by Patti Larsen
And Ameline.
Always Ameline, from now on.
I could still feel her inside me. The connection felt similar to the one I shared with Gram, how we remained a part of each other through the family magic and the bond left behind by her power, magic I carried with me since infancy. But this was different, and as much as I loved Gram, more fundamental. Raw, down to the bone, settling into my cells, the core of my spirit, until there was nothing we didn't share.
Creeped me the hell out. But I had no options, and as much as I fought it on an intellectual level, my maji power welcomed her with open arms.
And her mine. Not only was she in me, I was in her. Felt the stirring of her heart past her icy shell. Didn't want to think of her as having a heart, for that matter. But she did. And it now beat in time with mine.
As we stepped out of the veil, I felt a moment of concern. I'd been aiming for Liam, as I always did, using him for my target when it came to traveling to the Sidhe Gate cavern. But instead of emerging in the side yard of town hall or even at the top of the stairs, I found myself stepping out onto the stone floor of the cavern itself this time, stopping only a few feet from the very startled Gatekeeper.
“The Sidhe?” Had they fallen? Was I too late? But no, the look on Liam's face told me he was more bemused than worried.
“No change, from what I can tell,” he said. Looked down the hall to the entry and back to me again. “How?”
I shrugged, pretty sure I had an answer, but didn't get to give it. Not while Liam gasped and took a step forward, hands fisted, Galleytrot rushing forward with a low growl, black fur standing on end.
Oops. I stepped in front of Ameline as the pair finally noticed and then threatened her, hating I needed her even as our bond strengthened by the moment. “Ease up, guys,” I said. “She's here to help.”
Did I really just say that? Did those words really pass my lips?
“I'll believe that when it happens.” Liam did back down, though Galleytrot didn't sit, fur trembling on end, eyes blazing red fire. Considering she'd almost killed him the last time they met, I hardly blamed him.
For that matter, she tried to kill most of the people I cared about.
Why was I working with her again?
Ameline ignored Liam's threatening stare and Galleytrot's rumbling growl shaking the ground under our feet. She brushed past me, past Charlotte, eyes locked on the Gate.
“This is a delightful reunion,” she said, “but we really have work to do.”
Liam's jaw jumped. I would have loved to see what he planned to do to her, I really would. But one touch of my hand made him settle, the Sidhe's plight more important than personal vendettas. His hazel eyes sparked with green magic as he looked down at me.
You can't be serious. His hands trembled as he brushed his fingers over my cheek. Syd—
I cut him off before he could give me a lecture. If you can think of another way to save the Sidhe, I'm all ears. I glared at Ameline's back. Until then, it's her or nothing.
Liam nodded after releasing a gust of air from his pursed lips. “Fine,” he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead quickly before spinning and striding to the Gate. Green fire crackled around the edges as he pushed his power into it a little more aggressively than necessary. “I just hope this is worth it.”
No kidding.
Ameline's smiled, condescending and freezing cold. “Just do as you’re told, Gatekeeper,” she said. “And leave the rest to us.”
Wow, she was really asking for it.
I think Liam would have gladly opened the Gate just to be rid of her at that point. I just wished I had a way to cut myself loose, too. No such luck. But even as I wiggled and wriggled against contact, the longer we remained linked, the more powerful I felt.
Okay then. If I had to work with her, I could accept that. But if this connection tried to make me like her, I was out of here.
The moment we passed through the soap-bubble edge and into Sidhe territory, Ameline's tall, dark-haired form shrank, a little girl with pale green eyes and long brown hair replacing her. I stared down at her, forcing myself to swallow the lump of disgust rising in my throat at the sight.
Not Shaylee. She looked nothing like my Sidhe princess. And though I'd been sure Ameline hadn't used my alter ego to create this young Sidhe soul when she held her in thrall, I still worried, just a little bit.
Not an infant. Mom told me she'd used two Sidhe souls to create a baby spirit. Looking down on her, an actually little Sidhe girl, I had a thought. Bronagh's daughter, and Cian's. The Queen's adviser and the force behind the Gates.
