“Lars?” Kennedy waved him over to her. He leaned over and kissed my temple before jumping on the car with her. The screams of excitement rose with his presence.
Piper came up to me, and I lifted her up on my hip. “Look at Lars up there.” I pointed.
“He’s my daddy.” She placed her head on my shoulder.
“Yes.” Emotion caught in my throat. “He is.”
“My friends,” Lars called out, his voice booming. “I cannot thank you enough for staying and fighting. The sacrifice you made will not go unnoticed or unrewarded.” Lars slipped back into his role so easily, but I noticed a reluctance in his shoulders, a sadness in his eyes he could no longer hide. “A lot will change going forward. Humans and fae need to be represented equally in government. But right now, I want to acknowledge your Queen. Without her, I would not be standing here. She has fought by your side, shed blood, sacrificed loved ones—all for a better world. For the kingdom. For you. She has proven herself over and over as a true leader and Queen. One who will no longer be looked down upon or questioned because of her age or the fact she is a Druid. She is my Queen. And I bow to her.” Lars bent his head deeply before her.
Kennedy stood in shock, her eyes filling with emotion. In the history of the fae kingdom, not one King or Queen ever bowed to the other. They never wanted to give up power or seem like the weaker one. It was unprecedented. Lars went against tradition and custom, not to mention his nature, by honoring Kennedy with his respect and loyalty.
“You are amazing, Kennedy. Don’t ever doubt it.”
“Y-you called me Kennedy…” She blinked, her mouth parting.
“I suppose I did.” Lars winked at her, turning back to face me, love scorching his features.
It seemed the moment we felt any happiness, it was ripped away.
It was an instant.
A flash of magic.
Pressure gripped my lungs, slamming my knees to the ground, toppling Piper to the side. Lars tumbled off the car, smacking hard into the pavement. A woman cried from behind me, and I knew in my gut it was Zoey. Her cries echoed my own pain, our voices coming together in a communal union.
“Oh my god…Lars? Fionna?” Kennedy scrambled off the car, running to us. My vision blurred, not noticing the group crowding around us.
You think you can get rid of me so easily? A voice hissed in my head. Shite. The cauldron was back. I’ve marked you. You are mine, Fionna. I have your blood. And when I’ve used up your body, I have other Cathbad blood I will claim.
“Lars!” Ember hovered over her father, her face twisted as he jerked and twitched under her hold. The stone had hold of him. Probably had Zoey as well. Their claws had gotten into us. We were easy to take hold of again.
Sweat spread over my body as I turned my head toward the black vessel. It pulsed with magic, both the stone and cauldron together. We had stupidly thought we had won. We might have sent them back to their original form, but they were too powerful to simply disappear, especially together. They had regrouped and were coming back for us.
“Fionna. Talk to me.” Kennedy’s hands moved over me with panic, not understanding what was wrong.
“Treasures.” I spit through my teeth. The call to go to them, to touch them throbbed in my body like a heartbeat, my muscles aching to move.
I caught sight of Lars digging his fingernails into the road toward the objects, his nostrils flaring. Zoey made another strangled cry.
“I have to… Let me go,” Zoey screamed.
“No.” Ryker rolled her body back into his, wrapping his arms around her. “I won’t ever let the stone control you again. You are mine. You promised me, human. For life.”
“It will go after Wyatt… Let me go.”
It wasn’t just the cauldron threatening my family. The stone and the cauldron must have decided to work together until they got what they wanted once again.
“They’re calling you, aren’t they?” West strolled over to the treasures, staring down at them, his tongue sliding over his bottom lip, his toe inching toward it.
“West.” Eli drew up from his squat next to Ember, his voice full of warning. “What are you doing, man?”
“I hear them.” West nodded at the objects. “They know.”
The hold the cauldron had on me lessened as it shifted its attention to the dark dweller, realizing it had a new target it could manipulate.
“West…” I pushed up from the ground, fear lodging in my throat.
