by KB Anne
“They are related.”
Alaric glances at me.
“Yes,” I say.
“Brother and sister.”
“Yes.”
“Both direct descendants of the Diana Moon Cult, purest of blood.”
“Yes.”
“But also Fae from Lake of the Dragon Mouth, purest of Fae species.”
“I didn’t know that, but yes.”
“But her blood is corrupted. His is clean.”
“Yes.”
“You have two objects that further bind her to that darkness.”
“Yes.”
“One is the spell book. Please withdraw the second package from your bag.”
I pull the bundle of leaves containing the eyeball necklace out of my backpack.
“Set it on the floor in the center. Do not touch it, but remove its wrappings.”
I roll it to the center of the circle and slice the packaging with Clarissa’s athame.
“Good. Suzanne, begin.”
The coven chants a spell I’ve never heard before, but yet it’s familiar. I grab my circle of friends and family and begin to chant.
Giselle stands in the center with Lizzie. Her eyes are still closed as she chants along with her coven.
Lizzie’s body seizes. “No!” she screams in a terrifying, spine-numbing tone I don’t recognize.
“Now, destroy it,” Giselle says to me.
I lift the athame. The eye widens. Maria’s watching and trying to figure out where we are, but she’s too late. I stab the eyeball, and though I cannot harm a living thing, the eyeball does not qualify.
Screams fill the air as black flames explode from the eyeball, biting and hissing before getting sucked back in. The eyeball turns to dust. Lizzie’s chest heaves in and out.
“Well, that was intense,” Scott whispers.
“Yes, it was, Oegden. It is an honor that you are here as well,” Giselle says.
“Thank you, Giselle, for your guidance.”
Giselle bows and returns to her place in their circle.
“Now, the spell book,” Suzanne says.
“Do we destroy this too?” I ask.
“In a way. Together we will rid the book of the corrupting spells.”
A man interrupts her. “Shouldn’t we keep the book intact? Won’t the removal of the evil upset the balance?”
Her eyes settle on him. “Gifford, your concern is valid but unwarranted.”
“How do you know?”
“The gods will it,” Giselle whispers.
Her response is enough to satisfy Gifford. “Very well.”
“If you would place the spell book in the center.”
“Of course,” I reply and set the book where the eyeball necklace once lay.
“Brigit, if you would lead your inner circle, I will lead the outer circle.”
“It is a privilege,” Brigit and I say together, and we begin to chant.
Scott, Alaric, and Ryan join in with us as Suzanne and Giselle lead the outer circle chanting.
Lizzie screams “no” over and over, but it falls on deaf ears.
The cover of the spell book flies open. The chanting grows. Energy pulses all around us. The magic of the spell meets the energy at the center of the room, at the center of our circle. As it joins, a lightning strike hits the pages of the spell book and black flames shoot out of it. The heat of it burns. We turn our faces away from it. A loud whoosh draws our attention back to the spell book. Tiny specks of burnt paper circle around our heads before turning to dust.
“It is done,” Suzanne announces. “We may break our circles.”
“Lizzie,” Ryan shouts, dropping to his knees and pulling her unconscious frame into his lap. “Is she . . . ?”
“She’s not dead,” Suzanne says, checking Lizzie for a pulse.
“Her life is linked with another,” Giselle says.
Alaric meets my eyes. Naisha. He curses under his breath. “We need to get her back.”
Ryan reaches for Giselle’s hand. “Please tell me there’s a way to unlink them?”
She glances at Suzanne. “There is one.”
“No,” Suzanne says. “It is too dangerous.”
“His love might be enough to weather the storm.”
“The storm as in the Storm Moon?” I say.
Giselle glances at Suzanne, who nods in approval. “Yes, but it is more complicated than that.”
I put my hands on my hips, assuming my Superwoman pose, because why the heck not? “Complicated is my middle name. Tell me.”
