The Morrigan's Curse (22 page)

JAX STOOD ON THE
flooded street in his soaked clothes next to Evangeline, whom he'd led away from Griffyn's dead body, and stared up at the mountainside. The fog was finally dissipating—only to be replaced by smoke from the fire. Jax watched the distant flames worriedly while Albert Ganner radioed for help transporting the unconscious Condor, Madoc, and Gawan—and the fully awake and glowering Kel—to a secure location. “You know there's innocent kids out there in the fighting, right?” Jax asked one of the Dulac clansmen.

The man nodded. “The Morgans are doing their best to extract them.”

“I'm sending Jax and the Emrys leader back to headquarters via the brownie tunnels,” Ganner reported into the radio. “Under guard. Jax seems to think the other Emrys might arrive on her own. Keep an eye out for her.” He signed off.

“Evangeline's not a prisoner,” Jax objected. “She doesn't need a guard.”

Ganner was unapologetic. “With one Llyr still on the loose and a whole lot of crazy Aerons trying to burn down the mountainside, it's for the protection of both of you.”

Ganner's man didn't let go of either Jax or Evangeline as they entered one of the brownie holes on the street and jumped, with brownie assistance, back to the Bedivere house. The high-ceilinged entry hall was a beehive of activity centered around Sheila Morgan, who wore full combat gear in spite of being stationed at the mansion. Their guard tried to direct them toward her to give a report, but Jax resisted. “I need to see Riley first, let him know we're okay. Then we'll tell you guys anything you want to know.”

“He's in the banquet room,” the man said, pointing. “Make it quick. We still have people in the field needing any intelligence you've got.”

Jax took off in that direction with Evangeline right behind him. “You're sure Addie will meet us here?” she asked.

“Stink will bring her,” Jax insisted, faking confidence, because he really wasn't sure—not until he threw open the banquet-room doors and heard the commotion inside. Riley was bellowing and slapping at his leg. His jeans were wet, and Tegan held an empty metal pan in her hands.

“Really?” Riley exclaimed indignantly at the Kin girl
on the other side of the room. “We save your life, and
you set my pants on fire
?”

“Where are my sister and Jax?” Addie shouted back, clenching her hands like she was preparing to call up fireballs.

“Addie, we're here!” Evangeline rushed into the room and flung her arms around her sister. Addie cried out and returned the hug enthusiastically.

Stink scampered up Jax's clothing and onto his shoulder. Jax grinned at Riley and offered him a fist bump. “Got 'em back. Told you I would.”

Riley knocked his knuckles with Jax's. “Don't get cocky, squirt. Things didn't go exactly as planned.”

“When do they ever?” Jax shot back. But it'd been mostly
his
plan—and
most
of it had turned out the way he wanted. He'd gotten everything he wanted . . . except for Lesley.

“Bran Llyr is dead.” Addie pulled out of her sister's embrace. “And Griffyn is too, right? Jax killed him?”

“What?” Riley looked stricken. “Jax—”

“I didn't!” Jax protested. “The Morrigan took the Sword. She's the one who did it.” Jax didn't know Addie well enough to hug her, so he punched her lightly on the shoulder in greeting. “Hey, I'm glad you're okay and everything, but did you
have to
set Riley's pants on fire?”

“They were only smoldering.” Addie punched Jax back. “Your brownie dropped me in a room with strangers
instead of taking me to you and Evangeline! And one of them was a Pendragon. What was I supposed to think?”

Riley approached Evangeline. “Are you all right?” He could see she was unhurt, so Jax suspected he was really asking: Are
we
all right?

Evangeline looked up at him. “Riley, I'm sorry I left without telling you. I did what I thought I had to do to reach my sister.”

“I know you did,” Riley said quickly. “I never doubted it. I overstepped my bounds, keeping information from you, and I—”

He froze when she held out the pieces of his dagger. “I didn't want to do this,” she said. “But they were hurting Addie, and they made me break it.” To Jax's surprise, she burst into tears.

“Whatever you needed to do to save your sister was the right thing to do.” Looking panicked by her tears, Riley whipped out Excalibur and extended it toward her, hilt first. “I can offer you another blade to settle things between us.”

Evangeline shook her head vigorously. “I'm not going to take Excalibur from you! I don't need a blade to represent our . . .
alliance
. . .”

“Then . . . what's wrong?” Riley looked at Jax for help.

Jax shrugged.
You're on your own, dude.

“This was your childhood blade,” Evangeline explained, holding out the broken pieces. “I know it had to
be a gift from your father. It was important to you and maybe a family heirloom.”

