Chapter Twenty-Five – Evaine

Your mother is here, her father’s voice said in her head.

Eva stood at the edge of the trees. The next step would take her out into the open. She was reminded of the night this had all began, standing in the dark, looking down into the gully, with no clue as to who she was, or why this was happening to her.

All she had known was that she had to rescue her mother. And she had. Only for her mother to run from her. At least she no longer had to worry where she had gone.

She wouldn’t betray you, her father said firmly.

You’ve been gone a long time, Dad, people change. Eva was not ready to believe in her mom. Not anymore.

We need to find Cartwright, her father said sadly.

Eva looked across to the two men stood outside the Council building. They had guns.

One step. One small step decides your future. Eva took that step.

Immediately the men rounded on her. She put her hands up, and kept on walking. “I’m here to talk to Cartwright,” Eva said, trusting in her dad. One parent had to be on her side, didn’t he?

“Cartwright’s busy.”

So he is here, her dad said. Good. Tell them Cartwright will want to talk to you. Tell them you are Henry Talbot’s daughter.

“I’m Henry Talbot’s daughter, he’ll want to talk to me.” Those were difficult words for a nobody like Eva to say. To her own ears, she sounded like a movie star saying, do you know who I am?

The two men spoke to each other, and then one pulled a radio out of his pocket and spoke into it. He nodded at the other man and they approached her. “Stop and let us search you.”

Being patted down by two strangers was a new experience too. She’d never been in trouble, never been frisked, not even at an airport. Eva held her breath, wanting this over with, and resisting the urge to fight them off. Not so easy when something was surging inside her, growing fierce and bold. Her bear was waking up.

What if it burst out and she shifted? She was the very thing these Night Hunters killed.

“OK.” He mumbled into the radio again, and a third man appeared at the ornate front door of the Council building. “Walk.”

Her body was mostly recovered, but her legs didn’t want to cooperate. One step. Two steps. She counted in her head, trying to distract herself from thoughts of danger. No one in the Council Chambers cared if she lived or died. To the druids, she was nothing, and to the Night Hunters, she would be an abomination, no different from the werewolves they had slaughtered back at the warehouse.

“Evaine Talbot?” the man at the door asked.

“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “Yes. Are you Cartwright?”

He smirked. “No, I am not. This way.”

She entered the building, to the sound of hollow thuds. They were trying to break down the solid wooden doors of the Chamber. The sounds grew louder, and then there were voices. Eva loosened the hold on her father, and let him identify those who were here.

Cartwright is somewhere else. The library.

Eva swung to the left, and headed down the corridor. The man next to Eva shouted for her to stop, but she kept going, guided by her father.

Down the stairs, she walked, halting halfway when she saw her mother standing next to Cartwright. And you said she wasn’t a traitor.

Her father remained silent, and she continued downwards, ignoring her mom, and thinking only of what she was going to say to Cartwright.

“Hello, Ian,” Eva said.

“Evaine, we have been searching for you for so long,” Ian Cartwright said. “If your mother hadn’t had a binding spell put on you, we would have been able to help you sooner. You would have known who you were, who your people were. I never thought I would be grateful to the Templars for anything. But I’m glad they broke the bind. All that knowledge would have been lost, now you can see exactly who you are.” He shot a look at her mom, which gave Eva hope.

“If you had listened to my father and trusted him, then she would not have needed to bind me. She did it so no one would ever find the Dragon’s Tear,” Eva said coolly

“Is that you, or Henry talking?” Cartwright asked. “He is crammed in there with you, isn’t he?”

“He is. He has some information for you,” Eva said.

“I bet he does,” Cartwright answered. “But I have no need to listen to him. I have all the information I need right here.” He indicated the books behind him. “I’ve wanted to get my hands on the knowledge the druids hoard for a long time.”

“Not the information you need. I have the information you need,” Eva said, and Cartwright’s confident expression faltered. “He says to remember Wayne Baines.”

“Wayne. What about him?” Cartwright frowned. “He’s dead.” Her mom flinched at those words, and took a step back, shaking her head as if she had a fly buzzing around it.

“The three of you. The hunt. The Templars.” Eva was confused; she didn’t know what it meant. Her father was becoming agitated, and she needed him to calm down, so she could think straight.

“What about them?” Cartwright asked, lowering his voice and coming closer to Eva.

Eva whispered. “Wayne didn’t die.”

Cartwright pulled back as if he had been struck across the face. “I saw him die.”

“No. He was there, yesterday. He was the one who wanted the Dragon’s Tear. Lucas killed him and took back the Tear.”

“I don’t believe it,” Cartwright said.

“Killed by a druid,” Eva said with some satisfaction. “Do you know what he wanted to do with the Dragon’s Tear?”

