His muscles bunched and flexed as he strode toward her through the tunnel now connecting them. He wore only a loincloth, showing his body to perfection.
Ceithlenn’s heart beat faster. Her smile grew broader. Heated pleasure rushed through her body the closer Balor came to her.
She gasped and grabbed her belly.
Her magic began to slip away.
Her power was dwindling!
“Hurry, love,” she cried. Bringing her husband to her was taking every ounce of the power she had.
She was fading. Fading.
No! She had to bring him to her. It was time!
“Balor!” she cried, and he moved toward the sound of her voice.
She held her hand out to him. “Ceithlenn!” he shouted as he stretched out his arm.
Their fingers brushed.
The air around them exploded like a mirror shattering into a million fragments.
Ceithlenn shrieked as she flew backward, away from Balor. She landed on her backside, her palms braced on the ground. She rose as her lover fully formed on the field.
Her heart leapt. She had done it!
But now she was weakened.
From her peripheral vision she saw Darkwolf and Junga deflate. Slowly their bodies shifted, squirmed, and returned to their normal forms, the magic ropes loose around them.
Her heart pounded as only a human’s could. The Sara part of her recognized what was happening. Her magic that had enslaved them, and kept them in their monstrous shapes, was now broken and she could no longer maintain control over them.
The magical ropes the witches had restrained Junga and Darkwolf with were now too big. The Fomorii and the warlock scrambled out of their bindings.
Balor’s eye glowed so brilliantly from Darkwolf’s throat the air surrounding them was red. Darkwolf shouted something to Junga that Ceithlenn couldn’t hear. Then for some strange reason, Junga morphed to her Elizabeth form, her more vulnerable form.
“Give the eye to Balor!” Ceithlenn shouted to Darkwolf as she pushed herself to her feet. “Hurry!”
Darkwolf brought his hand to his chest and grasped the eye. The red of it bled through his fingers. He looked at Balor, who headed Darkwolf’s way despite his blindness. Balor could sense his own eye.
Ceithlenn shouted again, “Give him the eye, Darkwolf!”
The warlock hesitated.
He grabbed Elizabeth by her upper arm.
And vanished.
They both vanished.
Ceithlenn shrieked. “No! You bastard, no!”
She cried out to Balor, “Leave this place, my love. Hurry. You must find Darkwolf!”
The god roared so loud it shook the stadium. He started toward Ceithlenn then came up short, likely sensing the D’Danann flying his way.
Balor’s voice boomed throughout the stadium. “I will come for you, my Ceith.”
And he disappeared.
34
Rhiannon’s fury mounted as Ceithlenn turned her rage on the witches and their allies. The flame-haired being flung out her arms and hit the two PSF officers closest to her with her magic and flung them back, across the stadium.
“No!” Rhiannon shouted through the pain in her heart, drawing Ceithlenn’s attention.
The goddess pointed one finger at Rhiannon.
“You need to trust yourself, and in turn the Shadows will answer to you,” came the Great Guardian’s voice in Rhiannon’s thoughts, through the incredible pain that Ceithlenn was inflicting on her mind. “They can and will fight for purposes that serve the greater good so long as you believe in them.”
Ignoring the head-splitting pain of being near Ceithlenn, Rhiannon set her jaw.
Through all the pain, anger, hope, and fear, she freed the Shadows.
Again she felt as if a thunderstorm filled her body. Shadows whirled out of her like small tornadoes and Rhiannon felt an electrical charge with every single one of them.
The black, almost human-shaped Shadows converged on the goddess. She screamed and struggled as they trapped her arms, her legs, and even had her by the neck.
Ceithlenn focused her stare on Rhiannon and she felt as if her skull would burst from the pain. She dropped to her knees, her vision blurring as the goddess continued to grasp at Rhiannon’s mind despite the Shadows.
Rhiannon’s entire body shook. Blinding white light flashed in front of her eyes.
She raised her hands, clenched her fists at the sides of her skull, and shouted, “You bitch. Get. Out. Of. My. Head!”
With a powerful mental shove, Rhiannon slammed her magic against Ceithlenn’s hold. A harsh struggle took place inside Rhiannon’s skull. The battle for her mind was almost enough to make her pass out.