“What do they know?” Eli spoke evenly, prowling closer to West.
The southern dark dweller gaped down at the items, his back curving as if they were pulling him to them.
“What I truly want. My weakness. My desire. They say they can help me. Make me whole again.”
“They are lying to you, brother. Don’t listen to them.” Eli took another few steps. Lorcan had moved to West’s other side, creeping up.
West’s forehead wrinkled, and with a heavy breath, he shut his eyes. His hand tapped impatiently at his side.
“West?” Eli repeated his name.
West rolled his hands into fists, fury flashing across his face. “What would you do, Eli?” He jerked his head toward him, spitting out each word. “How would you feel if you lost your beast? What would you do to get it back? It’s who we are. My entire identity is missing. My heart. My soul.” West’s feet shuffled, his bare skin twitching, like he was coming down from a high. The treasures had their claws in him, sensing he might fall.
“Don’t, West. I know it’s hard, but you have to resist them.” I held my chest, practically pleading. I barely got a taste or a choice when the cauldron took me, but I still understood the power of their call. If they wanted you…they would have you.
West swung around, sensing Lorcan’s movements.
“Of course. The Dragen brothers.” West snarled at them, his voice tightening, eyes flashing deep crimson. His beast might not have come out, but he was just as feral. Possibly more. “Once again you think you know what’s best for me? The last time you forced something on me, you got an innocent girl killed.” West crouched, ready to attack.
“Shite. They’re taking over.” If I had to blast West across the square to get him away from the objects, I would do it. But West must have sensed me, for he swung to me, baring his teeth.
“Don’t even think about it, Druid.” His voice was no longer his own. Stiff. Cold. Robotic. “This time I’ll be certain you’re dead when I drop you off a cliff.”
West was no longer himself. This was not the charming man I had gotten to know in Ireland. Even when we were on opposite sides, I liked him. Actually, I kinda fancied him, but at the end of the day he was still a fae. And he was clearly in love with someone else.
Lorcan edged closer, compelling West to inch even closer to the items, his hand hovering over them. Eli and Lorcan stopped dead in their tracks. If he touched them. Game over.
Kennedy caught my eye, and I gave her a nod. West’s bare, sexy arse was about to get spelled. Magic sat on my tongue, ready to spew out.
“West. No!” Ember cried out as West’s fingers reached for the cauldron, not even flinching at her voice.
“Stop!” A woman’s voice sprinkled over us like a song, halting everyone in place. Her voice shoved the spell back inside my throat. “You are stronger and better than that, West Moseley.”
My attention jerked toward the gates.
Rez stood there, her hair wet and hanging down her back, dressed in damp shirt and pants, but looking like the most beautiful woman I had ever seen or heard.
“You are far more than that.”
“Rez…” he whispered her name, his hands squeezing tighter.
“You’re enough man and beast for me.” She strolled up only a breath away from him but didn’t touch him. “You will always be enough.”
Torment contorted West’s features, his fingers still inching closer to the cauldron. “I can’t. I need them…”
“No.” Rez grabbed for his ar
ms, turning him to her. “Please, West. I know you think you are not complete, but you are.”
“So easy to say now that you have yours back, huh? But I know the truth.” He growled through his teeth, trying to move her out of the way. “You tried to pretend you were fine, but you weren’t. You felt incomplete; don’t deny it.” He tapped at his gut, his jaw clicking with tension. “I’m hollow without the beast.”
“You are anything but hollow. You are the most complex, wonderful, aggravating man I have ever known. And if you do this, you will lose everything that actually makes you, you.” Rez shuffled in his way again, trying to get him to look at her. “Your family, your friends. Me.”
Muscles flexed along his jaw and a strangled cry softly curled from his chest.
“I can’t be without you, West. It took me long enough to find you. What we went through to be together. I will not let them take you from me.”
“I’m not strong enough to fight them,” he whispered, his body leaning forward. Their claws dug into him, compelling him to touch them. He moved her away, his fingers hovering over the cauldron.
