The Forbidden

by Cheyenne McCray

  Silver gritted her teeth and jerked her arm hard, trying to escape his grasp. His fingers dug into her skin and she flinched from the pain of it.

  A shimmering spellshield surrounded them, blocking her and Darkwolf from all that was happening in the meadow.

  PSF officers blew holes the size of cannonballs through Fomorii with the incredible fire power they had brought with them, but the demons couldn’t be killed unless their hearts were hit dead-on, or their heads exploded or were severed from their necks.

  D’Danann fought demons with daggers, swords, and other weapons. Many of the Fomorii fled with D’Danann and PSF officers chasing them through the wooded area.

  Hawk moved up to Silver and Darkwolf. Fury creased his features and his amber eyes glowed with such anger as Silver had never seen in him before.

  “Release Silver.” Hawk growled as he dropped his sword and drew his dagger. “Now.”

  Darkwolf simply smiled. “Attack if you will, D’Danann bastard. But know that Silver Ashcroft is mine.”

  Hawk roared and drove his dagger straight at the heart of the warlock. His weapon came in contact with the spellshield. When his dagger bounced off the force field, the strength of his own attack drove him backward to land on unforgiving earth.

  “This is my fight, Hawk.” Silver turned her glare on the warlock who had her in his grasp.

  Her heart pounded and her eyes still ached with tears for Moondust. More than anything she felt fury at this man who had ultimately caused her mother’s death.

  Pain shot through her broken ribs as she brought her knee up toward Darkwolf’s groin.

  Darkwolf blocked her knee, but his eyes narrowed as Silver whipped the remaining stiletto out of her boot and pressed the point into Darkwolf’s abdomen.

  “I should gut you.” Silver pressed the dagger harder into his taut stomach. Her gaze never flinched from his, and the sight of his smile made her push harder. “You bastard.”

  “You won’t,” he said so softly that it startled her. “You would never hurt me.”

  “The hell I wouldn’t—” she started just as his eyes grew darker, his gaze mesmerizing her. And then she was melting, softening like clay.

  Darkwolf wrapped his palm around the hilt of the dagger pressed to his stomach and wrenched it from her grasp. He tore it away so powerfully that he twisted her wrist. He flung the stiletto to the grass at their feet.

  He pushed his other hand into her hair and let the strands slip through his fingers. “I have dreamed of touching you since the first vision I had of you,” he whispered in her mind. “I will slide between your beautiful thighs and take you until you scream my name.”

  The shiver that ran through Silver at his touch both aroused her and infuriated her.

  He’s using magic to make me feel this way. Fight, Silver. Fight!

  Trying to shake herself from his mental grasp, she imagined steel doors slamming down, one after another in her mind. Her body trembled and sweat beaded on her upper lip from the force of her effort. He was so strong. So very strong.

  When his expression of lust shifted to anger, Silver felt a break in his hold on her. He grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked her against his firmly muscled torso.

  The slam of her chest against his sent agony screeching through her and brought more tears to her eyes. But she had power now. She could feel her witchcraft blossoming again within her.

  Keeping her mind shielded from his, she clenched one hand. With all her anger at everything this warlock had caused, she slammed her fist into Darkwolf’s eye.

  Her knuckles connected with bone and flesh, and pain shot through her hand. But it was nothing compared to the pleasure she felt as he cried out in clear surprise and pain.

  He stumbled back a step, releasing her just that fraction of a moment she needed to move away. Her body hit the spellshield behind her, but her hands were up and already a crackling ball of energy grew between her palms.

  Darkwolf dropped his hand from his eye, and no emotion could be read on his features. “You can’t hurt me, Silver. You won’t.”

  “Wanna bet?” she said the moment she released the spellfire.

  The power in her magic slammed Darkwolf up against the wall of his own force field.

  His spellshield’s shimmer wavered.

  Silver never paused. The second she released the first spellfire she prepared another. This one she flung above her, slamming it into the force field.

  The shield dropped.

  Hawk raised his dagger and charged.

  For just that moment, when everything seemed to happen in slow motion, Silver saw Darkwolf smile at her.

  He broke through her mental barriers. “I’m not finished with you.”

  And then he was gone.

  Vanished.

  Hawk stumbled forward with the momentum of his attack. When his dagger struck nothing but air, he whirled, prepared to fight, but nothing was there.

  Slowly Silver and Hawk looked at the carnage around them. Piles of dirt were scattered across the meadow. Two PSF officers lay sprawled upon the grass, blood pouring from their bodies.

  Silver had no idea how many Fomorii had escaped, but the few that remained were guarded well, and stood within a ring of witches. The Fomorii growled and threatened to advance, but the presence of the D’Danann and the PSF officers with cannon guns held them back.

  Mortimer perched on Janis’s shoulder, and they both looked at Silver with unfathomable expressions. Silver knew that despite the outcome, because of the force she’d used with her gray magic, she was in deep shit. Just how deep, she didn’t know.

  Mackenzie and Cassia approached Silver and Hawk and took them each by the hand.

  “It’s time.” Mackenzie brushed tears from Silver’s cheeks with her fingers. “Time to send the remaining beasts back to where they came from.”

