Authors: Penelope Fletcher
I swept my hands into a graceful oval
– using the gathering and holding motion to help me focus. The
ropes of power whipping around me rushed over my shoulders and
between my legs to sweep into a ball. They twisted and coiled,
merging into a glassy sphere that exploded into golden
flames.
Alec took off across the courtyard
toward Maeve.
Breandan powered toward me until
Conall tackled him, wrapping his hands around his ankles so he
lurched and fell. Conall smashed his head onto the ground and I
felt his consciousness black out.
I drew on the Source. As if my entire
body inhaled, the power was sucked into the pores of my skin and
buzzed. The cloud bloated, doubling in size. Taking a deep breath –
muttering prayers that I would not burn out – I drew deeper and
deeper still until if felt like I was dipped head first in molten
lava. My skin was so hot the sweat that trickled down my back
sizzled. My mouth went dry and the moisture in my eyes evaporated
leaving them itchy.
With a shriek of rage, I flung my arms
open and released my power in a blade of bright light that just
missed Alec as he dove for Maeve and knocked her down but split the
cloud in two. The broiling mist quivered – the reds and oranges
writing in a sycophant harmony – then merged back together, and
deepened into a rich ruby that tainted the heavens. The land was
bathed in a red glow making it seem we had all been dragged to hell
and left there. The air churned and whipped past at ferocious
speeds.
“
Rae!”
I could not have told you who screamed
my name. The wind was too loud.
Standing, I shielded my face with my
hands and pushed forward, angling my body so I could cut through
the wall of wind. I climbed up the stone barricade, my foot
slipping only once as I scaled the dusty rock. I reached the top of
the stones, and set my two feet shoulder width apart.
I ducked when a screaming Cleric’s
flailing body flew past, upward, and was sucked into the spiral of
wind. Seeing it was Samuel I lurched forward and grabbed his ankle,
channeling magic into the stone beneath me to ground us. Yanking
him back down, I took his head in my hands, and forced him to open
his eyes and look at me.
“
Climb down and run,” I
ordered in a calm voice. “Get the others away from
here.”
He nodded repeatedly, his blonde curls
whipping in the wind. “Come with me.”
I frowned; I did not have the time to
see him down safely. “I can’t. Trust me if I could go with you I
would, but my place is here. Go.”
He scaled down without another word
and I watched him to make sure he reached the bottom.
The airstream reversed, sucking into
itself, and the cloud above twisted around and around until it was
the shape of a tapered spike. Lightning cracked the sky and thunder
rolled. A freak spray of rain pelted my body. I staggered back,
arms flapping in circles until I regained my balance.
I swiped my hands over my face,
dragging the wet and heavy hair that lashed my neck and shoulders
out the way so I could see.
The tunnel of wind swooped over my
head and touched down on the ground, blocking everything and
everyone from view. It became eerily quiet, the wind a distant roar
in the background. I could hear my own panicked gasping as I stood,
waiting, anxious.
I was trying to fight, I
knew I should not give up … I just could not see
what
I was trying to
fight.
There was a pulse of energy overhead.
My head snapped up, and I stared into the churning ruckus,
searching.
“
You cannot defeat me,” a
voice alleged sympathetically behind me.
I spun on my heel and tried to step
back, but the he-witch grabbed my throat in his hand and squeezed.
I swung my fist in a punch, but my hand sailed straight through
him. He was made of nothing but shadows and smoke.
“
It is my power that holds
you not my body.” He cocked his head at me and frowned as if I
should have understood this.
His eye sockets hollowed and his mouth
opened to an unnaturally large size. He inhaled me, rather the
essence of me, and I whimpered as the world spun and
lurched.
“
The High Lord had nothing
on you, did he?
Ní fhéadfadh sé seasamh in
aghaidh mo fhéadfadh.
But you … you are
powerful, Rae.” He chuckled as he said my name and I could not help
my eyes widening. He drew me closer and whispered in my ear. “Yes,
I know your name, Priestess.” He spat the word. “Do you know mine?”
The hand of shadow at my throat tightened. Black spots danced
across my vision. “Do you know who I am? I am the one who is going
to destroy everything and everyone you love. Your time has ended;
you just don’t realize it yet.” His power rolled over me, trying to
scare me into submission. “And the one you’re bonded to … hmm …
would you like to know his fate?”
My eyes snapped fully open
and my nature flared. Furious. Enraged. Whoever this man was he
just made a mistake. He almost had me. Almost. But he’d made the
ultimate mistake in threatening the one person I would die for.
When it came to protecting myself I would always hesitate, always
think twice about taking a life. But
nobody
would be able to threaten
Breandan without being annihilated. This witch was about to learn
that. What I should and could do became all too clear.
I called magic to me and drew it
through the amulet of power. I took hold of it so forcefully and
quickly I thought my head might pop off from the pressure. Then I
tapped into the amulet of protection, and felt his hold on me
loosen, as I focused my strength on the ever-present hum of energy
from the amulet of wisdom. It was incomparable in its wonder, and I
felt superior magics to rival the clout of the gods themselves come
under my control. The amulet of wisdom gifted me with the ability
to think in separate channels. I protected myself, channeled the
Source, and became aware that Breandan was close, ready to help if
I needed him. I shut that channel of thought down. I was strong
enough to manage this task alone, and the longer I focused on our
bond the more it sucked me in.
I reached out this time and
grabbed
him
by the
throat. My hand did not pass through him – it was able to take
hold. It was like I pulled more of his spirit from wherever it was
into this form so I could touch him.
Then something strange happened.
