After a long moment Gideon looked at Echo. “She says you need to say the words. Because you love him, it has to be you.” She saw the puzzlement in his eyes. He probably wondered if Ryder was another one of her crushes, a fling, an infatuation. Now was not the time to explain that this was so much more.
She had been prepared to watch, to step back and let Gideon fix what was broken, but that was not to be. Echo nodded, and in a low and soft voice she repeated the strange words her cousin directed her to say.
That’s when Ryder screamed. He jerked his head around to look directly at her, to glare at her. She could see the pain in his eyes; she could feel it. Those dark eyes she had come to love were touched with Gideon’s electricity as if the lightning lived there, inside him. Did it burn? Was it terrible?
“Help me,” he whispered.
Instinctively, Echo stuttered, the strange words uncomfortable on her tongue. She hesitated, choked on the words. She hadn’t realized that removing the curse would hurt him so. The pain was too much! There had to be another way! But Hope said in her no-nonsense voice, “It’s a trick, Echo. I can see it from here.”
Ryder snapped his head around and growled at Hope, who only adjusted her aim a bit.
The words Gideon whispered, words Echo repeated carefully, were Romany. Carpathian Romany. She didn’t know the language, didn’t even realize there were different variations, but listening, speaking each word carefully...she simply knew. This was Ryder’s mother’s language, a language of power. The language she had used to cast the curse and the one required to remove it.
Ryder truly was in pain, but it wasn’t her Ryder, it was the other. It was the darkness created by a curse which had been cast to instill powers that never should have been. As she spoke the strange words, the darkness and the curse died. A little at a time. Her Ryder hurt, too, as something that had been a part of him for almost his entire life was ripped away.
Would he love her after? Would he be so changed that there was nothing left of the man she loved? He had warned her that removing her own powers would damage her forever. They had damaged his wife, Cassidy’s mother, beyond repair. Was this the same?
No, the powers now being removed were not a part of him. They had been added, forced, poured into a soul unprepared for such magic.
He screamed, an unnatural scream that made every glass in the pub ring. One bottle of whiskey exploded. Then another. The chairs shook slightly, as if Cloughban were experiencing a minor earthquake.
Echo stuttered again and then she whispered, “I love you.” Her words were too soft for anyone to hear over the screams, but Ryder heard somehow. He looked at her. Into her.
Save me.
That’s what I’m trying to do.
You’re killing me...
Would they still be able to communicate this way when he was stripped of the curse? All her life she’d wanted a normal man, a man with no magical abilities, but if they could no longer touch each other this way...she would miss it.
But there was no other way. She didn’t want to ever peek into the mind of Dark Ryder, and she did not want him in her own mind. What could he, would he, do there if he had free rein?
No matter what the cost, they had to strip away the darkness. To see the man she loved entirely gone would break her heart. If the darkness won and her Ryder disappeared, it might snow in Cloughban until the end of time.
Gideon placed his free hand over Ryder’s heart and directed Echo to say a few more words. She did.
Ryder’s head snapped back. His body bucked and then he went still. His head rotated slowly and then dropped forward; his shoulders and arms went slack. Gideon backed away.
“Is it done?” Echo asked.
“I think so.” Gideon looked at a far corner and nodded in acknowledgment of the ghost. “She won’t leave until he wakes up and we know for sure.”
Echo took a knife and began to cut away the duct tape that held Ryder.
“Shouldn’t we wait until he wakes up and we know if the spell, you know, took?” Hope asked.
“No,” Echo responded sharply. “We need him, dark or light.” She lifted her head to look Gideon in the eye. “They’re coming.”
* * *
Rye opened his eyes slowly. Wiggled his fingers as the world around him came into focus. He felt hungover, only half-present. For a long moment, no one else in the pub realized he was awake. They were making plans, gathering others to fight with them.
He tried to listen in, attempted to peek into the minds of those around him. They could block him, and had, but if they didn’t realize he was listening why would they bother?