Shite.
“You fought Aneira and climbed out of the darkness. You can fight this. Don’t leave me. Please, West,” she whispered hoarsely, still sounding like the sultriest singer you ever heard. “I love you.”
His head bowed forward, a howl vibrating up his throat.
“You are my future. The man I want to be with. Have a family with.”
He sucked in, his fingers wiggling, only a centimeter away from the cauldron. A heart-wrenching roar cried up to the sky, goosebumps rising up and down my arms. He huffed and grunted, slowly turning away from the vessel.
“West…” Rez grabbed him, pulling him to her, wrapping her arms around him. West shut his eyes again, leaning his forehead into hers. He grimaced as though in pain, his chest heaving.
Kennedy’s voice hummed, her magic shoving the treasures far from West’s reach.
He still clung to Rez, as if she were his anchor.
“I love you.” She kissed him softly.
“I know that, darlin’. I’m a fuckin’ monster in bed.” He tried to smile, but it wobbled on his mouth.
“That you are.” She winked at him.
He wrapped his arms around her, kissing her before he peered back at the treasures. “They need to be destroyed.”
“You will lose any hope of getting your beast back.” Lars rose from the ground, his tone serious. “I want you to understand that, Mr. Moseley.”
“I understand.” He nodded, pain flickering over his face. “They’re too dangerous to have around. I will cave to it…I know.” He gripped Rez’s face. “And really, all I need is you and loud, primal sex.”
“I am certainly willing to do that for you.” A grin engulfed Rez’s face.
“They can’t be destroyed,” I said, getting to my feet. The link to the cauldron was still there, but I shoved back at it, not letting it get in my head. “They are too powerful to fully destroy.”
The cauldron’s power inside let me know I had been a fool to ever think they could fully be destroyed.
“Then what do we do with them?” Kennedy stared at Lars, West, Zoey, and me, not saying what I knew everyone was thinking. We weren’t strong enough to fight them. They had literally gotten under our skin and in our heads. Marked us. We would always be susceptible to them.
“The only thing we can do.” I faced Kennedy. “What our ancestors did. Hide them.”
“Hide them?” She shook her head. “No. That’s not good enough.”
“Ken, we have no other choice. They have to be hidden by Druids, and I only trust you. It must be us, but I want you to spell me after. Force me to forget so I will never search for them again.”
No! You will not discard me. I have been waiting for centuries. I will not go back. The cauldron screamed in my head, pounding in my temples. I bent over gripping my head with a cry of pain. Lars reached for me, tugging my hand in his, his own face flinching with discomfort.
“They will not have us again, Druid,” he growled in my ear.
“Leave my mummy and daddy alone.” Piper stomped over to the objects. She pulled her foot back and spouted a spell, then kicked the cauldron.
“Piper, no!” I yelped. Pushing through the pain, I took a step toward her.
Pop!
The cauldron’s magic rippled out like a lasso around my ankles, knocking us off our feet. I hit the ground and as though a knife cut a chord, my connection to the cauldron went dead.
“Piper!” I belted, sitting up, searching for my daughter, ready to destroy Earth if the treasures did anything to her.
Everyone was scattered around on the ground. Except Piper. She stood over the objects, grinning back at me.
“Holy shite.” My mouth dropped open, staring between my little girl and the treasures. The treasures floated in an encased protective shield.
What the feck? Her magic could hold them?
“Piper…how are you doing that?” I went up on my knees, fear lacing my voice.
“They were hurting you.” She shrugged, as though it were no big deal.
Fuck. Her powers went beyond even mine. Like my grandfather gifted her all his magic, passing down his irrefutable line of power.
“We’re gonna have to watch this one.” Lars sat up next to me, staring at Piper in amazement. “Especially in her teenage years.”
I searched my head and gut. I felt no link to the cauldron. All their magic was contained inside the barrier, their tentacles reaching for us, but they were locked behind the sphere.
