by Jamie Davis
“I’m done, Filippa. I’ve tried to fight you, and you keep coming back stronger than before. Just get it over with.”
Gemma laughed. “See, ladies? I told you she’d submit to us eventually. She grew up alone and on the streets. How could she possibly have the strength or wherewithal to face us?”
Aurora sounded almost disinterested as she said, “I had expected more from the girl. I suppose you were right after all. We should get this over with. I for one would like to receive all that is due me at the end of these rites. I tire of waiting for our brethren from below to return and the reward that comes with it.”
“Agreed, cousin,” Filippa said. “Take them to the center with the others. Let’s not waste any more of their precious Huntress blood.”
The demon-kinder dragged Quinn and Avery to the room’s center and dropped them to the stones beside the six girls. Quinn hoped she was right and hadn’t been hallucinating. If she was, they’d just brought eight Huntresses together in the center of a Hunter ceremonial chamber. That had to be significant.
Quinn hit the floor, her face landing in the expanding circle of blood. A flash of ruby light blinded her for a moment as her blood mingled with Brea’s. She waited, hoping for something—anything—to tell her she was right.
Nothing changed.
Quinn’s ability to hold onto consciousness slipped away with her will to keep fighting. Gemma shouted at the Fae spellcasters, “Start again. Nothing will stop you this time.”
With a small sigh, Quinn let go and drifted into darkness.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“What are you doing here, my daughter?”
The voice whispered into her head, not her ears. Quinn’s eyes fluttered open. A rose-colored haze hung in the air, partially obscuring everything—not that there was anything to see. Nothingness stretched in every direction.
I’m dead.
What makes you think that?
I lost, and they won. I must be dead.
The voice in her head turned disapproving.
You surrender so easily? I’m not sure what I saw in you if that’s the case.
Quinn twisted her consciousness and searched for the voice’s origin.
She saw no one.
I didn’t go easily. They overpowered Avery and me. We failed to push them from the chamber.
Was that your only plan? To push them away?
The voice was right. There had been something else. Quinn shook her head. I’m tired. You’re the goddess. You tell me what’s next. I’m all alone right now, so I don’t have any options.
Another wave of disappointment swept over Quinn. The goddess’ emotion sapped her stubborn resolve to give up.
Daughter, you are never alone. You are the Huntress. The one who connects all who came before you in the old clans and all who would come after you in what is to be. That is far from being alone.
Did she mean the little girls? They weren’t able to fight anymore. They struggled to hold on to life, just like Quinn did. Her only connection to the old clans was her mother and Clark. They would not make it back in time to stop this. The mental gymnastics annoyed Quinn.
I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to get me to fight back, even when there is nothing left to carry on the battle.
How is there nothing if you and I talk, daughter? If all was lost as you believe, your soul would be damned and your body possessed.
Damn it, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Quinn’s anger exploded at last. Avery’s dead or will be soon. The children were taken and will die. I tried to build a home and family here. Once again, someone came and took it all away from me.
The image of her foster father sneaking up behind her played in Quinn’s mind. She had beaten that man senseless before running away to live on the streets.
You didn’t let that one take your belief in family away from you. Good came even from that bleak moment in your life.
I found Taylor because of him. Without that, I wouldn’t have a sister.
You’ve lost nothing but your way, child. Your clan, your family is still with you. Yes, your enemies have sorely injured you, but they haven’t told you the complete truth. They made one fatal error, one I foresaw long ago on the day of your birth.
You’re speaking in riddles again, Quinn said. I can’t think. Tell me what I need to do. Please.
If I do that, I take away the power of the Huntress. You must draw upon the power of the clans past, present, and future. Only then will you expose their error and take back what is rightfully yours.
Damned riddles again. Tell me in plain language.
There was no answer.
Quinn didn’t bother asking again. She knew the goddess was no longer in this place, midway between life and death.
What did she mean about drawing on the power? Quinn had no power left. The six girls were dying, their blood leaking to join hers on the chamber’s floor. Clark and Naomi, her connection to the past, were still too far away. The other Hunter clans were dead and gone.
She stopped herself.
“No, they’re not,” Quinn whispered, as if afraid to let anyone else hear the secret she’d just learned.
A smile crossed Quinn’s lips. She knew what to do.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The droning of the Fae casters’ magical chanting filled Quinn’s ears as she opened her eyes just enough to look around. Her face was pressed into the sticky blood pooled on the floor.
Through slitted eyes, she watched the two Fae spellcasters sitting closest to her. They rocked back and forth, eyes rolled back in their heads, chanting with increasing intensity. Even though she wasn’t a spellcaster, the energy around her vibrated a black place within her. Quinn knew they were close to opening the portal.
Quinn closed her eyes again and opened her HUD, studying it and taking stock. She had barely any mana left. The blue bar continued draining as her blood dripped away.
She struggled to hold onto consciousness despite the thick fog filling her mind. There was something important she had to do, something only she could accomplish. Every time she got close to remembering what the goddess had told her, the haze rolled in, obscuring the answer.
