by Helen Harper
I smiled to myself. Of course she’d want to check in and see how things were going. I was mildly taken aback that she’d not been in touch before now, although she was probably still smarting at the fact I’d made her stay away. Hi kitten, I replied softly. There’s no sign of him yet.
Oh. She didn’t sound particularly disappointed. Do you have enough people to cover the area?
We’ve got hundreds dotted throughout the park, I assured her. We won’t miss him.
Where’s the phoenix?
She was getting antsy. Safe, I projected.
That’s good to know.
Yeah. I can see why it chooses to live here. It lords it over all the other birds. The actual eagles seem to treat it as if it’s some kind of god. I paused. So how are you? Are you still mad at me?
Mack took a second to answer. I understand why you want me to stay away.
I frowned. That was remarkably atypical of her. Either she really was getting a very strong grip on her infamous temper or…
A voice suddenly came over the Bird World tannoy. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, the falconry display is just about to begin. If you make your way over to the north end of the park, you’ll be wowed by the skill and mastery of these birds and their keepers.’
I tensed up. Thanks a bunch, BirdWorld. Now we’d have a gazillion humans to work around. If the bird Solus had spoken to was right, however, and Endor was on his way here, then this would be the perfect time for him to show up. Any opportunity to create chaos and mass casualties and we all knew he’d take it.
Kitten, I have to go.
I’d barely finished the sentence when I saw him. Holding my breath, I watched him stride arrogantly through the gate of the Eagle’s Nest and towards the rocky outcrop belonging to the phoenix. It still amazed me how someone who looked so utterly pre-possessing could be so dangerous. Without even glancing around, he walked up to the faux mountain and outstretched his arms. As planned, we all moved out to face him.
‘I don’t know how you knew I’d be here,’ Endor called, his voice flat and calm, ‘but you know it’s futile. You can’t beat me. Haven’t you learnt that by now?’
I caught the mages spark up their blue magic out of my periphery vision. I could also feel my shifters straining at the bit to transform. Not yet. Just one more minute.
‘Where’s the dragon?’ he continued. ‘Or has she worked out that it would be pointless to face me? You know you can’t break my wards without her.’
As if I’d let him hurt her. We didn’t need Mack here in person to smash through his wards. Tarn, that damn annoying UnSeelie Fae, had yielded the blood he’d collected from her pretty damn quickly when the Summer Queen had paid him a little visit. The Seelie and UnSeelie Courts might hate each other but even they could work together if it meant destroying someone like Endor. It wasn’t just Mack’s blood that we had on our side though. In fact, Endor was about to discover that we were pretty good at warding ourselves.
Without wasting any further breath, the necromancer flicked his fingers, jetting out his foul black magic in our direction. It slammed into the ward the Ministry had created. It surrounded the lair of the phoenix from top to bottom. And it held. Endor’s magic might be strong but our ward still blocked it.
Beside me, there were beads of sweat popping out on Larkin’s forehead. He gritted his teeth. ‘It’s not going to hold forever,’ he grunted.
‘That’s okay,’ I murmured. ‘We didn’t expect it to.’ In fact, all we needed was for it hold in place long enough for us to usher out the humans. I noted with satisfaction that a large group of shifters and faeries was already succeeding with that. No doubt the humans were grumbling but as long as they were safe, they could write all the complaint letters they wanted when they got home.
The second it seemed like the vast majority had exited, I roared at Tom. Now.
He didn’t waste any time in reacting. He bounded out from his hiding place, clutching the small bottle in his hands. The mages did their thing, attacking Endor from the other side and making sure he didn’t see Tom until it was too late. When the werewolf was less than ten feet away, he flung out Mack’s blood. I held my breath as it arced into the air before splattering against Endor’s ward. Tom immediately spun round, sprinting back for cover. I could do little more than watch as Endor hissed in frustration when his ward snapped and he aimed a stream of magic in return at Tom’s back.
Right! I yelled.
