He scooped one big hand sideways and caught Ivy off the floor in his powerful grip. He jerked her into the air. She screamed in agony.
Lachlan’s spirit churned in him, but he had to think. He had to deal with this monster one way, the only way that would work. Lachlan shifted into a man and climbed up onto his feet. “Ye and me. One on one. Is that the way ye want to defeat me, using a woman? Face me, your power against mine, and the winner take all.”
Aegir laughed louder than ever, but Lachlan saw his words strike to their target. “You want to face me—me! One on one, and the winner take all? You’re daft.”
Lachlan nodded. He drew himself up to his full height. Murderous hatred burned through his guts, but he had to play this right. He had to ignore Ivy and her tormented cries for just a little longer. He had to bait Aegir into giving up his one true advantage.
Aegir finished laughing. With one vicious jerk of his arm, he flung Ivy away. She sailed across the audience hall and smashed into the solid wall. She slumped to the ground, but Lachlan never took his eyes off Aegir.
He heard Christie run to Ivy’s side and murmur in her ear. Christie would explain everything to her so she didn’t interfere. The whole plan hinged on none of his comrades interfering with a one on one battle to the death between him and Aegir. That’s the only way he could get Aegir to leave them alone.
The silly grin melted off Aegir’s face, and he faced Lachlan with all his malicious ire bared for all to see. “You want to test yourself on me? If you really want to waste your life that way, who am I to stop you?”
“You’re scared,” Lachlan snarled. “You’re afraid your loyal subjects will see ye defeated and humiliated in front of everyone. You’re a coward. That’s the reason ye keep sending these creatures to fight us instead of facing us yourself.”
“You dare call me a coward?” Aegir thundered. “I’ll show you what a coward can do.”
“If ye were no a coward, you’d face me,” Lachlan shouted back. “You’d put aside all these ridiculous proxies of yers. You’d lay your power against mine and see who’s the stronger.”
Aegir rushed at him. “You and me. One on one. Your power against mine, with no one interfering.”
Lachlan stood his ground. “Done.”
Ivy launched herself to her feet. “Lachlan, no!”
Lachlan strode down the steps to the floor. Christie and Ivy met him. “Are ye sure about this, mon?” Christie murmured. “Are ye sure ye can take him?”
“If I cannae,” Lachlan replied, “it ends here. If I lose, ye go back to Duart as Laird. Understand? Take Ivy with ye.”
“No!” she exclaimed. “You can’t do this. You’re…you’re going to be a father.”
He took her hand. “That’s why I’m doing it, lass. Now I need your word you’ll no’ interfere. I have to do this myself.”
“Ye do what ye have to do, mon,” Christie replied. “Ye can count on us to back ye and do what needs to be done.”
Lachlan squeezed his brother’s shoulder. Colin and Clyde flanked Ivy. Lachlan drank in the sight of their blessed faces one last time. Then he turned around to face Aegir.
Aegir tromped down the steps to the floor. “Let’s get this over with.”
“One more condition,” Lachlan replied.
Aegir rolled his eyes to heaven. “Now what?”
“If ye win, you’ll let all of these go in peace, including Ivy. You’ll let them return to the world above, and you’ll no’ bother my people again. Is that agreed?”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that,” Aegir returned. “Once you’re dead, I’ll have no reason to bother them or anyone else.”
“Including Ivy,” Lachlan insisted. “You’ll let her go in peace, and you’ll no’ bother her again, either. Say the words.”
“Fine,” Aegir snapped. “You have my solemn pledge I’ll let them all go, including Ivy. I won’t interfere with them again. I’ll have no reason to.”
Lachlan waved his hand to his companions. “Move back. Give us plenty of space and keep well out of danger. Ye hear?”
Colin and Clyde moved back. Ivy stayed where she was until Christie took hold of her shoulders and pulled her out of the way.
Once they moved well out of harm’s way, Lachlan put them out of his mind. He faced Aegir across the hall. The Sea King paced back and forth while he waited for Lachlan to finish taking leave of his kin.
