His heart and soul screamed for Hazel, but he couldn’t make a sound. He couldn’t call for help to wake her up. Althea took a step back. Her smile broadened. Her beautiful eyes sparkled, but she didn’t take on that demonic expression he saw at her castle. She remained as neutral and impassive as ever. Maybe she had no idea what she was doing.
She put a cushion of space between herself and Fergus. She raised her hand and extended it toward him, and Fergus sensed himself rising off the ground. The instant his feet left the forest floor, he regained his ability to move. He struggled against the force holding him, but he couldn’t break free. He tossed and convulsed five feet off the ground while Althea smiled up at him from her same position.
She held him there with her hand for a long moment. She watched him thrash in impotent fury. All of a sudden, she clenched her fingers into a fist. Crushing pain doubled Fergus over. He screamed out loud at the top of his lungs. He screamed to Hazel and to God and to anyone who might hear him.
Althea wrenched her closed hand in rapid movements. Pulses of pain and destruction wracked Fergus all over. He kicked and fought harder than ever. The power holding him no longer stopped him moving or yelling, but it would never release him.
She manipulated him in the air for what seemed like years. He spasmed in agony. His body lost all power to react, but his muscles jerked and contracted against his will anyway. Althea gazed up at him in placid wonder. Her clear eyes searched his face. He cursed her to the heavens. He called her every vile name he could think of to vent his anguish and rage on her, but nothing penetrated her wooden exterior.
All at once, she turned him over and slammed him into the ground with all her strength. His body smashed into the cold, hard Earth. Pain racked him from head to foot, but his fury took over. He launched himself at her to rip her to shreds.
She swept her hand sideways. Without touching him, her power flung him back full force and hurled him into a tree trunk. Fergus screeched in excruciating pain. He slumped to the ground, but he had to get up and fight her. He had to take advantage of his free limbs to do…. something, anything. He had to stop her.
He rolled onto his hands and knees. He could only crawl toward her through the damp leaves. He had to reach her. He had to get his hands on her, to choke the life out of her.
Althea stood still and watched him. Did she even see him? If he didn’t come near her, she never moved. She simply stood there and glowed golden in the night. He paused in his torturous crawl through the dirt to steal a peek at her face. He panted for air while he considered what to do. She didn’t blink. She barely breathed. Was she even alive?
At that moment, she dropped her eyes to his face. Their gazes met, and he realized he was doomed. She held all the power. What did he have to combat that? He had nothing but his sight, and that wouldn’t help him now.
Althea crooked her index finger at him, and his body jerked upright. Her power hauled him to his feet against his will. He would have fought back, but he already spent his strength to his limit. He gasped for breath against the onslaught. She dragged him to his feet and kept him twisting on tenterhooks while she sized him up with her cold, dead eyes.
Terror and impotent rage wrenched desperate squeaks from his throat. He couldn’t fight her, no matter how hard he tried. She dangled him at her fingertips and made him wait for the ultimate humiliation before she snuffed out his life forever.
A vicious force tightened around his throat. It choked the breath from his lungs. He scratched at his neck, but it did no good. There was nothing there. The same infuriating smile danced on her lips. She never looked more beautiful than now, when she got ready to strangle him to death.
His eyes darkened. His head threatened to explode. This couldn’t happen. He couldn’t fall like this. He shifted into his blue dragon form, but not even that could break her power. She lifted him up and let his wings and tail and neck flail against the night sky. He shifted back and forth a dozen times in rapid succession. Nothing did any good.
He caught sight of the stars speckled across the sky. He gave up the fight. He was lost. No one could hear him and no one could help him. He went limp in her unbreakable grip. His wings drooped, and his neck slumped over so his head hung to the ground. His limbs dangled slack and useless, and his eyes glazed over.
A deathly rattle gurgled out of his throat. His big body gave a final spasm when the mysterious grip holding him suddenly released. He hit the ground, but he couldn’t move. His head rolled to one side, and his eyes swept across the sky.