Then she gave another mental shove with everything she had.
Ceithlenn reeled back and the Shadows fully tackled her to the ground.
The pain vanished and Ceithlenn’s hold on Rhiannon’s mind shattered.
The goddess looked furious and shocked all at once.
And the pain from Rhiannon’s head was gone. Ceithlenn’s name no longer held power over her.
The Shadows seemed to read her mind and tightened their hold on the goddess as she struggled to her knees.
Magical ropes snaked around Ceithlenn from Rhiannon’s Coven sisters.
The ropes drew the goddess’s arms tight against her sides and pinned her wings to her. She dropped from her knees to her haunches. The witches’ familiars stood by, shrieking, growling, hissing.
Ceithlenn hissed back, her hair flaming, her eyes glowing evil red. The stench of burnt sugar and rotten fish was so strong Rhiannon wanted to gag.
Slowly Ceithlenn’s wings and fangs retracted. The fire of her hair faded.
The goddess wavered. Sara appeared in her place and slumped onto her back. The smell of Jasmine mingled with the other stenches.
Still wrapped in the Shadows and the other witches’ magical ropes, Ceithlenn-Sara screamed again. It was an inhuman shriek, but Rhiannon could tell the goddess didn’t have the magical energy to struggle. Ceithlenn had used most of her power in bringing Balor to this world.
Chaos pounced on Ceithlenn-Sara’s chest, pinning her down. The Doberman had his jaws open, poised above Sara’s jugular, ready for the command to finish her off. The Shadows ignored Chaos and clung to Sara like a thick black fog, surrounding the Coven sisters’ magic ropes
Even through her shock of losing Darkwolf, Junga, and Balor himself, Rhiannon kept her resolve firm. She didn’t exactly have control over the Shadows, but she knew they served her will.
Rhiannon wasn’t about to let this bitch live.
But, dear Anu, Balor is here. Ceithlenn set Balor free!
Yet, Darkwolf had left with the eye—as if he couldn’t give it up to the god.
Or wouldn’t.
Did he have other plans?
How did he escape the god’s powers?
Rhiannon had to thank Anu that Darkwolf had not given the eye to Balor—yet. If mythology and history had any merit, Balor regaining his eye would mean devastation for all.
Right now Rhiannon didn’t have time to dwell on that. At this moment her attention needed to be entirely focused on Sara and the Shadows.
Sara, the traitorous witch turned warlock. Whether by her own plan or by Ceithlenn’s, Sara had absorbed the goddess’s soul into her own so that they were one.
Keir jogged toward Rhiannon, his sword gripped in his fist. Blood and sweat streaked his rage-filled face and blood poured from the slashes on his arm. Chaos saw Keir and backed away, obviously recognizing that Keir was going to finish Ceithlenn off.
When he reached the bound and Shadow-covered Sara, Keir readied his weapon, his muscular biceps bulging with the motion.
A rush of relief for her friend swept over Rhiannon when Galia zipped up from the ground. She wasn’t hurt! Just knocked unconscious.
The Faerie looked a little woozy, but she shouted, “Finish her off, Keir!” She beat her little wings like
crazy and she hovered beside him. She held another pink lightning bolt in her hand, the magical fire aimed at Ceithlenn’s heart.
“Stop!” came a powerful voice Rhiannon recognized at once.
Keir paused in his swing and Rhiannon looked up at Janis Arrowsmith. The sight of the High Priestess pricked Rhiannon’s skin like needles.
Janis of the white magic D’Anu Coven stared at Sara in shock. “Sara was once a D’Anu witch. You cannot kill her.”
“The Underworlds, I cannot,” Keir growled and raised his sword high again.
“No!” Janis’s voice was high and sharp-pitched. “I’ll not see it!”
Sword still held high, Keir bent so that his face was close to Janis’s before he said, “Then do not look.”
So fast that it was almost a blur, Janis flung her body over Sara’s, protecting her neck.
“Shit,” Jake said as he jogged up. “Get that old lady away and finish Ceithlenn off.”
Keir grabbed one of Janis’s arms, while Jake grasped the other, but she didn’t move a fraction.
