Fire burned in my center. A glance at my hands let me know just how pissed I was. They glowed like rich blue fire. That piggy slime needed to die.
“You can step out, honey.” Meline offered her hand to Brígh, who shook as if she’d soon come apart at the joints and fall in a clatter of bones. Brígh reached for Meline, the movements of her arm stiff and jerky. Once she made contact, Meline pulled her in close and hugged the whimpering fae.
My skin radiated a dark blue sheen as I moved like a locomotive to the sparkling circle on the floor, where the contents barked and probably cursed in its language. I opened my senses and searched for its mind, laughing when I found it. Meline must have designed the ward to be one directional as well as specifically for numb-nuts crypt keepers. I knew I liked that girl.
I forced my Will into the nattering dick-face within. “You will go right this second and bring Tameryn and her two cronies here. Now!”
A nod to Meline and she said, “Dimitter.” The dreamy tone of her voice took the starch out of me. The silver circle around the creature vanished, and it zapped out a second later.
“Be ready,” I said, realizing every startled gaze in the room remained locked onto me.
James cleared his throat and rubbed his arms, rocking with shivers. “Well … you don’t see that every day. What in hell’s name was that?”
“You don’t want to know,” Brígh said. “It’ll make you feel like you’re in the middle of your worst nightmare.”
“Yes, I see that.” Richard had moved to the far corner, but didn’t appear as shaken as I expected him to be.
Brígh closed her eyes, fluttering her lashes. “They’re coming.”
I loosed my full glory, light blazing and hair flying into a lovely explosion of golden fireworks above my head.
The moment the three Overseers, plus creepy guy, appeared, Meline erected a ward around them.
I offered the white-haired hag my best I’m-about-to-eat-you-for-breakfast smile. “You picked a really rotten time to fuck with me, Tameryn. You see, half of our city has been taken, in case you missed it down there in old crone heaven.”
“How dare you speak to her that way!” Miranda’s knocking knees didn’t help her attempt at bravado.
Deirdre smiled, placing her hand on the other woman’s arm. “Who are we to interfere with the Goddess’ will? We have no quarrel with you, queen, only with the young one in your company. Return her to us for punishment, and we won’t have a problem here.”
I burst out laughing. “You’re stupid if you think we don’t have a problem here. You’ll take her over my dead body and that of every last person in this room.”
Murmured agreements came at my rear.
“Do not interfere,” Tameryn said from across the room. Oh, hell no. She faded out and appeared beside Brígh. “You’ve already condemned yourselves by ignoring the signs our great mother put right in front of your noses.”
What bloody signs?
“How is she doing that?” Meline twisted her head to stare at the witch on her left, and back to the one on her right. “Seriously? How is she doing that? The ward’s still in place.”
“She was never in the ward.” Brígh backed up and almost ran into Richard, who put her behind him. The guy was really stepping up; he won a few points in my book for that one.
Oh, I get it. The creepy thing could cast illusions. While we all gawked at the illusion of Tameryn with the others, she’d entered on her own. Crafty little nag. I closed my eyes and searched for her mind, finding everyone’s but hers.
When Tameryn moved toward Brígh again, Parthalan burst into wings and threw himself at her. She faded and reappeared somewhere else, still making a beeline for my young aide. Grunting, he made another attempt at her, but his arms passed right through. “It’s like she’s not really here. I cannot touch her.”
“No, you can’t get her that way,” Brígh said. “That thing is making you think she’s everywhere but where she really is.”
My attention snapped to Mr. Creepy, and I commanded him to, “Sleep.” He hit the floor like a sack of turd. The real Tameryn appeared a few feet away from me, her expression falling from haughty superiority to oh-shit in two seconds flat.