He heard nothing. Saw nothing. He reached for a vision of the battle to come; he tried to identify the dark magic he knew was coming their way. Again, nothing. He lifted his hand and attempted to start a small fire on his palm, something which had, until now, been child’s play.
Nothing.
Without the curse, he was no wizard. He wasn’t even a mildly talented stray or a slightly gifted independent. He was an ordinary human, and in the coming battle he would serve no useful purpose at all.
Echo saw—or sensed—that he was awake and she ran to him. “Ryder, how do you feel? Are you...?”
He lifted his head and looked at her. She paled, and for a moment he believed she was disappointed to see that he was just a man. She’d fallen in love with a wizard and now he was nothing. In a town like Cloughban, he was less than nothing.
And then she whispered, “Thank God it’s you.” She leaned down and kissed him briefly, too briefly, taking him by surprise. That kiss was warmth in a cold world, a moment of peace and, yes, love.
“We don’t have much time,” she said as she pulled away from him. “They’re coming, they’re close. As far as I can see, there are only half a dozen of them or so. They still think they’ll catch us unaware, which is foolish considering where they’re headed, so I believe we’ll be...”
“Echo,” Rye interrupted. “I’m...” Powerless, worthless, empty.
She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know.”
He found a way to continue. “The spell I cast on the cottage, the one to hide and protect Cassidy.”
She paled as she finished his thought for him. “It fell when we removed the curse.”
* * *
Cassidy glanced out her bedroom window, bored with her book, bored with being stuck inside for so many hours. Days! Well, a day and a half. It seemed like longer. She had never realized how much she liked the freedom to come and go as she pleased, even when she didn’t physically come and go.
The figure walking toward the cottage was one she knew well, though she had never seen him here in her home. He never came out to the cottage, never visited. She blinked. Strained to see. Why was he walking straight for the front door when he shouldn’t be able to see the cottage at all?
At that moment he spotted her in the window. He smiled and waved.
Cassidy had never been able to see her own future, but that smile made her shiver. There was something wrong about it, something evil. It was like her da as he had been in the past couple of days, but without the influence of the good man he had always been deep down.
For a second, a horrifying second, the face coming toward her shifted into an ugly, skeleton-like image. Hollow eyes. Gruesome grin.
She ran from her room, into the main room where Granny sat with her friend. “Don’t open the door!” she shouted, but it was too late.
Doyle didn’t knock. He blew the door off its hinges with a burst of fire and walked inside through a puff of black smoke.
* * *
Rye ran. Echo had offered to come with him, but he’d refused her and taken off at full speed. There was no way she could catch up with him, even if she tried. Just as well. She’d be needed in town.
> Had his mother cursed him because she’d realized early on that he had no powers? What a disappointment he must’ve been, for her to take such steps. Had the curse affected him physically? Was that why Cassidy was so powerful?
Was she still powerful, or had her gifts disappeared with his own?
There was no way to be sure until he was with her again.
Within a matter of days he’d gone from a wizard so powerful his gifts had to be dampened, to the dark man he had once been, to an ordinary man who could not help his daughter or the woman he loved when they needed him. They should’ve left him as he was, dark and lost. At least then the people he loved, the only people in the world he cared about, would be safe.
But would they have been safe from him?
Suddenly Cassidy was beside him, running unnaturally fast in order to keep up with him. Cassidy, not in the flesh but traveling out of body. Her feet did not touch the ground. The wind created by their speed made her red curls fly back. Her presence was proof that his spell had indeed fallen.
“Doyle killed Mr. McManus!” she shouted. Tears streamed down her face. “He says he’s going to kill Granny, too, if I don’t...if I don’t...” And then she was gone. As quickly as she’d appeared, she disappeared.
Doyle. For all Rye’s so-called gifts, he had never seen it. Neither had Echo, or anyone else in town. His cook—much more than a cook apparently—must’ve called upon a powerful shielding charm or spell to last this long without anyone realizing what he was up to.
