by Scott, Helen
When I looked over at Rhys, his eyes were on Elizabeth, and there was such a naked longing there that I hated to draw attention to him. The dude was obviously fighting his feelings for her, but my question was why? Still, theirs wasn’t my love story and they’d have to figure that shit out themselves.
I had a Lady to take down. And while I was at it, Merlin too.
“Rhys, Cavalry, now we have a place, so what do we need to do?”
“Nothing, I just need to be able to look into the surface of the lake. It is easier for her to appear at night, so we could do this now,” Rhys informed us, after schooling his features into a nonchalant mask.
“Okay, easy enough. Is everyone good to do this tonight?” I received nods from around the loose circle. “Lily, Elizabeth, I’ll need you close by, but you don’t have to fight, especially you, Elizabeth.” The woman was only human, and as much as she appeared to be stronger tonight, she was still in the grips of withdrawals.
“You think I’m going to miss an opportunity to spank some god ass?” Lily snorted. “Dream on, sweetheart. I haven’t had a good fight since you left Westbrook. I need this.”
Grumbles sounded from the Reapers, but they didn’t verbally protest, so I assumed they were just worried about their mate being in danger. I ignored them, knowing that if it was something important then they would have said it aloud, not muttered about it under their breath.
It was definitely amusing to think that all these ancient chauvinists were tied, for life, to modern women.
“I’ll be drawing on your powers, so if you feel something like that then don’t worry, it’s just me,” I explained.
“It feels like someone is trying to pull you off the ground by your toes, but going through your body,” Raven added. Rather fucking unhelpfully, I thought.
“Ew, can’t we skip that part?” Lily asked, looking thoroughly grossed out.
“Not so much, since you’re one-third of the triangle. Sorry,” I said with a shrug.
If I could have made this battle just between the Lady and me then I would have, but that wasn’t possible, and what I needed more than anything was for this to be over.
“Okay, can you do that magic-poof thing and transport us where we need to be?” I addressed the Reapers.
And like that, in the blink of an eye, we were on a hilltop, with the night sky above us and the green grass below. Night birds were chirping and singing to one another, and I couldn’t help but pull on Gideon’s gift to sense the earth under my feet, and the energy and life flowing through the dirt, not just from the burrowing animals in the area, but the roots of plants and trees that were all communicating with each other.
A ripple of wind went through the branches of the surrounding trees, and for a moment, I could swear the Earth was trying to tell me to go ahead and take care of this problem.
The final problem.
At least, I had to hope.
Maybe that was more wishful thinking though. Either way, I felt more at peace with the battle taking place somewhere around here than any other options we may have had. It was almost like Mother Nature herself wanted Merlin and the Lady off the Earth so they couldn’t terrorize it anymore.
When I opened my eyes, I found Gideon watching me with an inquisitive look on his face. I wasn’t sure whether he had understood or felt any of what just happened, but he was looking at me with longing in his eyes that I couldn’t resist, so I went and stood by him. I threaded my fingers with his, and dropped a quick kiss on the back of his hand when I brought it up to my mouth. He smiled down at me and it was like he took the place of the sun. He was a huge part of me and I couldn’t imagine life without him, without any of my men.
I could, however, imagine life without Merlin and the Lady.
Barc hustled over to me, and as he threaded his arm around my waist, muttered softly, “You okay, Chella?”
“I’m just so tired,” I admitted. “This fight has been so long in coming that now that it’s here, I’m more scared than I’ve ever been before, even more than when Merlin was in my mind or when I found out that Morgana had taken over my body and slaughtered all of you.”
“I know, sweetheart, I know, but look at it this way, once it’s over we don’t have to worry about them anymore. The Sires are dead, so if we can win against the Lady and Merlin then that’s it. Job done.”
It wasn’t, and never would be, as easy as all that. Though I truly appreciated his attempt to make me feel better.
Sure, the Makers would be no more, and they wouldn’t be around to stir shit, but the other Sires were gone, and after tonight, hopefully the Lady and Merlin would be too. That left me… their only Descendant to deal with the aftermath.
I knew that would come with a mantel of responsibility that had no guidebook or rules to abide by.
Fuck, that was not going to be a walk in the park.
Still, that was for after. What we needed to focus on now was surviving the night. My chest tightened at the thought, but there was no other option than that of survival, and with that in mind, I squeezed Gid’s hand, cuddled into Barclay for a second, then whispered, “Let’s get this over with.”
❖
Nimue
I was weak. Weaker than I’d ever been. Ever since the girl had cast me out of her body, ever since I had lost the Descendant’s energy, I’d felt the lack inside me. It was as though I was nothing but skin and bones holding this form together, but even that analogy didn’t work. Because I no longer had skin, no longer had bones. I was nothing more than a spirit and I’d never felt that as much as I did now.
There was barely any difference between the water and me as I waded into being at the son of Bodin’s call. By diffusion, I felt as though the element would have been able to draw everything from me whether I willed it or not. That final surge of power as I became corporeal had never cost me so much. When my acolyte peered back at me, the lake we used as a medium gathered my attention.