An undeniable urge to wring her neck took me to her in a three long strides. The instant my hand made contact with her, she screamed and jerked as if I pumped her full of lightning. The air sparked and ignited with my energy until it drowned the room in Light. Warmth traveled up my arm and into my heart, lungs, pooling in my belly, swirling and hungry. My darkness flared. It filled me with ecstasy as her horror and fright licked at me like black, exotic flames. I allowed the heat to fill me, drew in more of her, hummed as it crackled through my soul and set it ablaze.
“Lila, stop!” James said.
Stop? Why would I stop? I wasn’t doing anything. Was I? I yanked my hand back and stared at my glowing fingertips while Tameryn fell and writhed on the floor.
“What did you do to her?” Deirdre asked in a high voice.
My mouth remained locked shut while I replayed what had happened in my head and searched my body for the cause of Tameryn’s fear. “I was contemplating punching her in the kisser, but other than that I did nothing … I think?”
“Sure looked like something to me. I think whatever you did to that silver haired broad just happened again.” Raven edged nearer with a watch-out-for-the-psycho-queen quirk to her sculpted brows. “You learn some new tricks since I last heard?”
“I’ve failed my Goddess,” Tameryn wailed. “I know I have. I should never have listened to her, but she promised I’d be loved and respected, that the Goddess had plans for me, that I’d be destined for great things. Please, no more. I can’t stand it.”
“Stop, Lila. Jesus,” James said. “Imprison her, or whatever it is you fae do, but she’s still a person. What the hell?”
“Oh, for the love of Pete, I’m not doing anything! Where are you, Liam? I need you. I don’t understand what’s happening. My body’s going haywire and I’m afraid to touch anyone else in case I electrocute them, too.”
Tameryn raised her hands to her head, growing still except for her bulging eyes that moved back and forth in their sockets. “I cannot see.” She turned her gaze up to me, suggesting her eyes worked just fine. Tears spilled onto her wrinkles and zigzagged down her sagging cheek. “Why? It’s all I have. This can’t be the will of the Goddess. I have served her faithfully. Have I not?”
“Oh, shit!” Brígh gaped at me, at Tameryn, and shifted back to me again. “She doesn’t mean see”—she pointed to her eyes—“she means See”—her finger moved to her temple. “You blocked her Sight? I knew Liam could do that, sort of, but I didn’t think it would have worked on Tameryn. How did you do that?”
“I swear on my mother’s soul that I have no effing idea what you’re talking about. I just touched her. Geez!” Had I blocked her cumhacht?
“Not blocked. Stolen!” Tameryn screeched. “I feel the hum of the future no longer. Not trapped within, but gone!” Another fit of sobs had her curling into a ball at my feet. “Forgive me, Great Mother. Forgive my sins against you, for I only wanted to be nearer to your grace.”
A few gulps of air settled me a degree or two. Without Gallagher, I had no hope of figuring out what was going on with my body. First Neasa had freaked when I touched her, then Tameryn. What did it mean? Another weapon to use against the Magi? If so, how did it work? I turned to the other two Overseers. “Are you really inside the ward? No more tricks? Because I will get to you one way or the other.”
Deirdre nodded frantically. The other said, “You were right to shut her down.”
“Miranda!” Deirdre snapped.
“You know what Tameryn was going to do to Brígh was wrong, just like what she told us she did to Marla.” Miranda turned glassy eyes to he
r companion. “It’s unnatural and cruel. You know if we don’t do something that we’re all dead. Why did we ever start listening to her in the first place? I mean, look at us?” A sob burst from her, but sympathy couldn’t make it past the wall of anger that had shut me away. “It wasn’t fae cumhacht she would have used to hurt Brígh. It’s some sort of magic she gained long before I came to be with her, back, I think, from before you were even born. After you came to our realm the other day, I was scared. I followed Tameryn, wondering where she got off to once in a while and wouldn’t tell me about.” Face tilted so far forward I couldn’t see her expression, Deirdre composed herself with a deep breath. “She went a short way into the trees just beyond Seven Gates and met someone there. I couldn’t fully see the other person, just a silhouette in the trees. Only her eyes shone through, and they looked almost … wild. I swear they were like ice, and whatever she put into the air made my skin feel like it would crawl away. I think … I think maybe she was one of the Magi.”
