A/N: This would be the third installment in my "Faith" series. It'll concentrate more on Reid trying to prove himself to Rowan, and Rowan healing from Abel leaving a few months ago. There are also those warlocks out to kill her, and she still has to come into power as Keeper of the Covenant.

Disclaimer: I own nothing from the movie

I. Time of Dying

On this bed I lay
Losing everything
I can see my life
passing me by
Dead, I fall asleep
Is this all a dream?
Wake me up,
I'm living a nightmare
-Three Days Grace

Junior Year

They have kept me in this fetid dungeon for I do not know how long with only the rats for company. The rats are not so bad; rather, it is the dead, skeletal corpse in the corner still hanging from chains bolted into the stone wall that I find less than agreeable. I do not know what he had done to deserve a stay in here, but obviously he had died before he could be persecuted in the center of the village. Like I will be.

"It's your day," Pope laughs cruelly.

I have come to hate his voice. It is poison and it infects everything. His poison has turned the rest of the Covenant against me. They are convinced that I mean to steal their powers, no; I only want to help them control them, as I was meant to do. It was Pope's power I was going to bind, for he is the most out of control, the most dangerous, most reckless. Insane. He might have been so before he even got his powers. But he was definitely addicted when he had Ascended.

Pope unlocks the shackles around my ankles and wrists. I have not been fed in days, and I am weak with hunger and thirst. Not that that matters too much right now, for I know today I will die. Pope nearly drags me up the steps and outside. The sun hurts my eyes after being so long in the darkness. The villagers have come out to watch my execution. There is judgment and fear in their eyes. Some shield their darling children from me, some point and exclaim that I am what the Devil looks like and to take heed.

If only they knew.

They spit at me, hurling curses and rotten food as I pass…

Rowan tossed in bed.

In her dream she was locked in a dungeon…

…and the light hurt her eyes when a man took her out. People threw things at her and spit vile curses. She couldn't figure out what she had done to earn their enmity. She felt weak, sick, and she was filled with fear. The view was different, and she realized that she was taller, and her long hair was gone, her hands were that of an old man, fingernails broken and filthy. She wore only rags.

Rowan was more confused than ever. How had she gotten here? Where was her body?

The shouting increased. How could such a small community raise such noise? Up ahead, she saw something that made her ice cold with dread. It was a pyre. Her pyre. There were four men standing sentry around it. It was obvious they held some sort of status in this village.

Who…?

Rowan gasped.

"Caleb!" she yelled.

The voice was not hers. It was deep and scratchy with an accent she couldn't define.

"Caleb!" she tried again.

The man with her older brother's face stared placidly at her. Of course, she probably didn't look like Rowan Faith Danvers, his little sister.

Or…an ancestor, anyway.

The man who looked like Reid called silence to the crowd of villagers.

"Today, we burn Lucius, who has been charged with the grievous crime of witchcraft!" Even here and now, the women were beguiled by his cerulean blue eyes, and blond hair that shone in the sun. They hung on his every word.

Pope tossed her to the ground and she hit the earth with a painful thud that resonated throughout her emaciated body.

Pogue and Tyler grabbed her by either arm, thin as sticks, and walked her up the pyre.

"He will be tied to this stake…" Reid narrated.

Rowan shut him out. She was near hyperventilating with fear. The pyre was at least three feet high. They pushed her against the stake, her spine digging into the wood. They tied her wrists, cutting off the circulation, then tied her abdomen.

"Don't do this," she pleaded. "Pogue. Tyler. Please!"

They looked at her oddly. "You are demented, Lucius," the man who looked like Pogue accused.

"If you had not gone power hungry…" Tyler trailed off, shaking his head in regret.

She felt hot tears course down her face. A face that she knew wasn't hers. Rowan breathed heavily. They piled wood, and bundles of sticks and straw around her feet, ankles and calves.

"Die, Devil!" the village cried.

"Caleb!" she cried out for her brother.

His familiar brown eyes stared at her, but not with the love and tenderness they usually had for her.

