The tinny clicks of rifle safeties being disengaged sounded through the clearing. The ringing of swords pulled from sheaths and bowstrings pulled taut echoed as loud.
The goblin’s muscles swelled, doubling in size, and the pinprick pupils dilated into black holes as he bared his blunted teeth.
“Speak,” Lochlann said. “The words are your last.”
“Wait.” Cael strode forward. He stepped into water and it rushed away from his boots until he crossed a dry bed of pebbles. When he climbed the bank the other side the water reverted to its natural flow. “I wish–”
“To die.” Lochlann seethed. “You have no other reason for returning.” He hesitated then. His sword tip wavered. “Have you hexed them to do your bidding?”
Cael reached Samuel, pushed him aside then cupped the tip of Lochlann’s sword. “Here’s how it goes. You and I fight. You lose. Your brother strikes me down. Malice destroys Breandan. Rae feels his demise and awakens to retaliate. She’s obliterated.” Cael’s eyes darken. “Marinette reigns supreme. Life ends.” Without breaking eye contact with Lochlann, he yelled, “Isn’t that right, daughter?”
Lochlann revealed Rae’s suspicion Cael was bound by his fairy blood to speak the truth, and though his words rang true in my heart I looked a question at Ana, my precarious acceptance of Rae leaving without me crumbling into nothingness.
Lips pressed into a white line, the Seer’s hands tried to burrow into her stomach. Ana’s colour matched that of bleached bone.
Eyes on her father, she tilted her head in my direction and nodded agreement to the dire prediction. “This future becomes more likely.” She sounded strained. “How do you know of it?”
“Gwendolyn. I muddled through her mad ramblings and filled in the blanks. I know enough. Her visions aren’t clear as is your Sight.” Cael flashed a nasty smile. “I’ve missed your coherency.”
Rubbing my jaw with one hand and clenching the other, uncertain, weak-kneed, I tried to breathe through my panic but couldn’t draw a full breath. Terror ripped into me and razed my insides. I shuddered. Too many emotions fought for primacy. In a low aside over my shoulder, I rasped, “You never told me they were there. I sensed their direction, but you never said–”
“If I told you the whole point of Rae leaving in secret, alone, was rendered meaningless. Conall, Baako, everyone would’ve run after her. You wouldn’t have stayed to mend ties with Lochlann. Or help Maeve make the crucial decision that ensured the Sect, Pride, Pack, Horde, and Tribe unite.”
“You saw this?”
“I told you my father and Rae returned. Together. The Loa followed. Something changed. I just don’t know.” She sounded stressed. “It could have been anything.”
“Which is why conspiring in secret with my life mate was a foolish, cruel misuse of Sight I never thought you would be idiotic enough to succumb to.”
“I can’t tell you everything. If I did you’d be too afraid to move let alone walk into situations that might harm someone you care about. It’s why I didn’t warn Rae about your fight. I knew that it would freak her out and that she’d end up taking you with her.”
“Meddlesome.” Anger scorched any semblance of civility in my biting tone. “I should have gone with her.”
“Then you wouldn’t have been here to rally us. I glimpsed a future where Rae gave up once then dismissed it. Why wouldn’t I? The unlikelihood of it is unfathomable considering how wilful she is.” The look Ana levelled me was cutting. “I get you’re pissed, but don’t doubt me. Not now.”
Acquiesce to the he-witch would not be taken well, but he brought news of my love. Everything he’d done became irrelevant. I needed him. “Lochlann.” My voice was hollow. “Please.”
“No.” The shout made more than one demon jump. “I do not care. Nothing you say will sway me. This half-breed begs a swift death.”
“Oh?” Cael drawled. “Aren’t you meant to give me the benefit of the doubt? Doesn’t your lofty concept of honour demand you at least listen to me?”
“Honour?” Lochlann snarled the word. “You have none and have given none. Deserve none.”
“This coming from the demon who stabbed an unsuspecting male in the back?” Cael sneered. “Dreadfully honourable, my lord.”
Crossing the distance between myself, and the verbally sparring twosome, I considered my brother. I hovered my hand above his, which clutched the sword hilt in a white-knuckled grip.