  Silver swallowed hard at the realization that both Junga and Darkwolf had escaped.

  And the Balorite warlocks—what had happened to them?

  Had they escaped the water? Or had they the power to vanish as Darkwolf had?

  “Such a tantalizing power that would be,” purred Darkwolf’s voice in her mind.

  He was near, but she could do nothing about him now.

  Silver didn’t have time to ponder it any longer. They had to send back the remaining Fomorii to Underworld. She glanced at her father. Victor nodded and Silver took a deep painful breath.

  Victor entered the circle of witches surrounding the beasts, and joined hands with Mackenzie. Janis Arrowsmith with Mortimer on her shoulder, gripped John Steed’s and another witch’s hands as she joined the circle.

  Janis’s eyes were cold as she stared at Silver. Hard. Condemning.

  Within moments the witches made a complete circle around the remaining demons.

  Barely able to think through her anger and her grief. Silver clenched Cassia’s and Mackenzie’s hands as the D’Danann and PSF officers waited behind them.

  Silver felt the power of the witches joining, building. The very air vibrated with it.

  Electricity crackled through the air and Silver’s hair rose on her scalp. Power built within her, a different power from any she’d felt before.

  Silver struggled to concentrate. Felt warmth in her pocket. She released Cassia’s hand long enough to fish out the tiny red flame from the dragon and slowly set it on the grass in front of her and Cassia.

  The flame grew brighter and brighter, taller and fiercer. Yet Silver felt no real heat, just gentle warmth. The flame spread around the circle of witches, surrounding the Fomorii.

  Silver began the chant.

  “Blessed Ancestors, send these beasts away.

  Please help us save all that is good this day.

  Help us banish this evil times three.

  Please help us now. So mote it be.”

  The fire engulfed the Fomorii. Electricity snapped and zipped along their skin, the red glow encasing each one. It went no further than the demons.
It did not touch the witches.

  Silver repeated the chant, her voice growing louder and louder. The fire growing higher and higher. The intensity becoming almost too much to bear.

  It was as if the Samhain moon reached out to them. Its light poured down from the sky, blended with the fire, touching each of the Fomorii.

  The bodies of the demon-beasts shimmered.

  Became faint.

  Then stronger again.

  Angry snarls that had echoed through the night quieted.

  The beasts vanished.

  38

  Silver could hardly face the truth as Hawk moved through the circle of witches and stopped to take her hands in his.

  He didn’t smile. Only looked at her with those intense eyes.

  It was time.

  The other D’Danann stayed to search for the rest of the Fomorii, but Hawk was leaving to face the Chieftains and to be with his daughter.

  Her heart couldn’t believe he was leaving. She felt something so intense for him that her chest ached with it.

  Could it be love? So soon? So strong?

  The fire settled at the center of the witches, dancing and flickering. A throb pulsed in the air, as if the fire were waiting.

  Hawk squeezed both her hands within his as he braced his forehead against hers. “Please come with me.”

  “What?” Silver drew away and could only stare at him in complete shock. “You’re asking me to go to Otherworld with you?”

  He stroked her cheekbone with his knuckles. “I care for you. I need you.”

  The fact that he had asked her was incredible. Crazy. And at this moment, when her life was completely in tatters. It would be so easy to escape with him. To leave all this behind.

  Magic of a different kind had truly invaded her heart. At that moment she knew she did love him in a very special way. There was no doubt in her mind. But leave with him?

  “Do you love me?” The question came out before she could stop herself. “Could you love me?”

  Hawk’s look hardened. “I loved my wife. I cannot love another.”

  Tears burned at the back of Silver’s eyes, but she refused to cry. How could she have expected him to feel the same way?

  “You have your answer then.” She released him and stepped far beyond his reach. “I can’t live with a man who could never give me his heart as well as his body and soul. I can’t and I won’t.”

  Pain flashed across Hawk’s face before his features turned to stone once more. He gave a stiff nod.

  Silver trembled but she glanced to the moon and saw its light pouring down upon the meadow. The harvest moon focused on Hawk like a gentle spotlight.

  “Come with me.” He drew her attention back to him. “I can’t imagine life without you.”

  One tear escaped and Silver ignored it, allowing it to trickle down her face and to her jaw. She backed farther away and took Cassia’s and Mackenzie’s hands in hers again. Witches all joined hands. They circled Hawk and the magical fire moved to surround his feet. It flickered higher and higher so that she could only see his face in flashes.

  Silver’s voice rang clear as she spoke,

  “Ancestors, send Hawk this eve,

  To be with his daughter, his love and joy,

  To be judged as brave and true,

  It is your help, dear Ancestors, we wish to employ,

  To send Hawk to Otherworld. This we ask of you.”

  Silver’s heart beat like crazy and tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Surprise coursed through her as the amber at the center of her pentagram glowed. A matching glow answered from Hawk’s pentagram, connecting them with a steady stream of amber light through the fire.

  His gaze held hers as the fire around him grew thicker, danced higher. She felt as if the fire rising between them were cutting her in two.

  His form wavered.

  Flickered.