And, in a weird, gross way, Liam's.
I could not go there. Not. My brain would not process that in any possible hell Ameline's Sidhe soul was Liam's child.
Oh. My. Swearword.
I couldn't think that way, had to tear my eyes from her flat stare, turn and force myself to march toward the border. Charlotte flanked Ameline's young form, loping along as the blonde wolf while Ameline's little body had no trouble keeping up with me. I was so focused on not looking at her, on just getting to the Unseelie side and dealing with the Brotherhood, I missed the fact we weren't alone.
Ameline's huff of irritation joined Charlotte's soft chuff of warning as I looked up.
And found myself surrounded by shining, golden Seelie soldiers.
Seriously? Annoyance bloomed as a large white horse emerged from the circle, Aoilainn mounted on its back. She'd traded her flowing gown for golden armor of her own, long hair caught up in an elaborate braid draped across her shoulders like a cloak. She glared down at me as the great horse pawed the ground beneath him.
But Aoilainn's attention didn't stay on me long, and while I gathered what was left of my temper and tried to put together a civil response to being ambushed like this, the queen's eyes settled on Ameline.
Her face flashed to rage so fast I almost missed it when she flung her arm forward, a ball of green fire arching toward the Sidhe girl form beside me. I reached out to block it the exact moment my co-maji did, the sphere bursting in a cascade of rainbow sparks.
“Arrest her!” Aoilainn's face contorted, tears standing in her eyes. “Thief and murderer, you've stolen the child of our most beloved Bronagh!”
Ameline smirked. Bad choice, as far as I was concerned, but she didn't seem to care.
“Come and try it,” she said.
Aoilainn did, though her soldiers held back, her power pounding against us. I could feel the weakness of it, though, caught the decay in the air around us, in Aoilainn's armor, flashes of the dead grass painted green by her glamour as she did her best to destroy Ameline. I stood next to the witch turned little Sidhe girl, felt her gloat as Aoilainn's power failed, hated that Ameline enjoyed the queen's downfall so much.
And that I wasn't any better than Ameline when it came right down to it.
I finally put an end to the cascade of power, cutting Aoilainn off. The queen sagged in her saddle, weeping openly as I supported her with creation magic. She stared at me, mute and desperate as the sky overhead darkened and the grasses finally flickered to brown as her glamour failed. The girl next to me shifted to Ameline's form before settling into a child again.
The soul called to the realm. Either that or Ameline chose to remain as she was. Interesting choice.
Charlotte, in human form again, stood just behind me, eyes locked on the weeping queen.
“We are doomed,” Aoilainn said.
“You're not,” I said. “We can fix this. But only if you do what we tell you.”
She shuddered, but nodded. “I will,” she said.
Would wonders never cease. Mighty Aoilainn had crumbled. Shaylee took no joy in it, but I had to admit I wasn't really all that empathetic. “We have to go to the border,” I said. “And talk to Odhran.”
Aoilainn's hesitation had to be instinctual. Old habit or born into her. Whatever the case, she visibly struggled with her answer before she bowed her head and sighed.
“Our people wi
ll die if I don't act,” she said, humility radiating from her, probably for the first time in her entire existence. “I will do whatever is necessary.”
I would probably have enjoyed the moment of triumph more if it hadn't been for the nasty grin on Ameline's little girl face.
***
Chapter Twenty Nine
We reached the border in moments, once Aoilainn ordered her people to stand aside. She looked so tired and worn I wondered if she put the last of her energy into moving us as quickly as possible. It seemed the air shimmered from a blank horizon to suddenly flaring with green flame and a gathered army of fading Unseelie.
I approached the doorway to the other side with Ameline next to me, gesturing for Odhran and Niamh to join us at the barrier. They came, looking as beaten down as Aoilainn, their people as weary. At least the giants sat up now, large eyes blinking slowly, sleepily, no longer prone and helpless. I looked up, saw the patch I'd installed still held, but with gaps around the edges.
