FOREVER The Constantines' Secret: A Covenant Keeper Novel
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“Abigail,” whispered Beth and Delphine together.
“This isn’t possible,” said Beth.
“And yet it is,” said Delphine. “Good lord, Beth. Do you realize this woman is Kahtar’s mother?”
BLOODY ENDING—WOLF WOODS
BETH ROSE TO her feet. “Old Guard!”
“Are you insane?” said Delphine, looking around fearfully.
“I’m close to it I suspect,” said Beth. “It has been a hell of a year. But this is bigger than us, bigger than sneaking off to get some brack tea. One of them pledged to me after my father died.” Her eyes warmed with tears. “He came to me and said he’d listen for my voice no matter where I was, and call if I needed him. I doubt I’ll ever need him more than right now. OLD GUARD!”
“They can’t always hear, even when they listen.”
“He promised. OLD GUARD!” Beth closed her eyes and tried to focus her second voice, reaching like a prayer. “OLD GUARD I NEED YOU!”
She opened her eyes as the giant man shimmered into being inside the small ger.
“Truth Speaker?”
Beth put her hand over her heart. Poor Cotota had backed herself across the ger and into a wall. “I think that this woman is Kahtar’s mother—his first mother.”
The Old Guard blinked at her. Until this moment Beth hadn’t been certain they had eyelids. “Did you know?” she asked, suspecting it was going too far. Old Guard didn’t answer questions, not for her. If they knew her, they’d have had a source for brack tea. “Cotota is called Khunbish by the locals. She has Kahtar’s eyes.”
The Old Guard turned his head to study the woman. Cotota wrapped her arms across her chest, trembling. Her steely eyes were wide and clearly visible.
“She’s who I get brack tea from,” said Beth, hoping it offered the woman some protection. Surely they won’t hurt her. “Maybe you could bring Kahtar?”
“Doorway,” shouted the Old Guard, but though Beth knew that’s what he’d said, it sounded more like music, notes on an unfamiliar instrument sounding strangely from the Old Guard’s mouth.
A young woman with long red hair opened the door of the ger and walked in. “Sorry, the doorway is busy. I can get a message to her.”
“Does she know the warrior of the ages’ mother?”
The woman frowned at Beth’s dirty clothes, and looked over at Cotota. “I don’t think so. Hold still a moment, I’ll ask her.” She moved back through the doorway and reappeared almost instantly, chewing her lip. “I mean no disrespect, Old Guard, but the doorway said—I’m only repeating her words—‘How am I supposed to keep track of every single thing?’ She also said unless the woman is still fertile, she’d be in no further danger from Morning Star.” The young woman eyed Cotota shivering against the wall of the ger. “It’s good, Mother. No one here will hurt you. He is one of ilu’s own.” The redhead pointed at the Old Guard and Beth. “She is the woman Kahtar has joined with—his only wife.”
Cotota straightened. “My Attar, my Kahtar is a good man?”
“See for yourself,” said the redhead.
Kahtar shimmered into view at the side of an Old Guard. A bloody wound cut across his left eye, and Beth felt a twinge of guilt. He’d come looking for her before having an Old Guard heal him. He hurried to her side and wiped smudges from her face, examining her.
“I’m fine,” said Beth. “You’re not here to see me.”
Kahtar glared at Delphine. “We’re going to talk, storyteller. You’ll not be doing this. Does the quester know you’re gone?”
“He’s not my keeper,” said Delphine.
“Only your new Warrior Chief.”
“Kahtar,” said Beth. “This is rather important. Do you recognize this woman?” She indicated Cotota with a dip of her head.
Kahtar looked toward the small woman for the briefest moment. “No.”
“Look at her eyes. Feel her heart.” Beth smiled at him, her heart welling with joy.
Kahtar looked at Cotota for another moment, and his face blanched. “Deda?” he gasped, his voice a hoarse sob.
“Attar, my boy, my Attar.” Cotota ran across the small space and burrowed into Kahtar’s big waist. “My boy! My boy! Where have you been?”
BETH’S OLD GUARD deposited her back in the woods of Kahtar’s veil, almost in the exact same spot Delphine had tessered her from. Beth had a feeling one of the giant men had escorted Delphine back to Aberdyfi and the quester. Kahtar had chosen to visit with his mother.
“Thank you,” said Beth, moving a step away from the shimmering Old Guard, hoping he’d leave even if it would leave her in the dark woods alone. She could see the light of the cabin, and she’d rather face her mother’s sorrow than time alone with an Old Guard. “You know, thank you for coming when I called.”
“The dog,” said the Old Guard. “The one who died.”
Beth shivered under his black gaze. “Wolves,” she said with a trembling voice, and she swallowed.
“We don’t want him,” said the Old Guard.
Beth stared at him for a moment. “Wolves is alive? I thought he died.” But so did I.
“He returned after ingesting your blood.”
“Wolves drank my blood?”
“Absorbed. It was instinct. He lay across your body as you passed. There is a connection of hearts between some humans and canines. Old Guard do not feel a connection with this canine.”