  He was gone.

  November 8

  39

  A week after Samhain, Silver stood at the center of the remaining D’Anu witches and apprentices, in the once sacred chamber. The hole in the earth had been refilled, and almost all signs of the Fomorii attack were gone from the room. Yet it would never be the same.

  Her father had returned to Salem, too heartbroken over Moondust’s loss to stay. Cassia had left for Otherworld. The D’Danann had remained in the city to seek out Junga, Darkwolf, and the rest of the Fomorii.

  With every labored breath she took, pain lanced Silver’s bandaged chest. She would heal faster than a non-witch would, but broken bones didn’t heal as quickly.

  She wore her white ceremonial robe, and held her head high. Her amber and silver pendant felt warm against her throat, and her snake bracelet almost seemed to move in the wavering candlelight, flicking its tongue at the high priestess.

  The surviving D’Anu witches ringed her. Witches with judgment in their eyes and her future in their hands.

  Silver felt Mackenzie’s presence directly behind her, supporting her. Mackenzie’s anger was a palpable thing. It had been all Silver could do to convince Mackenzie, along with her other friends, to not intervene, no matter the outcome of this meeting.

  The air stifled Silver as Janis Arrowsmith’s icy gaze pinned her. “You broke Coven law after Coven law. You disobeyed a direct commandment and summoned beings from Otherworld.” She leaned forward on her dais, her eyes becoming even colder. Her next words were punctuated like a hammer driving a nail into Silver’s chest. “You crossed the line, Silver Ashcroft. You used the worst of gray magic—so close to the dark you might as well have chosen that side. You murdered other beings.”

  Silver’s emotions were so raw at that moment she wanted to scream at the high priestess. If not for her and her friends, they would all be dead. The city overrun by Fomorii. What was wrong with the Coven?

  Yet Janis was right. Silver had killed Fomorii and felt no remorse.

  What did that make her?

  Janis leaned back in her chair. “What do you have to say, Silver?”

  Silver’s throat was so dry she didn’t think she could speak. Her voice creaked as she finally spoke. “I did what I thought was right.”

  Janis’s voice remained at a steady condemning tone. “The use of such horrible gray magic upsets the balance of all that is good, all that is right. The D’Anu would rather perish than become so weak as to use gray magic. Than to kill, demon or no.”

  Except for the few who chose the dark over the light to save themselves. That thought remained unspoken. The witches’ names would never be uttered in this chamber again.

  “I tried to save you.” Silver hated the plea in her voice as she looked from one witch to another. Confusion flickered in the eyes of some. John’s, Iris’s, and others’ remained stolid. “And those beasts—the city would be overrun with them.”

  When she looked back to Janis she saw the unwavering condemnation in the high priestess’s eyes.

  Silver could not utter another word. Her lips trembled but her throat refused to work.

  “It is my judgment,” Janis began in a slow, measured tone. Calm even. “That you, Silver Ashcroft, be stripped of your status as D’Anu and banished forevermore. You will no longer be responsible for the Coven’s store, and you will no longer live in the apartment above.”

  The words slammed Silver like a blow to her already aching ribs. She felt Mackenzie behind her, sensed that her friend wanted to shout at the high priestess.

  Silver held up a hand meant to halt all of her friends. What few she had. She had already explained they were needed in the Coven, that the fight with the Fomorii wasn’t over yet. If they were banished, too, the Coven would be that much weaker for it.

  “You may leave our presence now.” Janis waved her fingers toward the ancient stone staircase. “Find what peace you may.”

  Tears blinded Silver as she moved through the crowd of witches that parted for her like a small sea. Each step she took away from the Coven was an arrow piercing her heart.
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br />   She was no longer D’Anu. She had lost almost everything. Her Coven, her mother, her sister. Her store. Her home.

  Hawk.

  The pain in her chest was now almost too much to bear.

  When she reached the exit from the Coven meeting hall, Silver grabbed her backpack and keys from the desk beside the stairwell, and walked away from everything that had ever mattered to her.

  November 14

  40

  Salem, Massachusetts

  With a heavy sigh, Victor picked up a photograph of their family that had once been four, and clenched it in his large hand.

  Tears formed in the corners of Silver’s eyes. It was two weeks after Samhain and the loss of Moondust. How she missed her mother.

  And her sister.

  What had Darkwolf meant when he had said she was someplace secure? Did he truly know where Copper was?

  Polaris curled around Silver’s feet as she shifted on the leather chair in Victor’s library. The room smelled of cherry pipe tobacco and the thousands of books the enormous room held. The scent of leather made her think of Hawk and that familiar ache stabbed her again.

  At one time the library had been a room she and her sister had never been allowed into when they were children, unless they were in trouble. Like the time Silver had accidentally spelled their pet hamster. The poor thing hadn’t looked at his cage in quite the same way after that incident.

  Silver had spent the week with her father at their home in Salem, Massachusetts, after her mother had died, after Silver had lost everything.

  Every time she looked into her father’s eyes his pain doubled her own. Often she wondered if her mother’s death had been the result of Silver’s tampering with gray magic. Had this been what the universe had wrought on her, threefold?