Amergin stepped forward. “Scéne. You can return her to me?”
“The Fae killed her,” the Morrígan spoke in a low voice. “You made the pact for appearance’s sake, but you always wanted your revenge.”
“Amergin, no…” Finn reached for him, his eyes desperate and pleading. “The goddess is treacherous.”
The Morrígan stood close to Amergin, and he stared, transfixed, into her eyes. “Kill Elizabeth Tanner, and I can bring her back.”
“No!” Finn cried, raising his sword.
The Morrígan lashed out, and Finn stood as still as a statue, completely under her control.
“Finn!” I shouted.
The Morrígan laughed. “That’s better. I can’t have my future consort interfering. Wouldn’t want to scratch that pretty face.” She whispered something in Amergin’s ear, and the bard turned on me, his eyes blazing red. Amergin rolled his hands into a circle, and a ball of blue fire barreled straight toward me. I made to stop time, but nothing happened. I dodged, the fire singing my shirtsleeve.
“Oh, Elizabeth Tanner, your time travel tricks don’t work here,” Morrígan called out. “There is no time in Mag Mell.”
“She’s spelled you!” I cried. “This isn’t you doing this. This isn’t Trinity!” I growled, summoning energy in my hands, and I sent it sailing from my fingertips. Amergin flew through the air, crashing against a pillar with a sharp crack.
The bard staggered to his feet. “Trinity is a lie. It has always been a lie.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
I barely had time to dodge behind a marble pillar before another blast of blue fire barreled toward me. I glanced over at Danu, caught in the pillar of flame, shrieking, body contorted with pain. The Morrígan stood beside the Tree of Life, device in hand, uttering a spell. My mind raced, my hands shaking. I couldn’t defeat the Morrígan on my own, but I needed to stall Amergin.
“We can have peace.” I grabbed a loose brick and threw it across the chamber to distract him. “A true democracy.”
“Democracy is an illusion for the weak!” he called, his voice echoing through the temple. “All that exists is power.”
I crab-walked into an alcove, closing my eyes and directing my energy to Danu’s fiery prison. It wasn’t a spiderweb of magic like a ward, but a wall as solid as concrete. Beyond the impenetrable binding spell, I heard a sound. Not a scream, but a song, and the song seemed to grow inside of me, billowing out into a swell of notes, glorious and majestic. The Morrígan’s magic was strong, but this was stronger. Love. It was love, pure and maternal. It was Danu calling to me, and I listened, grasping onto the music. As I pulled it toward me, I could feel the wall falter, and I knew it was enough.
Loud footsteps awakened me from the enthralling essence of Danu’s power, and I rolled away just in time to avoid a blast of blue fire. With a cry of rage, I threw another wave of Aisling energy at the bard, but Amergin ducked behind a pillar. Scrambling, I dislodged a knife from my boot. I had one chance to hit him, and I had to make it count. He would never stop under Morrígan’s spell. The temple shook, and plaster and bits of rock tumbled from the ceiling. The Morrígan was close to finishing the spell.
“What would your wife say?” I rolled away from the pillar. “Scéne, was it?”
His eyes flashed recognition for a moment. “Scéne…”
I hesitated with the knife, but it was too late. A ball of blue fire raced toward me, and this time I had nowhere to run.
I braced for impact, but it never came. I opened my eyes, and there in front of me stood the goddess Danu, her palm held out. She had escaped from her fiery prison and stood before me with a snarl. Amergin screamed, but it was too late. The blue fire ricocheted back to him and he disintegrated. A few flakes of ash flew into the air and disappeared.
“Morrígan!” Danu whirled, her beautiful face glowing with power. “This has gone far enough.” She stormed toward the dais, magic swirling around her like a maelstrom.
“Not so fast,” Morrígan snarled. “I will incinerate your consort Bel with a wave of my hand.”