Riley nodded, understanding her at last.
“This,”
he said, waving Excalibur, “is a family heirloom.” He chucked the ancient dagger onto Bedivere's table, where it spun around and almost went over the edge. “
You're
important to me.”

Dropping the broken pieces of his dagger, Evangeline gave a little leap and threw her arms around his neck. Riley lifted her right off the ground and kissed her.

Jax retrieved Excalibur from the edge of the table before it fell off. “That was pretty smooth,” he whispered to Addie. “But I'm betting he actually wants this back.” Then he noticed Addie's mouth hanging open in astonishment. “Oh, you didn't know about those two?”

“No,” Addie said faintly, staring at them. “Emrys and Pendragon . . . that's not possible.”

“Sure it is. Why not?” Jax glanced at his friends, then looked away and said loudly, “But I wish they'd knock off the PDA. Nobody wants to see that!”

“You can say that again!” snapped Sloane, flinging the banquet-room doors open. Riley and Evangeline broke apart reluctantly as Sloane stalked across the hardwood floor, followed by Bedivere and someone Jax thought must be part of Sheila Morgan's mercenary crew. “Jax, we need a report
now
on what happened out there and—” Sloane broke off when she spotted Addie and called back over her shoulder to the Morgan vassal. “The other
Emrys
is
here. Inform Sheila.”

“Tell her Addie says the Llyr lord is dead, too. At the water tower, I expect.” Riley held a hand out to Jax, and Jax wordlessly passed Excalibur back to him.

“How'd you know that?” Addie asked as the Morgan vassal stepped aside to speak into his radio. Her eyes scanned the pans of water on Bedivere's table, the packets of labeled hair, and Tegan, who looked bleary-eyed. “
You.
Were you scrying for me?”

“You were the hardest one to reach,” Tegan said. “But yeah, I spotted you on the tower.”

“I stole hair from your room when I was on the island,” Jax explained. “Tegan's been keeping an eye on all three of us—you, me, and Evangeline.”

“I sensed someone watching,” Evangeline said, “and made sure not to fight it. But you must be exhausted.” It was the first time Jax had ever heard Evangeline praise Tegan.

Tegan shrugged and rubbed her eyes. “I had support, first from Gloria Crandall and then Riley, or I wouldn't have been able to keep it up as long as I did.”

“You sent the brownies,” Addie said to Tegan. “The ones that caught me.”

“Well, I saw you were in trouble, and Riley sent the brownies.”

Bedivere, who'd been speaking to the Morgan vassal during this exchange, turned to Addie. “Are you sure the
Llyr lord's dead? We sent military forces to that tower as soon as Riley and Tegan reported your location, and they witnessed unnaturally turbulent water knocking it down. That has to be weather-working magic, and if there's a Llyr out there, we need to know. There are still many of our people out on that mountain.”

Addie shook her head. “It was the Morrigan. She knocked the tower down.”

Sloane slapped both her hands on Bedivere's table in frustration. “The Morrigan was at the tower
and
on the main street? Can anyone explain to me
why we didn't get her
? Finn has a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, and very little memory of events. Dorian looks like a drowned rat, and he's practically incoherent. Jax, what happened?”

So Jax told the story as briefly as he could, explaining how the Morrigan had tossed Finn Ambrose aside and used the Sword of Nuadu to kill Griffyn.

“You were trying to
capture
the Morrigan?” Addie asked incredulously.

“We were trying to rescue the girl she stole,” Jax clarified.

“That accounts for one Llyr,” Bedivere said. “What happened to the other one? If he had the Spear of Lugh, wasn't he protected?”

Everyone looked at Addie, who quickly said, “It was the Morrigan. The Treasures don't affect her, right?” Her
eyes darted around at everyone. “She, um, threw Bran off the tower.”

“Why would she do that?” Bedivere asked doubtfully.

Addie shook her head and shrugged at the same time. “Well, I guess she was angry things weren't going her way. She thought Bran could break the Eighth Day Spell while the Treasures were all active and they had me prisoner. But he couldn't, and she got mad. If Stink hadn't rescued me, she would've killed me next.”

Jax and Evangeline exchanged dubious glances, but Bedivere seemed to accept her explanation. “We have an Arawen on the run, and an unknown number of Aerons to subdue,” he said to Sloane. “But no one can damage the Eighth Day Spell if we have both the Emrys heirs, and Sheila will be relieved to know we won't be dealing with any more tornadoes and lightning.”

“As long as there's fighting, we might still see the Morrigan,” Sloane said. “We can't send Finn, but she didn't respond to him anyway. She did react to Dorian . . .”

“You can't let him go after her again!” Jax exclaimed.