We didn't have much time.
Odhran bowed his head to me before letting his gaze fall on Ameline. She didn't say anything to him, but he grimaced before taking his queen's hand.
“I had not thought to see you come to my border again,” he said to the small girl body Ameline wore. “I believe I told you once if I found you here I would kill you.”
Her smile was positively sweet. “And here we are,” she said in her rich, deep voice, so creepy from the petite girl's mouth. “A pity you need me, isn't it?”
He met my eyes, shaking his head. “This is the only way?”
Sigh. I wished people would stop asking me that. Like I hadn't tried every other possible avenue first.
I almost missed the tension passing between the two sides of the Sidhe race, finally catching on when Charlotte chuffed at my side, head whipping back and forth. I turned from Odhran to see Aoilainn's people glaring with dark intent at the Unseelie people who glared right back.
“This is your doing.” Leave it to Aoilainn to start pointing fingers. She did so, straight up at the gaping darkness on his side, the shining patch weakening by the second. “You have brought this on us.”
“I have been fighting it since the moment it began,” Odhran roared back, some of his vigor returning while Niamh snarled, her tall, slim body sheathed in black leather flashing with green fire. “It is you who refused to join forces with me, who refused to acknowledge we were losing our power to some outside source.”
Aoilainn opened her mouth to argue. I very firmly closed it for her with a jab of magic.
“I don't care who kicked sand in whose face first,” I said. “Or who bullied who six million years ago. Don't. Care.” I poked my own finger at the swirling darkness, feeling the patch begin to give way, knowing we'd come just in time. “That? That matters.”
“Why bother?” Ameline crossed her little arms over her chest and raised one eyebrow in artful disdain. “Perhaps we should let them be destroyed.”
I almost agreed with her. Caught myself from doing just that.
“We need to act now.” I gestured at the border, knowing as I think I'd known all along their own balance was out of kilter and made them vulnerable. “It's time that came down.”
I watched the ruler's faces contort, centuries, millennia of disgust and opposition rising to spit out of them like venom. Even Odhran, who I knew understood just how close they were to destruction.
Only to feel the whole world shake beneath me as the patch above gave way with a vast, thundering boom.
Aoilainn instantly collapsed, sliding sideways from her horse as her Sidhe warriors fell to the ground. The pressure of the sudden exodus of magic drove the Unseelie to their knees, the king gasping as he reached out toward the border. Aoilainn's stubbornness shone in her face, even now.
“Mother,” Shaylee spoke through my lips. “Live or die. Our race's fate is in your hands.”
Aoilainn's will crumbled as she raised her hand and her power reached for the king.
And the border between the Seelie and Unseelie collapsed in a sigh of dying magic.
Our turn. I reached for Ameline's hand, felt her cold, firm child's fingers grip mine as our power, already bonded, surged between us at our touch.
Balance. Such a simple word to say. But finding it, grasping it, was a far more difficult matter. I was stronger than Ameline, that much was obvious. And she fought my strength even as the edge of the sky crumbled and the Sidhe realm began to fall into the gaping darkness. Back and forth Ameline and I fought while the world died.
Enough! I dropped my last defenses, pulled her to me. Felt her resistance fail and fall away. There, I sent to her, aiming us toward the gaping dark. There is our enemy.
Yes, she sent, coiling around me, feeding from my power as I fed from hers. There.
The core of the black called to me, pulled me forward, pulled us to it, swallowing us as we chased back through the shadowed sky to the source of destruction.
***
Chapter Thirty
I feared the black, remembering the devouring feeling of it the first time, when Demetrius led me to Wilhelm Castle. But this was different, whether because I was in control or due to Ameline's presence. I didn't suffer soul-eating terror from the crushing pull of the dark. This experience slid past smooth and quiet, like riding an underground river to our destination.
We emerged in a stone room, both of us stepping out together, hand in hand. Liander Belaisle hovered over a glass case, shimmering with the same iridescence as the magic Ameline and I wielded. He cried out as he saw us appear, real fear on his face, and rage.