His fuzzy gaze came to rest on Althea, but she didn’t see him. She whipped around to confront another figure standing still in the soft glow of her own light. It was Hazel.
Chapter 34
Hazel gazed at Althea standing in a gleaming shower of light. The apparition filled the whole forest with its soft, mellow luster. Hazel studied the woman’s face. Althea smiled back at her. A confused jumble of emotion wrestled in Hazel’s mind at the sight of the witch she killed.
So this was the woman who almost stole Fergus from her. This was the warning the bear gave her in the other world, the shock that woke her to find Fergus gone.
Hazel couldn’t bring herself to hate Althea, even now when this ghost almost killed Fergus for the second time. Hazel couldn’t even get angry, because this wasn’t really Althea. It was nothing more than a thought, an idea. It was Hazel’s nightmare memory of the woman she destroyed in battle.
Althea didn’t move. She stood still. Hazel regarded the image from a distance. She wouldn’t attack this manifestation of her own power gone wrong. She already attacked Althea enough for one lifetime. If the nightmare attacked her, she would defend herself. Otherwise, Hazel determined to stand her ground and wait for it to leave.
Whatever happened, she would never hate Althea again. Hazel commanded her power to obey her, not the other way around. She would never lose control the way she did before. She would still kill Althea if she had to live the same situation over again, but she wouldn’t do it in a blood-fueled rage.
The two women faced each other. Hazel couldn’t even check to see if Fergus was alive or dead. Althea demanded all her attention. Hazel couldn’t let this moment pass. She would know no peace in her life until she put this shade to rest forever. She couldn’t let Althea’s ghost haunt her, and she had to forgive herself for killing this woman.
Althea took a step toward her. Hazel’s heart thundered, but she didn’t move. Althea had to strike the first blow.
It came faster than Hazel ever thought possible. Out of the night itself, an iron fist struck Hazel in the sternum. It smashed the air out of her lungs and sent her reeling backward. Althea advanced on her with steady tread. Hazel struggled to her feet when another devastating punch hit her in the face.
Hazel’s head spun. She staggered back. Althea’s power assaulted her so fast she couldn’t recover. Blows rained down around Hazel’s head. They pummeled her body and battered her bones. She fought against overwhelming unconsciousness. She had to react. She had to defeat this shade to save herself.
She never questioned Althea would be able to kill her. This last vestige of her demonic past wouldn’t quit until it destroyed her or she destroyed it.
She stumbled and fell back on the ground under the shower of blows. She hit her head, and fireworks exploded before her eyes. The old rage welled up inside her. It started to propel her to her feet, but she quashed it in a heartbeat. She couldn’t defeat Althea that way. She had to do it in control of her power.
She shook the stars out of her head. Althea stood back and watched Hazel work to get herself together. Hazel couldn’t assign any hostility to this ghost. Althea wouldn’t toy with her or take any pleasure in defeating her. This was Hazel’s own self come back to haunt her. Hazel had to bear that in mind against all else.
She got one leg under her, rose to her feet, and collapsed onto one knee. Her head weighed a ton. Althea glowed as bright as ever with the same senseless smile on her face. Tha
t would never change. Hazel closed her eyes and hung her head. Did she really want to win this fight, or did she want to give up and die?
Some forgotten mystery stirred the air near her head. Hazel caught the faintest breeze brushing against her skin. In that moment, she understood. Althea was gathering power to strike again. Without lifting her head, Hazel dug deep. She buried her luminous tendrils into the very bottom of her being. She gathered a big handful of her own unchained power.
Althea’s magic blasted toward her for another assault. Hazel’s spirit froze the moment to a standstill, and the wind hit her in the eyes. At the last possible moment before the blow struck, she sent her own power blowing back at Althea. She could have smashed Althea to a pulp, but she caught the witch in her fibers instead.
