“ ’Tis not how I envisioned our wedding night,” she lamented.
He held her close, his heart thumping loudly with fear and uncertainty. A booming crack of thunder made them all jump. The sky blackened and more thunder beat the air, which began to shriek with a cold wind, setting the nearby briar bushes to humming. The entire thick hedge began to glow, looking as though it might burst into flame, and all three dove to the side as a beam of light shot down from the skies liken to a bolt of lightning. A bright glow surrounded them and they shielded their eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Five
A haughty but exquisite woman stood before them, clad in heavy battle armor and possessing a golden sword and elaborately adorned shield. She exuded arrogance as she scanned the group before her.
“You will come with me now, woman,” she ordered and held her hand out toward Alainn.
“I will certainly do no such thing!” she answered abruptly.
The woman huffed loudly and impatiently.
“You will come with me now. This is not a subject for debate,” she said and drew nearer to Alainn.
“You will not touch her!” Killian warned as his hand went to the hilt of his sword.
The peculiar woman rolled her eyes in fury. She merely swept her sword lightly to the side, and Killian’s weapon was cast off into the bushes though it hadn’t been touched. He grabbed his knife, and the woman smiled, looking at Killian seemingly for the first time.
“Ah there is a most definite grandness about men! Sure you are a handsome, brawny thing, and clearly most brave to defend your woman.”
“She is my wife,” he proudly stated. “And who by God’s blood are you?”
Alainn felt consumed with jealousy as the other female openly and seductively admired her husband’s attractive face and muscular body. When she stepped forward to touch his thick dark hair, Alainn held out her hands and the woman’s own sizable sword flung from its sheath and sped off to sink itself deeply in the trunk of a nearby tree. The woman looked at Alainn with interest. Her shield was then torn from her hand and landed at her feet.
“The power to move inanimate objects is not a remarkable ability,” she sneered condescendingly. “In truth, little ability is required to accomplish it.”
“I will not be spurred to reveal all my powers!” Alainn countered.
Danhoul spoke to Alainn with his mind.
“She will take your defiant words as a challenge.”
“I will not be pulled into her challenge, not if that is what her intention may be.”
The female looked at Alainn with a small smile upon her face.
“So you possess the gift of telepathy. Slightly more difficult! Impress me further, young one!”
Alainn glared at Danhoul. “Are you assisting her in this challenge?”
He held his hands up before him and shook his head.
“I will not fall into this entrapment, not for sport!” Alainn shouted angrily.
“We shall see,” the woman smirked. With that, she glanced at Killian’s sword that lay upon the ground and sent it flying toward Alainn. She jumped out of the weapon’s path without using her powers.
“Oh you’re a stubborn sort, are you?” the woman murmured.
This time she sent both the sword and her shield toward Killian. Alainn held out her hands and both objects were hurled high up into the air to land half a field away.
“Now we are getting somewhere,” the unusual woman said, clapping her hands together to applaud her abilities. “To be capable of stopping a moving object is far less common.”
In the distance, they could hear a loud barking growing louder, soon accompanied by a frantic whinnying. And into the clearing raced Alainn’s beloved Irish wolfhound, the black mare she had healed as a child, and the horse Killian had recently given her from the stables.
“The ability to control animals,” the woman listed.
“I did not call these animals to me!”
“Even better. They protect you. And what of flora?”
“I have no notion of what you speak,” she said with increasing annoyance.
The woman caused nearby trees to bend over nearly to the ground. Alainn glanced down at a large patch of stinging nettles, willing them ripped from the ground by their roots and soaring towards the woman. She pushed them effortlessly out of the way, but grinned widely at Alainn’s amusing feat.
When Alainn heard a sizeable tree snap and began toppling toward them, she closed her eyes and a gale force wind sent it in the opposite direction. It came crashing down in the bluff.
“You control the weather!” This time, the woman appeared taken aback. “By the gods! Such unusual powers. You did not inform me her abilities were so mighty or developed, Danhoul.”
“ ’Tis not as though Alainn has had occasion to reveal her powers to me.”
“You know this woman?” Killian accused.
Danhoul bowed his head toward the woman.
“Aine,” he began, “a dramatically grand entrance, as always.”
“Aine?” Killian gasped. “Aine, the Celtic Goddess?”
“Aine, the fairy princess and protector of women?” Alainn inquired further.
“Aye,” Danhoul affirmed.
“You are actually real, not simply myth?” Killian’s mouth gaped open. Alainn too looked on in awe.
“You find my existence so difficult to believe when you are apparently wed to a mortal woman with god-like powers never before witnessed?”
Killian did not respond, but Alainn asked a most specific question. “If you are truly, Aine, you are then my—”
“—great-grandmother,” the woman finished. “I told you there is an irresistible grandness about men. I succumbed to my attraction once many years ago and mated with a human male. Thus we created your grandmother, Ainna. I much regretted the need to give her away shortly after her birth.”
“She was a tweenling, and your own daughter!” Alainn accused.
“Ah, you judge me woman, but you know little of what is required of a goddess, a fairy princess, the protector of women.”
“And with all your many powers, with being a goddess,” sneered Alainn, “you could not even protect you own daughter from dying in childbed?”
“And this god of yours, the one worshipped by so many, this god of Christianity, is he so different in that regard? Did he not allow his son to suffer an end even more cruel?”
“Aye, but for a purpose, to save human kind!” Killian shouted.