He obeyed instantly, flinging himself towards his right and avoiding the lethal attack. Gravel kicked up around his feet as he disappeared back behind a nearby rock. I exhaled as the entirety of Ministry mages immediately began throwing everything they had at Endor. The entire structure was filled with blue light zapping into him from every angle. More and more mages were appearing from outside as well. One necromancer against hundreds. We could do this.
Endor laughed. I ignored his arrogant complacency. First group, I ordered.
Immediately, twenty shifters launched themselves at him. The mages temporarily ceased their magic attacks. Endor shrugged and flicked out one shot. One second he’d been faced with snapping jaws and flying fur. The next the shifters were lying crumpled on the ground. While the Fae stepped into the breach, I quickly sent out a telepathic probe. Three dead. My stomach tightened as I commanded the others who were hurt to get out of there. They wouldn’t do any further good now.
While Endor fended off the wave of snarling faeries, I prepared for the next attack. Without warning, however, the sky darkened. What had been weak sunshine a moment earlier, was now a dangerous looking storm. Out of nowhere, rain pelted down with such force that I could feel it start to almost immediately penetrate through my clothing. Lightning struck, once then twice. For a brief horrorstruck moment I thought that Endor was now controlling the weather until I realised the lightning was aiming for him. I had no idea where it had come from. The mages hadn’t mentioned anything of this sort. Wherever it had sprung from, however, I had to take advantage of it. I leapt down, pulling the Palladium from my bag. The small wooden statue felt reassuringly solid. Whether it would actually do us any good or not still remained to be seen.
While I launched myself from one side, Solus did the same from the other. We shared a mutual glance of determination and then, a fraction of a second later, we were on him. I kept a tight grip on the base of the statue, swinging it round and catching Endor on the jaw. He staggered back slightly. Then he began chanting.
Black fire spat out from his hands. Time and time again, it struck my body. Pain roared through me but I kept on going. The Palladium was our best shot. I had to hit him with it again.
Seemingly from nowhere, a dark cloud spread out from Endor’s feet. I didn’t know where the rain and lightning had come from but I knew the second it touched me that this cloud was all of the necromancer’s doing. Chokingly heavy, it stank of death. I held my breath, my eyes stinging and my lungs burning. I couldn’t see a damn thing. I struck out with the Palladium once more. With all of my senses compromised, however, I inadvertently hit Solus by accident. He yelped in pain. Shit, shit, shit.
I was dimly aware of shouts all around us. I sidestepped left, trying to find Endor once more. All I had to do was smash the bloody Palladium round his thick skull. If I could just find him … I was running out of air though. Dizziness threatened to overwhelm me. Something rolled towards me, a black and white shape that caught my leg. I was so surprised, I gasped – and that gasp was my undoing. I breathed in one gulp of the foul dark cloud and I knew I wouldn’t make it. Something lunged towards me, slicing into my face from ear right down to my chin. Ice cold pain slammed into my skull and the Palladium fell from my hand with a loud thunk as I collapsed to my knees. Mack, I thought weakly. Get away from London. Run. Hide. We’ve failed. I didn’t even have the energy to use the Voice, however. As the ground rushed up towards me, I could just make a strange shape appearing through the cloud. My puzzled brain tried to make sense of it. Some kind
of giant furry penguin. It didn’t make any sense. I’m sorry, Mack. I’m so so sorry.
***
When I finally came around, there was a pair of yellow flecked eyes staring anxiously down into my face, and several curls of bright red hair tickling my cheeks. I groaned and gazed up at Mack.
‘What…?’
‘Honestly,’ Solus’s familiar voice droned from the side, ‘I knew us Fae were stronger than the shifters but you’ve been out for ages, Corrie baby. Does it hurt? Would you like me to kiss it better?’
Mack’s cool hand touched my forehead. ‘How are you?’ she asked softly. ‘Where does it hurt?’
‘Nice of you to ask, dragonlette,’ Solus continued. ‘My mouth is rather sore. If you could just…’
‘Piss off,’ both Mack and I growled simultaneously. Then she laughed.