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I must have already known what Deidre had seen because the information didn’t shock me stupid. “Or one of their conduits,” I said, catching Laerni’s subtle tremor and nod.
“Are you kidding me?” Neve gripped her hips and muttered a few curses. “So it isn’t just the Black City fae who’ve betrayed us. It’s someone right here in our own city! All this time, you sat in your little shack through the painting, knowing what was coming. All this time, you said nothing! How could you let this go so far? How many other fucking traitors do we have in this city, huh?”
I got why she was pissed—it had happened at least partially on her watch. “It’s not your fault, Neve. I should have demanded to see the Overseers long before now, but with all the crap going on, it just didn’t register high enough on my priority list.” Hindsight was as useless as stilettos on a frog. Although my anger threatened to swell even more, I shut it down with a Herculean effort. “Soon, it won’t matter, anyway. You”—I pointed to the two younger Overseers—“do anything I don’t like, and if I live through his day, I’ll do to you what I did to Tameryn.” Whatever that was. To Tameryn, I said, “And you will confess to Gallagher when I bring him back here. You will look him in the eye when you tell him you—out of greed or ambition or whatever fucked up shit is going on in that head of yours—that you destroyed his Goddess given mate and made him watch her madness kill her. All to feed your ego. How could you take orders from a Magi?” I closed my eyes and held my belly. After a few moments of listening to the weeping and mumbling Tameryn, I cleared my throat and headed for the door. “Enough pissing around. It’s time to go. Meline, you’re in charge of assembling the teams. I’ll give you a fifteen minute head start before Laerni takes us to Talawen’s wood with Nix.” I glanced over the eager faces and thought I should give some sort of motivational speech, but didn’t have a clue what to say to a group I may never see again. “In case I’ve never said it before, I have faith in all of you. You know how hard it is for me to ask for help, and even now, I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t believe you had it in you. Bring our men home. Kick some ass, and if I can pull this off, I’ll see you back here for one hell of a party.”
A raucous cheer roared from them all. I joined them, letting their energy pump me up.
Brígh came running, throwing her arms around me hard enough we would have toppled over backwards had Parthalan not been there for me to bump into. “You come back to me, Lila, and you bring my Cas. You hear me? You have to come back.”
I considered telling her some pretty lies, but she’d probably hate that worse than the truth. “I’ll try my best, kiddo. I’ve pulled some tricky rabbits out of my ass before, and if I can figure out where the little bugger is hiding this time, you can be damned sure I’ll be back here with your man in no time.”
“And yours.”
I chuckled and gave her one last squeeze, terrified it would be my last. “Yes. And mine. You stick with Neve, do you hear me? I’m not sure what Tameryn’s playing at, but I don’t trust that she’s a helpless, quivering lump, since I did nothing to her that I’m aware of. If I come back here and find you with a scrambled brain, I’m going to be pissed.”
Brígh laughed and her arms fell slowly down to her sides, not bothering to wipe the wetness from her eyes. “The void is gone. The tree invasion is still there, but at least I live long enough to die with the rest of you.”
“You’ll live to a ripe old age, and don’t you dare think otherwise.” To Neve, I said, “While I’m gone, Iress is yours. You’re my eyes and ears, so you keep your Host with you every second. You have the authority to do whatever it takes to make sure there’s still somewhere for us to come home to. And if I don’t come home, the position will become permanent.”
She hugged me, a fierce squeeze that made me grunt. “You can count on me, whatever happens.”
“I know.”
“I love you,” Brígh said. “We all do. If things don’t … just know that we do.”
“Right back atcha.” Chin quivering, I nodded and headed out the door.
Goodbye, I thought at them, even though only Laerni would have heard it.