“Perhaps you are correct,” she said simply. “I will not debate that topic this day.”
“Why are you here?” Alainn demanded.
“I am taking you with me. Did I not make that point quite clear earlier?”
“I would as soon be taken to the Unseelie Court,” Alainn sniped.
“I assure you, you would not!” she glared and looked at Danhoul in exasperation. “Is she always so difficult?”
“She is of your line.”
“Perhaps that explains much.”
“Listen well, Alainn. Danhoul is one of your guardians, as is your new husband. One is magical, one mortal. One has a soul connection; one has captured your heart. Both are necessary to keep you safe and out of harm’s way so that you may live to fulfill your predetermined destiny.”
“You might meet with less resistance if you applied tact,” suggested Danhoul.
“I have no time for such trivial human necessities.”
“Aye well, Alainn is not typical of most humans.”
“There is truth in your words, young Danhoul. But alas, there is naught to be done. She must accompany me for she is much in need of protection. A third guardian will watch over her when we enter the realm of the gods.”
“A third guardian? Do you speak of Lugh?” Danhoul asked in a disapproving tone.
“Aye, he is the god chosen for this task.”
The expression on Danhoul’s face was sour.
“I will not go with you, no matter what
the reasoning!” cried Alainn. “This is our wedding day. You cannot take me from my husband on our wedding day!”
The clear blue eyes of the female before them filled with something close to regret, but it was short-lived.
“Sorry I am on that count, but heed my warnings, to fall prey to darkness would be far less appealing to you!”
Alainn looked hopelessly at Killian. He grabbed her and held her tight.
“We cannot be parted on this our day that was to be the happiest of days,” she whispered as tears rolled down her cheeks. His green eyes were tormented with sadness.
“Go, Lainna!” Killian urged. “Go with her to where you shall be well protected.”
He bent over and tenderly allowed this one moment to hold his trembling wife, placing a gentle kiss upon her lips. Then he unclasped her hands and pulled her toward the goddess, his heart aching so much he did not know how he would survive. Alainn cast him a look of fear.
Aine reached into her pocket, retrieved a dusty substance, and blew it toward Alainn, who immediately sent it back to the woman.
“Do not fight me on this, woman! It is for your own safety. Humans must be protected when entering the realm of gods.” She tossed another handful in the air before her, cloaking Alainn. She gasped in surprise, then crumpled senseless to the ground.
“What have you done to her?” Killian cried in a ragged voice.
“She will remain unharmed, Killian O’Brien.”
Danhoul touched his arm in reassurance.
“She will be well, Killian, and safe. Though Aine’s methods are less than pleasing, she is to be trusted.”
The horses stood calmly. Danhoul and Wolf sat quietly at Killian’s side. Aine gently moved her hand, and though unconscious, Alainn slowly rose, pausing suspended in midair. A pulsing beam began to grow, soon encircling the women with a brilliant light. It flashed once and soared upward. The women were gone.
“Alainn!” Killian screamed jumping to his feet. “Alainn!” He stood helplessly, eyes searching the heavens, his heart pounding with panic at seeing his cherished love whisked away to a realm he could scarcely believe existed.
Danhoul continued sitting quietly, watching the broken man. Then a speck of dust caught his interest, and a hazy spectral figure appeared before them. At first her appearance was nearly vaporous, but within moments she formed the shape of a young woman with long pale hair and empty eyes. She spoke to them in a voice that quivered eerily in the night air.
“You are to follow me. The spirit of the old healer, Morag, has sent me to you.”
“Why did Morag not come to us herself?” challenged Killian.
“Something prevents her.” She paused as if listening. “I am told to make haste.”
“But, what proof do we have she is truly doing Morag’s bidding and not that of a darker spirit?”
She opened her hands to show a tiny sprig. She closed her hands again, and he was startled to find it suddenly in his own palm. Stunned, he placed the sprig to his nose and inhaled the strong aroma of thyme. How often had he noticed that scent upon the old healer? It soothed him as nothing else could.
The woman began to drift away, so the men quickly mounted their horses and started after her, Wolf racing at Killian’s side.
“Who are you spirit?” asked Danhoul, trying to keep up with the grueling pace.
She turned to face them, and Killian saw that the eyes were no longer spectral and vacant, but an achingly familiar shade of blue.
“I am Ainna, daughter of Aine, mother of Mara, grandmother of Alainn.”
Killian was suddenly filled with hope, and her next ghostly words seemed to echo within his very heart. “Old Morag has the means to end this curse and save the futures of many. But you will both be required to put aside fear to assist her in this difficult quest. Keep faith, and you will learn what must be done to prove beyond a doubt your beloved witch is the chieftain’s daughter.”
The End
Don’t miss Leigh Ann Edwards’ next book...
The Irish Witch series
The Farrier’s Daughter
The Witch’s Daughter
The Chieftain’s Daughter
About the Author
Since she was a child, Leigh Ann Edwards has always had a vivid imagination and lots of stories to tell. An enthusiastic traveler and author for over twenty years, her adventures in Massachusetts, Ireland, and the UK inspired The Farrier’s Daughter and its sequel novels in the Irish Witch series. Edwards adores animals, history, genealogy, and magical places—and Ireland is filled with many magical places. She lives with her husband and two cats in the lovely city of Edmonton, Alberta.
Visit Leigh Ann at www.leighannedwards.com
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