Smoke filled her nostrils as the wood and straw began to burn. She looked down at her feet, at the flames that crept closer to her flesh.

"Caleb!" Rowan coughed. "Please!"

The villagers and the crackling of flames drowned out her voice. She felt the heat singe her feet and the toes that were not hers recoiled in pain. Her head whipped back, her eyes meeting the sky.

"Rowan…"

She coughed, gagged. Rowan stared through the black smoke for her brother who had called her name. Or was it just in her mind?

"Rowan!"

But the fire was engulfing her now. She could not suppress the cries of abject agony…

"Rowan!" Caleb shook his sister harder, trying to wake her from her nightmare. She screamed like she was in pain, and it gave him chills.

Ernie barked from the noise.

"Wake up!" he yelled.

Her eyes snapped open, and she cried out again. "Caleb!"

"I'm here," he comforted. "I'm right here."

"Cay!"

"Shh," he crooned. "I'm right here, Row."

His sister sobbed in his shoulder as he held her. It wasn't the first time. These nightmares, they were terrifying to hear. She never told him what they were about though. Sometimes she cried out his name, sometimes all of theirs, a lot of the time she said Abel's name, those two syllables rife with sadness at his absence.

"Fire," she said, her voice cracked.

"What?"

"Fire," she repeated.

Rowan felt herself coming out of wherever she had been. By now, she knew that she was experiencing a death that was not hers. But it felt real, because she could feel the pain. She could still smell the smoke, and the odor of burnt flesh. What would happen if she didn't wake up before the flames consumed her?

Her body slumped like an emptied sack. How did she get back here? Rowan looked at her brother, he so resembled the man in her dreams. But here was the concern and love in these brown eyes that the man in her dream did not have.

"You killed me," she whispered.

Caleb reacted as if he'd been slapped.

"All of you. And the fifth. You burned me," she said.

"Rowan…"

"You locked me in a cell with no food and a corpse…" Her voice was becoming erratic, and tears filled her eyes again.

Caleb shook his head. "It was a dream," he told her gently but firmly, his hands cupping either side of her face. "We would never hurt you."

"They looked like you."

"It wasn't us," he said. "You know that."

She blinked slowly, her eyes closed, and stayed that way for so long Caleb thought she had fallen back asleep in an upright position. "It wasn't you," she repeated, then opened her eyes.

Her brother wiped the tears from her face.

"Charged with witchcraft," Rowan muttered idly.

"Yeah?"

She nodded. "At least it wasn't trial by drowning." She sighed. "Been there. Done that."

When Rowan was seven years old she'd been pulled into the Gray Lands at Camp Iwanahee where witches had been put to death. A woman had been given the trial by drowning method, and had pulled Rowan into the barrel with her, almost killing her. Rowan was still afraid of water to this day.

"Time?" she asked.

"It's seven."

"In the morning?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." She smiled tiredly at her pets, Ernie, the German shepherd, Bubbe, the orange tabby cat, and Bruce Lee the ferret. "You guys are probably getting sick of me waking you up, huh? Maybe you should sleep with Caleb instead."

Caleb snorted.

"Sorry, Cay," she said, a veil of dejection overcoming her face.

"It's all right," he told her. "I'm just worried about you."

It had been three months since Abel had left Ipswich with his older brother Asher. Her Nana, Eve Delacroix, had foreseen that if Abel had stayed he would have died. His absence was like a knife through her heart. Some days were better than others, but the nights were either bad or worse. Sometimes her night terrors amalgamated into all her fears and painful experiences. The car crash, Abel leaving, drowning, and now this being burnt at the stake by men who resembled her family.

"I know," she replied. She hated worrying her brother so much. Maybe it would be better if she gagged herself at night so he couldn't hear her scream. "I didn't wake Mom up, did I?"

"I don't think so," he answered neutrally. Probably in a dead sleep from a hangover, he thought with a slight edge of agitation.

"Hey, you hungry?" she asked, forcing cheer in her voice. "I'll make breakfast."

