Thunder boomed and another jagged jolt of light sliced across the air.
A woman materialized at the crest of the hill. Sudden gusts snagged at her pitch-black hair and the white gown pressing against slender legs.
"Did ye believe I would not come for you?"
Aldreth glided down the slope, the ends of her gown trailing like smoke.
From the slanted ground, Charity pushed up to her arms. Her legs slid sideways on the incline. Across from her, Toren, too, pushed up, his head lifting as Aldreth stood above him. Charity's blood ran cold.
Dark storm clouds, purple like bruises, rolled overhead, gathering impossibly fast, violent and spitting lightning across the sky. Sparks lit the clouds from within while thunder rumbled through the charged atmosphere, heavy and thick and coated with ozone.
Struggling to his knees, Toren raised his arms. Purple tendrils of light lifted from his fingertips, cracking and hissing.
Aldreth threw back her head and laughed, hair streaming behind her. With a flick of her hand, the streamers of Toren's magic disappeared as though they’d never been. He could not use his magic against her.
Another flick of her wrist and he rolled through the air, landing with a jarring crunch where he slid down the slope.
Charity made it to her feet. Shrieking wind slammed her back down like she was a bird caught in a gale force. Her hair flew in front of her face and then streamed back again, pulling at her scalp. She lunged up like a sprinter. Flapping skirts tangled around her legs. She had to get to Toren. Soil slid under her precarious steps.
Planting her feet, she leaned into the slope, hanging onto rocks and thin slanted trees to make her way down.
Another bolt of magic hit Toren. His back arched off the ground, body spasming. Aldreth’s hands danced and he sailed across the slope. The witch manipulated him like a puppet master. Toren tried to lunge up and his feet swept out from under him.
The winds howled, tossing dirt and debris at Charity. She tumbled the last few feet to the bottom of the ravine. Footfalls ran past her, flinging dirt in her hair. Charity rolled to her side to see what was happening. Edeen launched herself at the witch, arm stretched out. Her hand hit the spot above Aldreth's heart.
Both women screamed. Their bodies stiffened, convulsing like they'd been caught in an electrical stream. Whatever Edeen was doing as an empath, it was hurting the witch. It was hurting Edeen too.
Aldreth's features twisted horribly.
Edeen's eyes rolled up in her head until only the whites showed.
"Nooooo!" Col raced forward. There was an explosion of golden light. Col vanished. In his place, a dark panther leaped out of the brilliance, snarling teeth and claws that rammed between the women, throwing them apart. Both women dropped boneless to the ground.
Charity lunged up.
The panther spun back, soil flying beneath his unsheathed claws. Aldreth threw out an arm. A lash of lightning hit Col, tossing him with such force his glossy side plowed up the hill, gouging a thick furrow in the ground.
Aldreth dragged herself to her feet, her eyes wild. What had Edeen done to her? The witch threw out her arms. The air crackled, the force of tremendous magic building like a volcano about to erupt.
A lightning bolt plowed across the ground, hitting Toren square in the chest. He flew backward.
This had to stop.
Charity ran toward Aldreth.
"You bitch!" She cold-cocked her right in the kisser.
Aldreth went down. Her legs flew up. She blinked up at her, wide-eyed, from the ground. Slowly, she wiped blood from her split lip.
Charity winced. Her hand throbbed.
Aldreth rose as though Charity’s punch hadn’t hurt in the least. "So you're the Healer Enchantress who has kept Toren's spirits from failing him." Her gaze roamed down the length of Charity with as much interest as if she was inspecting an ant. "Hmmm." She shot out an arm and Charity flew back as though she'd been struck by a log.
Toren screamed out her name.
Head ringing, flat on her back, Charity blinked up at the angry spitting skies. Shallow breaths pulled in and out of her lungs.
"Nay, Aldreth, do not." Toren cried. For her.
Darkness moved over her. Aldreth's slim form blotted out the sky as she stood above her. The hem of her white dress flapped across Charity's stomach.
Aldreth's head cocked to the side. Her swollen broken mouth twitched in a hard smile. "'Tis an omen I think, you're being brought here, that all I've attempted is just and right."
Aldreth leaned closer over her. Her long hair tickled Charity's face as the wind whipped it back and forth. Charity tried to pull in a breath, gasping instead. The witch's eyes blazed, dilated with magic and madness. "At long last I have the means to break Toren." She pulled Charity up by her hair. Pain radiated through her. She twisted to escape it, hands clutched on Aldreth’s wrists to take some of the pressure off her tearing hair.
"Stop this!" Suddenly Toren was there, arms around the witch, pulling her away.
Charity dropped. The pressure on her scalp was immediately gone.
The air exploded, a vicious concussion of tearing sound.
Crying out, Toren dropped to the ground where Aldreth turned on him, punching out crimson light that slapped into the sorcerer. His hands clawed into the soil, every muscle rigid with strain.
A panther shrieked. Col sprang through the air. Aldreth spun. A gash of light knocked Col sideways.
Another ripped into Toren.
Unable to use his magic against her, Toren was vulnerable, helpless, just a man beneath the enormity of her power.
Aldreth blasted Toren again. Again.
In her fury, she was going to kill him.
