Reborn

by Nancy Corrigan

  Minerva sat alone at a small table with a half-eaten breakfast, a glass of juice, and a cup of coffee in front of her. Dressed as regally as Rowan remembered, Minerva was draped head to toe in silver. Even her skin shimmered with the color. Her hair was wrapped in an intricate design, and exquisite jewels glinted in the necklace around her slender throat. She resembled the goddess she’d once been, but the sight of the food in front of her was new. In all the years Rowan had known Minerva, she’d never seen her eat, only drink.

  “You’re eating?”

  “Yes.” Minerva scooped a forkful of scrambled eggs and ate it. “It is necessary now that I’ve lost my title. So is sleep. Both are quite annoying habits, but ones I must embrace if I expect to regain what is mine.”

  “Your position as the goddess of love.”

  “My proper title, yes. And my mate’s love.” She took a sip of her coffee and leaned against the plump backing of the chair. “Why are you here, daughter? I know it’s not because you missed me.”

  Rowan took a moment to study her father’s mate. Despite looking as beautiful as she’d always been, determination radiated off her. It made her appear harder, less approachable. Rowan dragged over a chair and sat. She preferred the no-bullshit attitude her stepmother gave off.

  “I ran into your handmaiden, Alana.”

  Minerva straightened. “Is she well?”

  “She’s had a hard life, but she appears to have coped as best she could.”

  “My maidens are warriors too. Never doubt that. Love is not a weak emotion.” Minerva beamed with pride.

  “So Alana explained. She even mentioned that the goddess of love is a powerful role, ranking right below the Triad.”

  “Yes, I had much influence in my position and much freedom. The Triad had no right to enter my temple. What occurred there was private.”

  No wonder the Triad wanted to knock Minerva down. It ruled over all. The gods and goddesses were supposed to do its bidding, not act of their own accord.

  “Alana also said that stripping you of your title had been the Triad’s plan. It wanted to take everything important away from you.”

  Minerva poured another cup of coffee from the ornate silver pot. She added a cube of sugar and stirred in cream. With her drink in hand, she faced Rowan. “What guidance do you seek from me, Rowan? Ask it, then leave.”

  “What sin did you commit that made the Triad strip you of your power?”

  “I gave up my role to save Ian’s life.”

  Minerva’s response didn’t answer Rowan’s question, and she wasn’t leaving without all her answers. “What sin was Alana referring to?”

  “Why are you here? Is it about Lucas?” Minerva set her mug down and leaned forward. “Has he tried to convince you to break your mate bond? Because it won’t work, not the way he’ll try to make you believe.”

  Lucas hadn’t been her reason for seeking Minerva, but her statement wasn’t one Rowan could ignore. “Explain.”

  Minerva took Rowan’s hand and peeled off the leather glove, exposing her partial mate mark. She tapped the single circle. “He won’t break your mate bond. He can’t. He will circumvent it by binding your soul to his, but it won’t be the beautiful bond you and Kai had shared. It’ll be loveless. It’ll also eliminate any chance you have of connecting with Kai’s reincarnation.” Minerva raised her gaze to Rowan’s. “And he’s alive, daughter. Right now, looking for you.”

  Rowan’s pulse raced, and happiness zinged through her. Gods and goddesses, along with demigods, could take mates, binding not just their souls but their bodies and hearts. It was the ultimate bond, allowing for telepathic communication and the ability to take each other’s pain. It was also one that lasted an eternity. That was the bond she’d started with Kai and the one that would’ve granted him immortality had he been able to complete it.

  Soul mates were different. There was no physical bond. No way to share strength or immortality. No outward sign that partners were connected. It was a mystical link between souls that drew two people together. It was…love in its purest form.

  “How can Lucas be my soul mate if I don’t love him?”

  “I didn’t say he’d become your soul mate. I said he’d bind your soul to his, no love involved, but it would have the same results. You’d still yearn to be close to him, and you’d still seek him out, even if you hated him.”

  “But my soul mate bond to Kai was based on love, not the generic bond Lucas wants to form with me.”