“You have moved,” were my first words. I never bothered to greet him, but as I peered around the liquid confines of the jail Merlin had attempted to restrain me to for an eternity, I tried to taste the difference between locations, but my powers were waning, and the lack in me was not only concerning, but a portent of things to come if I wasn’t careful.
When time had been ripped from my fingers, and I’d been pulled back, torn away from the Descendant’s body, it had done something to me. Either that, or those handful of minutes had given me a taste of what it felt like to no longer be trapped inside this watery prison, had showed me what it had been like to take form and walk upon the beauty that was Earth. Now that I’d had that taste, this form just felt all the more tying, all the more like the anchor weighing me down until I had no choice but to sink to the bottom of the lake.
Knowing that Merlin was walking around this realm, knowing that the person who had condemned me to this endless nonlife was free? Well, that was a torture all on its own.
“They took Elizabeth.”
Rhys’s words drew my attention back to him. “And you’re about to snatch her back?”
Slowly, he shook his head. The sight disconcerted me enough to ripple the water.
“What do you mean? You must go after. She is your mate!”
When he shrugged and said, “Some mate. She is still addicted to that poison and useless to our cause.”
Rage bubbled up inside me. “She’s my gift to you,” I growled at him, aware that the water was shifting with my displeasure. All around me it rumbled as bubbles formed from out of nowhere as I, in my wrath, created a storm I intended for Rhys to feel.
“Some gift,” he snapped, his sarcasm a slap in the face as he folded his arms across his chest and looked at me with an arrogance that matched the one male who had bested me. The rage I’d experienced seconds before was nothing to now. Nothing as I compared this man, who was supposed to be my acolyte, with the one who had confined me here within the water. Few knew that. Not even Rhys and his men were aware that as I had tied
Merlin to his earthly prison, he’d made a watery one for me too.
“Who do you think you are speaking to?” I snarled, and for those few seconds, I felt like myself again. Not like the nonentity I had been mere moments before his call had summoned me into being.
With his disregard, Rhys had somehow managed to shake me from my apathy, and the water itself was bringing me to life.
It was strange to suddenly feel so much after feeling so little. But all my emotions seemed to echo and ricochet around the confines of this limited form. The joy combined with the fury, amplified like never before.
For endless seconds, I was blinded by the emotions. Blinded by just how much I felt. I was like a woman who’d been fasting for a lifetime and who had suddenly come across a buffet of treats. There was no way I could hold back, no way I could stop myself from gorging and glutting myself on the deliciousness that was feeling.
Of course, I should have realized it came with a cost.
Everything did.
No one knew that more than me. Even my nemesis, Merlin, was not as aware of that fact as I.
The humans believed that every action came with an equal and opposite reaction. But that barely scratched the surface of the depths the universe plumbed us to. And where my enemy and I were concerned, we were held to a completely different standard.
The bubbles of my anger and the buoyancy of my joy at finally feeling had me surging through the water. I couldn’t remain corporeal for long. That I knew, but it was as though I was being hauled from beneath the surface by the power of my emotions, as though they were making me tangible.
Even as elation whispered through me, the second the crown of my head pierced the water, I saw them.
Three of them.
A triangle.
And my joy crashed and burned in an inferno that was not of my own making.
The Descendant’s hair was whipping in the wind, her eyes bleeding with color as she tilted her face up to the sky. I realized she was looking at something in particular, and whipping around to see what held her rapt interest, I gaped in distress.
Dread boiled in my veins, and as I turned back, I registered the presence of two other females who could represent my doom. The girl, the Cavalry’s female, born of the shadow. The reason she was my gift to the men. The shadows were inside her, had infiltrated her a long time ago. Not even Rhys understood what that meant. He was such a man sometimes. So blind to the way our universe truly worked that he couldn’t see the woods for the trees where this woman was concerned. The shadows weren’t evil, nor was the light wholly good. They were the action and reaction the humans believed in. Natural opposites. Nature’s polarity.
That was why, when I saw the other girl so blinding with light, that my fear finally coalesced, becoming as corporeal as I was at that moment.
For I knew Merlin had finally done it.
He’d brought death to me.
❖
Marcella
When Rhys had called upon the Lady, the three of us had quickly formed a triangle.
We were working on instinct here, because Merlin had yet to reappear. I wasn’t sure where he was, didn’t know if he’d turn up, but I remembered him speaking of a triangle, so it made sense to stand in this formation.
The full moons glowed just as brightly as the sun, and the light they bathed us in was cool and bizarrely refreshing. It was like taking a sip of cold water on a boiling hot day. I wasn’t sure why, but it called to me. So even though I had no idea what I was doing, with the triad of light and shadow and weaver of both in place, I stared up at its cooling power, and that was when it happened.
The surface of the lake began to bubble, not just in a small patch, but the entirety of it seemed to turn into a hot tub. And with the white noise in the background, the moons’ call became insistent. There was no ignoring it, no evading it. I had no choice but to stare into their strength, to look into the shadow and light embodied in those two unearthly satellites.
