"Literally thousands of witches are scrying for him," Emma said. "He doesn't stand a chance of escaping a net like that. He was probably working for someone, but the witches can't figure out who would want to hurt them."

"Mariketa had booked the plane and the pilot before Bowe rejoined her. There are dozens who would want to take her out before she reached immortality."

Emma glanced at Bowe's door. "What will happen to him, if she doesn't... come through?"

"Once he's meted out retribution to whoever is behind this, then Bowe won't live the week out. Unfortunately, he now knows exactly where to go to die - "

Without warning, Bowe burst out of the bedroom with the witch in his arms. Lachlain winced again to see her leg missing. "Bowe, you canna move her." As Bowe strode out the back door into the night, Lachlain called, "They said it could kill her! Where in the hell are you taking her?" At the doorway, Lachlain turned back. "For once, Emma, you stay inside!"

When Lachlain reached Bowe, he became convinced his cousin had lost his mind.

Bowe was painstakingly setting Mariketa into the green ivy at the foot of an oak. He seemed to await something, and when it plainly didn't happen as he'd expected, he tore at the ivy, trying to bury her in foliage. "Too late," he rasped, sinking down to his knees. "Brought her too late."

Lachlain ran his hand over the back of his neck when the air began to grow oppressive, and yellow lightning flashed out horizontally across the black sky. He scanned around them and spied unblinking, glowing eyes staring out from the nearby swamp.

His hackles rose when vines began to grow over the witch, enclosing her. Biting out a curse, he lurched back.

Bowe should be shuddering with unease; instead, once she was covered, he closed his eyes with relief.

When Mariketa sighed, as if comforted to be among the vines, Bowe had to swipe his sleeve over his face. Then... her skin began to pinken and heal. As she regenerated from her injuries, Bowe ripped off bandages and sliced through casts. He gently unthreaded unnecessary stitches.

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Within a quarter of an hour, the witch was healed... completely healed.

Mariketa blinked open her clear gray eyes, gazing up at Bowe.

"Lass, are you all right?" - his voice broke an octave lower as his throat tightened - "Say something tae me."

When she whispered, "What'd I miss?" he just kept his emotions in check.

He'd almost... lost her.

With shaking hands, he tucked her against him and absently murmured an explanation about where she was and what had happened. When she shivered, he lifted her and hurried back to the house, passing a visibly stunned Lachlain.

Inside, Bowe took her to the bathroom, then ran a bath. Gently setting her in the tub, he scooped water over her back and shoulders with an unsteady hand. He wanted to apologize for everything, for being so stubborn and stupid, but didn't trust himself to speak about something so important. Not yet. Every time he tried, his voice broke.

"Bowen, did I hear my friends outside?"

He coughed into his fist, then said, "Aye, they come by all hours of the day and night. Carrow and Regin are here now."

"Could you tell them that I'm okay? And that I'll be out in a minute?" Mariketa asked.

"Will you be all right by yourself?"

She nodded. "I'm fine. Back to normal via greenery."

"Aye, then, of course. I'll be right back."

In the sitting room, he found Lachlain and Emma, Carrow, and the Valkyrie Regin. After he delivered Mariketa's message, her friends hugged each other.

"I told you people she'd pull through," Carrow said, then cracked open a bottle of champagne - for herself.

"Aye, she's a clever girl," Bowe told them, feeling like his chest was about to burst with pride. "Healed herself." His lass got the very earth to give to her. How many mates could do that?

Lachlain and Emma were clearly delighted for him. "Now, I'll get to regale her with stories about you... "

Suddenly, everyone grew silent, and all eyes fell to the front door behind him.

"What?" Bowe asked, turning. "What is it?"

At the doorway stood... Mariah.

48

What trickery was this? He still scented Mariketa in the bath.

This must be another being. This was... Mariah.

"I... I... " He couldn't form words. There'd been no reincarnation?

In her tremulous voice, she said, "I can see I've shocked you, Bowen."

"How... how can this be?" For so long, Bowe had ached for this, had imagined their reunion in a thousand different ways. He'd gone to his knees and begged fate for one more chance.

Apparently, he'd been given it.

"I was brought back to you," she said, gliding over to stand before him. "Resurrected by a sorceress."

Bowe scanned the room as if hoping for someone to explain this. Everyone appeared as dumbstruck as he felt. "How did you come to be here?"

Her tentative smile was rapidly fading. Of course, she would have believed he'd be overjoyed. And two months ago, he would have been.

"Once I was revived, I was sent to wherever you were."

"Why now?"

"B-Bowen, you sound almost angry." Her violet eyes watered.

He'd gotten so used to his witch going toe-to-toe with him that he'd forgotten how timorous some females could be. "I mean, why no' sooner? It's been nearly two centuries."

"The sorceress needed the energy that surrounds an Accession to be able to bring me back." Just as Mariketa had said about another reincarnate. "As I lay dying that night in the forest, I wished that I could have had a life with you, wished it with everything in me." She lowered her voice to say, "I wished that I hadn't run from you."




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