25
The Chariot
“Prepare for battle,” Caer shouted as she emerged back into the courtyard. But no one was there.
“Where is everyone?” she said to herself.
Keturah rushed over to her. “Your Majesty, there you are.”
“What happened to everyone? Why did they leave?”
“Your Majesty, you’ve been up in the tower for days. We all waited, but eventually everyone drifted off to their homes to sleep and eat.”
She clutched her heart and staggered backward. “For days? It felt like only hours.”
“That happened with Britni too, though the room shares many secrets only with your bloodline.”
Caer tried to compose herself. “Well, let’s ready our people, because we are going to surprise Balor.”
Keturah cast a wicked grin. “I’ve always enjoyed surprises.”
Maddie appeared beside them. “Me too.”
Keturah smiled at her son. “I do not want to lose you now that you’ve returned to me.”
He blushed. “You won’t. I promised Scott that I would protect Caer, and that is exactly what I plan to do.”
Britni entered the courtyard. “As will I,” she said, her back straightening as proof she no longer carried the burdens of the knowledge and prophecies of her people.
“As will I,” each faerie repeated as they reentered the courtyard.
Caer thrust the iron spear into the air. “Gather your weapons, spell your armor. For tonight, we fight! Tonight, we honor my father!”
Cheers erupted throughout the courtyard, and everyone disappeared as quickly as they had arrived, this time to prepare for battle.
A young woman rushed over to her. “Your Majesty, if I may?”
“Of course.”
Caer didn’t need to ready her weapons. They were always sharpened. They were always ready for battle.
“I am Meya. I’m training to be the next healer. During my meditation I received a message from the Earthly Realm.”
“From Scott?” she asked hopefully.
“No, from Gigi. She said they needed to speak with you about Naisha.”
Caer’s nostrils flared in and out as she debated whether to contact them before the battle or after. After might be too late. But if she contacted them now, she’d risk revealing her plan to them. Gigi wouldn’t stop her, but Scott would. And depending on Gigi’s magic and mood, he might be able to convince her to open a portal for him. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him with her. She did. But she didn’t want his presence distracting her during the battle. Killing Balor was her destiny alone.
“Send them a message that I will return to them soon, but do not mention the upcoming battle.”
Meya nodded. “And what of Naisha?”
“Where is she?”
“In the dungeons, heavily sedated to prevent her from cursing anyone. She is very powerful.”
“Good. Keep her there. Tell Gigi that Naisha is safe and not to worry about us.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Meya curtsied.
“Now go. I’ve got a monster to kill.”
Meya hurried back into the castle.
Caer stood in the courtyard and waited. During her time in the tower, she had found a book of legends. In it was a legend about Lugh, who claimed to be Balor’s grandson. He was exulted as a hero for killing Balor, but really he’d only banished him to the Otherworld’s purgatory. She sighed
. Of course the legend predicated a male. The legends always mentioned men saving the day. She smiled to herself. Therein lay the deception.
Soon her people returned to the courtyard equipped for battle. Protective magic pulsed around them.
“Keturah,” she yelled.
Keturah ran to her side.
“Did you find the location of the portal to Balor’s purgatory?”
Keturah flashed her wicked grin again. “Of course. I am a master of persuasion.”
“And intense pressure,” Maddie added.
“True, my son, very true.”
Caer raised an eyebrow at her second in command.
“Payback for stealing my son from me.”
“That is understandable.”
With her people amassed before her, Caer spread her wings. She didn’t need them to fly, but they made a statement. She was an inspiration to her people, a sign that they would not be alone in the battle.
“Let’s go,” she cried and shot into the sky. She was soon flanked by Keturah and Maddie, and the rest joined in on the formation. Her swans joined them as well. She smiled to herself. Balor wasn’t expecting them. That gave them an edge, and she planned to keep it. After all, Balor had caught them by surprise in the Land of Shadows. It was their turn to return the favor.