“Of course not,” Sloane snapped. “I'll just have to hope someone on my security team will have better luck—move faster, get that cuff on her. Something!” She strode toward the doors, her face like a thundercloud and her hands clenched at her sides. Bedivere followed her.

Addie shuffled nearer to Jax. “Do you know
she
”—Addie
pointed at Sloane's back—“is one of the Dulacs who held me prisoner?”

Riley beat Jax to an answer. “We know. But she's also the reason you're still alive. She's trying to save Lesley Ambrose, and thankfully that meant protecting you, too.”

“My dad sniffed you out,” Tegan said. “He found where all of you were hiding over the last week. That house in the mountains. Sheila Morgan wanted to bring out the bulldozers and demolish the place.”

“But Sloane voted with us to lure the battle here instead of taking action at that house,” Riley explained. “Normally, I wouldn't trust Sloane Dulac as far as I could throw her, but where Lesley's safety was concerned, she was unmovable.”

Jax sucked in his breath, realizing he and Evangeline and Addie could have been snuffed out of existence without ever knowing what happened—if it hadn't been for the Morrigan taking Lesley. “She wasn't there, you know,” he said. “It's not like the Morrigan
hung out
with us.”

“Doesn't matter,” Riley told him. “She might've been there. That was enough to sway the vote, because Lesley was the one Sloane cared about.”

“You could have wiped us out.” Addie's eyes were big with shock. “But you let the battle come here, let the Aerons burn the forest and the Llyrs destroy that town—to save one girl?”

“No,” Riley said. “To save three girls, one boy, and an
entire race.” He reached out to Evangeline, and she took his hand in hers.

Jax opened his mouth to make another complaint about public displays of affection—just to lighten the moment—but Evangeline turned suddenly on her sister. “Now that we have a moment alone,” she said, “how about telling us the truth? Because that was a whopping pack of lies you gave Bedivere.”

“YOU'RE CALLING ME A
liar? I haven't seen you in years, and as soon as we're back together, you call me a liar?” Addie found that an attack was often a good first line of defense.

“I know your ‘lying voice,' even after years apart,” said Evangeline. “And I've seen that your talent has changed. What did the Old Crone do to you?”

“I'll leave,” the Pendragon boy offered. “If you want to speak privately.”

“I won't,” said the girl with the orange hair, putting her chin in her hand. “I want to hear this.”

Addie saw Evangeline squeeze her boyfriend's hand, encouraging him to stay. Feeling like everyone was ganging up on her, Addie turned to Jax, who nodded.
It's okay. Talk.

“
I
was the one who was supposed to break the Eighth Day Spell, okay?” she said. “I can copy any spell I see. I can
use magic that doesn't belong to me. I didn't need to
have
the Treasures. I only needed them active so I could use their power to boost my own. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“What happened?” Evangeline asked.

Addie crossed her arms sullenly. “I didn't do what I was told to do.”

With a gasp and a laugh, Evangeline let go of Riley and threw her arms around Addie. “
Of course
you didn't! When do you ever?”

Addie should have been offended by that, but even she had to admit it was true. Still, she added over Evangeline's shoulder while her sister hugged her, “They would have killed me when they were done with me. I'm sure of it. But I
hate
the Eighth Day Spell! I
wanted
to end it!”

“We all hate it,” Riley said. “But it's our burden to preserve it.”

Evangeline drew back and took Addie's face in her hands. “Did you kill Bran?”

“He fell,” Addie insisted. Then she admitted, “He attacked me. I defended myself.
Then
he fell.”

“He fell off the tower while he had the Spear?” her sister probed. It shouldn't have been possible.

“I had the Spear,” she confessed. “For a little while, it was mine. But I lost it. I'm sorry. I know it was valuable.”

“Not as valuable as you are,” Evangeline said, hugging her again.

Over the next few hours, the Transitioners rounded up the remnants of the Aeron marauders and put out the fires. The town and all the neighboring residences had apparently been evacuated of Normals during the seven-day timeline. “The original plan,” Jax told Addie, “was for Sloane and her Dulac relatives to plant a false emergency in the minds of the mayor and the police and fire chiefs. But thanks to all that rain and flooding, they had a real emergency on their hands.”

Jax dragged Addie around the Bedivere mansion and grounds, checking on his friends. He seemed to have a lot of them. They ruffled his hair, patted him on the back, and congratulated him for pulling off a successful “extraction.”

Addie, of course, was the thing he'd
extracted
. Like a rotten tooth.