Samuel cleared his throat. “We haven’t come to fight. I swear we’re here on good terms.” He paused. “For once.”
After a beat of staid defiance, Lochlann sheathed his sword and eased back to give me room, grim. “I pray we will not regret this.”
Eyeing the heavily armed procession of Clerics beyond the stream, I forced my attention on the male before me. “I’m listening.”
“You are not my….” Cael’s eyes closed. He shook his head, disbelieving. When they opened his golden orbs were focused. “You’re not my Elder.”
Lochlann arched a fair brow.
Maddened, I scrubbed a hand over my head.
“No.” Conall’s harsh whisper was an explosion of emotion. “Leave.”
Feeling the depth of pain in the word as an ache in my own heart, I winced, and noticed Lochlann rubbed his chest with the heel of his palm.
Gesturing us aside, Cael approached Conall with caution.
The resemblance between the males was striking. Conall was taller, but it was unmistakable from their darkly handsome features, similar builds and gold eyes they were kin.
The silence stretched until Cael said, “You must listen.”
It was subtle, but to those who knew him Conall’s upper lip spasm was telling. Motionless, he stared at the middle distance.
“I’ll put aside what happened between us if you listen.”
Still silent, Conall’s lower eyelid twitched.
The strength seemed to leave Cael’s legs, and he hit the dirt on his knees. “See me. Why do you refuse to acknowledge who I am?” His sounded tortured. “See me.”
Conall turned to Lochlann, manner vacant. “I cannot.”
“I understand. See to reinforcing the enchantments protecting the Wyld. I have a feeling we march to war on the hour.”
Dipping his head in respect, Conall spun and strode away from his youngest sibling kneeling at his feet.
Cael’s chin touched his chest. His shoulders hunched, and his hands rested limply between his knees. “Rae’s dying.”
Conall froze.
“The he-witch genuinely seems sad,” Amelia muttered, eyes wide with disbelief. She flinched when Ana glared at her. “What? He tried to kill Rae.” She lifted two fingers and her eyes bugged. “Twice.”
Speaking softly, Cael kept his head bowed. “You think I kneel here because I desire forgiveness. I hold fast to my beliefs. I renounce nothing. I’m the most powerful demon in existence. I–”
“Breandan could best you,” Lochlann said.
My heart swelled at the hint of smugness colouring his tone. My Elder is truly proud of me.
“Your bother is a minor deity,” Cael replied. “Not a demon. It’s time you accepted that.” Shooting a sympathetic look at a now dour Lochlann, Cael smirked. “I get how you feel. I found the revelation of Rae’s divinity hard to swallow.”
Face red with anger, Lochlann opened his mouth, but Daphne made a lip shutting gesture with her hand. He grumbled, frowning, but held his tongue.
“What you let happen to me was a crime.” Cael spoke to Conall’s straightened back. “It was. I know you’re proud. It’s a trait the three of us share, but you have to embrace what I am because you helped to make me this way. I make no apologies for what I’ve done to survive. I refuse to feel shame for lashing out in anger.”
Conall moved, and the line of fairy Knights parted to let him pass, faces averted in respect for his rank and public disgrace.
“You hate me, but you love her.” Cael stood, his face fierce. “You’ll walk
away knowing she needs you? You failed me. That is truth, but it’s in the past, and can’t be changed. This you can change. You can help me save our sister.”
Abruptly turning, Conall darted back to Cael. He held his bother’s head in both hands and looked him in the eye. “I am ashamed of you.” Conall’s eyes were red-rimmed, but his expression remained stony. “I will go to our sister. You have my thanks for coming. That took courage.” He pressed their foreheads together. “But understand, I cannot bear the sight of you. I cannot.” Releasing his hold, Conall looked at Lochlann. “I will begin the defensive spells.”
“Conall may be unable to face you, but I can.” I waited until Cael composed himself. “What did you mean by Rae will awaken?”
He turned. “She sleeps.”
I searched his withdrawn features for clues to help me discover his underlying message. Not for the first time, I missed the simpler connection the old incarnation of the bond between my life mate and I. “An enchantment?”