Rye ran faster, pushing himself to the limit, wishing he had the powers of a wizard—dark or light—to help him save his daughter. He ran as fast as he could, but he had no idea if he was anywhere near fast enough.
Chapter 24
“They’re here,” Echo whispered as two long black SUVs raced into town. Maybe their prophet—if they had one—was as substandard as she was. As substandard as she had been, anyway, before taking lessons from Ryder. Didn’t they know what they were up against? Didn’t one of them see that they were riding into a town that was well prepared for their arrival?
Maybe they knew but didn’t care. That was a scary thought.
Standing near the door to the pub, she tried to reach out to Ryder. Where are you? How are you? What’s happening? They’re here. Her efforts were wasted. Since Gideon had broken the curse, she’d been unable to touch Ryder’s mind at all. She was effectively blind where he was concerned. Their connection was gone. She missed it, more than she’d imagined she could.
What did it matter at this moment? They had to survive this attack before she could worry about Ryder and Cassidy.
The people of Cloughban had varying gifts, and widely varying degrees of strength. Most were not very powerful. None were what could be called warriors. Warriors or not, all adults under the age of seventy were on the street, armed in one way or another. With sticks, swords, knives and flexed fingers, they were ready to fight for their home.
Echo was ready to fight, too.
Did the invaders want the independents, the stones or Cassidy? Odds were they wanted all three. There was power here, there was strength. For a clan looking to begin anew, there was likely no better place on the planet.
The people here were prepared to defend all. Themselves, the stones, a little girl like no other...
Hope had her gun and Gideon’s, one in each hand. In this situation, Gideon didn’t need a firearm. Blue lightning danced on his skin as he prepared.
The vehicles stopped, one after another. Doors opened simultaneously as six...no, seven...people stepped out. Three women, four men. All were dressed entirely in black. Three were wearing sunglasses, which had to be for effect only since clouds shielded the late afternoon sun. They carried swords and guns of their own. Echo saw no evidence of fire or lightning, but that could come once the fight began.
A tall brunette woman with a severely short hairstyle took the lead. She had to be close to six feet tall! One of the three wearing sunglasses, she was obviously in charge. The other six formed a flank behind her, marking her as their leader, but it was her demeanor, her fearlessness, that told Echo she was leading the pack.
“Seven against...fifty? Sixty?” The tall woman’s smile was at odds with her words as she surveyed the crowd. “It seems the numbers are against us, but in this situation numbers mean nothing. Can we talk? You people don’t know what you’re fighting against.” She raised her voice; it all but boomed down the street. “Become Ansara, join us. Be a part of resurrecting a powerful clan that was wrongly eliminated years ago.” She turned her head slowly and pinned her eyes on Gideon. “By the Raintree. Have they come to take you, too? Please tell me you haven’t all bought into their goody-goody facade.”
The crowd was restless. They murmured to one another, they shuffled their feet and a few took uncertain steps back. There were doubts among them.
“They’re not Ansara,” Echo said in a voice loud enough for all to hear. “They’re impostors.” She took a deep breath. “Wannabes. They are no stronger, no more capable, than any one of you.” She glanced around her. “Any one of us.”
Shay stood next to her mother; they were dressed in plain, loose clothing that left them room to maneuver, and sturdy low-heeled boots that would allow them to run. And kick. They each held what could only be called a club. Hefty clubs, at that.
The girl who had been Maisy’s friend, who had coveted Echo’s job at the pub, who had made it clear that she didn’t like the newcomer much, caught Echo’s eye and nodded once. Echo had no idea what Shay’s powers were, but at this moment it didn’t matter. That nod was an acknowledgment. Soldier to soldier. Let’s kick some ass.
As if he were in on the silent exchange—and perhaps he was—Nevan, who carried no weapon that Echo could see, raised his voice as he surveyed the crowd. “Avoid killing the bastards if you can. This is sacred land, and the spilling of blood will darken and weaken the stones. There’s been enough blood spilled of late.” Then he, too, nodded to Echo.