I struggled up on to my elbows and looked around. The Eagle’s Nest. We were still here. All around me were bodies – some dead, some merely hurt. There were groups of Fae, mages and shifters all over, hugging each other and smiling. My face throbbed and I reached up, my fingers coming away sticky with blood. ‘Endor?’ I managed, although I already had a fairly good idea.
Mack smiled. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. ‘He’s gone,’ she said. ‘We got him.’
‘How?’
She grinned at me. ‘You missed the best part. He conjured some weird ass skeleton dragon. But my dragon was stronger than his. I rammed the Palladium down his throat and,’ she made a show of dusting off her hands, ‘hey, presto. He’s dust.’
I couldn’t help myself. I scowled at her. ‘What the fuck are you doing here? You were supposed to stay away.’
‘I never was very good at taking orders, my Lord. You know that.’
My scowl grew. ‘You idiot.’
‘Yup.’ She leaned over and kissed me lightly. ‘But you love me really.’
I did. I really did. I pulled myself up to a sitting position. From its nest on top of the mountain, the phoenix peered down at us. Then it began preening itself as if it was tired of our presence.
‘I thought I saw…’ I began. I shook my head. No, it was ridiculous.
‘Saw what?’
I rubbed my forehead. ‘A giant penguin. Did Endor do that?’
Mack laughed once more. ‘No. That was me.’
I stared at her, puzzled. She transformed into a penguin? I opened my mouth to ask her what on earth she meant but she pressed her finger against lips. ‘Hush,’ she said. ‘Just rest now. Everything’s going to be alright. We’ve won.’ She leaned over and whispered into my ear. ‘We can disband the council.’
I turned my head and looked into her shining eyes. Unfortunately, I still felt a deep sense of foreboding.
Chapter Nineteen
Tom had wanted to postpone the wedding. He’d come to me as soon as I was properly back on my feet, stating that it wouldn’t be appropriate in the wake of so many deaths. I shared his pain – those shifters, not to mention the mages and faeries who had also perished, had died on my watch. But their sacrifice wouldn’t be forgotten. We needed this. A celebration of life rather than death was exactly what was in order. It was very strange, however, coming back to Cornwall where all this had begun. We congregated in the Cornish Pack’s large hall, where I’d first laid eyes on a suspicious looking woman who’d refused to look at me directly but whose face had promised fire.
‘Are we sure he’s dead?’ Mack asked, looking round at everyone.
Beltran, one of nicer Fae, nodded. ‘We have divided his body into five parts.’
She winced.
‘And those parts have been separated and burned at different points across the British Isles,’ added Larkin. ‘He ain’t coming back.’
‘The clean-up operation?’ she asked. ‘At the Eagles’ Nest?’
The Arch-Mage smiled at her benevolently. ‘All done and dusted. The Queen herself glamoured the Bird World staff, and no-one is any the wiser. The enclosure opened again yesterday morning.’
She smiled broadly. ‘Where’s the Palladium?’
‘We removed it from his body,’ I informed her. ‘It’s safe at the keep.’ It would hold pride of place there. It would also be available were we ever to require it again. I didn’t think any of us were likely to forget what these events had cost us. Every time I looked in the mirror and saw the black scar which Endor had cut into my face, I was going to think of him. Sooner or later, however, tales of him would mist into legend. We might always speak of him as if he were the boogeyman but we still beat him. We still won.
‘And we’ve spelled it to ensure it won’t be removed,’ the Arch-Mage added.
‘The phoenix?’
‘Happy. We’ve even had some communication from the kelpies. It appears they regret their earlier actions and wish to make amends.’
Mack snorted. ‘I bet they do.’
‘So what happened to the sky?’ asked Beltran. ‘That storm wasn’t natural.’
He had a good point. No-one up till now had been able to explain exactly where that had come from.
Lucy nodded. ‘Yeah. And it wasn’t of Endor’s doing, either, because every bolt of lightning seemed to be directed at him.’
Mack smiled smugly at us all. ‘That was Vasily. He’s Russian.’
I raised my eyebrows. She’d done a lot more to put Endor down than I’d even realised.
‘He normally prevents storms so he can help farmers,’ she added. ‘Well, actually he normally drives like a demon taxi driver, but he used to prevent storms. I just asked him to come and do the opposite. He was happy to oblige.’
