryder.”
It was a few minutes before Ryder responded. “Aye? How’s it going? Any more Dark attacks?”
“Nay. I need you to quietly look into Esther’s family.”
Without missing a beat, Ryder asked, “How far?”
“As far back as you can go.”
“I’m still looking into Faith’s family and her connection to the Druids, and I’ve gone back really far. You want me to do the same for Esther? I’ll do it, but I’d like to know why.”
“Esther finally fell asleep last night, and she encountered herself, a version she calls E2. E2 told her that she was a TruthSeeker, and that the Druid released her unintentionally.”
“Well, shit,” Ryder said. “That’s no’ good. A binding spell?”
“Maybe. E2 also hinted that Henry and Esther might be adopted.”
“I doona need to tell you how badly this can go.”
Nikolai looked up at the ceiling toward the room above him where Esther was dressing. “She needs answers, and I’m going to help her find them.”
“What about her missing memories?”
“E2 told her that the Druid was the only one who could replace them.”
“Does that mean you are going to halt following the trail of the coasters?”
Nikolai held one of the coasters in his hand. “We’ll keep pursuing that avenue for now. But I doona want Henry alerted to any of this.”
“I agree. He has enough to handle at the moment. But if I find anything that leads to any of E2’s claims being fact, it will change a lot.”
“It’ll change everything. Have you ever heard of a TruthSeeker?”
Ryder sighed loudly. “I’ve no’, but I know someone who might.”
“Kellan,” Nikolai guessed.
“If any of the Kings have come in contact with a TruthSeeker, he’ll know.”
They ended the conversation, and Nikolai severed the link. He was already thinking about what to do if Kellan came up empty-handed. Nikolai’s next options were either the Fae or the Druids.
He really didn’t want to ask Shara, Kiril’s Fae mate. If he told her, she would then tell Kiril. And the more people at Dreagan who knew, the more chances that Henry would discover what was going on.
The only other Fae he could ask was Rhi, and since she was supposed to be off looking into the wooden dragon Faith and Dmitri had found on Fair Isle and the combination of Druid and Fae magic within it, he didn’t want to bother her either.
Ryder worked fast, but right now, instantaneous wasn’t quick enough for Nikolai. He dug into his bag for the mobile phone that had been supplied for him. The numbers for the Warriors and Druids at MacLeod Castle were in the contacts.
He scrolled through until he found Hayden. He hit the call button and brought the mobile to his ear as it began to ring.
“Ryder?” Hayden asked as he answered.
“It’s Nikolai. This is just one of the many phones Dreagan has.”
Hayden said, “Since the Kings doona call just to chat, I take it this is business.”
“It is. The Ancients contacted Isla when Faith and Dmitri found the wooden dragon. Did they happen to say anything to her about a TruthSeeker?”
“Hang on,” Hayden said.
Nikolai waited as he heard Hayden speaking in the background. He drummed his fingers and silently urged the Warrior to hurry up.
The voice that came on the line wasn’t Hayden’s, but his wife, Isla’s. “Nikolai, tell me what’s going on.”
He quickly relayed the entire story about helping Esther find her lost memories, as well as what had happened while she slept.
Isla listened to it all quietly. Only when he finished did she say, “The Ancients told me nothing of a TruthSeeker.”
“Damn.” He squeezed his eyes closed. He’d held out hope that he might find some sort of answer.
“But I’ve heard of it.”
His eyes snapped opened as he got to his feet. “And?”
“It’s a term from an obsolete line of Druids. Each generation, there was a female born who was a TruthSeeker. There was also a male who was a JusticeBringer. Together, they regulated the Druids.”
“Regulated?” He immediately thought of the Reapers.
“The family—the Clachers—was given that responsibility by the Ancients because they were driven to monitor the Druids.”
Nikolai ran a hand over his mouth. “Should they no’ have prevented Deirdre from taking control and unleashing the Warriors?”