Angry, Quinn exerted her will, forcing the clouds and fog out of the way so she could see again. Her mana drained even lower. How was she supposed to use her power as it literally leaked from her body?
The five Fae still recited their droning chant, louder than ever. Quinn tried to lift her head from the sticky puddle, which caused another of those strange ruby sparks to appear between her face and floor. She jerked at the sudden static shock.
Gemma and the others watching those dying in the center of the room laughed at her involuntary spasm.
Angry at their laughter, Quinn lifted her head again. She worked up the strength to tell them what they could do with their humor. This time, she wouldn’t jerk for their amusement.
Quinn anticipated the spark, gathering her will to control her body.
She lifted her head a little, and the spark appeared. To her amazement, the flash didn’t just spark; a red arc of energy ran from the puddle to her temple. It only lasted for a second. That was enough, though. She saw her blue mana bar increase a little.
Quinn's lips curled ever so slightly into a grin. Bless the goddess, the mother had told her everything she needed to know. She only had to believe.
She let out an involuntary chuckle.
“Look, the spell makes her delirious,” Aurora said. “She has lost her mind. She is smiling at us like an idiot.”
“Well, we’ll see about that,” Gemma said. She barked an order. “Ellis, go over there and put another hole in the Huntress with your sword. She’s not dying fast enough.”
One of the women lining the wall grinned from ear to ear. “Yes, mistress. I would be happy to hasten her trip to the netherworld. She will be fine stock to fuel our waiting army.”
The demon-kinder wove her way around Taylor and Tadpole, st
epped between two of the Fae spellcasters, and stood over Quinn. Drawing her curved sword, she pressed the tip against Quinn’s side.
“Push it in slowly,” Filippa called. “I want to hear her scream one last time.”
Quinn shifted her eyes to stare up at the woman standing over her and lifted her head once again. The demon-kinder’s body would block what she was about to do from Gemma and the others.
Once again, the red energy arc connected to Quinn’s blood-smeared temple. This time Quinn drew upon it, and the flow thickened as it drew power from the pooled blood.
The energy flowing into her reached a tipping point in just a few seconds. It had filled almost half of Quinn’s stamina bar. That was enough.
The sparking energy arc changed color to pale blue, like the hottest part of a gas flame. Quinn’s eyes flew open as she pulled in the flow even faster. Both her mana and stamina bars were filled to bursting.
The energy didn’t stop. It continued to course into her.
The blood energy touched the three crossed ley lines running beneath the chamber. Triple arcs of gold energy, pure wild magic, flowed into Quinn.
She trembled as it filled her.
“Mistress Gemma,” Ellis said. “Something isn’t right.”
“Just finish her. You don’t have to give me every little update.”
The demon-kinder nodded and shoved the sword at Quinn’s side.
What happened next occurred in the space of a split second. Despite the unnatural speed of the demon-kinder, Quinn had grown both faster and stronger.
Her hand snapped out and halted the descending arm. Quinn twisted her grip, shifting the curved blade so it missed her body, the tip skittering across the stone floor.
Ellis’s eyes widened, and she tried to pull back. Tried in vain to break free.
It was no use.
Quinn’s other hand snatched the sword away and spun it to reverse the grip. She lunged upward, the long blade’s tip passing up through Ellis’s throat and into her possessed brain.
It was over before anyone in the chamber had a chance to react.
Quinn leaped to her feet. Her eyes glowed with pure golden wild magic, drawn directly from the ley lines.
Her awareness expanded outward. She could see everything.
Clark and Naomi stood just outside the chamber, readying what they thought would be a final useless assault.
Sylvie, who’d been perched on Naomi’s shoulder, went rigid as Quinn’s mindvoice spoke in her head.
Come.
Sylvie launched like a rocket and flew straight to Quinn, who was standing inside a column of golden light.
The Huntress didn’t hold onto the energy filling her. She waited for her dragon and redirected it with a single word of power.
“Sylvie!”
White-hot magical energy exploded from her open mouth and splashed toward the ceiling. The tiny dragon darted up and intercepted the bolt of power.
Sylvie hovered, wings spread wide, as she directed individual energy streams into seven of the still forms slumped on the floor below.
All that happened in the space of two seconds.
The others in the room finally reacted, but it was too late.
The five Fae spellcasters were the first to die.
Quinn released the last of the excess power into the dragon. In the blink of an eye, she raced around the circle of casters, swinging the sword in a broad arc. By the time she’d completed the circle, the first two of the five Fae heads rolled free to tumble on the floor.
Behind Quinn, Avery and all six of the young Huntresses stood. Golden light glowed from all their eyes as well.
The six younger Huntresses spoke as one. They sounded almost sad as they asked, “Must the chamber be cleansed?”
Quinn nodded. “The goddess orders it.”
Avery answered, “Her will be done.”
The hands of eight Huntresses came up as one, summoning their individual weapons.
The remaining demon-kinder and Fae enforcers charged to the room's center from their places along the walls.
The summoned blades arrived a split second before the first of the attackers.
That was plenty of time.