24
“Whoa, wait up,” James called as I loped down Brígh and Cas’ walkway with Parthalan and Laerni. “I got the hint to shut my trap in the Court and with those folks in there, but you still haven’t told me … us humans … what you need.”
I motioned the elf and Host lord onward—glad they had been so engrossed in conversation about the Sluagh’s singular mind that Laerni had stayed out of my head—and they herded the rest of the hit-squad toward the portal.
“Yeah, I haven’t forgotten,” I said when the odd duo were out of earshot. “Just dreading saying this out loud, and I don’t want anyone to know what I’m about to say to you.”
Richard stepped around James so they stood side by side, both staring at me with deep concern. “We’re prepared to do whatever you need. I might not have believed before, but being here, seeing you, the way you lead and care for these people, your spectacular abilities … I believe God has sent you to us. Even though you don’t believe, I do, and that’s good enough for me.”
“Uh … thanks.” I didn’t want to get into a religious discussion with him, so I left him to his faith. “Listen, if this goes south, and it’s more likely to than not, we need a contingency plan. If I fail to come up with some way to end the Magi’s threat, then you’re going to have to make sure the casualties are limited to those in that forest.” The thought had been spinning in the back of my mind, loud and terrifying. Hearing it come out of my mouth sounded so much worse.
James stared at me for a minute, scratching fingers through his light brown hair, and turned to Richard before coming back to me. “Tell me you’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”
“What kind of firepower do you have at your disposal?” I asked my shoes.
“Explain,” Richard said.
Feeling like an idiot for avoiding their gazes, I met them head on and hoped they could see my seriousness. “Before we leave here, I’m going to arrange for another team of witches to be on standby with you to bring down the wards in my vicinity if there are any up when the time comes.” I made a rough swallow as acid climbed my throat. “The Magi manipulated me six months ago to learn how to absorb an extraordinary amount of power I use for … well, I’m not sure everything I can do with it, but dangerous stuff for sure. I have to think they want me to do something with that power. If Alseides takes my mind, like I hear she’s going to try to do, I’ll end up in the sky looking like a sun about to go nova. At that point, it may be too late to stop what I’m doing even if it occurs to me that I should. I once gathered enough energy that, when expelled, I created this city you’re now standing in. If I merge their prison realm with our realm and your world, it’s over. We’re toast. They win.”
James shot off a few low curses. “So what then?”
“You’ll have one of the Host with you, and we’re hoping they can communicate through anything, warded or not. He will relay what the Host see inside their realm to you, and if you hear anything like what I just described …” Holding my belly, I choked on a cry before willing it away. “You have to destroy me. I think I’m the only one who can free the Magi, if that’s even what they want. So, if I can’t take them out, then you take me out, and the rest of my people and yours will live on.”
“That’s insane!” James thrust his hand up and took off down the path, but turned and stormed back like an angry bear. “There has to be another way. Even if you weren’t pregnant, even if I didn’t know you from Adam, let alone you’re the heart and soul of a nation, I couldn’t do that. Please, for the love of God, don’t ask me to do that.”
I was a lot of things, but heart and soul of anything didn’t make the list. I bristled, tired of thinking about a possible eventuality that would end my life and Garret’s before his had even begun. “You think I want this? I have been given a responsibility, possibly right from birth, and endured a rough-assed life to prepare me for this moment. I am not going to fuck it up. Don’t you think I’ll fight until the last breath to avoid that eventuality? If you can’t do this, then I’ll ask someone else, and believe me when I say it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve stepped into the line of fire to shut down a threat. To kill Parthalan I had Willa’s mate, Quinn, shoot me. Twice. And I almost died from it. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Right now I have to go with my gut and trust my Goddess to have prepared me for this shit task she’s laid on my shoulders because nerve and faith are all I’ve got, and my gut tells me I can’t leave any of this to chance.”
The two men faced the flowers beside them for a moment before Richard came forward and extended his hand, tilting his face up to me.
Rise of the Magi Page 21