  “Yes. The love you’d shared with your human was deep and pure enough to form the soul mate bond. That is why I cried for you, why I have cried for Kai in each life he’s suffered without you.”

  “He’s suffered without me? How?”

  Minerva gripped Rowan’s hand tighter. “Each time he dies, he severs the connection the two of you had formed. My tears have kept the memories of your love alive within his soul, so he longs for you. So fate will bring the two of you together. Unless I am allowed to resume my role, this will be the last lifetime he’ll remember loving you.”

  “He’s longed for me.” Regret and guilt swamped Rowan. She’d made many mistakes where Kai had been concerned. He’d loved her, and she’d failed him. “I should never have left him alone.”

  Minerva cupped Rowan’s face, drawing her close and kissing her forehead. The rare display of comfort from her stepmother opened the gate to Rowan’s tears. They rolled down her cheeks.

  “If you had mated him, Kai would have experienced excruciating pain in the mortal world while you were confined to the fairy prison. As it was, he suffered with the feeling of incompleteness, never understanding why he wasn’t happy. It left him miserable and depressed in each lifetime, but it was better than the living hell he would’ve endured had he been mated to you.”

  Rowan jerked back. “I never considered that.”

  “I’m sure the Triad had. Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past the deity to have ordered its angels to influence those sinners into storming your house that night.”

  “Why?”

  Minerva stood and paced the small room. “Because you are a player in its game, the same as I am.”

  “You know more about the game than you’ve let on, don’t you?”

  “I didn’t realize there was a game until it was too late to stop it, but I know why the Huntsmen were chosen as pawns.”

  “Why?”

  “To punish me by hurting my mate.”

  “Why would the Triad want to punish you?”

  “Because I got in an argument with the Triad over love. It didn’t approve of the gift I bestowed upon the angels, saying love would dirty them. I said it would strengthen them.”

  “What gift?”

  “The ability to bind a soul to theirs. The ability Lucas wants to use on you.” Minerva stopped pacing and glared at Rowan. “It wasn’t fair. The gods and goddesses could take mates, but the angels couldn’t. They had to remain pure. Untouched.” Minerva snorted. “Miserable, that’s what they are. And lonely. I hated seeing the powerful beings so sad. They lived for duty only. Nothing brightened their days. Even the humans’ joys seemed to depress them.”

  Minerva walked toward the bed along the back wall of the booth, a standard in every room in the Haven. She trailed her fingertips over the satin bedspread. “The Triad stripped my ability to bind souls, and those angels who had planned to use my gift were punished since they gave in to carnal temptation before tying their lovers’ souls to theirs.”

  “How could they have given in to carnal temptation? Angels don’t have solid forms in the human realm.”

  “In the in-between world they do. They can touch those humans who have recently died in order to offer them comfort. From those, the angels picked humans, seduced them, and…”

  “The Triad found out and punished the angels, sending them to the Underworld as sex demons.” Rowan finished her stepmother’s words once it became apparent Minerva wouldn’t. She knew the basic story of how the sex demons ended u
p in her father’s realm, but these newest details gave her a better understanding of the Triad’s anger with Minerva.

  “And the lovers they had smuggled into the heavens were tossed back to the mortal realm. It wasn’t the angels’ fault that they gave in to the lust or chose partners so quickly. They were starved for affection. I should have warned them to wait. With the soul of a human tied to them, the Triad wouldn’t have been able to punish them. The deity would’ve come to accept the unions I allowed them to form, especially once it saw how much stronger love made its warriors.”

  Minerva had meant well. That much was clear from the passionate expression she wore. “I’m sorry.”

  Minerva shrugged. “Sorry doesn’t help, daughter. Neither does regret, but you are learning that, aren’t you?”

  “I suppose so.”

  The ex-goddess of love returned to the table and plucked a strip of bacon from the pile on the dish. “Did I answer your questions?”

  “I have one more.” Rowan waited until Minerva glanced at her. “Is Trevor Kai’s reincarnation?”