She took a deep breath and stepped forward, moving closer to the woman who led the attack. Echo was no leader, never had been. She’d always been content to be a soldier, not a general. A princess, not a queen. For the most part, she did as she was told. But in a way she had never expected, these were her people. They needed guidance, with Ryder changed. Changed and, more importantly, not here.
“Go while you can,” Echo said in a commanding voice, facing the woman who seemed, at the moment, to stand a full foot taller than she.
Gideon lifted one hand and an alarming ball of lightning danced on his palm. It was a warning, nothing more.
“You’ve lost the day,” Echo said, loudly enough for everyone on the street to hear. “The people of Cloughban have no wish to align with you or with the Raintree. They’re independent and will remain so. Leave. No one has to die today.”
Behind the leader, the other six prepared to do battle. Guns and swords were raised. She saw no evidence of powers among them. At least, none that could be used in a fight. Echo allowed her empathic abilities to come to life. She reached out, trying to ascertain what dangers these invaders would offer. Fire, lightning, balls of energy.
Nothing. This new clan was so weak they were all but powerless. No wonder they wanted the stones—and these people and Cassidy—so badly!
A short, dark-haired man standing behind and to the left of the tall woman fired the first shot. The bullet missed its intended mark—Gideon—and grazed the arm of the young man who had sold Echo ice cream and coffee on several occasions. He fell. The crowd swarmed forward.
Echo took one step forward, two, ready to engage the invaders. Like Gideon, she had the ability to produce a ball of energy that would disable any attacker. Before she could even produce a twinkling of energy, that newly identified feeling niggled at the back of her brain.
“No,” s
he whispered, stopping her forward progress. Not now! She needed to fight, to play a part in saving this village that had become her home. An important part. These people were her friends and neighbors; she was a part of the community.
But she couldn’t fight like this, no matter how much she wanted to do just that. She dropped her hand and backed away, moving closer to the pub, realizing she’d be trampled if she stayed in the street. She’d never been able to stop an oncoming vision.
Her knees gave out, and she sat with her back against the pub door. The people of Cloughban—Ryder’s neighbors and friends, her neighbors and friends—defended their home with honor. Shay knew how to swing that club. She was stronger than she looked. Echo saw two of the townspeople go down, then watched as Maeve Quinlan hit one of the men in black over the head with an iron skillet. Brigid had kneeled to tend one of the fallen, the boy who had been shot, and Nevan...Nevan had lightning like Gideon. Echo smiled as the old man began to glow, more green than blue but just as powerful and sparkly...and then she was gone.
* * *
Gideon hit the leader of the Ansara invaders in the center of her chest with a bolt of lightning. Not enough to kill her. Probably not enough to kill her. She flew back and landed hard on the road, hitting the ground with an oomph. Her sunglasses flew off. She stayed down.
Echo was slumped on the sidewalk. Damned bad timing for a vision. At least she’d had the good sense to move out of the way before she’d been incapacitated.
As he fought, he kept one eye on Hope. She’d been through this before, during the final battle between the Raintree and the Ansara. As one of the invaders swung his sword at an elderly man wielding a long stick, Hope took aim and fired. A good shot, she hit what she’d aimed at. The man in black’s shoulder. The old man gave a nod of appreciation in her direction before lifting his stick again and going to the aid of a friend.
Gideon stepped back, out of the midst of the fight. His side was winning; the people defended themselves well. There didn’t have to be a massacre in order for the people of Cloughban to win. This was a magical place, thanks to the nearby stones Echo had told him about. As the old man had warned, bloodshed here would seep into the ground and touch the place with a new and unwanted darkness. The people of Cloughban needed to win, had to win, and it was inevitable that many would be wounded and some might die. But there could be no slaughter here.
Raintree: Oracle Page 20