Tears ran out Beth’s eyes and down her cheeks, and she felt her face screw up into a quivering mess. How can I not have run out of tears by now? “Can I have him back?”
“Certainly,” said the Old Guard. He extended his hands in her direction and a dog appeared to drop from thin air. It wasn’t Wolves as she’d seen him last. This shaggy, multi-colored canine looked something like Wolves might have once looked, but younger. “It’s him,” said the Old Guard, and vanished leaving the dog and Beth alone in the dark woods.
The dog looked like a shadow in the night, darker than the forest. He dropped his front end to the ground, his rear playfully humped up like one of the Bactrian Camels from that morning. He barked.
“Wolves?” screamed Beth, running toward him. He jumped into her arms, his tongue consuming her face and hindering her breathing.
“Kahtar is just going to be thrilled about that,” said a voice from the trees, and bright veins of a tesseract appeared in the branches like Christmas lights, illuminating the path.
Wolves stopped drowning Beth with his tongue and raced toward Delphine, tail wagging. The dog halted before he reached her, distracted by his own tail. Beth laughed as he attacked it, yelping.
“Delphine, can you believe this? It’s Wolves.”
Grinning, Delphine shook her head. “I’m really not positive this classifies as a happy ending. That is one messed up dog, even puppy-sized.”
Beth hurried to him and tugged his tail out of his jaws. She kissed it to show the animal it was something good. Wolves wagged it, seemed to identify it as a new playmate this time, and chased it into the forest.
“I love him,” said Beth. “I don’t care if he’s not perfect. Neither am I!”
“True dat, and now that you mention imperfection, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”
“Hmm?” Smiling, Beth watched Wolves’ antics through the skeletal trees.
“Would you be able to forgive the clan if they suddenly started to treat you right?”
Beth stopped smiling and turned to look at Delphine. “They’ve always had my forgiveness. I just don’t like them anymore—at least not most of them. But they’re never going to treat me right. It’s beyond their capability.”
“I guess what I meant was—oh, hell—yanno, I could use my gifting to make at least some of them stop treating you like an outsider.”
“Are you crazy? Don’t you dare! Don’t you believe in free will?” said Beth.
“Of course I do! Look, I owe you one. I want you to have a happy ending. A real one.”
“Unless you ca
n turn back time that’s not going to happen, Delphine. The clan treating me right wouldn’t matter to me unless it was the truth. Besides, the only happy ending I want is to feel the touch of my father’s heart again. Wait. Why do you owe me one? Are you being nice because I did the naked thing at Cerulean Blue?”
Delphine held her gaze like a deer in the headlights. “Ah, yeah. That’s why.”
“You do remember I can tell when you’re lying, right?”
“Shit. Okay. I’ll tell you. Just remember one thing.”
Beth crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at the storyteller.
“I totally love you.”
Hot tears warmed Beth’s eyes as the truth of those words hit her heart. “You’re such a freakin’ cheater! What did you do? If you kissed Kahtar, I swear to God I’ll hurt you.”
“That day in the Arc when you saw Honor kissing me…” Tears formed in Delphine’s dark blue eyes.
“Yeah?” Beth tensed.
“You kept pointing at me and talking, remember?”
“Of course I remember!”
“So, the thing is, your truth can override my stories.”
Beth remembered Delphine shaking her head, trying to get her to pretend not to see her.
“What did you do, Delphine?”
“Well, I tessered some dogs—nice ones—over by Dianta, and I told Honor they were wolves.” Delphine hung her head in shame.
For a moment Beth couldn’t speak. If she hadn’t fought with Honor, the shunning never would have happened. Tears trickled down her cheeks and her face screwed up as a sob escaped her.
“No!” Delphine launched herself at Beth and wrapped her arms around her. “Please, don’t! Please, don’t cry! I couldn’t allow Honor to see me! If you knew why, you’d forgive me in a heartbeat! I swear on my heart you would! Beth, please don’t stop loving me. I’m so sorry!”
Although she heard the truth in Delphine’s words, once she started crying, Beth couldn’t stop. She wrapped her arms around the smaller woman and hung on, sobbing against her neck until her tears ran dry and her back ached from bending over. Delphine clung to her, patting her back and begging forgiveness the entire time.
“I never thought it would be so awful! I’m sorry, Beth. It’s all my fault! If it wasn’t for me you never would have fought with Honor!”
That’s not true. Beth stopped crying and pulled away.
Delphine’s chin quivered and her bottom lip jutted out. Huge tears slipped down her cheeks.
Beth shook her head. “Don’t.” Her voice came out a dry rasp. “Once Honor saw me, we would have fought.”
Delphine shook her head. “Don’t try to make me feel better.”
“I’m not. I don’t do that.” Beth sniffled and pressed a hand against her chest. It ached. Everything was too much and her heart couldn’t take anymore. “You should go.”
Fighting and failing to control the emotion on her face, Delphine nodded.
“Wait!” said Beth, as Delphine stretched out her hand. “I still love you.”
Delphine smiled, but her dimples didn’t show, and the smile brushed against Beth nearly like a lie did.
