Embrace the Mystery (The Blood Rose 3)

Batya waited, her heart thudding in her chest. Was this to be her future, a journey with Quinlan, a vampire she’d been trying to get rid of for two months? He still held the back of her arm, his thumb rubbing up and down, more comforting than seductive, for once.

She might even have thanked him for his support, but Davido’s steps sounded up the stairs once more and he all but ran into the room. He carried his satchel, a worn leather case to which he was profoundly attached and which none of his children had been able to replace despite multiple attempts.

“I have the most beautiful and the most visionary of wives.” He lifted the side flap, pulling out an oversized, yellowed map. “She said I’d need this. It’s very old and covers Grochaire and Walvashorr Realms, just the two. What do you think of that?”

“Vojalie has always amazed me.”

* * * * * * * * *

Quinlan released Batya’s arm and reached for the parchment-like paper. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one.”

“Probably not. I had to search the storeroom of my library. It took me a full day before I found it, Vojalie having been exceedingly specific about which one to bring with me.”

Quinlan’s biceps flexed as he carefully unfolded the ancient document. He made his way to Batya’s worktable, situated midway between the east wall and the foot of her bed.

Glancing over his shoulder at her, he waved a hand at the table. “Is the surface clean? I know you do a lot of your art here.”

Batya frowned at him slightly, though he wasn’t sure why. “Yes. Very clean.”

“What is it? Did I offend you by asking?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s just that, I’ve never seen you like this before. So … engaged.”

He felt torn. He might have asked what she meant, but the map carried a vibration and he wanted to find out if he could actually locate the fabled Ferrenden Peace.

He had several hundred maps of Grochaire, made throughout the ages. He’d followed many of them through his realm over the centuries, climbing down hillsides that weren’t supposed to be here or there. He’d found an old copper mine and later had it refitted and made safe.

Of course, other dark memories surfaced, that even as a child he would leave his house for days at a just to escape his father’s brutality. But the hours he spent exploring Grochaire had helped make him the man he was today.

He loved maps and he loved his land.

He spread it out and asked Batya if she had something that might hold down each of the corners.

She returned with four pewter dragons, making quick work of securing the map to the table.

He leaned over it, smoothing his hands slowly across Grochaire as though bringing forth his physical memory of the contours of the land. He began at the ocean in the west, Maris Sol, to the sloping plain in the center and the Mountains of Ashur that bordered the access point to Walvashorr Realm.

A strange vibration met his palm when he covered the northeast area of Grochaire, which then ceased when he moved to the Walvashorr side. He repeated the process. His heart hammered in his chest because he knew that a section of Grochaire, his home realm, had been kept hidden from him his entire life.

“What is it?” Batya asked.

But Lorelei responded. “The enthrallment is there, at the point where Mastyr Quinlan slows the movement of his hand. I can feel it.”

“I, as well,” Davido added.

They all drew close, heads bent over the table, staring down at the map. Each pressed fingers over the area above the access point. Batya gasped. “The vibration is so strong.”

“Yes, that’s Ferrenden Peace and I know that Margetta wouldn’t be able to reach me there. I would be safe, for once, behind that level of enthrallment.”

Quinlan glanced at Lorelei, who now stood next to him. Her entire being radiated something he couldn’t place at first, then finally realized that the woman felt hopeful, something she must not have experienced for a very long time. For that reason alone, he knew he had to accept this challenge. If only he could actually see the location on the map.

Batya stood opposite him, her long fingers continuing to drift over the hidden space. He glanced up at her. “You have similar enthrallment powers. What do you suggest? Is there a way we can break through and look at the terrain here?”

Davido drew close. “I think I know how it might be done.”

Still leaning over the table, unwilling to move away from the map even a couple of inches, Quinlan shifted his gaze to the left and met the troll’s glowing eyes. “How? Tell me. Whatever is it, I’ll do it.”

“Good.” He even smiled. “I’ve always liked your spirit Quinlan. Always. Just thought you had too broad an eye for the ladies.”

Quinlan’s lips quirked.

At the same time, he picked up Batya’s hand and laid it over Quinlan’s. “This is the way. You touched my daughter’s arm earlier, and I felt her power increase, not just doubling as might be expected, but a real flare of her fae ability. Didn’t you feel it, either of you?”

Batya shook her head. “I was comforted, but I didn’t notice a shift in my power.”

Davido frowned, the three ridges of his forehead rippling slightly. “Odd. Well, perhaps it was because of your enthrallment shield.”

“I saw the shield flare and brighten with a red hue,” Lorelei offered.

“That’s it,” Davido said, lifting a finger in emphasis. He shifted back-and-forth sideways on his feet several times, a trollish sign of his excitement over what was happening.

Quinlan met Batya’s gaze and for a split-second, because her hand touched his, all he felt was his need for her, a surprising response in the middle of staring at a map and trying to uncover a millennia-old mystery. But desire was what he felt, a hunger for what came from her neck and what he’d been pursuing for weeks now.

Was there more to his pursuit of her than he understood?

Her breathing hitched and her chest rose and fell.

He blinked, forcing his thoughts and his needs away. He focused instead on their joined hands. Taking her fingers in a light clasp, he lifted them above the map.

“Do your enthrallment thing here.”

She nodded. He felt her focus hard on the map and on their joined hands. He saw the reddish hue light up the shield around the property, just as Lorelei had said, but all he felt from Batya was a soft humming sensation against his skin where their hands met.

But it was Lorelei who directed them. “Shift your hands to the right no more than an inch.” He moved their joined hands slightly.