Recognition. It was like I looked at myself in the mirror but saw
different features.
“
I know you,” I
whispered.
The shock on his face reflected mine.
He grunted then closed his eyes and disappeared.
He reappeared a few steps back, and
held up his hand. A smooth edged beam of azure light grew in his
palm. The light darted toward me and I sent a shield of magic to
smother it, but before my spell could take effect, the light broke
into a dozen forks. I screamed as they struck me in the chest and
scorched the stone beneath me.
I staggered back gasping for breath
and trembling. There was no pain. I had expected my skin to sizzle
off, but rather than an overwhelming agony it felt like butterflies
danced on my chest, wings fluttering across my skin.
The he-witch started, jerked back.
Muttering an incantation, he watched me with rapt
attention.
A bolt of lightning struck the ground
beside me. My head flew back as another raced from the black sky to
earth and struck me square in the forehead. The lightning glanced
off me, hit the ground, and disintegrated. My hand flew to my
circlet, now scalding hot and burning my brow. It cooled as I
pushed my hair from my eyes with a shaking hand.
The he-witch pursed his lips.
“Interesting,” he murmured and his voice echoed deeply.
After several beats of my heart
kicking my chest in fear, and adrenaline making my entire body
quiver, it became clear there would be no aftershock of pain
either.
The Vodoun shield protected
me.
Setting my jaw, I lifted my chin and
blazed determination. Pacing forward I raised both my hands,
increasing my step into a skip as a rough fireball flared into
being. I threw my remaining strength – physical and emotional –
into hurling the flaming sphere at him as he swept his hand in a
graceful arc and conjured a maelstrom of liquid fire.
Both orbs of magic collided and it
sounded like a clash of boulders. The avalanche of power exploded
with an earth shattering bellow that resonated, and expanded in a
mushroom of dazzling violet light streaked with swirls of blue and
slashes of green.
I was kicked back, flying head first
off the barricade through the eddy of wind and lightning as it
collapsed into nothing.
The shadow figure lost
shape and form; his darkness melting into the breeze and swirling
away. “
Feicfidh mé thú go luath,
deirfiúr
,” his alluring voice boomed in my
ears then was gone.
Weightless, directionless, I sailed
backward until I slammed into the dirt. My head smacked down,
bounced, then cricked oddly as I tumbled over myself before I lay
in a rumbled heap on my side.
I was motionless, staring up into the
sky, watching as the clouds rolled away to reveal the gleaming
moon.
The he
-witch
was gone. His darkness had left. I
felt
it.
My choke reflex kicked in, and I
coughed, my whole body shaking from the force of it. My head lolled
to the side, and my wings stirred restlessly on my back.
“
Ow
,” I muttered.
Already my nature scratched my skin
from the inside out, demanding that I get up and find him. Then
there was the overpowering need from the bond pushing me to seek
him out. He was close, so close. Lying in such proximity to him was
like someone pressing hot coals into my pores.
I sat up looking around, searching.
Wood chips, stones, and bits of rubble fell from my hair, and
clothes, but I did not care. I could not think or focus on anything
else anymore. My nature had grown in potency since we had first
been separated, and now it demanded I find him, no more
waiting.
Over the clearing smoke, Disciples
dragged themselves up, looking around bewildered. Some still
crouched on the floor looking up at the sky with horrified
expressions on their faces.
I ignored them.
There were no more distractions.
Nothing else I had to worry about or focus on.
I had done my part.
Cleric Tu was dead and his followers
were retreating. I had defeated the he-witch and dispelled the
black magic from the Temple. The shifter twins were free and no
doubt reunited with their Alpha. My eyes drifted closed, there were
no more distractions, no other dangers to face or fight.
I let my instincts guide me, feeling
my pulse quicken as my gaze sought him out.
Close. He was close.
There.
My eyes locked with his, as he stood,
victorious in his own battle. Conall struggled to pull himself onto
all fours in front of him, body swaying.
I inhaled in a hiss, his
unique scent of earth and sunlight, and bared my teeth.
Mine.
I lurched up and lunged forward only
to slam into something immovable. Seeing nothing, I tried to run
around it but there was no end. I shrieked and whacked my fist
against it. The barrier of air gave under the force of my might,
but held, not letting me past. Not that I was concerned, Breandan
had seen me and was already speeding over. A few more moments and
he would be in my arms.
My entire focus was on my love when a
golden spark shot in front of him and caught his shoulder. Planting
his feet, Conall barely missed Breandan’s swipe for his head. My
fairy-boy snarled – trying to shake his hold – but Conall held
firm.
“
Wait, Rae,” a pained voice
said from behind me. Ana moved into my line of sight and there was
a fierce look of concentration on her face.
She muttered something under her
breath. An incantation. I hissed at her, and reached out with my
own magics, knowing that if it came to brute force I could smash
any spell she threw at me to pieces. Right now, she was my greatest
enemy. She kept me from him.
Had I not done enough? Had I not been
put through enough? Had I not yet earned the right to feel his
hands on me?
I just wanted to hold him.
I pushed magic at the shield. It
trembled, but held. Again, I threw magic at the wall, but still it
held. Enraged, I hammed at it with my fists and mind. Cracks, I
could feel them, and I hammered harder.
“
Run!” Ana screeched
collapsing. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
Conall spun to me, possibly hoping to
try reason. With one look at my face, he let Breandan go, and
darted over to where the white witch shivered on the floor. He
scooped Ana into his arms and blurred away. Three cougars were hot
on his heels, one with a goblin-child clinging to her
back.