Enchantments were easy to break opposed to spells and hexes. A kiss may revive Rae, or a whispered word of power at sunrise. A spell would require more finesse, an incantation, and a hex must be countered with stronger magics augmented by blood.
“Something darker?” Lochlann suggested. “A hex?”
Cael’s hand swatted the air. “She closed her eyes as if pained and when they opened she was gone. Lost so deeply inside nothing reaches her.” Cael raked his teeth over his bottom lip then shrugged, at a loss. “I don’t know what happened before she arrived at my city, but she looked broken. The fire I expected was missing. Marinette spoke twisted words in her ear, and Rae shattered.” Cael’s gaze shifted to mine, accusing. “What happened?”
The gazes of my friends and family turned on me. Some sympathetic, condemning, and the rest confused.
The currents of energy flowing towards me fluctuated.
Pained, I turned my face away. The breathtaking fear that haunted me since Rae left roughened my voice. “How soon can we leave?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Breandan
Clucking his tongue at my frantic pacing, Lochlann reached for me. “Be calm.”
“It has been eight days.” I jerked to avoid his touch. “Eight days.” I fisted a hand then dropped it helplessly. “I will be calm when I hold her again.” For the millionth time, I sucked in the menacing pall that spilled from me in waves of aggression. I knew it made Lochlann uncomfortable. “We move too slow. Wasting time with talk. If I carry on alone, I can be there in moments. Cael has shown me how to skim on air using magics.”
We left the majority of our forces at the border of the forest and scouted ahead to the outer streets of the Northern City. We hoped to deduce a solid plan of attack whilst we determined where best to enter unseen.
Things progressed bit by bit.
Agonizingly slow.
My brother put his hands on his hips. Head dipping, he shook it. The warrior braids plaited into his hair swung. “Go in there unprepared and you lose the advantage of surprise.”
“They know I am here. They feel me. As I do them. Their power is a beacon. I could find them with my eyes closed.” My lids did press closed tightly, and my throat worked. “I cannot feel Rae, her power is banked. Lessening.” My eyes opened then narrowed. “I will not sneak.”
“You cannot defeat three of them.” Lochlann studied me. Whatever he saw lurking in my expression made him pale. “Perhaps two, but not three.”
“Whatever the Loa did to Rae you can bet they won’t let you take her.” Daphne slapped a hand to her forehead. “You’re going to do what? Stride in, pick her up then stroll back out?”
“Oh yes.” I pierced her with a look. “I will walk right up to them and tell them she’s mine.”
Lochlann eased onto his back leg. “There is Cael to consider.”
I dismissed his concern with a cut of the hand. “He is different.”
“Do not be fooled.” He aimed a suspicious look over his shoulder. “He is aligned with the Loa. This is a game to him.”
“Rae believes because of his fairy blood he cannot lie. You told me this.”
Lochlann snapped his fingers. “Verily. Rae has never made a mistake before, oh, no.”
“If he betrays us I will destroy him.” I raised my voice. “I hadn’t the power before, but I do now.”
“He attacked the Wyld.” Lochlann angered himself at the reminder. “He killed my Knights. Violated the home of our people. Tried to kill me. Forgive me if a few pretty words to his Elder don’t persuade me to gift him my faith. Even if it is for a short time.”
“Where is Conall,” Daphne asked.
“Coordinating our Knights with Alec’s Pride,” Kian replied. “Maeve is helping too. We thought it best Conall be busy considering the present company we keep.”
“I should be with them,” Samuel said, making an effort to stand from his perch on a boulder. Pausing, his face twisted funny. He slumped, burying his hands into the funnelled sleeves of his blemished cloak. “Maybe in a minute.” He flushed when Daphne snickered at his not-so-subtle shifting from butt cheek to butt cheek. “Quit it, vampire. I’m dealing with saddle sores.”
The Clerics displayed the strain of the long journey the demons shook off. I’d pushed relentlessly to get us here in two days rather than three.
“If Cael helps me get Rae back he’ll have earned my trust,” I said.
“Does he have to be involved with Rae’s rescue?” Kian asked.
“He knows the city,” Samuel said. “I have no desire to run blind through the streets waiting to be picked off. He can take us right where we need to be.”