“What all Templars want. Power.” Cartwright said bitterly. “And you are sure? I can’t believe he betrayed his own people.”

“Ask my mom,” Eva said. “She saw him.”

Cartwright swung around to look at Eva’s mom. “You saw Wayne?”

“Wayne? Who is Wayne?” her mom asked. “I don’t remember that name.”

“Wayne Baines. You don’t remember him, Valerie?” Cartwright asked.

“No. Should I?” She shook her head. “My memory isn’t what it was.”

“He used to hang out with us. With me, you, and Henry.” Cartwright looked troubled, and Eva felt her father’s unease growing inside her.

“No. Maybe you and Henry used to hang out with him before I met you?” Valerie asked. “Maybe your memory isn’t what it used to be either.”

“Maybe it’s not,” Cartwright said. He flicked his eyes up to Eva’s, and she read his expression, or at least her father did. “Valerie came back to us yesterday, asked for our help. She said you needed rescuing, Evaine. And that the druids had forced you to retrieve the Dragon’s Tear.”

Eva shook her head. “The Templars were the ones who forced me.”

Someone bound her to do their bidding, her father said in her head. That’s why she left you.

Above their heads, there was a loud crash, and the sound of fighting. “Templars!” Cartwright yelled.

His men all rushed to him, and they made for the stairs. Eva went to follow, wanting to help in the fight against the Night Hunters. This was not a Templar attack, it was a shifter attack.

Night Hunters against Others, and she should be at her mate’s side. For her bear longed to slash its claws across Night Hunter flesh. But she couldn’t leave her mom down here alone. However, when Eva turned to speak to her, she had gone.

“Not again.” Eva scanned the library, she couldn’t see her, but her heightened bear senses could hear her. “Mom!”

Eva ran between the shelves piled high with old books and parchments. She caught a glimpse of her mom disappearing behind a bookcase, and increased her speed. There she was, reaching for something.

“Mom.” Eva came to a halt five feet away from her. “Mom, what are you doing?”

“There’s a map I need. It’s up there, I can’t quite reach it.” Valerie began taking other books off the shelves, big tomes that she piled high on top of another.

“Mom, you need to stop.”

Let her finish, her father told her. We need to see what she has been sent to collect.

“Sent?” Eva asked out load.

Yes, your mom has been bound. That is why she doesn’t remember Wayne. She is compromised.

Eva felt sick. But she stood by, while her mom stepped up on to the pile of old books and pulled out a roll of parchment, tied with a red ribbon and sealed with wax. Pressed into the seal was the head of a dragon.

What is it? Eva asked.

The final piece of the puzzle. Her father sounded weary, and sad, as if he had been betrayed.

“There,” Valerie said triumphantly. She tucked the parchment under her arm and then stepped down off the books. As soon as her feet were on the ground, she ran, weaving in and out of the bookshelves sure-footedly, making for the stairs.

Eva followed, taking the stairs two at a time, until she caught up with her mom. “It’s dangerous,” Eva said, and grabbed hold of her mom’s arm. “They are fighting.”

Valerie turned and hit the heel of her hand into Eva’s chest, sending her spinning to the ground, winded.

Get up, Evaine, her father said. You have to stop her.

Eva dragged air, painfully, back into her lungs, and climbed to her feet. There was more shouting, followed by a boom so loud the whole building shook. As Eva rounded the corner, there was splintered wood covering the ground, and most of the Night Hunters had been blown off their feet. The big ornate doors of the Chamber were gone, and before it stood four bears, Helena, and Lucas. Behind them, stood the leader of the Council, Master Donavon.

The druids rushed from the Chamber, and circled the Night Hunters. Eva scanned the floor for her mom, but couldn’t see her. There were too many people. Eva let her senses roam, her father guiding her, teaching her how to listen in to the sound of a person’s heartbeat, and link it to the sound of their breath. Each person was different, if you knew how to listen, much like Jack listened to the sound of footsteps, only this was more refined.

There, her father said.

Eva moved, keeping behind the druids, until she caught sight of her mom, with the Grimmwold, there was no sign up the parchment. Were they in this together? But why would the Grimmwold steal the map when he could walk into the library and take it whenever he wanted?

“Eva,” Jack called behind her. He had shifted back into his human form, and was running after her.

“Where did they go?” Eva asked, as she rounded a corner, Jack by her side.

She listened, and Jack did the same. They both moved forward at the same time, running down the corridor until they stopped outside a door. “This is Master Donavon’s office,” Jack whispered.

“Is the Dragon’s Tear in here?” Eva asked, Jack shrugged, and then put his hand on the doorknob and turned it. There was only one way to find out.

They burst in. There was the Grimmwold, opening Master Donavon’s safe, with a flick of his hand and a few mumbled words. He took out the Dragon’s Tear, and showed it to Valerie.