When Lachlan faced him, Aegir stopped pacing. He inspected Lachlan with an amused twinkle in his eye. “You know, you’re just like Rhona. She had spirit just like yours. She never put up with anything from me. If I tried to discipline her, she stood up to me the same way you are now.”
“That’s funny,” Lachlan replied. “My Clan always told me I resembled my father.”
The smile evaporated off Aegir’s face, and he bared his teeth. “That stinking pile of filth!”
He flew at Lachlan in a rage. This was exactly what Lachlan hoped for. He had to provoke the King’s emotions. He had to throw him off balance and induce him to attack with his heart instead of his head.
Aegir rocketed through the water with both hands outstretched to seize Lachlan by the throat. Lachlan couldn’t hesitate. He let loose all the power lying dormant in his soul. He shot out one hand. The power formed a massive invisible arm that extended far beyond his hand.
He caught the Sea King by his flowing gray hair. With a powerful twist of his wrist, he jerked the King around and slammed him down on the floor. The castle shook to its roots.
Lachlan followed one success with another. He held Aegir still on the floor and pounded his fist down. His other arm embodied the same power, and the giant invisible fist pulverized Aegir against the floor.
Aegir roared and bellowed, but Lachlan wouldn’t let him go. He picked Aegir up by the hair and held him upright while he punched his invisible fist against Aegir’s ribs. Aegir flopped in the water. He bounced back and forth with every blow, but it couldn’t last.
Lachlan drew back his fist for another punch when Aegir brought both his hands around in a chopping motion to meet in front of him. Two invisible blades chopped at Lachlan’s midsection. They crushed the life out of him, and he lost his grip on Aegir’s hair.
Aegir stormed across the hall toward the spot where Lachlan lay crumpled on the floor. As he walked, he grew bigger until he filled the whole hall. He rose to a hundred times his size, and he peered down at the puny insect crouched on the floor at his feet.
Aegir raised one mighty foot and smashed it down on top of Lachlan. Lachlan’s consciousness wavered. He saw the whole scene from a great distance. He saw Christie working overtime to restrain Ivy in a corner of the hall. Her screams and cries reached Lachlan’s ears from so far away he couldn’t make out the words.
Aegir peeled back his foot for another devastating blow. He bent low to study his target. Lachlan’s eyelashes fluttered, and his vision went black.
Aegir threw back his head and laughed to the ends of the Earth. Ivy buried her face in her hands. Aegir set his hands on his hips, and his face hardened for the killing stroke. He shifted his weight on his other foot to bring down his heel on top of Lachlan.
Lachlan saw the foot dropping onto his face. He closed his eyes in defeat, but at the last second, he raised his arm. He closed his fingers into a tight blade, and the power poured up through his body from the Earth itself, through his arm, and out through his fingers.
Aegir jumped back with a screech. He hopped around the audience hall clutching his injured foot. Lachlan pried his shattered body off the floor. He forced himself up onto his hands and knees. His head weighed a ton so he could barely lift it.
He swayed there on his knees. His ribs ached when he breathed. His mind threatened to shut down any second, but he had to act now, while he still held the advantage. He pointed at Aegir, and his power wrapped around and around the Sea King. It bound him up in a thousand invisible filaments.
Aegir started to shrink. He collapsed to a fraction of his siz
e before he realized what was happening. He put his injured foot on the floor and rounded on Lachlan, but it was too late. Lachlan channeled more power than he ever knew he could command. It didn’t come from him. It came from the planet under his hands and knees. He only conducted it outward to attack Aegir.
Aegir batted his hands against his body. He shrieked in terror. “Rhona, no! No, don’t do this to me!”
Lachlan didn’t understand him, but at the same time, it all made sense. Whatever Aegir’s daughter was or might have been, she gave her power to her son through the Earth itself. Maybe she was the Earth itself. Lachlan didn’t know. The water meant nothing. It could never defeat the planet that gave it birth.
The more Lachlan wrapped Aegir up, the smaller the Sea God shrank. He fought every step of the way, but he couldn’t win. Lachlan lunged to his feet. He used both hands to pour that power against Aegir. He unbottled all his rage and resentment against this petty despot who tried to destroy him and his family.