A dark-haired Morgan girl who seemed to know Jax pretty well filled them in on the details of the Transitioners' military defense. “We were trying to keep the casualties low,” the girl said. “But they weren't making it easy. They set half the mountainside on fire, and they didn't care very much about preserving their own lives. Believe it or not, having the Donovans with us made a big difference. I don't know how Thomas and Michael could smell out people through all that smoke, but they did. Michael even saved a couple Kin kids who got separated from their captors and were trapped by fire. He was a real hero.”

“You take that back, Deidre Morgan!” shouted a red-headed man who was being tended by a healer for burns. “You'll ruin my reputation!”

That made a lot of people laugh. Addie smiled faintly, pretending she got the joke. Although these Transitioners came from different clans, they seemed united by a common enemy—and elated by their victory. Addie felt out of place, having been, for a time, one of the enemy, but the Transitioners didn't seem to object to her presence. Apparently the story she'd told Bedivere, painting herself as an innocent victim, had been accepted.

Not even Evangeline and Jax knew how close she'd really come to destroying the Eighth Day Spell.

Addie and Evangeline were the only Kin present for most of the morning, but around noon, a group of Kin adults were escorted into the house. Evangeline hurried to greet the new arrivals, while Addie craned her neck trying to see them.

“Who are they?” Jax asked.

Addie started to tell him she didn't know and realized the question was addressed to Riley Pendragon, who'd come up behind them. “Some of them are people who voluntarily took refuge with Bedivere, but you recognize the last two guys, don't you? The Taliesins?”

Addie stood on tiptoe to take another look. The Taliesin brothers had been the ones to pull her kicking and screaming out of Evangeline's arms on the day their parents died.

“They're special guests at our Table meeting,” Riley went
on. “We'll be talking about what to do with the prisoners, and these Kin representatives have been invited to take part in the final discussion. Which is kind of a big step forward in Transitioner-Kin relations.”

Evangeline caught sight of Addie and gave a little wave, mouthing the words
See you later.
Then she disappeared into Bedivere's banquet room.

“How'd you pry the Taliesins out of their library?” Jax asked Riley.

“The Taliesins are record keepers for the Kin. They're going to help place those orphans. Some will go back to the Carroways, but the Taliesins may be able to reunite long-lost family members.” Riley looked down at Addie. “That reminds me. We need to get you back to Vermont. Not to stay, I mean. Just to visit.”

Addie hesitated. “I don't know if they want me to visit.”

“Are you kidding? Dale phones me every Thursday to get an update on your whereabouts.”

Addie felt her cheeks flush. “I wasn't sure Dale would forgive me.”

“Sure he will. Jax set me up to be shot by his evil relatives and fed to a wyvern, and I forgave
him
.” Riley clapped Jax on the shoulder and slipped into the meeting room before the door closed.

“That's a totally unfair version of what happened,” Jax muttered. Then he turned to Addie. “I bet you wish you could have some time with Evangeline without all this going on.”

Addie shrugged. “When you're invited to be a special guest of the Round Table . . .”

“She's not a guest. She's a member. Evangeline took Merlin's place at the Table.”

Of course she did,
was Addie's first thought. Then she quashed it. “Good for her,” she said—and meant it. She was proud of her big sister. “
I
couldn't do it.”

“Sure you could. Why not?”

“Is that your attitude about everything?” Addie demanded.
“Why not?”

He grinned. “Why not?”

She laughed. “I knew you were going to say that.”

“Seriously, Addie, I sat in for her once. If I can do it, so can you.” Jax looked across the mansion's massive entrance hallway. “While we wait for her to get out of there, I really should say something to my so-called evil relatives.”

When Addie followed his gaze and saw who he was looking at, she drew back, putting Jax between her and them. It was the Dulac inquisitor who'd captured Addie and taken her blood for experimentation, along with his wife, the falsely smiling woman who had decorated Addie's prison cell with Hello Kitty junk—although she wasn't smiling now and seemed quite upset. “I knew you had his mark!” Addie gasped. “You
are
one of them!”

“He's my uncle, yeah. But my mark's slightly different, which means I'm not part of his clan,” Jax explained. “He's a jerk, but I feel bad about Lesley. I want to tell him and Aunt
Marian how sorry I am. You can come with me. They won't bother you.”

“The last time I saw that man,” Addie said, staying behind Jax, “I bit him.”

“Erg.” Jax grimaced. “Okay, wait here. I'll just be a second.”

“Can your brownie wait with me?”

“Sure. Stink, stay with her.”

The brownie hopped from Jax's shoulder onto Addie's. When Jax turned his back to walk across the room, she waited about two seconds before slipping around two camouflaged soldiers and losing herself in the crowd. Stink made a squeaky protest. Addie ignored him. There was something she needed to do, and it had to be done before the Table meeting ended, because Evangeline, the rule follower, would never approve.

