He nodded and tried to sit up. I gripped his shoulders, focused energy on my muscles, and helped him to his feet.
“Jesus, that hurt,” he said.
As soon as he was standing, he bent over and retched a mass of black something onto the pavement.
“Are you alright?”
Rafe shook his head and braced his palms against his knees as he retched again. This time it was dry heaves. “I don’t think so. I don’t feel right inside.”
He straightened and blinked rapidly. He wiped at his eyes and then raised his face toward me. “How bad is my face?”
“It’s burned, but healing. I cast healing on you.”
“I can’t see.” He stopped to cough and a cloud of black dust billowed out in a cloud. When he got his breath back, he added, “The gunk burned my eyes.”
“Jesus, but the healing spell will fix anything, right?”
“It had better. I’ve never seen it fail, but eyes are tricky.”
“Then you should be able to see in a couple hours at most,” I said with some relief.
“I hope. I’m not willing to contemplate not being able to see.”
“Rafe, what was that explosion?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it. It must be a night magic spell, but my ward should have detected it and triggered.”
A small crowd of people had come out of their motel rooms. Most were not coming any closer, but one or two brave souls were cautiously approaching us.
Beast let out a low growl that would have made a grizzly back off and they stopped moving forward. A second later, they began to back away.
“Rafe, we should get out of here before the authorities show up. Someone is bound to have called nine-one-one by now.”
“Yes, of course, I don’t feel well enough to handle questions. Mount up.”
He put out a hand and Beast stepped beside him. Rafe grabbed a fistful of mane and then froze. “What the hell?”
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I hurried to him. I grabbed his shoulders thinking he was weak.
“My levitation tat. It’s not working,” he hissed.
“What?”
“It’s like it’s not there. I can’t feel it.” Suddenly, Rafe began to pat his chest, belly, and then upper arms. “Gone. They’re all gone.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, not understanding.
He turned to me with that vacant stare that was so disconcerting and for the first time since I’d known him, he looked afraid. “My tattoos are gone.”
Chapter 15
alexander
“Rowle? As in the rogue Wanderer who’s been trying to jumpstart Ragnarök?” I asked when I was able to breathe again.
“The one and only,” Rowle said with a smile.
I took a cautious step backwards toward the door.
“I–I thought you died in Colorado Springs last November.”
Rowle waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “As a great man once said, ‘the report of my death was an exaggeration.’ As you can see, I am very much alive.”
“Really? Well, heh, heh, that must be irritating, but what do you want with me?” I asked as I took another backward step.
“We can’t very well discuss your future if you try to run away without hearing me out,” Rowle said. “Have a seat, I won’t bite.”
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “Ah, I–I’m comfortable standing.”
“I don’t repeat myself, Apprentice.”
Knowing the power this lunatic controlled, I understood that my only hope of survival lay in not pissing him off. I’d have to humor the bastard until I could find a way to get the hell out of his reach. I crossed the small room and took a seat in the only other chair.
Once I was seated, Rowle smiled. “That’s better Alexander, or do you prefer Alex?”
I swallowed hard and tried to grin. “Alex is good.”
“Excellent,” Rowle said with a feeling of good humor in his tone. “Now, I’m sure you have countless questions and I’ll answer them all in time.”
“I’m sorry, but why do you need an apprentice? I thought you’d shunned the service of Fate.”
Rowle nodded. “A valid question. I did stop answering Verðandi’s summonings two centuries ago, but the recent events have left me with the idea that while I may still have several centuries in me, I am mortal and thus I feel the need to leave something behind when I’m gone. I’ve decided that you will be my legacy.”
Oh, hell and damnation. What could I say to that? From everything Tess had told me, this guy was bad, really bad. According to her, he’d killed all of the Wanderers except for Rafe. I wondered how long it would take Rafe and Tess to find me. Surely, they were looking by now.
I noticed that Rowle was waiting for a response. I cleared my throat and tried not to squeak. “Ah, I don’t want to appear disrespectful. In fact, I have tremendous respect for your power, but aren’t you the bad guy?”
Rowle laughed softly, but there was little humor in his laugh.
“Alex, being the bad guy is a matter of perspective. All of the Wanderers have done things that would lead others to consider them bad guys. In our own minds, we are the good guys. I’m not as bad as some, but granted I’m also not as good as some others.”
I pursed my lips and gave a small tilt of my head. I had to be delicate. I certainly didn’t want to have him mad at me, but damn.
“Starting Ragnarök, that’s not a typical thing I think of a good guy doing.”
“It’s not necessarily an evil thing either. Sure, the gods get carried away when they start fighting each other, but they’ve been doing it since the beginning of time. My goal was to get these gods fighting each other until they were too weak