“My magic will not allow you to move me,” Janis said as she raised herself just enough to look into Sara’s face. The goddess was still bound by the Shadows and magic ropes, and Janis lay on top of them and the goddess.
The goddess’s fierce expression turned softer as she stared up at Janis with pleading eyes. “I couldn’t stop her. She took over my body—everything.” Sara bowed her head. “I can’t get her out of me.”
With most of the people in the stands likely dead, the only other sounds that could be heard were the moans and groans of the injured PSF officers and D’Danann, and Alyssa’s small cries as her arm was cared for.
To Rhiannon’s further surprise, when she took a quick glance around, she saw members of the white magic D’Anu Coven. They were attending to those who still lived, using their white magic to heal what wounds they could. By silent agreement, some of the gray magic witches and their familiars turned to help the other D’Anu Coven, leaving Copper, Silver, and Rhiannon to ensure Ceithlenn’s containment with the Shadows and magic ropes.
Confused conversation came from people on the field itself. From what Rhiannon gathered, when Ceithlenn first spoke from the pitcher’s mound, the goddess had merely “frozen” the people on the field for her demons to eat after the fight.
Her control over them must have failed, too. The governor and some members of the baseball teams were among those who had survived.
“We will perform a ceremony with Sara and banish the demon-goddess from within her,” Janis Arrowsmith announced, her voice ringing through the almost silent stadium.
“What?” Rhiannon’s word of incredulity was echoed by several of the other witches, including Copper and Silver. “There’s no saving her,” Rhiannon stated. “No banishing Ceithlenn from her. She’s a willing host, and she’s murdered thousands of people. She needs to be killed.”
Janis’s gaze grew icy. “We will banish the evil from Sara’s soul.”
“I can’t believe this.” Even though Rhiannon was exhausted from releasing and manipulating the Shadows—not to mention the battle—she mentally yanked harder on the Shadows holding onto Sara. It caused the goddess-bitch to yelp. “You want to take the chance of Ceithlenn escaping? What if she jumps from Sara’s soul to someone else’s?”
Janis’s look hardened, her face like lined white marble. “The goddess will be sent back to Underworld.”
Rhiannon widened her eyes, a what-the-hell-is-going-on? expression on her face. “That’s gray magic. You don’t go there, remember?”
Janis cleared her throat. “But you do,” she said in a voice that was tight with both distaste and resignation.
Rhiannon glanced from Janis to Sara, who maintained an innocent expression. Innocent, my ass.
Janis brought her palm to her throat before her hand fluttered to her side again. A vulnerable gesture. Janis wasn’t vulnerable to anything that Rhiannon knew of.
“Sara was my apprentice,” Janis finally said, her voice filled with barely restrained emotion.
Rhiannon just stared at Janis, incredulous. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m sorry.” Sara bowed her head. “Darkwolf wove such dark sorcery around me. And then the goddess—” She shuddered. “I can’t get her out of me.”
“This isn’t the Sara you knew. The goddess is tricking you.” Rhiannon’s heart pounded faster. “Look around you. Look at all the dead people in those seats up there. Thousands of people are dead!”
Sirens blared and the sounds of screeching vehicles came from outside the stadium, cutting across Rhiannon’s words.
She looked up at Keir. “The cameras. Even if everyone is dead, there were still television cameras all over the place. Everything’s been seen, including the D’Danann and the D’Anu.”
Keir lowered his sword and his eyes met hers.
Jake looked worn from battle, but as pumped as if he could take on ten more demons. “You need to go,” Jake said to Keir. “Now. With your help we’ll take care of Ceithlenn and the rest, but the D’Danann need to get the hell out of here.”
“I will not leave Rhiannon or the other witches,” Keir growled. Tiernan and Hawk came up beside him and agreed.
“You guys are allergic to lead, right?” Jake said. “The truck interiors are lined with it.”
“Godsdamn,” Keir said with a furious glare. “Then they will fly with us.”
Rhiannon shook her head. “We’ve got to keep our bindings on her or she’ll get away.”
“You are part Elvin,” he said, his face furious.
“Only part,” Silver said. “We’ve got to try.”