Addie found a staircase at the rear of the house and slipped upstairs to a hallway that was quiet and empty. “Where's the nearest brownie hole?” she asked Stink.

Stink scolded her.

“Fine, I'll look for myself.” Addie scanned the wall at baseboard height. “Brownies like food and trash, but there's too many people near the kitchens for me to go there. They also like soft places to sleep, so maybe a linen closet . . .”

Stink made an aggravated noise and leaped down from Addie's shoulder. He jumped through one of the walls, then popped back out again. “Why, thank you, Stink,” Addie said, squatting down to push her way into the invisible hole.

Jax had told her that all the people jumping in and out of
the Bedivere mansion with brownies on their shoulders were Dulac vassals who'd been given access to brownie holes by the deceased Dr. Morder. “But humans can't jump accurately unless they have a brownie guide—which is where Riley came in today because brownies obey Pendragons. He assigned a brownie to everyone who'd be using the tunnels—except my cousin Dorian, who wasn't supposed to go anywhere but got lucky when he did. When we're done here, Riley can order the brownies not to take Dulacs anywhere, which will hopefully shut down any plans Sloane has for using the tunnels to her advantage.”

Addie didn't think Jax was right about that. If this kid Dorian had managed to jump without brownie guidance, then it could be done. She bet
she
could learn to do it, given her talent for working with other people's magic. But right now, she was glad for Stink's help because time was of the essence. According to Jax, the Transitioners had been preparing holding cells for prisoners for almost two weeks, but if what Addie had overheard while accompanying him around the mansion today was true, the captured Kin wouldn't be occupying them anywhere near that long.

She told Stink where she wanted him to take her, and although his ears flattened in disapproval, he did what she asked. After a dizzying jump through space, Addie found herself standing in the hallway of another building. She had to trust that Stink had taken her where she asked—the place Jax had pointed out to her earlier from their vantage point on
the Bedivere grounds. It was an office building, located safely above the flood zone.

When she tried to find a hole to exit the brownie tunnel, Stink squealed, stopping her. He stuck his head out, and it disappeared as if sheared clean off his body. Then he retreated back into the tunnel with alarmed squeaking, and Addie realized the problem. The tunnel was contained in an alternate timeline, and people outside it would not be visible to her.

So, she waited until Stink signaled the coast was clear before climbing out of the tunnel. The brownie scampered a few steps down the hallway, then stopped to sniff at one particular door. The ward painted on it was of Kin origin, with unique alterations made by a Transitioner artisan. It would keep the occupants securely inside, but did not prevent physical entry from the outside. Addie touched the lock, and it clicked open silently.
Thank heavens for Aeron mischief.
Stink scrambled up her pants leg and shirt onto her shoulder, and she slipped inside, closing the door behind her.

Kel was lying on a cot in the bare, windowless room with his arms crossed over his face, but he sat up at her entrance. “Addie! Did they get you, too?” Then he saw the brownie on her shoulder, with its unmistakable white-topped head. Jax's brownie. “Oh . . . I guess you're . . .”

“Here by choice,” she agreed.

“You've gone over to their side,” he said resentfully, “like your sister, the traitor.”

“Don't call her that!” Evangeline might be annoyingly perfect, but she was a better person than Addie had ever been. She was Merlin's heir, upholder of the spell, and most importantly,
Addie's sister
.

“What happened to my dad?” asked Kel.

“He's not hurt. The adult captives are under sedation, locked up, and warded. The children are being held separately. The Transitioners aren't sure what to do with you and the Aeron teenagers. Evangeline is arguing in your favor”—
in spite of what you think of he
r
—“but there's a good chance they're going to send you with the adults.”

“Where?” If he was trying to sound defiant, he failed. Kel was scared.

“Oeth-Anoeth,” Addie said bluntly. Kel flinched. “They're going to put you into coffins for transport before midnight, fly you to Wales during the seven-day timeline, and when they let you out, you'll already be there.” In a medieval fortress of magical suppression, cut off from the world.

For a moment she thought Kel was going to cry. If he did, she wouldn't blame him. Unlike most Kin, he'd lived his life in luxury, and now he was going to the horrible place that had produced Griffyn and Ysabel. Addie didn't let him despair for long. “That's why,” she said, “when I walk out of here, I'm leaving the door unlocked. Don't expect any more help from me than that. You're on your own after this.”

“What about my dad?”

“He's unconscious and under more guard than you are.
You can't help him. I'm only giving you this chance because we were friends when we were little—and because you brought help when the Dulacs had me. This makes us even.”