  “I can’t answer that as I’ve never looked upon the human, but I do know Kai’s soul is in the human realm now. The only advice I have for you in that regard is to trust your instincts.”

  That wasn’t the answer Rowan had hoped for, but at least she’d learned two important details—Kai had been her soul mate, and his reincarnation was somewhere in the mortal world. “Thank you, Minerva.”

  “You’re welcome, daughter. I hope my words helped you. I’m trying to make amends for my sins. I have many to atone for.”

  “They have.” Rowan reached for the curtain blocking off the doorway, but paused before pushing it aside. She faced her stepmother. “Pay a visit to my father. He’s hurting.”

  “I know. I am too, but I can’t push him too hard.”

  “I hope you succeed in mending your relationship. For all our sakes. He needs you.”

  Minerva glanced at her hand where interlocking circles marked her as a mated female. “I refuse to lose my mate. He’s mine, and even if he never allows me in his bed again, he will have my love and support.” She raised her gaze to Rowan. “And you should feel the same way about yours. Dead or not, he is still a part of you. He will live on in your memories.”

  “I do, and once Trevor joins the Teulu, I’ll never lose him.” Calan couldn’t return soon enough. Until he did, she’d glue herself to Trevor’s side. Nothing could hurt him if she were with him.

  Chapter Twelve

  It had to be eighties night at the bar. Guns N’ Roses was pumping out of the speakers, and the waitresses had their hair frizzed out in that classic “curly-n-wild” look many women from that era had favored. Trevor glanced at the waitresses, looking for one who resembled Allie or at least one who was old enough to have given birth to her. None fit the bill.

  “Are you sure she’s working tonight?”

  “Yes.” Allie scooted under his arm and scanned the room. “That’s her. Behind the bar.”

  The only woman behind the bar had her black hair in a high side ponytail and wore big, purple hoop earrings. Bright and exaggerated makeup highlighted facial features that didn’t remotely resemble Allie’s angelic ones, but the woman was pretty, if not a little tired looking and sad.

  “She doesn’t look much older than me. You’ve got to be mistaken.”

  Allie squeezed his arm. “She was young, really young. That’s why she gave me up.”

  “I thought you said you never talked to her. How do you know so much about her?”

  “My adoptive mom kept in touch with her. She gave me her letters when I turned seventeen. That’s why I know she’s in danger.”

  Allie stepped forward. He grabbed her arm. “What are you talking about?”

  “She’s a maiden.”

  “As in one of Minerva’s beloved handmaidens?” Ian had told Trevor about his mom’s maidens. Ian had been concerned about what would happen to them since Minerva had lost her title as the goddess of love. Minerva had assured him they’d continue to fulfill their role, only without her guidance. Honestly, that worried Trevor. Even the noblest could turn wicked without someone to rein them in when they strayed.

  “She’s number seven. Come on.” Allie dragged him toward the empty bar. Everyone else in the place had congregated near the dance floor, where a Kiss imitation band was setting up. “I want to talk to her.”

  He studied Allie’s mother for some indication that she was different from the other waitresses in the bar or from any woman he’d met, for that matter. Nothing special popped out. The woman was as ordinary as could be.

  “Hi, Alana.” Allie hopped onto the stool in front of where the woman was pulling a draught of beer. “It’s me. Allie.”

  Alana dropped the mug she’d been filling. Beer sprayed over her forearms. She yanked a towel off the rack and rubbed at her skin. “Jen. My name’s Jen. Not Alana.”

  “I’m sorry.” Allie lowered her gaze. “I thought you were someone else.”

  Jen flicked her gaze to where Trevor stood just behind Allie, then leaned over the bar, pressing her forehead to Allie’s. “You’re not mistaken, daughter, but I go by the name Jen. Please use it, and do not refer to me as your mother.”

  “Got it. Jen it is.” Allie grinned, but it wasn’t real. It never reached her eyes.

  Jen, aka Alana, stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why are you here?”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “There’s the phone.” Jen motioned to the battered, corded landline that was probably a leftover from the eighties. “If you knew where I worked, you could’ve called. I have no desire to see you in person. If I did, I would’ve been in touch.”