“The last members of that family went to do exactly that. They intended to end Deirdre, but she knew they were coming, and she killed them, effectively ending their line.”
“Are you sure? Could one have survived?”
Isla sighed. “That was before Deirdre held me captive, but she retold the story enough times. She didn’t just kill the brother and sister, she wiped out the entire family. And just to be sure, she sent her wyrrans across all of Britain and Scotland to guarantee that none survived.”
Nikolai was still asleep in his mountain during all of that, but Con had told him about the small, yellow creatures that Deirdre created, with their huge mouths full of sharp teeth.
“Esther can’t be a Clacher,” Isla said.
He didn’t quite believe that, not when magic was involved. “Are you saying the Ancients couldna have given such power to another Druid family?”
“I can’t speak for the Ancients. If they had the ability to do it, then I’d want to know why they waited so long,” Isla said, bitterness tingeing her words.
“Aye.”
Isla then said, “I know you and Esther want answers, and I wish I had them. But I keep coming back to the fact that neither she nor Henry have any magic.”
“Could it have been bound?”
“Of course, but as soon as the Druid entered Esther’s mind, she should’ve seen that.”
“Maybe she did,” Nikolai said.
“Has Esther displayed any magic at all?”
He looked at the floor. “None.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I could be more help. It would’ve been nice if Henry and Esther were from the Clacher line so they could find and kill the Druid who has teamed up with Ulrik.”
Nikolai didn’t correct her. For all he knew, Ulrik was working with the Druid. Until they knew differently, it was easier to leave things as they were instead of mentioning Mikkel and how little they knew of him.
“Thank you for your help,” Nikolai said and ended the call.
Just when he thought he’d learned something, he ended up with more questions than he had before the call. And if he felt like this, he could only imagine how Esther suffered. He put the mobile back into his bag. When he turned around, Esther was coming down the stairs. She smiled when she saw him.
“You can move your stuff up to my room,” she said.
He nodded. “I will later.”
She stopped at the table where the coasters were. “Shall we go to more pubs?”
“Certainly. What do you want to do?”
“Find the truth.”
He grinned, because he’d known that would be her response. “The truth of what?”
“All of it.” She licked her lips and moved the coasters around. “I feel like the more I look, the more hints I get, but the less I actually learn.”
Nikolai walked to her. “I’m here to help. We’ll find the answers. All of them.”
“You’ve already spoken to Ryder, haven’t you? He’s looking into my past?”
“Aye.” Nikolai worried that Esther might be upset that he’d taken the initiative without talking to her.
She gave a nod. “Good. Maybe he can sort out the facts.”
“Do you want to call your parents?”
Her brown eyes lowered briefly to the table. “I’m thirty-two years old. In all of that time, I’ve never had a reason to doubt they were my biological parents. If Henry and I were adopted, they would’ve told us by now.”
“We’re talking magic. Perhaps they doona know because they were made to forget.”
She laughed, the sound bordering on distraught. “See? More questions. If you’re right, and it is logical that you are, who would do that? And why?”
“The only thing I can think of is that it was done to hide you and Henry.”
“As well as to conceal the fact that I’m a TruthSeeker?”
Nikolai took her hand and brought her over to the sofa near the fire. Once she sat, he took one of the chairs across from her. “I made a call to MacLeod Castle.”
“The Druids, yes,” she said excitedly. “Did they know anything?”
He hesitated to tell her, not because he didn’t want her to know, but because it might give her hope when there was none. “I spoke with Hayden and Isla.”
Esther leaned back against the cushions. “I’ve only met a few of the Warriors and Druids, but I took an instant liking to Isla. She’s the one the Ancients spoke to about the Druid who messed with my mind. What did she know?”
“There was a family—the Clachers. It seems the line had an affinity for monitoring and punishing the Druids. Each generation, there was a male and female born. The Ancients intervened and used the family’s motivations to regulate the Druids.”