Aegir struggled harder, but not all the struggling in the world could overcome the power holding him down. Aegir shrank to Lachlan’s same size. What should Lachlan do to the Sea King, now that he got him in his power? What devious torments could he devise before he put an end to Aegir once and for all?
All of a sudden, Aegir gave a mighty wrench against the bonds holding him. He threw a punch at the empty water near him. He didn’t hit anything, but he still had some power left. The sea bed under Lachlan’s feet exploded in his face. A monstrous jet of lava boiled out of the Earth and erupted in Lachlan’s face.
Lachlan staggered back. The power in his hands dissipated in an instant, but he couldn’t think about that right now. Lava popped and solidified and melted and burst all around him. It congealed into a solid wall of rock separating him from Aegir. At the same moment, more lava struck the wall and shattered it into a million shards of pointed glass. The dagger-like slivers shot into Lachlan’s eyes.
He worked to his utmost just coping with this new threat. He didn’t see Aegir until the God of the Sea materialized on top of him. Aegir plunged down out of the water and kicked Lachlan in the face. Aegir struck him to the ground and landed on top of him.
Lachlan reeled from the blow. He fought to regain his feet, but the lava surrounded him on all sides. Scorching heat burned his skin and eyes and hair. It solidified into a molten suit of armor that encased him in impenetrable stone.
Lachlan beat his limbs against it. He did his best to call up that power that just deserted him, but to no avail. He couldn’t break his prison. He heard Aegir laughing nearby, but Lachlan could neither see nor hear anything outside this impenetrable tomb.
Chapter 29
Ivy watched the fight unfold with mounting horror. She knew all along Lachlan couldn’t win. He knew it better than anybody. He sacrificed himself so his Clan and she and their child could live in peace. He turned Aegir’s anger against himself, and he got Aegir to promise never to bother anyone else again.
Ivy tried to cover her eyes so she wouldn’t see Lachlan’s defeat, but she always wound up peeking. She wanted to see him right up until the very last moment. She wanted to inhale any sight of him she could get.
She and Christie and Colin and Clyde would carry the tale of Lachlan’s heroism back to the Clan. Maybe no one would believe it. It would become just another fairy tale people told their children around the fire in the evening. None of that mattered, because Lachlan was dead.
Black stone encased him from head to foot. It poured out of a fissure at his feet and swirled all around him. The water cooled it to a solid mass. It entombed him so he couldn’t move. It even blocked his power so he couldn’t fight Aegir anymore.
She buried her head in Christie’s shoulder. When she looked up again, Aegir stood in front of Lachlan’s prison. He flicked some of the stone away to reveal Lachlan’s face. Lachlan stared out through the hole at his grandfather.
Aegir chuckled under his breath. “So this is how it ends. Did you really think you stood a chance against me?”
Lachlan choked out the words. “Honor your word and let them go.”
“Oh, I have no intention of breaking my word,” Aegir replied. “They can go. Would you like to watch and see? Would you like to see them leave you here to die before I put an end to you? Do you really want to see the anguished tears on Ivy’s face when she walks away to spend the rest of her life alone?” Aegir laughed aloud. “I’m looking forward to seeing that myself. I’m looking forward to peeking in on her in years to come, to see heartbreak and widowhood wear her down and break her spirit. It will be priceless!”
Lachlan blinked at him. He showed no emotion. The rock held him in stupefied suspension where nothing touched him and he touched nothing.
“I gave you a chance,” Aegir went on. “I offered to let you join me, but you had to do this the hard way. Your kind always do. You always have to do things in the most difficult possible way. That’s why I cushioned Ivy when she first came here, but there you go. She wants to blame me for that now. That’s what comes of trying to be kind to somebody. You’re the same way. I tried to be kind to you, and this is how you repaid me.”
Lachlan’s dull eyes skipped around the hall. They touched on Ivy and Christie, but his expression showed no sign of recognition. He was already half-gone.
Ivy bolted forward, but Christie caught her by the shoulders. He spun her around and shook her hard. “Ye cannae go out there. Ye gave ye word you’d no’ interfere.”
Ivy stared into his eyes. She opened her mouth. She couldn’t believe he just said those words.