“Do not free her.” Keir glared at Janis Arrowsmith. “Your apprentice is gone. What you see here is an evil being controlling the shell that was once your apprentice. She must be destroyed.”
Shouts and orders of “Put your weapons down!” rang through the air.
“Go, Keir. All of you.” Rhiannon poured more of her own magic into the Shadows surrounding Sara and met Keir’s gaze. “I’m not going to let the bitch free.”
Keir gave one look at the law enforcement officers approaching them from all sides. He glanced at the other D’Danann and gave a short nod. Those who already had their wings spread launched into the air and vanished, some carrying their wounded. Almost as fast, the rest of the D’Danann unfurled their wings, took to the sky, and disappeared from human sight, too.
“Holy shit!” one of the players on the field cried out.
“What the hell?” an umpire shouted.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing that,” Jake murmured at the same time he held his hand and his credentials up for the oncoming law enforcement officers to see.
“Macgregor.” A San Francisco Police Department officer with a blond crew cut and hard look in his blue eyes jogged closer to them. “What the hell is going on, Jake?”
“Here we go.” Jake shook his head at Rhiannon before heading toward the cop to fill him in the best he could considering the situation.
Rhiannon fought a wave of nausea, fought to keep from becoming sick. Some of the officers were beyond magical healing. Dead or mortally wounded. All the blood! So much of it.
The piles of silt littering the battlefield gave her no satisfaction. If the damned Chieftains had sent more D’Danann to help fight, many lives would have been saved.
Fire trucks, ambulances, and more cop cars began making their way onto the field. Lights flashed, sirens shrieked. The stench of battle and Fomorii were almost more than Rhiannon could handle. Just the screaming sirens were enough to make her dizzy.
She turned back to Sara, who was looking up at Janis now. Tears filled the being’s eyes.
Rhiannon blinked. Those strange, shifting eyes—they weren’t Sara’s at all.
“The chief says we’ve got to cuff her.” Jake came up beside Rhiannon and she looked up at him. “This magic stuff—I don’t think anyone’s getting it.”
> Panic rose up in Rhiannon. “Cuffing her won’t be enough!”
Jake jerked his head to one of the black PSF trucks now on the field, backing up to them. “We’ll get her in the truck and out of this zoo.” He glanced around them. “You all need to leave and fast.”
“Have your officers cover us.” Rhiannon looked at Copper and Silver, who were watching her intently. “We’ll get Ceithlenn in the truck and keep her contained.”
In the back of her thoughts, Rhiannon realized she’d truly kicked the goddess from her mind, and saying or hearing Ceithlenn’s name no longer hurt.
Jake nodded and within moments his officers surrounded them in an arc around the rear door of the truck. All officers but Jake and three others had their backs to Ceithlenn and the witches, a human barricade.
The witches’ magical ropes and the Shadows held as Ceithlenn was carried by one of the PSF officers into the truck. Jake and the two officers by his sides kept their rifles pinned on Ceithlenn as they ushered the witches and their familiars into the truck, including Janis.
Rhiannon shuddered. The truck’s walls wanted to close in on her. But she could do this. She could do this.
Copper and Silver looked pale from the battle.
“What about the rest of my Coven?” Janis asked as they all crowded inside the vehicle.
Silver paused and looked back. “And ours?”
“They’re being taken out in another truck,” Jake said before backing up and hopping out of the vehicle. “I have to stay. My officers are taking you to PSF HQ and putting Ceithlenn into a holding cell.”
“A holding cell?” Rhiannon said with incredulity. “No damn holding cell is going to keep her contained.”
Jake was already shutting the back doors of the truck and spoke into his microphone. “Pull out.”
Rhiannon had forgotten all about the earpiece, and she startled. She was so wound up that she felt like she could rip off her skin. Everything had been so intense, so loud, so frightening on the battlefield, that she couldn’t remember if anything had been spoken through the transmitter or not.
The tank-like truck began to rumble and bounce along the field. Still keeping her focus on her Shadows, Rhiannon stared at Sara, a young woman in a revealing catsuit with punk-red hair and eyes that shifted like reflections rippling on the surface of a pond.
The Wicked Page 30