The wind suddenly picked up, whipping around us, making my hair surge into my face as it bopped around in the currents that had come from nowhere. I felt like I was in the eye of the storm, and even though I couldn’t drag my eyes away from the moons, I felt that this was a storm that was personal to me. It fit, suddenly, it made sense as I called upon the anchor I’d forged in another time, another place, and used its strength, crafted from light and shadows, to ground myself in this time, in this place.
In the background, I heard the scream. It was loaded with pain and outrage, and I knew it was the Lady. I hadn’t hurt her, but I was drawing her out of her medium, and I had no idea how. Somehow I was doing this, I was the reason she was becoming corporeal.
At least, I had to think that.
Maybe Merlin was in the background somewhere, making this happen, but I knew from experience that when she was fully formed, it wasn’t something she could hold for long. Before, she’d slipped into my bones, trying to overtake me, but this time, I was in a stasis not even she could breach.
That intense cold was a barrier, a barrier of light and shadow that ensured she couldn’t reach me. I understood that like I understood nothing else. And almost as though my animals were aware of that too, they surged around me, taking up a protective stance that guaranteed the Lady would never reach me.
Out of nowhere, and maybe it was only visible to me, but I heard a neighing sound. Was the unicorn I’d crafted here? Was it helping me step toward success?
I didn’t know. Couldn’t even turn away from the storm that I was embroiled in, and the moon’s call stole my sight from me, stole my senses, until every part of me was entombed in their power. Unable to look away, unable to break a connection I had no idea how I’d made in the first place.
Behind me, Elizabeth and Lily moved forward. I knew because I sensed their heat, because it was in such a great contrast to the chill that had overtaken me. I felt like I’d been plunged into ice water, and the only reason it didn’t affect me was because I didn’t have to move. When their hands bridged with mine, I shuddered. It felt as though a bolt of lightning had hit me straight in the chest. When they joined their own, their palms connecting, it packed another punch, almost sending me to my knees. But for whatever reason, it supplied me with the power that had the Lady surging into being, and once her entire form was out of the water, I felt a whisper in my mind, Hold her, child. If you wish for this to be over, make her tangible.
Merlin! Where the hell are you? I don’t have a clue what I’m doing! I cried, but even as I pleaded with him to help, I knew there was none he’d give me. If he’d wanted to, he could have kept me in the loop. But he hadn’t. He’d taken me to Limbo, had…
The anchor.
I called upon it once more, used the lofty memory of the unicorn I’d forged, the power I’d plundered into it, and wielded it to my gain. Once more, there was another neighing sound, and it became so tangible to me that I could see it in my mind’s eye as power flowed from the unicorn’s horn and into me, where I transformed it, wrapping the power around the Lady until she was pinned in place, unable to run or fight. It wouldn’t hold her for long, but I could only hope that Merlin would arrive in time.
I had nothing left to give.
And that was terrifying.
Your instincts are good, child, he purred, but his words were no reassurance. If he was right and my instincts were telling me what to do, then aside from calling upon the anchor, I was at a complete and utter loss. For your instincts to work, surely you had to have some idea of what was happening?
I had no plan, none of us did. Maker, how stupid were we? We’d waded into this battle because there’d been no time like the present. If that wasn’t the most stupid reason for war, then I wasn’t sure what was.
With Lily and Elizabeth at my back, for a second I forgot about my mates. Lost in the twister that suddenly manifested, I felt like I was an island, bridged only with two other smaller islands.
I should have felt alone without the
ir link grounding me, but I didn’t. Some part of me, the part that was neither pursang nor female, but the Descendant, had been stirred to life in a way I wasn’t sure how to explain. But there was no time for thinking, not now that the Lady had truly popped into being.
I couldn’t look at her, couldn’t stare her way, and I wanted to. I wanted to know what was happening, but the moons’ call was too strong, and this very strange stasis I was in, would shatter into a million pieces if I even attempted to break away from it. And so, with my face tilted toward the cooling light, I let the part of myself that had stirred the wind into being come to the fore.
The second I released myself into the fury, the wind accelerated, clapping into me with a physical resonance that would leave me bruised if I managed to survive this. But as the wind increased in pace, my eyes began to blur. Not because they’d lost focus, but because the light from the moons was suddenly bleeding into the pitch-black sky overhead. From this distance, I could hold up two nickels and it could cover each of the moons, but as I stared, the moons began to bleed. Not red, but a merging of light and shadow. Bigger and bigger they grew, until a small clementine could cover them from my position.
When the two began to merge, growing so large that joining was imminent, I felt the pull on the Earth, felt the effect bringing nature’s circadian rhythms to a complete and utter standstill.
I’d been present when Cade had turned back the clock several times. I knew what it felt like. It was like when you watched a DVD and pressed rewind where, for a second, the stills froze. That was how it felt when he time walked. This? The stills more than froze. It felt like time braked against its will, grating to a halt as it fought a battle it could never win. Not when Merlin was behind it, not when my powers were forged from roots that spoke of both Creators’ heritage.
Why this was happening, I couldn’t say. I had no idea. But I felt no fear. In fact, I felt nothing, but was entranced only by the blinding light overhead. It held me in a stupor, magnetized me until all I could see was the singular moon that was now larger than the sun.