“No, I really do,” said Beth.
“I know.” A few more tears slipped out Delphine’s eyes. “But you don’t like me.”
Beth considered that, and shrugged. “Maybe not today, but maybe in a few days. I don’t have very many friends.”
A dimple appeared. “I don’t understand why. You’re pretty amazing.”
Reaching out, Beth gave Delphine’s shoulder a quick squeeze. “Thank you for telling me the truth, but you’d better go. I’m tired. Besides, my mom can scan and it’s lit up like a Christmas tree out here. If she senses you making me cry, well, I guess she’s a shieldmaiden.”
“I know. I sensed it. I’ve known other shieldmaidens.” Delphine’s eyes widened. “There’s something else I noticed about your mother, and you.”
“What’s that?” asked Beth.
“You don’t touch each other’s hearts.”
“Exactly how much snooping have you done, Delphine? I wasn’t aware you’d even met my mother.”
“Don’t change the subject. Why don’t you touch your mother’s heart, Beth?”
Beth scowled. “It takes two! She’s always withheld her heart from me.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know! It’s just the way she is, kind of standoffish.”
“Pfft,” said Delphine. “Think harder, Beth. Why would a mother withhold her heart from her child?”
Beth shrugged. “To protect it maybe? Do you think that’s why she did it?”
“I don’t mean to brag, but being a storyteller is sometimes akin to being a fortune teller. We see all sometimes, like this time for instance. Your mother joined, for all intents and purposes, with a seeker man. In order to protect you, and him, she had to keep you from Covenant Keepers. What better way to do that than to hide her heart, and give you absolutely no reason to open yours to the world and search for your own people?”
“There’s no better way,” whispered Beth.
“You could comfort each other through this. She needs you, and apparently she kicked your husband’s ass tonight. You might want to give her something else to do besides beating the fluff out of the clan’s warriors. I think she has anger issues.”
Without another word, Beth spun toward the cabin and ran.
“Enjoy your happy ending,” Delphine hollered after her. “You’re welcome!”
Does anyone ever acknowledge the muse on this page? That merciless witch who refuses to let me sleep at night, infuses my dreams with scenes from the book, and wakes me with the shouted command, “Must. Finish. Book. Now. Nothing else matters!”
Surely someone has mentioned the muse before. The truth is, no sooner would I say, “Thanks for making my life chaotic, giving me unreasonable deadlines, and making it necessary to talk to myself out loud due to the chronic story happening inside my head,” then she’d bellow, “SHUT UP! Why aren’t you working on the NEXT BOOK? Time is a-wasting, slave!”
So, never mind about that tyrant.
Besides, the one who really turns a story into a book, and guides an author, is the editor. My GEC editor went over this story with power tools and heavy machinery, magicking it into the story enclosed. For the wisdom, guidance, and patience, I thank you, Oh Editor. You edit my dreams, trim my verbosity, and punctuate my, like, wordage.
Thanks to my beta readers, Kimro and Lindsay. Also a thank-you to Shieldmaiden for Hire’s story edits!
For my dearest Dear Hubby: thank you for again enduring, especially my chronic night-writing. Whether reading dialogue aloud in my office at three in the morning, subtlety tap-tap-tapping a scene into my phone as you try to sleep beside me, or zoning out of our world and into another, you’ve always been my biggest supporter. I love your guts.
An entrepreneur, wife, mother, and novelist, S.R. Karfelt enjoys spending time with her muse and living outside her comfort zone. She currently resides in the soaring capital of the world.
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www.twitter.com/SRKarfelt
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Table of Contents
About the Book
Title Page
Copyright Information
Dedication
Also by S.R. Karfelt
Forever—The Constantines’ Secret
The Laws of Being
Chapter 1: Bloody Surprise—All Hallows' Eve
Chapter 2: Bloody Strange—Halloween
Chapter 3: Bloody Details—Thanksgiving Eve
Chapter 4: Blood Moon—Bef
ore the Easter Holiday
Chapter 5: Blood and Bone—Beltane
Chapter 6: Bloody Facts—Mother’s Day
Chapter 7: Bloody Crazy—Summer Solstice
Chapter 8: Bleeding Hearts—Hunting Season
Chapter 9: Blood Lust—Harvest Moon
Chapter 10: Bloody Complications—Samhain
Chapter 11: Bloody Dark—Autumn Night
Chapter 12: Bloody End—Hallowmas
Chapter 13: Bloody Hell—Day of the Dead
Chapter 14: Gory Bloody Surprise—All Souls' Day
Chapter 15: Bloody Details—Remember November
Chapter 16: Bloody Truth—Day of Reckoning
Chapter 17: Ugly Truth—Mid-November
Chapter 18: Bloody History—Gales of November
Chapter 19: Bleeding Relatives—Persian Mists
Chapter 20: Bloody Grace—Clan Aberdyfi
Chapter 21: Bloody Sacrifice—The Devil You Know
Chapter 22: Bloody Unexpected—Mongolian Steppes
Chapter 23: Bloody Ending—Wolf Woods
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Visit the Author
Meet the Designers