Valerie was oblivious to Jack and Eva, she was staring at the Dragon’s Tear with such reverence, such devotion, it pained her. “At last.” She snatched it from the Grimmwold, who offered no resistance.

“No, Mom. You can’t take it,” Eva said.

“Don’t get in my way,” her mom spat. “I will hurt you.”

“You already have,” Eva said sadly.

Valerie made a move for the door, but Jack blocked the way. Valerie stopped, and took a step back. “I will kill you. This has all the power I need.” She held the stone up. “Why do you think we wanted it?”

“You won’t do it,” Eva said.

Valerie placed it on her hand and began to chant. The colors in the stone grew vibrant, and it seemed to resonate with her words. And then it shattered into a thousand pieces.

A wail came from deep inside Valerie, it grew and grew, until Eva had to cover her ears. The Grimmwold stepped forward, and placed a hand on her shoulder, and Valerie fell to the floor silent.

“Mom.” Eva rushed forward, kneeling on the floor next to her mom.

“Now do you see why we must work together to protect the Dragon’s Tear?” Master Donavon asked. He stood in the doorway. Next to him stood Cartwright.

“What is going on?” Jack asked, moving toward Eva and her mom.

“Eva’s mom has been bound,” Master Donavon said. “For a very long time.”

“How did you know?” Eva asked, wiping away her tears.

“We have been keeping track of her for a number of years,” the Grimmwold said.

“You knew where she was, all this time?” Cartwright accused.

“Yes, we watched her, made sure she was safe. She ran from you, Ian. She hid her child from you.”

“We never wanted to hurt her, or the child,” Cartwright said.

“But you would have asked Eva to retrieve the Dragon’s Tear. And she knew why Henry hid it,” Master Donavon said.

“And Evaine? You knew where the child was too?” Cartwright demanded.

“No, after Henry was murdered, we had no idea where Valerie was. We didn’t know she had given Eva up. We thought she had gone deep underground. Our spies told us she was not with you. We could only hope they were safe.”

“Did you give her over to the Templars? So that you could see how this all played out?” Cartwright ground out. “You druids and your experiments. Is that what this is?”

“No. They found her by chance. We let her down. We thought after all these years she would be safe. Only when the ward was set off did we realize she was missing.” Master Donavon sighed wearily. “We became complacent. We have become lazy, taken our finger off the pulse of activity in our world. And now we may pay the price. The Templars are rising.”

“We share the blame. Wayne, one of our most trusted Night Hunters, was lured by the Templars. I fear he was the one who put the binding spell on Valerie.” Cartwright frowned. “But if he did, it should have broken.”

“It should have. A binding spell does not survive if the one who casts it dies,” the Grimmwold confirmed.”

“My dad said he was the Templar Lucas killed yesterday. He had crosses tattooed on his cheek.” Eva looked down at her mom. “Who did this to you, Mom?”

“We will find them. And stop them,” Cartwright said.

“The Dragon’s Tear was the key. But even without it, they are going to become a thorn in both of our sides,” Master Donavon said.

“And this is where you offer for us to work together?” Cartwright asked. “Even when you have turned one of ours into one of yours.”

Heat covered Eva’s face, at the accusing tone of Cartwright’s voice.

“This is the future,” Master Donavon said, his hand out toward Eva and Jack. “This is our new beginning. We have fought on opposite sides for too long. Your Hunters killed many of us before you understood the threat was not from the Others, but from the Templars. Let us work together.”

“I will need to talk it over with my people. It is too big a decision for one man to make.” Cartwright entered the room and came to kneel by Valerie. “Is there anything that can be done for her?”

“Master Grimmwold?”

“She is bound. If I can break the bind … maybe. But I cannot promise.”

“Leave her here with us. I’m sure Eva would like some time to get to know her mom. And we will do all we can to restore her.”

“Thank you.” Cartwright stood up. “And the Dragon’s Tear?”

“The Dragon’s Tear,” Master Donavon said, walking across the room to stand next to Master Grimmwold.

“It should be interred,” the Grimmwold said.

“Agreed,” Master Donavon said.

“It has such power,” Cartwright began, but Master Donavon cut him off.

“It is everything you and your Hunters have fought to eradicate from our world. It needs to be put where no one can use it.”

“And we are to trust the druids?” Cartwright asked, his old distrust returning.

“We will trust each other.”

“What if there was a spell?” Jack asked. “That took a Night Hunter and a member of the Council to bury it.”

“Good idea, Jack.” Master Donavon agreed. “Master Grimmwold, can you make such a spell? One that would call on the Council and the Night Hunters to place the Dragon’s Tear where no man can reach it.”

“I will work on it,” the Grimmwold said.