“To keep Druids in check,” Esther said. “Much like police agencies do with humans.”
Nikolai leaned forward and put his forearms on his knees, clasping his hands together. He could see the excitement in Esther’s eyes, and he hated to dash it. “The females were the TruthSeekers and the males the Justice-Bringers.”
“Really?” she asked with a growing smile.
He took a deep breath and delivered the statement that would kill her expectations. “Deirdre, the drough the Warriors and Druids fought for centuries, had the entire family wiped from the earth.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Hope was an emotion Esther didn’t allow herself to feel very often. It often gave people courage, but it could also bring some to the pits of despair if lost.
She wasn’t blind to the way Nikolai watched her as he spoke. The smile never waivered from her lips, even when he delivered the tragic news. “Magic, remember?”
His nostrils flared as he drew in a deep breath and straightened in the chair. “You said that E2 told you the Druid inadvertently released her.”
“That’s right.”
“Have you felt differently?”
She wasn’t fooled by his question. “You mean, have I done any magic? The answer is no.”
“The members of the Clacher family were Druids.”
“I understand that, and I’m also clear on the fact that Deirdre wiped them out.” Esther crossed one leg over the other. “We’re dealing with magic. The possibilities are endless.”
He slowly leaned back and scratched his chin. “I’d caution you on pinning everything to that.”
“How could E2 come up with TruthSeeker if it wasn’t real? And Isla confirmed that it is.”
“Hundreds of years ago.”
Esther tried to keep an open mind, but she knew in her bones that she was the TruthSeeker. Yet there was no denying she had zero magic. Because if she had any, she would’ve used it on the Dark the previous day on instinct.
She let everything roll around in her mind for a moment. “There are some facts that haven’t changed. I’m missing memories, and we’re here to trace my movements before I encountered the Druid.”
“Aye.”
“I realize that there’s a chance E2 isn’t real, or that she was placed there by the Druid to lead me on a wild goose chase.”
Nikolai quickly said, “We’ll know about your parents soon enough. With Ryder’s skills, it doesna matter how deep something is buried, he’ll find it.”
“I’m glad he’s on our side.”
That made Nikolai chuckle. “I agree.”
“This is being kept from Henry for the time being, right?”
“It is, but I wouldna recommend leaving it that way for long.”
She uncrossed her legs and pushed herself to her feet. “Agreed. Ready to start the day?”
“Go pick the coasters,” he said while he extinguished the fire with magic.
At first, Esther had been frightened of the magic and the fact that those at Dreagan were really dragons, but she’d soon learned how beneficial magic was.
Within minutes, she was inside the SUV with the heated seats turned on as Nikolai drove them to the next pub—The Porterhouse in Covent Garden, which just happened to be the largest bar in London.
Just as before, they remained outside for about an hour as Nikolai sketched. Esther looked around, trying to remember the last time she’d been in the area to see if it matched up with whatever he drew.
Finally, they walked into the alehouse, ready to explore each of the twelve different levels. Nikolai opened the door for her, and she walked through. Not two steps in, he suddenly halted and grabbed her hand.
She looked back at him, concern filling her when she saw the same look he’d worn right before he fought the Dark on his face.
Then it hit her. Dark Fae. Ireland. The Porterhouse was owned by an Irishman. She let her gaze roam the area and saw that many of the guests were looking at them—and those patrons were Dark Fae.
“We can leave,” she said.
A sound much like a growl rumbled from Nikolai’s chest. “We came for a reason.”
“But there are Dark everywhere,” she whispered.
“Look at the mortals.”
She wanted to roll her eyes at his statement, but she did as he asked. That’s when she noticed that they all acted normally. The humans weren’t yanking off their clothes or rubbing against any of the Fae.
“How?” she asked.
Nikolai kept his hold on her and turned to walk toward the back corner where a man sat reading the paper. She didn’t have time to ask what Nikolai was doing before they were standing at the table.