“You don’t have the power!” Danu cried. I thought for a moment she would charge the Goddess of War, but she reached through the fire for Bel. An animalistic howl filled the temple as the fire burned her smooth skin, and the Morrígan’s chilling laughter filled my ears.
“Oh, Danu,” she said. “You were always such a fool for love. But you’re too late.”
I pulled out the vial, ready to tackle the Morrígan, grab the device, and escape the temple. Her eyes flickered to my hand, and the glass shattered, the potion turning to nothing but water. The canteen of Morrígan blood burst into flame, and I tore the container from my body.
“You think I would let you and that Druid destroy my precious device?” She laughed, holding it in the air before her. “Everything I told you was a lie. The Green Man has given you passage here, and the spell is complete. There is no going back now. It was always fated thus.”
The Morrígan was right. The device glowed brighter, pulsating with energy. I glanced back at Finn, still frozen in place. I couldn’t save him and stop her from severing the universe. I knew what I needed to do.
He stared at me, unable to move, but his eyes filled with emotion, with loss.
“I love you so much,” I cried, tears stinging my eyelids.
The Morrígan had said time didn’t exist in Mag Mell, but I felt the seconds crawl forward, stretching and suspending us all in a single moment of silence. With one final look at Finn, I lunged toward the Morrígan, using the butt of my spear to send her spiraling backward. The device fell through the air, and I caught it with one hand.
Danu let out a roar, and her face contorted, turning a shade of darkest green, her eyes shining gold. She grew until she towered over the Morrígan and, pointing a finger at her, let loose a volley of vines speckled with deadly-looking thorns. They coiled around the Morrígan, the thorns twisting into her flesh, black blood spilling out and onto the floor in waves of corruption and chaos. The flowers outside the temple invaded, their gentle petals turned menacing as they crept up across the vines, creating a prison that left the Morrígan decimated, her flesh turned gray, and her body no more than a skeleton.
With another flash of light, Bel broke free of the temple of fire, joining Danu at her side.
“Elizabeth,” Bel cried. “You must get that device out of here!”
The wires began shifting. This was it. The final phase. If they locked into place, this universe would be broken forever.
I gave myself a split second to glance back at Finn, free of the Morrígan’s spell and tumbling to the floor. And then, without a moment to lose, I traveled out.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Once, Finn and I had made love beneath the starry sky of the Faerie realm. Tír na nÓg was a parallel universe to Earth, far across the abyss, but always so close to one another. We existed on the other side of the galaxy, but we were conjoined, our fates connected. In Tír na nÓg’s sky there were nebulas bursting with color, clusters of dazzling stars shining like sequins across a velvety darkness. Where else to go but there? I saw a movie once late at night where a group of astronauts destroyed an asteroid in space with a big fucking bomb. It was worth a chance. Maybe I would transport myself right smack into a star, or maybe, just maybe, I would find myself in endless space.
I had never traveled out to something like this before, but it didn’t matter. I was pure energy, racing against the seconds, burning down the clock. Perhaps time didn’t exist in Mag Mell, but that didn’t seem to matter to the device clutched to my chest. When I opened my eyes, endless darkness appeared before me. The edge of the universe. I blasted the device into the abyss, watching it float away for a half second before I traveled out of there. A blinding light fractured the astral plane I soared through, and the force of the explosion sent me spiraling o
ut and down and down and down until I knew no more.
My mother’s face swam into view.
“Wake up, Elizabeth.”
I blinked, spots of bright light peppering my vision. I found myself in the Forresters’ living room, but not the dusty tomb that had greeted me the last time I left their home. A fire flickered in the hearth, books stacked up on the carpet. A bottle of wine, freshly uncorked, sat on an end table.
“Do you like it?” she asked with a nervous smile.
“Mom?” I scrubbed my eyes. “What…?”
“It’s not real, I know.” She glanced shyly at the floor. “I would watch you in your professors’ home sometimes when I could get away from Black Annis. I thought you would like it.”
She sat beside the fire, the flames highlighting the flecks of gold and russet in her long hair.