Caer sensed the powerful pull of the portal as soon as she approached it. It was like no portal she’d ever encountered or created herself. Tentacle-like fingers wrapped around them and tried to pull them in. Or strangle them. She couldn’t tell which. Natural instinct told her to slice the thorny vines off of her, but the more she resisted, the tighter they became.
Keturah, Maddie, and the rest of them arched away from them too. Their fingers twitched for their swords but waited for guidance from their leader. From Caer. Some even flickered in and out of view without meaning to. That gave Caer an idea. Naisha regularly used this portal. As a full faerie she possessed the ability to disappear and use the shadows to her advantage. They needed to do the same. She wished she were telepathic like Gigi so that she could inform the others of her plan without voicing it aloud. She didn’t know if the vines possessed the power to communicate and were working for Balor, or if the vines and the portal were the corrupting influences that had turned Naisha to the darkness, or if Naisha had found the darkness all on her own. Caer didn’t relish making a decision that could have lasting consequences, but as their leader—as their Queen—it fell to her.
Screams of agony arose from her people. She had to make a choice.
“Cloak yourselves,” she yelled, and everyone disappeared. So did the vines. She reached to her left and right, finding Keturah and Maddie. As she gripped their hands, she shouted, “Join hands.”
She glanced over her shoulder and recognized the invisible energy signatures of all her people. The tower had given her not only the histories of her people but also the ability to “see.”
“Steady,” she warned and stepped through the portal.
A brilliant light brighter than an exploding sun blinded her, immediately followed by absolute blackness. As her eyes adjusted, she looked to the sky and found the shadow where the sun once hung. It was as if the sun itself had had its power sucked out of it, and all that remained was a dim reminder of what once was full of light. They were surrounded by tree skeletons and the charred remains of dirt that at one time might have been fertile pastureland until Balor and his armies stole the life from it.
They had landed in full form. The portal had stripped their invisibility. As a result, their arrival was not unseen. A terrible cry as loud as a battle horn sounded in the distance. Her people readied themselves, gripping their swords and taking to the skies. It was time to end what Balor had begun.
Innumerable armies emptied out of Balor’s lair. Hellhounds and other terrible beasts she recognized from the last battle broke through Balor’s army formations, hungry for Fae blood that they would not taste. Not if Caer had anything to say about it.
In the Land of Shadows, her people could not use their magic to fight the monsters, but this time, they’d be able to call on any one of their abilities—magic, flight, teeth and claws, or all of them at once in order to defeat them.
Balor hadn’t been born evil, but the prophecy had haunted him from his very first breath, predeciding his fate. He couldn’t rid himself of its malfeasant nature. The seeds of that evil took root the day his father watched him convulse in pain as the noxious fumes turned him into a monster whose only desire was to destroy the realms that would never allow him redemption.
Balor ran from his prophecy. He could have killed his daughter to ensure his life. Instead he hid her away in a remote cave on a faraway unknown island. It shamed Caer to admit that her own father and Gallean had each played a part in that plot to seal Balor’s fate.
Conflict mired Balor’s endless pursuit to escape his prophecy, shifting between conscience and destruction. Forcing his daughter into absolute isolation rather than killing her. Torn between wanting to kill his granddaughter or imprison her. His decision on Caer’s fate would be dependent on his mood at the time of their meeting. He wouldn’t need to make one if Caer had any say in the matter.
For her, the decision was a simple one. Admittedly, she knew there were fragments of conscience remaining in her grandfather, but too much of him had been corrupted by his endless pursuit to escape his prophecy to allow him to live.
Lugh had tried and failed to kill him because it was not his destiny to do so. He was not the true descendent of Balor, only a man spewing lies to seek glory. He’d merely banished Balor and his armies to this purgatory instead. Now it was time for Caer to take her rightful place in the histories.
She raised Freagarach in the air and shouted her own battle cry that echoed with each one of her people. She angled down and dove, striking first.