Now that we were all safe, I could afford to be magnanimous. ‘Nice.’
Just then, Julia appeared behind us, beaming up from her wheelchair with the pride of a mother hen. She might have only been Alpha of the Cornish Pack for a very short time but that didn’t mean she didn’t still look upon all those shifters, past and present, as if they were children. I reflected on how easily she’d managed to absolve herself of the leadership role when the Voice passed to Anton. Atlanteia was right; I could abdicate if I wanted to. I’d just have to find the best way to manage it – and do it with Mack by my side too.
‘Ladies and Gentlemen,’ Julia said with a twinkle, ‘the service is about to begin.’
Mack glanced at me for one brief second with soft happiness. My heart tightened. I didn’t think I could ever get tired of seeing her look at me like that. Together we strolled out. I allowed my fingers to brush against hers and was rewarded when she sucked in a thrilled breath.
‘Who’d have thought it?’ I said quietly, looking out over the many Otherworlders who were sitting down in rows in front of us. ‘Faeries, mages and shifters all together at the same wedding and no-one’s started arguing yet.’
Mack smirked. ‘The wedding’s not started yet.’ She glanced over towards a remarkably good-looking shifter with dark hair and dangerous eyes. We’d already been introduced. I didn’t like him. ‘I should go.’
I don’t understand why he is here with you.
She shrugged. I have a promise to keep. There’s nothing between us, my Lord.
So she said. I’d still be keeping a close eye on him though. If he so much as looked at her wrong way…
Down, boy. You should go and find your sister. She veered off. I watched her go, trying very hard not to be too jealous. I trusted her. I just didn’t trust him – or any man for that matter.
I was still seething when Leah found me. ‘There you are! You look like you’ve just eaten a vat of lemons. What the hell’s wrong with you?’
‘Nothing,’ I growled.
‘Oh,’ she drawled back. ‘Nothing. Really.’
I lifted up my eyes to where Mack was standing with the dark wolf. Leah followed my gaze. When she saw who I was looking at, her entire body stiffened. ‘What the fuck?’ she whispered.
‘I know,’ I grunted. ‘She’s in love with me. She’s carrying my child. And yet she brings some blo
ody Russian as her date to the wedding of the year. I…’ I realised that Leah wasn’t listening to me. In fact, she’d already stomped off in their direction. I watched open mouthed as she strode up to the werewolf and punched him smack bang in his face. Things got even stranger when she then proceeded to leap up, curl herself round him and kiss him. Mack backed off with a grin. I remained absolutely baffled. Okay. Maybe I did like the guy after all.
***
The ceremony went off without a hitch. Betsy was the perfect blushing bride and Tom the proud groom. There was no denying how they felt about each other. I wondered how Mack would take it if I proposed to her right here and right now. By the time the newly wedded couple were strolling back down the aisle, I was almost ready to run over and pop the question right away. It was only the thought that I’d steal Tom and Betsy’s thunder which stopped me from doing it. It was a close run thing though.
‘My dear boy,’ the Arch-Mage said to me. ‘Aren’t weddings simply wonderful?’
‘They are,’ I agreed. Mack would look particularly wonderful in white. Or cream. Or fire-engine red. Or wearing absolutely nothing. I grinned. Unfortunately the wily head of the Ministry was gazing at me with a knowing edge.
‘And look at how well we’re all getting on,’ he continued, with a sweeping arm round the crowd of well wishers. ‘It’s because of the council, you know. Despite the danger Endor presented to us, in the long run I think he’ll have turned out to be a very good thing indeed.’
I murmured non-committally, ready to brush him off and go to rescue Mack, who seemed to be engaged in deep conversation with Anton, her one-time adversary.
‘You’ll always have a role to play in the council, of course,’ the Arch-Mage added. ‘The Lord Alpha of the Brethren will be vital to its success.’
‘Actually,’ I said, ‘I’m thinking of stepping down.’ I turned and looked directly at him. ‘It’s time for someone new to take the reins.’