Still in panther form, Col leapt at them again. A bolt of charged fire slashed him in the face. It caught him up in a stream of light, kept him frozen in the air, his sleek form bending and writhing, fur standing on end.
Behind him, Toren staggered to get to his feet.
"No!" A shout growled across the hill.
An incredible wave of power pulsed through everything, pierced into Charity like water through a net, warm and hard with the promise of creating a hundred worlds or destroying a million others flooded in its strength. A whisper of darkness sifted through it. Mountains fell to dust. Oceans swallowed continents. Entire cities crumbled. She'd never felt anything like it.
The storm abruptly stilled. Col dropped to the ground, steam lifting off his fur.
Toren lay unmoving.
Shaw stood at the bottom of the hill, between them and the abandoned village, his expression a mixture of devastation and horror at what he had just unleashed. His eyes glowed silver white, reflecting the shine of a trillion moons.
Charity sensed even Shaw had no idea of the full extent of his power, yet there wasn't a magic wielder within miles who wouldn't have felt the depth of what he'd just revealed. The ferocious potency breathed upon the very air.
Toren's head lifted. Shock and horror deepened the lines of his forehead.
Aldreth turned toward Shaw, undisguised wonder stark upon her features. "You.” She laughed, a giddy crazed sound. “It should have been you all along." Her chest heaved in and out and her eyes rolled up in what Charity could only describe as arousal. "I can feel the darkness within you." She clapped her hands like a child expectant for a treat. “All this time, I longed for the wrong brother.” She held out a palm toward Shaw. "Come to me. Ye and I are so very much alike."
Shaw's gun-metal eyes narrowed. He started up the slope. "Leave this place, Aldreth. Be gone and never return."
Aldreth let her arm drop, pouted. “Do not make me beg. I weary so of begging.” She smiled. "You're strong, but you're also young. I've had centuries to hone my craft. Nor do I abide by rules of fairness." She glided over to where the panther lay unmoving, crouched down and petted his fur.
Shaw froze. His chest expanded on a ragged breath.
A low growl emitted from the panther
's throat. He swiped out a weak claw, ripping through Aldreth's pristine gown. Lines of blood sprouted at her hip.
Enraged, Aldreth slammed her fist into Col's side and the panther screamed. Light sparked and the large cat dispersed. A naked battered Col took his place, curling into himself. Veins stood stark white in his rigid hands and arms.
Shaw's blast rolled into Aldreth. His eyes blazed silver light. Releasing Col, she flung her arms out toward Shaw and their magic collided.
Though she could not see Shaw's force with her eyes, Charity felt it with every fiber of her being. It was like being near a roaring waterfall, feeling the strength and energy of it rumbling through the ground and air as it spilled over the edge.
The clouds swirled above them, buffeting in roaring force. The ground groaned beneath them. Dirt and pebbles shook, bouncing off the ground, rolling into small landsides.
Holes ripped open in the air, time rifts jarred apart, seething and sputtering charged matter into the atmosphere. That should not be able to happen. A witch should not be able to open a rift. And a… Charity stared at Shaw. His hair floated upward, wild streams of black. She hadn’t a clue what Shaw really was or what his magic was capable of. Moon Sifter. Could he open rifts in time or was it a combination of the magic he and Aldreth were generating in the atmosphere?
In her rage, Aldreth had gone mad, shooting out her magic in every direction.
And her magic was immense.
Trees uprooted.
Boulders rolled down the hill.
Edeen's unconscious form slid farther down the slope toward the maelstrom Shaw and Aldreth unleashed upon each other.
Col lifted his head, rousing.
Toren staggered to his feet.
Aldreth moved down the hill, thrusting everything she had at Shaw, shots of gilded lightning executed with the precision of a surgeon.
Shaw stumbled back.
Aldreth screamed at him. "Your brother, the most powerful sorcerer in the land couldn't fight me. Do ye really believe an unskilled child as yourself has a chance?"
One of Shaw's legs buckled and he fell on a knee. Sweat poured down his face. Huge tremors rolled through him. His dark hair swirled and tangled behind him. If this was the first time he'd tapped into his potential, the effort would be overpowering. He’d had no training. There’d been no one capable of training him. Even if his magic was stronger, no way could he keep pulling from it. The physical toll on him had to be enormous, yet Aldreth appeared to be having no such issues.
Another time rift tore open behind him, angry and unstable.
"I'll have what is in you, Shaw Limont, and then I'll wield the balance of your entire pitiful clan."
Shaw's head snapped up. He smiled, a triumphant slash of white in the darkness. "Ye may have me, but my clan has crossed into the Shadowrood."
Somewhere close, Toren groaned.
Shaw's gaze sought his brother’s and his smile turned apologetic. "They're safe. The clan is beyond reach and their magic with them. The Fae have bound the gateway."
"No!" Aldreth shouted. "No! What have ye done? You've ruined everything! They cannot be gone. What have ye done?"
Twisting her body, she pulled her arms back to the side and swung back like an orchestra conductor. Giant crackling light pooled around her hands and then flew out toward Shaw.
A blur dove between them. Col took the hit and the angry light flung him across the air. He sailed backwards into the time rift and disappeared.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Highland Sorcerer Page 24