I enjoyed making the naughty Wiccan blush. “Let me get that coffee for you. Rowle, can I pour you a cup?”
“Certainly, the cups are in the cabinet to the left and above the pot.”
Before I could cancel my tat’s magic, I heard the sounds of heavy breathing and moans coming from the other guest room. Again? I canceled the tat and fetched the coffee.
With the three of us consuming coffee and enjoying the fire, I decided I had postponed things long enough. It time for business. “Rowle, that was a nasty little trick with that booby-trap in New Braunfels. Damn near killed me, but what I’m really curious about is how you got to Alex so soon after he was reaped. You didn’t have anything to do with his death, did you?”
Rowle set down his cup and frowned at me. “Booby-trap? I don’t know anything about any booby-trap and I definitely had nothing to do with Alex’s untimely demise. He’s my descendant and while I’m greatly appreciative that Verðandi chose to reap him, I would never take the chance of letting him die just to see if she would. As I said, her lack of reaping two of my grandchildren led to our breakup.”
I set my own cup aside and stared at the older Wanderer. “You expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with either event? I was only in New Braunfels to see if Alex was there. You getting to him so soon after his reaping and my being surprised at his motel seems a trifle too much of a coincidence.”
Rowle’s hands rose, palm up, and spread. “Raphael, I assure you I have never been to New Braunfels. Well, let me rephrase that, I haven’t been to New Braunfels in at least one hundred years. It was a sleepy cow town with a lot of German immigrants when one of my descendants moved there shortly after the Texas revolution. I stopped by to check on them and haven’t really been back since.”
Could I believe him? I glanced at Cris to see she was studying Rowle’s features. Was she getting a reading on his soul? Could she tell if he was being honest?
“Okay, if you haven’t been to New Braunfels, how do you explain being able to reach Alex? I can’t understand how you could have found him so quickly if you’d never met the boy.”
“That’s easily explained. Many years ago, not long after Verðandi’s betrayal, I worked up a spell that would let me know if any of my descendants were reaped by a Valkyrie. When Alex’s death and resurrection triggered the spell I flew to him.”
That was a surprise. That he could create such a spell was impressive. That he’d had it active for nearly two hundred years was astonishing.
“If that’s so, why didn’t you find me when I was reaped?”
Rowle gave me a sad smile. “I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t looking for an apprentice at that time. I had other matters on my mind and when I saw Walt had gathered you in, I was comfortable that he’d do a good job training you.”
I frowned, finished the last of my coffee, and set the cup aside.
“Rowle, if you were comfortable, why did you kill Walt? My training was far from complete.”
“As I stated yesterday, Verðandi kept putting you Wanderers in my path. That none of them would leave me be without a fight was not my issue, it was hers. I would have happily let you continue your training with Walt. I’d hoped to get you to join me after your training was done, but seeing as I had ended your training early by killing Walt, I knew you would be reluctant to become my apprentice and let me finish what Walt had started.”
I half rolled my eyes and shook my head. “You had that much right. Killing Walt will never be justified in my eyes.”
He nodded and an air of remorse hung around him. “I know. Would it help to say that I regretted it? I did you know, not so much for taking his life, but for leaving you without a mentor. Tell me something, Raphael. Why didn’t Verðandi reassign you to another Wanderer to finish your training? There were several available and yet she let you continue on your own rather than helping you.”
“I, I don’t know why she didn’t. I didn’t see her for years after Walt’s death and I’ve always assumed that we only get one mentor. Are you saying that is not usual?”
“Not unheard of, but it is unusual. In my lifetime, I’ve seen three Wanderers killed before they were able to finish training their apprentices. In those cases, Verðandi sent them another Wanderer to finish what had begun. In all three cases, the apprentices were much further along in their training than you were.”
“Then why didn’t she reassign me?”
“Regrettably, I believe it was because you were my descendant. I think it was a punishment for me having the audacity to leave the ranks of the Wanderers.”
“Why would she take it out on me? She’s the one who chose me to be a Wanderer.”
Rowle shrugged. “Who knows the minds of the gods?”
I stood and walked to the fire. While considering Rowle’s words, I added a couple of logs and then stirred the coals until the fire was roaring.
“All right, Rowle, assuming I believe that you had nothing to do with Alex’s death or the trap I sprung in New Braunfels. Are you expecting me to believe you had nothing to do with the shades that possessed Alex and Laura?”
“Raphael, I’m shocked that you think I would allow a shade to possess one of my descendants. I admit to doing a lot of things in my long life that could be construed as bad, some exceptionally