Aegir’s voice boomed down the hall. “Go on. Get out of here. The show’s over. You got your safe passage, so get out of here before I change my mind.”
Ivy and the others stared at him. Ivy couldn’t understand what he was saying. She could never leave as long as Lachlan remained alive.
Aegir turned back to Lachlan. He hissed through the hole into Lachlan’s face. “You see how it is? They’re too stupid for their own good. They want to stand around and watch you die before they run to safety. Can you believe that?”
Lachlan opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Aegir stood back, and his face hardened. He wound back his arm and punched at the stone casing surrounding Lachlan’s body. The casing shuddered, and Lachlan howled in pain.
Aegir propped his hands on his hips and laughed until he shook. “This is what they want to see, so I’m giving it to them. I’m a born showman. That’s what my mother always said. I love a good performance, and I never leave my audience dissatisfied. What do you think? Shall we do it again, just to make a strong impression?”
Lachlan gasped in agony inside his prison. He moaned and convulsed. The case around him shivered when he tried to move. Aegir took a step back and delivered a powerful kick to Lachlan’s midsection. Then he kicked hard against one of Lachlan’s legs.
Lachlan’s screams shook the hall. Christie clapped his hands over his ears. He shut his eyes and turned away. Colin threw up his hands. “That’s it. I’m leaving. I cannae watch any more of this.”
Ivy stared at the scene unfolding before her eyes. Stark horror riveted her eyes to the spectacle. Her eyes stung from not blinking. The whole awful reality drew her in so she couldn’t break away, no matter how terrible it got.
Aegir glided up close to Lachlan’s hole. He stuck his face right near the hole and growled into Lachlan’s ear. “What did that feel like? Did it hurt a lot? Would you like another—maybe something similar? No, I have a better idea. How about we try something a little different—something more direct, perhaps? I know you don’t want to hang around here all night. We can get this over with faster if you prefer.”
Aegir moved his hand close to the stone case. He twisted and squirreled his fingers in the water a few inches away from Lachlan’s chest. Lachlan screamed in agony. The whole case quake, but he couldn’t break free.
Aegir let him go, and Lachlan slumped inside his coffin. Aeg
ir chuckled to himself. “I thought that would be more effective, and I can see I was right. I’ll give you a moment to collect yourself, and then we’ll do it again. What do you say, or would you rather escalate to the next level—say, arms and legs ripped off? Or I could call up a few of my minions to go to work on you instead. Would you prefer that?”
Lachlan hung limp and spent in his dark sarcophagus. Ivy couldn’t see his face in the hole anymore. Only his voice came out in tortured gasps. She found herself moving forward. Christie still kept his eyes closed and didn’t see her. Clyde and Colin didn’t react.
The farther she got from her friends, the faster she moved. She didn’t know what was happening to her. She only knew the desperate movement filling her arms and legs and body. She rushed up behind Aegir, who still bent over Lachlan’s hole. He murmured taunts and threats at the helpless man.
Ivy couldn’t think. She raced up the steps and seized Aegir’s trident where it stood propped against the throne. He always left it there when he sat in state. He must have forgotten it in the excitement of fighting Lachlan and now holding his nemesis helpless in his power.
The cold shell of the shaft weighed heavy in her hands. The weapon vibrated power and mystery up her arms. The instant she touched it, Aegir spun around with a roar. “What are you…?”
He laid his hand on her shoulder and jerked her around to face him. Ivy reacted on instinct. She thrust the thing outward with all her strength. Even then, she probably wouldn’t have been strong enough to puncture his rib cage.
The trident itself leapt out of her hands to impale him through the guts. A stomach-wrenching groan issued from his throat, and the trident buried its head of its own volition in Aegir’s body.
Ivy stared into his startled eyes. His mouth hung open in the midst of demanding what she was doing. The water washed through his hair and beard. His eyes searched her face for answers to a thousand questions.
Ivy gaped at him. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t believe what she’d just done. Then her fury took hold of her. She drove the trident deeper into his flesh. She twisted it until he groaned and spasmed exactly the way he just made Lachlan groan.
Sea Queen (Phoenix Throne Book 6): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 20
