The Silver Rose by Susan Carroll Read Free Book Online Page A

arms, stretching up a paw to pat urgently at her chin.
    “You have no time to waste, daughter of the earth. You must hide yourself. Aristide may be a great predator, but he does not possess the skill necessary to track you.”
    That was perfectly true, Miri thought. She was familiar with every glade, every rock, and every cove of this island. There were at least a dozen places she could secrete herself where she would never be found. She could flee just as she and her sisters had done all those years ago.
    The reflection left a bitter taste in Miri’s mouth and something inside her revolted. No! She’d be damned if she’d go to ground like a terrified rabbit. This was
her
island,
her
home. She would not be driven out a second time.
    Miri’s mind worked furiously, trying to calculate how much time she had. Simon could not know where she now lived, but he would find someone to betray her. He was infernally good at that. The witch-hunter would track her to her little cottage tucked deep in the woods.
    And then . . . Miri’s mouth set in a grim line. This time she would be waiting and give Simon Aristide exactly the kind of reception he deserved.

Chapter Two
    T HE DEVIL HAD returned to Faire Isle.
    Doors slammed closed, frightened mothers herded their children inside, and alarmed faces peered out through cottage windows as Simon cantered Elle through the lanes of Port Corsair. He was accustomed to the fear he engendered, had once done his best to inspire such terror, a useful tool of his trade. Now it only left him feeling tired and isolated.
    They obviously remembered him well on Faire Isle, despite how much his appearance had altered. Strange, because he felt so removed from the young man who had invaded this island years ago. So arrogant, so infernally self-righteous, believing that he knew all about the nature of evil, only to discover that he knew very little about the darkness that could lurk in the human heart, least of all his own.
    Le Balafre, they had called him in hushed whispers, the Scarred One, and Simon had reveled in the fearsome title, young fool that he was. He had stormed onto Faire Isle with an army at his back, determined to find the legendary
Book of Shadows
and bring the sorcerer Renard to justice.
    Justice? Or had it merely been revenge? Even after all this time, Simon wasn’t sure. Either way, he doubted it made much difference to the women of Faire Isle. All around him, he could still see the scars he’d left on this small community. Shops that had been burned to the ground and never rebuilt, cottages with gaping doorways and windows. A litter of rubble, broken hopes, and disrupted lives. The towers of the abandoned convent at the top of the hill loomed over him, all the more stark and bleak because of the keening winds and lowering skies.
    Simon stared up at the empty buildings, feeling as though he was passing through a graveyard of every mistake he’d ever made, all those regrets he scarce dared examine for fear his entire life would unravel in his hands.
    He guided Elle onto the road that led into the woods, leaving Port Corsair and its silent reproach far behind him. The overburdened clouds looked ready to unleash a furious hail of rain at any moment. He might have done better to bide his time at the harbor inn and wait for the storm to pass.
    But time was against him. The Sisterhood of the Silver Rose waxed stronger and more cunning by the hour. Simon believed the witches’ next attack would finish him. It was damnably hard to swallow his pride and come seeking aid from a woman he’d once betrayed. But delay would not make facing Miri Cheney any easier.
    As the forest closed around him, Simon reined Elle to a walk. Thunder boomed, lightning flaring down the road ahead like the ordnance of some distant battle. Not the best place to be during a storm, although in Simon’s view, these woods were not a good place to linger at any time.
    The moss-covered trees were like towering giants,