I couldn’t believe she could project at her age. To have magic strong enough to hold the most powerful treasures in the world in a magic-proof bubble was astonishing. Should I be proud…or scared? Probably both.
“Freck.” I breathed out. “We’re so screwed when she hits puberty.”
“Yeah, we are.” Lars clutched my chin, twisting my face to his, his mouth brushing mine. “And I’m going to love every minute of it.”
Chapter 33
Zoey
Cool wind from the water blew my hair back, soothing my skin as I stared out at the port. The sun was peeping through the clouds like it was still nervous to show itself fully. The only warmth I felt was from the two tiny bodies curled against my chest. Sprig coiled next to my son, both holding Pam for security.
My hand absently rubbed Wyatt’s back as he slept soundly in the Baby Björn, unaware of the devastation and loss which took place three days ago. The moment he lost his aunt, my heart, my world.
He would never know her. Never remember her voice or know how truly amazing she was. He would not have the memory of her smile when she held him.
My chest clutched, a hiccupped sob catching in my throat. Sprig mumbled in his sleep, calling for Lexie. His sorrow had kept him silent for the last couple of days, which only further broke my heart. The first night, he had fallen asleep repeating her pet name over and over.
I still could not come to terms with her death. I probably never would. Presently, I couldn’t even imagine how I was going to get through the rest of the day, not alone the week or month. Life without Lexie in it was too much to bear. But then I’d look at my son and I had no choice.
And now I was watching another piece of my heart sail away.
“He’ll come back,” a deep voice rumbled next to me, Ryker’s hand pressed to my back, his body coming to my side. His axe glinted in the hazy sun. It had taken several dives for him to remove it from the bottom of the lake, but its pull had been too strong, calling to him, wanting to be reunited.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. My gaze drifted slightly to the side, catching blonde hair flying in the breeze. Annabeth sat alone on a rock, watching the same ship sail away. The loss of Lexie had muted her as well. At night, through the wall, I could hear her wrenching sobs; during the day she would walk around like a zombie.
We didn’t speak much, neither of us having the words to cons
ole the other. It was hard to comfort someone when you felt the same utter emptiness. But we would silently hug each other or squeeze hands, both trying to come to terms with Lexie’s death. They had only been family for a handful of years, but the two couldn’t have been closer. They were sisters through and through.
My eyes caught another tuft of blond hair atop a figure striding up to where she sat. Annabeth didn’t react to Cooper’s presence or his touch, her attention still out at sea. He sat on the rock next to her and put his arm around her. She let him pull her into him and rested her head on his shoulder. Even from here, I could see her body quaking with grief. His love would help her through. That was my only consolation. I had no doubt she had found her partner in life. They were perfect for each other.
Wiping the tears slipping freely down my face, my attention went back to the water. The ship’s black banner lashed in the wind as it made its way for the gateway out to sea.
Ryker pulled me firmer into his side, his arm curling around me, no longer able to hold back my sobs. “I can’t…I can’t lose him too.”
Ryker wrapped both arms around me, kissing my hair.
“He just needs time.” Ryker engulfed me in a hug, his chin on my head. “He’ll come back. He needs to deal with this the best way for him.”
My shoulders shook as I cried. I understood that, but it still felt like another death. Another hole in my heart.
If I thought Annabeth’s response to Lexie was heartbreaking, Croygen’s was paralyzing. The easygoing pirate had become violent and detached. Turning to drink, he had spent the last three days drunk and fighting anything in his path before he would finally pass out. He fought Ryker when he tried to approach him. He brushed off Rez and avoided seeing Morweena before her clan left; although I heard Morweena didn’t want to see him either. Think it dredged up too much pain, things they could never change, heartbreak and misunderstanding that could never be rectified.
The only time Croygen even got near Annabeth or me was to tell me he was leaving.
Rise From the Embers (Lightness Saga #4) Page 40