Lochlann looked intrigued. “I have been here before. I know the way.”
“So do I.” Daphne peered at the fog-shrouded buildings. “This is my home. We can find the Wyld without him. Enough of us know the location we could even split into smaller groups and better our chances of avoiding the Nest.”
“Cael’s Coven is warded.” My leg bounced in impatience. “I do not want to waste time or power breaking down magical doors.”
Daphne rubbed her lips together then flicked an uneasy look in the he-witch’s direction.
Hearing his name, Cael turned and blatantly stared. His sleeveless tunic flapped on his lanky body. Dark hair altered shade in the dim moonlight and fluttered around a handsome face eerily familiar. Cael’s gold eyes burned – Rae’s eyes. Save Alec, Samuel and myself, he was avoided, but preferred his outsider reputation; he did nothing to amend it.
His gaze clashed with mine. I saw my impatience reflected there.
“Creepy,” Samuel muttered. “He doesn’t give a damn.”
Kian shifted, uneasy. “Neither would you if you possessed his power.”
Arching a sleek brow, Cael smirked.
“Well, I’d rather face the flesh-eating critters that haunt the Wyld woodlands than trust him.” Daphne shuddered. Strangely, so did Kian. Lochlann hid a smile behind his palm. “Witches are the lowest of the low. No honour. But! I happen to think Cael’s sincere. He’s never been a liar.” She jerked a shoulder “That’s my opinion.”
Samuel gawked.
Daphne eyeballed him. “What?”
“A vampire giving a lecture on honour.” When he realised he offended her, he hooked an arm around her waist, tugged her head down and nosily bussed her cheek. “You know it’s true.”
Pretending to rub off spit, she grinned. “Yeah, still, you’re lucky you’re my favourite donor.”
Lochlann scowled at his boots. “Daphne’s opinion is valid. If she can overcome her hatred of Cael, that is enough for me. For now.” He glanced anxiously at the sprawling city. “I did not bring my Knights to be slaughtered at the whim of some mad creature.”
“He’s my father,” Ana murmured. She approached cloaked, the cowl pulled low over her face. She pushed it back, pearlescent eyes guarded. Her irises hadn’t returned to their normal blue since the resurrection. “Please remember that.”
Stressed, I battled a hiss of annoyance. I felt triumphant when all that eked past my lips was a sharp puff of air. Talk was a waste of time. How they perceive Cael is irrelevant. “Can the future Rae nurtured come to pass?”
“No.” Her head veered in my direction. “Too much has changed. Many die now.”
Lochlann’s voice was reed thin when he asked, “They would not before?”
“We walked many futures and found a solution. It was imperative no one but she and I knew. I made her promise not to tell.” Ana smiled, sad. “Rae was unusually focused and precise. She wanted a solution where all life was preserved.”
“She found one.” Daphne spoke with conviction. “That girl is as stubborn as a brick.”
Ana’s nose wrinkled. “Yes, but that’s immaterial now.”
“Why?” Samuel asked. “Can’t you look again?”
Ana threw him a peevish glare. “Don’t you think I would if I could? I can’t catch everything. There’s too much, and my father lifted the dampening spell placed on my power. My Sight evolves, and it’s a struggle to focus on the present.”
He frowned. “Then how–”
“When I look at you–some of you,” she corrected, “the future ceases to be.”
Kian looked spooked. “Why?”
“Because I’m dead,” she replied, serene. “I will avoid some of you during the fight. Nothing personal.”
“Have any non-creepy shit to say?” Baako slung an arm around her shoulder. He hugged her close to his broad chest. “How do we get Twitch out of that scary pile of rocks so I can paddle her ass.”
I managed a bleak smile. “Wait your turn.”
He nodded in respect, sympathetic.
The goblin giving me a wide birth since the Horde’s arrival at the Wyld hovered outside the group.
His bald skull and long ears weren’t strange, but his pinprick pupils fascinated me. It was difficult to determine what he focused on when they shifted so erratically.
“Lorken,” Samuel greeted. Plucking a long blade of grass then chewing the end of it, he motioned Kian aside, so the goblin had room to stand and join the discussion.
Summon (Rae Wilder) Page 22