Jesus, she's lost weight, he said to himself when she got up. His sister was small to begin with, so she didn't exactly have much to spare. But he opted not to saying anything just now. If she made breakfast, that meant she would eat and he didn't want to ruin her appetite by voicing more of his concerns.

"Sure," he said, grinning.

Rowan smiled. "Okay. Come on, you guys," she said to the animals. They hopped off the bed and scurried after her.

----

Caleb said he would do the dishes since she cooked and Rowan took him up on that. She went upstairs to shower and change, then made some of her homemade special-blend tea for her mom who used it in lieu of aspirin for her hangovers. It was nice how effective homeopathic remedies could work when you were able to add a dash of magic into the recipe. Rowan's bare feet were quiet as they padded down the hallway to her mother's suite that she had once shared with her dad. Rowan knocked softly before she opened the door. The drapes were drawn, mixing gloom with the dark.

Rowan set the mug of tea by her mom's bed and then opened the drapes a tad.

Evelyn moaned. "Rowan," she partially chastised.

"I brought you some tea," her daughter said ignoring her mom's surliness.

Her mother's eyes were fully open and she saw that Evelyn wasn't as hung over as she thought. Did that mean Rowan had awoken her with her screams this morning and Evelyn had just not come to her?

Rowan fluffed her mother's pillows so she would have some extra support when she sat back. Bubbe sauntered into the bedroom and jumped on Rowan's lap who was facing her mom on the bed. Evelyn blew softly on the tea.

"Thank you, dear," Evelyn said.

Rowan petted Bubbe.

"How did you sleep last night?" her mother asked, concern evident in her eyes.

She shrugged. "Ok."

There was no point in elaborating. It wasn't that her mom didn't want Rowan to tell her what was bothering her, but rather she felt ill equipped to help her daughter with her pain. She saw her youngest missing Abel every day, young love could be so painful, but then again, so could old love. Evelyn knew all too well the bittersweet experience of falling in love with a dashing man and having it fall to pieces no matter how hard you tried to hold it together.

"Are you and your brother ready for school?" Evelyn asked.

Rowan nodded.

Evelyn sighed. "My babies will be off at college soon."

"It's too early for empty-nest syndrome now, Mom," Rowan teased, earning a slight smile from her mother. "Besides, Caleb will be going to Harvard, so he'll be close by."

"And you, Rowan? You have plans for college as well." The tone of a mother was creeping into Evelyn's voice.

"Ah," Rowan said ambivalently, "I thought I'd go out West and join a nudist colony or something. But only for a couple of years."

"Rowan Danvers!" Evelyn exclaimed, then laughed. She shook her head slightly. "What am I going to do with you?" She smiled at her daughter lovingly.

"What's so funny?" Caleb asked.

"You didn't hear, Cay?" Rowan asked, feigning surprise. "I'm becoming a Naturalist after high school."

His eyes nearly bugged out, his sister was forever saying ludicrous things that could pummel you into left field, and he wondered why he was still taken aback by them sometimes. But Rowan grinned innocently, and he smiled and rolled his eyes.

"What are your plans for today?" Evelyn asked them.

"Staying in," Rowan said. Bruce Lee came into the room and hopped up on the bed, Ernie right behind him.

"Isn't tonight that annual party?" her mother inquired, looking at her son.

"At the Dells, yeah," Caleb said.

"Why don't you go with your brother, sweetie?" Evelyn suggested.

Rowan's face scrunched.

"You should be getting out more, Rowan," she said more seriously. "Have some fun."

She had hardly gone out at all this summer. She'd spent four weeks in New Orleans with Nana, Gabriel, Michael and Roz, but she had become a hermit again when she'd returned; except for work at the Drury Lane Bakery (which always reminded her of Abel because he used to work as a mechanic right across the street) and volunteering at the humane society she was practically a ghost.

"Yeah," Caleb said. "If you don't, I'll take you right home."

So now her brother was in on it.

"I can't believe you're encouraging an outing where delinquency is rampant," she said with mock incredulity. She sniffled. "What's the world coming to?"

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