Quinn, along with Avery and the children, struck out as parts of one whirling silver circle of death.
Only a few of the intruders escaped the carnage. Clark and Naomi rushed in and finished those who staggered away.
The Huntresses—Quinn, Avery, and all six girls—fought with one mind. Quinn saw herself everywhere at once, seven other awarenesses reacting with her as their bodies fought with a coordination a single person couldn’t achieve.
Gemma snarled a magical command. The rune she sketched in the air blasted toward Quinn’s back as a lance of midnight-black magic.
It didn’t matter that Quinn had her back turned and couldn’t see it coming. The communal mind did. Without raising her head from the fight with a demon-kinder, Quinn reached out with the palm of her free hand. The black energy splashed into her hand, and she redirected it harmlessly into the endless well of wild magic coursing below the chamber.
The collective consciousness saw the two Fae princesses racing toward the tunnel that led to the surface. There was no one close enough to intercept them. A minor flash of annoyance passed through the joint mind. They wouldn’t get far. Others were coming from above to help.
Gemma saw them leaving too. She moved to the wall and chased the retreating Fae, but the communal mind sent Avery after her.
She caught up with Gemma at the doorway to the surface, cutting the sorceress down from behind.
As Gemma fell, the other seven parts of the Huntress stood still, scattered around the chamber's blood-stained floor. All turned and faced inward as Avery returned. The only living beings remaining inside the circle were Tadpole and Taylor. They still lay injured and bound.
Quinn asserted her individual self long enough to say, “They must be healed.”
“Agreed,” echoed the others.
The eight approached to stand around the pair on the floor. They reached out, resting their hands on them. Golden magic flared around the bodies.
The bindings fell away, and the two clan members stirred.
The eight stepped away until they stood with their backs evenly spaced around the circular chamber.
Taylor and Tadpole sat up.
Taylor asked, “Quinn, what happened here?”
“Leave us,” the eight said as one.
“But—” Tadpole began, confusion twisting his wild green brows.
“I think we should go,” Taylor said.
Clark and Naomi rushed over and helped the two of them limp from the chamber.
Tadpole hesitated, staring at the bodies strewn about the floor. He searched for something unseen. Taylor tugged at his arm, but he resisted. Bending down, he moved one of the demon-kinder bodies aside, uncovering Juni. He scooped the unconscious leprechaun into his arms and followed Taylor into the tunnels with Clark and Naomi.
“The way is clear,” Quinn stated.
The six girls said, “The chamber must be cleansed.”
“Her will be done,” Avery responded.
All raised their hands, palms facing the center of the ceiling. Sylvie still hovered there. The tiny head nodded.
“Eeeep.”
As one, all eight released the remaining power they held, focused on one point.
Sylvie let out a screeching cry and once again drew in the golden energy beams, this time coalescing the streams into a single column of power that returned to the floor.
Slowly at first, the column of magic turned until it had completed a single rotation. It twisted faster and faster until a cyclone of magic spun in the chamber’s center.
The swirling cone expanded across the floor. As it widened, it scoured the stones of all that didn’t belong.
It continued to expand out from the center until it had burned away all the bodies, blood, and debris. The magical energy dissip
ated, returning to the triple ley lines beneath the floor, leaving eight figures along the chamber's walls. A youngling dragon hovered at the room’s center.
The vanishing energy flows pulled the group consciousness with them, at least from Quinn’s mind.
Quinn shot a glance at Avery, checking on the most important person in her life. Avery gave her half a smile, deep fatigue showing in her eyes.
The exhaustion struck them all a second later. Two women, six girls, and a tiny green dragon slumped to the stone floor, leaving the chamber in peace at last.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The Fae court entered the Crystal Chamber and once again took seats arrayed against one of the glittering walls. The five magistrates sat.
Quinn smiled. Finally, they’d get justice.
The woman who was the chief magistrate nodded at Clark. “You have asked the court to assemble here again, and we have granted your request. Present your case.”
“Magistrates, I bring you a request for justice.” He gestured at two hooded figures dressed in black who were bound with silver chains, shackles, and manacles.
He continued. “These two attempted to use murder, blood magic, and a link to Hunter magic to dispel the barrier between this world and the netherworld.”
“That is a bold accusation. You have witnesses, I assume.”
“We do, magistrate.”
“Reveal the prisoners for the assembled guests of the court and us. Remove the hoods.”
Quinn and Avery, standing behind the accused, pulled the hoods away. The two Fae women lifted their heads and directed defiant glares around the room.
Clark said, “I present their royal highnesses Princess Filippa and Princess Aurora.”
Filippa laughed. “Release us, magistrate. These humans have no right to hold us prisoner like this. It’s an affront to—”
“Silence!” the lead magistrate shouted. “In this setting, only we five may say who has what rights.”
The initial shocked expression on Filippa’s face relaxed into her usual haughty one after a second, but Quinn had seen it. The princess had not expected to be corrected. Clark had refused to allow Quinn and Avery to kill them outright after the pub staff apprehended them trying to leave through O’Malley’s.