A tall, stunning blonde stood next to him, her pale gray eyes flying wide as she pointed to us.
“No!”
But we were already acting, our power reaching for the glass. A woman lay beneath it, prone and either dead or unconscious on a stone bed. I had no idea who she was or why the Sidhe magic was attracted to her, but she couldn't have it.
It didn't belong to her.
Calm settled over me, a detached sensation as all of my many parts formed one single soul. Power poured from me through the hand in mine and back again, the dark and light mingling in perfect harmony where we touched.
This must not be. The Dark spoke through Ameline.
Agreed. The Light sent, me and yet not me.
Together, power blazing, roaring through me like a freight train, Ameline and I raised our hands as one, gestured. The Light acted, making me feel like a patient passenger on this ride, though I was wide open and aware of everything happening to me, around me. The Dark formed a blade in the air, the Light crystalizing around it. Again we gestured while Belaisle's gaping black power rushed forward to consume us.
Our sword sliced through his magic, collapsed it into dust. Flashed in the candlelight of the stone room, whistling with the song of the maji veil as it rose and descended across the stream of green magic flowing forward to the glass case.
Cut off the suction of power gushing through the gap to the Sidhe realm.
The thunder clap in answer blew Belaisle back, tumbling him over and over until he crashed against the far wall and collapsed with a groan. The woman fell to her knees before being flung aside, landing next to him, his body cushioning her landing. Rage flared in her face as she struggled to rise.
“Damn you!” She crawled toward the woman under the shield. “If you've harmed Gaia—”
The Dark reached for the silent woman under glass, crushing power leveled to destroy her, but The Light stopped her.
Our work is done, It sent.
They feed her to support their efforts. The Dark's chilling gaze fell upon me, the ice blue eyes of Its host black and bottomless.
They fail. The Light felt along the edges of the case. She will die and they will be left empty. But better to allow it to happen than to be the cause.
The Dark paused. You are certain?
Flashes of images passed through my mind as the Light shared with the Dark. I caught bri
ef glimpses of faces, Iepa and the tall blonde woman still panting on the floor, of Belaisle and a handsome young sorcerer, his power clear around him. Focused finally on a young woman, around my age who burned with amber fire.
The Dark sighed. Agreed, It sent.
I gasped out a breath as the Light retreated, feeling Ameline's hand spasm in mine as the Dark left her. No time to hesitate, not when the bulk of Sidhe magic rose above us, hovering near the ceiling, writhing and spinning before slamming itself against the black hole it came through. A massive cascade of sparks flared, pattered to the floor as the Sidhe magic groaned its song in discordant despair.
We have to reverse the pull. I spun on the dark stain on the wall, the passage still open, though the pull had gone, no more magic entering. Or all of this is for nothing.
We have a chance to kill him. Ameline gestured at Belaisle.
No, the Light sent. He is necessary. For now.
No, the Dark agreed. Not yet.
Ameline's rebellion was clear on her face but I got the message. I need you.
She shook her head, but not in denial, dark regret on her face as we turned our backs on him and focused on the portal.
Simple really, this magic he'd created. Using the power of Sidhe souls he'd stolen, forming a wedge. The stolen spirits wailed their sadness at me, begged for release.
My sorcery devoured Belaisle's creation, drawing the black into me, shattering the edges of the opening. The wedge of souls collapsed, spinning into the center even as Ameline's power gobbled them up.
I didn't have time to share the horror I felt, to even think about what she'd done. Not while Belaisle groaned behind me, muttered. The Light asked me to leave him alive, as much as I wanted to let Ameline kill him. And though I hoped listening was the right choice, I had to believe.
The Sidhe power cried out to me as I slashed open the veil between this plane and the realm. A clean, bright gash appeared, the shining light so different from the suctioning darkness. In one last clap of thunder rolling through me, rattling my teeth together, the power of the Sidhe flared and dove for home.