I leaned forward. “Where are we really?”
She smiled and stood up, taking my hand. She felt so real, her palm smooth and cool. Pointing to a mirror above the fireplace, she invited me to look closer.
“Look,” she said.
I stared inside, and instead of my reflection, I saw a whirling band of energy; subtle shades of dark blue and green swirled in dark, billowing shadows. I reached forward and a familiar rush of power flooded my body.
“We’re in the Veil,” I whispered. I had passed through it enough times to recognize its complex weave, its wall of power and magic.
My mother placed her arm around me. “It was the explosion. It sent you here, between our worlds.”
“Am I trapped?”
She laughed. “No, Elizabeth. You’re an Aisling. Nothing can trap you. Except your own mind.”
I knew this wasn’t my mom, not my real mom, but I didn’t know why my subconscious insisted on the Yoda-speak. I laughed at myself, shaking my head. My smile faded as I remembered Finn left behind in Faerie heaven. I would never reach him now.
“But I can’t go back to Mag Mell,” I said, hot tears piercing my eyelids. “I can’t get back to Finn.”
She nodded solemnly, her forehead knitting together. “He is in the Afterlife, and to travel there would mean your own death.”
I swallowed the sob in my throat, staring up at the mirror. “So what now?” I breathed, more of a question to myself.
“You can break it,” she said. “The Veil. Just a simple ward. A wall built long ago.”
“What will happen if I do break down the wall between our worlds?”
Mother let out a soft laugh. “What is a wall anyway, Elizabeth? If you look at a map, you might see a line separating towns and countries, but if you stand there, what do you see? Nothing. Even if you build a wall, it’s only as real as people believe it to be. All walls are an illusion. This Veil is no different.”
“But the Fae…the mortal world…” I spluttered, trying to find excuses.
“It will change, of course,” Mother replied. “But it would have changed anyway. The universe finds a way. Look at you and Finn. I think our worlds have had enough of walls. It is time for it to come down.”
I nodded slowly, taking in a deep breath. Searching the room, I found a chair, shoved it toward the hearth, and stood on it, staring into the void of the Veil.
I turned to my mother. “I know you’re just an extension of my subconscious, but I want you to know I miss you. I think of you every day. I wish we had more time. I wish I could have known you. I think it would have made a difference for me…for everything.”
Mother smiled. “A part of me is always with you. And your daughter will understand that someday, too.”
I clutched at my belly, my eyes widening. “It’s a girl?”
Mother just smiled, and particle by particle she faded into the wallpaper. The fire spluttered and the room went dark.
Turning back to the mirror, I focused on the energy I needed to break the ward creating the Veil. I climbed onto the hearth and hoisted myself up. With one deep breath, I tumbled inside.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I sat on the edge of the large oak tree, staring up at the two halves of the great trunk now split in two. I thought if I couldn’t travel into the Afterlife, I would have somehow been able to come back for Finn, find Bel, beg The Green Man for entry…but there was little chance of that now. The great oak had split, and The Green Man no longer answered. Above, the sky stretched endlessly in the brightest shade of blue, and just above the horizon a great supernova blazed in a spectacular show of pure white light. The device destroyed. The black hole gone.
I’d saved the day. The Morrígan hadn’t succeeded in breaking the worlds apart, but I was shattered. Broken. Finn was gone. I had always chosen him, but in the end, it wasn’t enough, and now he was lost in the gardens of Mag Mell. Would I ever reunite with him? I placed my head in my hands, too exhausted to cry.
“Elizabeth?” Malachy’s voice broke through the endless silence.
He raced up to me and shook my shoulder. “Bloody hell! Where have you been? The election is starting any minute, and you need to change into your ceremonial dress!” His face fell. “Where’s Finn? Where’s…” his voice trailed off, reading my face with a solemn stare.
I swallowed hard, lurching to my feet even though my knees had turned to water. I walked across the field as if in a dream, marching toward Teamhair, toward the rest of my life. The next chapter. The one without Finn. Without a father to my child.