  Allie stared at the phone but didn’t answer.

  “That’s what I told her. She wanted to talk to you in person because she said you wouldn’t believe her otherwise. Somehow, I’m thinking you, of all people, would’ve believed her,” Trevor said to fill the awkward silence.

  Jen studied him. Her gaze hardened, disapproval sliding into her expression. “Who are you to Allie? Her boyfriend?”

  “Trevor’s just a friend. I don’t date.”

  “You’re going to have to soon, you know.” Jen gave her a sympathetic look that didn’t match the topic of conversation. “Before the wrong man decides to make you his.”

  He rested his hand on Allie’s shoulder. “Nobody’s going to hurt Allie, if that’s what you’re getting at. She’s always protected.”

  “By who? You?” Jen raised a brow.

  The condescending look annoyed him. He stepped forward.

  “Yes, by me and by Arawn’s children.” There was no use hiding the knowledge of the Huntsmen from the woman. Human or not, she was intimately aware of the hidden world Trevor had recently discovered.

  “So you’re with them now, aren’t you?” Jen jerked her chin in Trevor’s direction. “The Hunters.”

  “Yes, but Trevor’s not one yet, which is why I brought him. I thought you wouldn’t want them to know about you.”

  Jen held his gaze. The disapproving look softened. She sighed and shook her head. “He’ll never be one.”

  “What do you mean? I will earn my acceptance.”

  “I’m sure you already have.”

  Jen gave him a small, wan smile. She dropped her elbows to the counter and leaned toward Allie, effectively dismissing him. He wanted to uncover the reason behind her comment. Could she see something about him that made her say that? He didn’t know what powers the maidens possessed. He held his tongue. This was Allie’s visit, not his.

  “Now, say what you came to say. I want you out of this town. There’s evil lurking here.” Jen tucked a lock of hair behind Allie’s ear, a tender gesture that didn’t match her earlier words.

  Allie glanced over her shoulder, no doubt to assure their privacy. There was nobody close. The band was warming up, and the bar patrons were seated in front of the stage, ready for the show.
/>   She faced her mom. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. We think there’s a redcap in town.”

  “I know. I’ve seen him.”

  He moved closer to Jen. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “What does he look like?” Trevor asked.

  “Tall, dark hair, black eyes, attractive, but he has a scar—”

  “On his face, stretching from here”—he dragged his fingers from his temple to his mouth—“to here. Right?”

  “Yes.”

  Trevor sat on the stool next to Allie and leaned forward. “His name’s Craig, and he’s one of three redcaps that are hidden from the power of the Hunt. They’re all brothers. There was a fourth one, but we killed him a couple of months ago.”

  “They can’t be redcaps, then. You have to be mistaken.” Jen straightened her shoulders. Her eyes widened. Fear? Excitement? He couldn’t tell. “Arawn’s Teulu was created for the specific purpose of eliminating those tainted by Chaos.”

  Oh yeah, the maiden knew a whole lot about the Huntsmen’s world. He would have to gather the details around the maidens. If there were more maidens alive, the Hunters might very well benefit by pulling them into the battle against the Unseelie Court. Who better to help them than a group of women who’d lived countless lifetimes and retained the knowledge of the past?

  “Trust me, they’re redcaps, and they know about Minerva’s maidens. At least Raul, the one that was killed, knew about them.” Trevor quickly recounted how Raul had killed Harley’s mom, whom he had claimed had been his soul mate, and about how Raul went on to steal enough of Harley’s Seelie blood that he could break his and his brothers’ ties to Dar.

  Jen chuckled. “They want to save their souls. Good for them.”

  “Explain.” The demand came out harsher than he wanted, but the knowledge Jen offered would be invaluable in the hunt for the brothers. If the Huntsmen could learn more about how the redcaps thought, they’d have a better chance at tripping them up.

  “Arawn offers sinners a chance to earn redemption, but they wouldn’t be able to earn it tied to Dar. He’s evil. Harley’s not.”