Althea broke free in an instant, and the two women hurled their weapons back and forth in rapid succession. One moment, the force swept into Hazel’s face. The next instant, she threw it back at Althea. The witch’s light flickered. The next thing Hazel knew, it flared up brighter than ever and Althea flung a thousand stabbing pinpricks into Hazel’s eyes.
The two forces struggled there in mid-air for an eternity with neither gaining an advantage. Hazel had to find a way to turn the tide. She couldn’t go head to head against Althea all night. Something had to give.
Out of nowhere, a large tree next to Hazel’s head ripped out of the ground. It levitated into the night sky. Soil and moss crumbled from its roots, and the Earth trembled at the disturbance. Before Hazel could stop it, the tree smashed down right on top of her. She barely yanked her power away from Althea in time to deflect the tree trunk from crushing her.
Althea remained impassive while Hazel scrambled through acres of dead leaves to regain her position. She waded to her feet when another tree yanked out of the ground, teetered in mid-air, and came down with catastrophic force within inches of Hazel’s head.
After that, all hell broke loose. Trees dislodged from the forest floor so fast Hazel couldn’t get out of the way in time. She lost sight of Althea in her desperate rush to save herself from one Earth-shattering blow after another. She couldn’t summon the power to defend herself under such treacherous conditions. She had to run for her life and dodge those trees beating down on every side.
It was only a matter of time before the devastation caught up with her. Two trees came down on either side of her. They blocked her in so she couldn’t get out of the way to the right or to the left. Althea tore up two more trees. They hovered over Hazel’s head. Hazel glanced both ways, but she could find no avenue of escape.
Instead of throwing the trees down on top of her, Althea waved them through the air. One of them swung low and clipped Hazel in the chin. It batted her off the ground. She sailed into the air, but she never had a chance to fall before the other tree groaned aside and thumped her going the other way.
Hazel lost track of how many times the witch hit her with those trees. Darkness covered her vision, and her senses went numb. Her brain and her nerves refused to register any more pain or fear or defeat. She drifted into a dream where none of this existed.
Althea dealt one last smashing blow across Hazel’s midsection and sent her careening back across the woods. Hazel landed on the ground and lay still. Every breath hurt. She couldn’t move. Althea strolled to her side. The peaceful golden light bathed Hazel all over. This was it. Althea would strike, and Hazel would know no more. She fought, and she lost. End of story.
At that moment, a ragged shriek shattered the stillness. Hazel pried her eyelids apart and looked up just in time to see something tear across her field of vision. A human figure rushed into view and ran straight at Althea. Hazel blinked in amazement. It was Fergus.
He charged Althea with a feral roar. He had time only to put his hands on her before she rounded on him. Her arm flew out and she sent him flying backward so hard he disappeared again, but something about Althea changed. When Fergus flew back, he took something with him. He touched her just long enough to tangle his fingers around the star pendant at her throat. It ripped off her neck, and he carried it with him somewhere beyond Hazel’s sight.
Althea turned back to face Hazel, and Hazel saw it for the first time. A dark hole ate into Althea’s neck right at the point where her two collarbones met to form an indentation. Hazel didn’t need to see any more.
In a twinkling, Hazel lifted off the ground. She didn’t have to put her weight on her shattered legs. Her power held her up. Monstrous power surged down her arms and prickled in her hands.
Althea’s light got stronger. She pounded a great pulse of energy at Hazel. Hazel swatted it away with one hand. Without thinking, she shot out her other hand. A massive bolt of sizzling hot power exploded out of her palm and pierced that hollow spot in Althea’s neck. The next thing Hazel knew, the light blinked and went out. The forest fell into darkness, and Hazel crumpled to the ground in a heap.
She must have passed out. In her delirium, she floated over the forest. She gazed down on Loch Nagar castle standing perfect and undamaged by the lake. She glanced another way and saw her own little cabin. Urlu sparkled in the distance. The whole world stretched glorious and unblemished as far as the eye could see.
She loved this world. She even loved America, that shining city far away. She could wish it well and love it for its unique characteristics and gifts. She could love it and leave it behind for the life welcoming her here.