The clash of metal against metal rattled the air. The ground rumbled as masses of enemy bodies crashed to the earth, only to be trampled by their own. The world erupted into chaos.
Black blood splattered across her face as Keturah beheaded two men at once. Maddie bashed skulls together, finding strength within him he didn’t know existed. Caer’s swans dove and pecked or clawed out eyeballs, eliminating the enemies’ sight. Balor’s monsters were falling faster than they could arrive on the battlefield.
Scott had shielded her the last time. Now she fought off enemies from every direction with her eye constantly on Balor’s lair, waiting for him to appear. The sickeningly sweet sound of blades slashing through sinew and bone echoed around her as enemy body after enemy body crashed to the earth.
Britni swung and slashed at a hellhound. Keturah vaulted onto the back of another and rode it straight into the enemy armies, stabbing left and right as they ran through. Maddie leapt into the air and landed in the midst of the enemy and tore apart terrible beasts as if they were made of paper. Caer cut and sliced. Adrenaline coursed through her. They held the advantage, and she planned to keep it.
Balor’s roar shattered the sounds of the battle, as if his men were quietly contemplating the merits of the purgatory they were forced to reside in rather than fight for their lives. Her fingers itched for the iron spear hanging from her back, but she would be patient.
Immediately his good eye fell upon her. Her stomach curled, but her muscles surged with power. A wicked laugh escaped from her mouth.
“You thwarted the prophecy by coming here. You will pay dearly for your misstep,” he yelled. He reached for his patch. He wasted no time with battle motions or chatter. Neither would she.
“It is you that will pay,” she shouted. She launched the iron spear through the air just as he lifted the patch. She watched with morbid fascination as Balor realized his mistake just as her spear found its mark.
He released a ferocious roar, which was suddenly cut short as his vocal cords turned to stone, soon followed by the rest of him. She dropped Freagarach to the ground and gathered all the energy around her as Gallean had taught Gigi
and Scott to do back in his keep. Back then she’d watched them in anger, thinking Gallean’s energy lessons useless, but now she realized it was the final push she needed to complete her destiny and end Balor forever. She threw all her power at him in the form of a massive wind.
A single tear tracked down his face from the stony eye, almost as if thanking her for release. His body fell backward, crashing to the earth.
The ground rocked beneath her feet. Huge fissures tore the earth apart. Caught unawares, his armies fell into the crevices, consumed by red hot lava erupting from them. Her people took to flight, narrowly avoiding flames. Her grandfather’s body exploded into thousands of pieces, shooting massive rock missiles everywhere. It wasn’t safe for her people to remain here, yet she couldn’t seem to move. The edge of her vision grew hazy. She wiped her eyes, but it didn’t help. Her strength left her. She collapsed to her knees.
A giant boulder plummeted toward her. She watched it spiral end over end toward its mark. This was her end, and she was okay with that. She’d achieved what she had set out to do. She held out her arms in a final act of defiance. Everything turned to black.
26
Come Back to Me
Everything is contingent on the Storm Moon. Lizzie’s life. Naisha’s. Even mine—though I haven’t mentioned that to everyone else. The Storm Moon falls on my birthday. That is not a coincidence. Clarissa warned me months ago that a storm was coming, and the proof, they say, is in the pudding. Or at least outside the truck. A freak hailstorm pummels the vehicle as we drive back to Granda’s.
I peek out the windshield, studying the gray skies. I hold my crystals to my lips with one hand while I hold Alaric’s hand with the other. The nightlock-imbued crystal and the clear one Clarissa gave me pulse with my touch. The two pair well together, just as Alaric and I do. Even in nature, opposites attract. But there is nothing natural about this storm brewing. It feels wrong. Invasive. Corruptive.
And I don’t plan to talk about it unless it becomes an issue. After a restful and well-deserved break in Kilkenny, I want everyone to enjoy themselves a while longer before our harsh reality returns without invitation.