Malachy peppered me with questions, but I merely raised a hand to silence him. If I began speaking, the tears would start. And I needed to be strong.
I reached the throne room, the leaders of the Fae gathered around a great round table that reminded me of the Trinity table I had broken so long ago. More tables. More councils. This would be my life now. Dealing and negotiating. Discussing and building, all without Finn, the one person I trusted most in the world. The black hole was no more, so Danu and Bel were reunited, the Morrígan destroyed or trapped. I closed my eyes, searching for Finn, but my mind came up empty each time. He was lost to me.
Malachy stepped forward. “Today, we decide our temporary leader who will rule for twelve months and a day before our official election as proper in the ways of the sacred laws of the Fae. Will the candidates step forward and take a seat at the table?”
No one moved, so I marched toward the table and perched myself at the front, facing the throne room. Hundreds of Fae, Fianna, and Druids had converged on the cavernous chamber, their eyes on me, studying me closely.
I dug my elbows into the table. “Will no one else step forward?”
Torc emerged from the crowd, clearing his throat. “We all saw what you did on the battlefield. The crown of Tír na nÓg always goes to the strongest warrior.”
Phelan came forward. “It’s clear it’s you, Elizabeth Tanner.”
I stifled a groan. “Fine. But we still vote.”
Malachy exchanged a frazzled glance with me and shrugged. “Well… All in favor?”
“AYE!” A great roar echoed up in the throne room.
“All opposed?”
Silence swept through the throne room, and Orin suddenly appeared beside Malachy, passing him a crown of golden branches.
Malachy came forward to the table and, without fanfare, placed the crown on my head. He stepped away. “All hail Queen Elizabeth!”
“All hail the Queen!” The cry shattered the silence, and I stood up, my gaze traveling across the chamber.
It felt so empty, the crowning, the celebration. I wanted Finn. The initial shock had fled and now only a crumbling hollowness remained.
A bright white light burst through the throne room, and I shielded my eyes. When I looked again, a strangled cry burst from my lips.
Danu and Bel stood in front of the table, shimmering with golden light, their hands clasped.
“We come bearing gifts for the new Queen,” Be
l said.
They parted and Finn stood there, momentarily bathed in the same diamond glow as the gods. He locked eyes with me and raced across the throne room, his hands grabbing my shoulders and crushing me against him. He pressed his lips to mine, and for a moment we were the only people who existed in the world. Time stopped. A great cry filled my ears, and I sank into the sound. Blood of my blood. The essence of him roared through my veins—the sound love makes when it returns. I sobbed into his chest, and he gripped me tighter.
“Ahem…” Malachy cleared his throat and tapped me on the shoulder.
I dislodged from Finn’s arms to face the deities before me, giving a low bow.
“Thank you for bringing Finn back to me,” I said, choking back fresh tears of joy. “I thought…” My throat closed up.
Danu raised her hand. “You have defeated the Morrígan’s plans to destroy our universe, and now she is back in her prison, where she belongs. You sacrificed everything to do so, and such an act is sacred.” A soft, shimmering light emanated from her palm, and I felt like someone had coated me in warm honey for a moment. “I bless this union. May it be fruitful.”
I bowed again. “Thank you.”
Finn took my hand and squeezed, and together we watched as Bel and Danu faded away, presumably back to Mag Mell, united for all eternity now.
Hushed whispers spread through the throne room like wildfire. Malachy came up to Finn and clapped him on the back. “You missed the big coronation. Elizabeth won unopposed.”
“I would not doubt it. I would not doubt her.” Finn winked at me. “Hard to say nay to someone who can explode your head with their mind.”
“It’s not like that and you know it.” I gave him a playful shove, tears freely pouring even though my face strained from smiling.
Finn caught my hand in his and opened my palm.
He cleared his throat. “I may have missed the coronation, but there is one thing I must do.”
Echoes from the Veil (Aisling Chronicles) Page 27