She scanned the landscape to the very limit of consciousness. She gazed through the Earth to Faery hidden underground. Distant populations of strange and wonderful creatures and beings waited to be discovered in places she would visit in later years.
Right now, though, Urlu called her home. She knew where she belonged, and she didn’t want to hang around this fantasy world any longer.
She opened her eyes to daylight streaming through the canopy and birds twittering all around her. She got to her feet and ran her fingers through her hair. She studied the surroundings before she remembered. She fought Althea’s ghost. The witch would never bother her again.
She searched the woods for over an hour before she found Fergus lying on his back some distance away where Althea flung him. His head tipped to one side, and the golden pendant still wound around his fingers.
Hazel touched his cheek. “Fergus,” she whispered. “Fergus, wake up.”
His eyelids fluttered, and he bolted upright. “Huh?”
She smiled down at him through a film of tears. “It’s morning. It’s time to wake up.”
He looked around in stunned shock before he remembered, too. He glanced down at the golden chain in his hand. Then he raised his eyes to her face, and his vision cleared. “What do ye want tae do wi’ this? Do ye want tae take it home wi’ ye?”
“No.” She took it from him. “We’ll bury it, along with the rest of the past.”
She scratched a hole in the cool, damp soil and dropped the pendant into it. For the briefest moment, she stared down at the shiny golden star. Nothing else remained of Althea. Now that Hazel buried this last remnant of the Loch Nagar witch, this episode of her life would disappear along with it. Only her love for Fergus and the bond their shared would survive to shine its blessings on their lives.
“I dinnae like tae leave it ’ere,” Fergus remarked. “We ought tae say a few words, anyways. It’s ainly right.”
Hazel sensed the same need. “She did what she thought was right. She tried to do the right thing, even if it didn’t work out too well.”
“She was allus kind,” Fergus added. “She was ne’er spiteful nor cruel. She worked hard tae protect her people.”
Hazel nodded. “She was kind to me, too. She welcomed me and gave me the information I was looking for. She never deliberately hurt anybody.”
“She needed a consort,” he replied. “That’s the ainly reason she did what she did. She was alone. She was the first o’ her line tae rule alone. That’s what pushed her tae take drastic measures. She needed a partner, a counterpart, som
eone tae balance her.”
Hazel peered up at him. “Did you care about her?”
“O’ course I cared aboot her. I tried tae gi’e her what she needed, but me heart already belainged tae another. If it hadnae, I would ha’e gi’en all tae her. I would ha’e defended Loch Nagar wi’ e’erythin’ I had. I tried tae….” His voice broke, and she put her arm around his waist to hold him close.
“That’s enough. We’ve said enough. We will always remember. Her memory will never be completely wiped out.”
“Speakin’ ainly fer meself,” he added, “I’ll remember the good parts. I’ll remember her the way she was when I first met her. She was good. The King was right aboot that, e’en if the whole thing went terribly wrong in the end.”
“She wasn’t the only one who went wrong,” Hazel replied. “The battle could easily have gone the other way, and then it would be her remembering us instead of the other way around.”
He nodded down at the hole. “Bury it, lass. Put it tae rest and be done wi’ it.”
She patted the soil over the golden emblem and pressed it down with her foot. She looked up to find Fergus watching her. “It’s over.”
He nodded. “I ken it, lass. Are ye ready tae go home now?”
She took his hand. “I’m ready.”
They set off together. The sun rose over the woods. In no time at all, they entered a stretch of woods they recognized. Hazel’s heart burst. She was back in Urlu. They passed the old woman’s cottage and came to the river. The Faery mound stood deserted and undisturbed under the morning sun. The dew evaporated off the grass, and wafts of mist drifted through the forest.
Hazel lingered near the mound. She would always come back here. This mound gave her a second home in the world. She could return to Faery whenever she wanted. She would see her friends and share stories and adventures. She always kept a foot in both camps, and both nations welcomed her with open arms.
Destiny Stone Page 24