“Soon I will bring together all my children and rule them once more.”
Yes, Balor.
The god spoke through Darkwolf and it and a new rush of fear shot through her.
Copper rested her head back against the stone and willed her heart to slow its beating. She had never been allowed by the D’Anu to donate blood to blood banks because of her witch heritage, so she didn’t have that experience.
She couldn’t imagine that more than a pint had been drained from her so far in this circle. No doubt it wouldn’t be long until she’d be too weak to do anything. Already she felt as if she’d had the crap beaten out of her—which she more or less had.
Another scrape of stone against stone had Copper’s teeth grinding and her focus moving toward the door.
The red glow grew brighter yet. Claws crept around the stone, and snouts of what were sure to be hideous beasts—Fomorii.
More growls, snorts, and roars met her ears. The stench coming from the door mingled with the smell of blood, dirt, and stone from the cavern.
Copper felt sudden warmth at her right arm and she cut her gaze to it.
Silver was on her knees, her hands held over Copper’s wrist.
Copper’s heart leaped to see her sister awake. She looked beyond exhausted, dark circles under her eyes, but she was alive.
Silver’s blue magic poured from her fingertips, healing the cut in Copper’s wrist almost instantly. Copper started to open her mouth, but she snapped it shut when her sister held one finger to her lips.
Silver looked even more bleary-eyed and as if she might faint again, but she crawled over to Copper’s other wrist.
Before she could do anything, the door scraped a fraction more and this time bodies squirmed in the opening. More Fomorii! They were trying to get out, but the opening wasn’t big enough for them, yet.
“We’ll get out of this,” Silver whispered. Again, her blue glow eased from her fingertips and the slice in Copper’s wrist closed and healed.
Silver’s strength gave out and she crumpled to the stone floor, her eyes closed.
Wounds healed, Copper found the strength to struggle against her bonds. Even though no more blood dripped from her veins, what had already left her body still moved slowly through the etchings.
The door scraped open a tad more. The stench of rotten fish mingled with a burnt-sugar smell.
A shadow fell across Copper’s face. Her heart leapt in terror as she saw someone dark and foreboding above her, wielding a long, thick blade.
It was Garran, King of the Drow.
“No. Garran, please,” Copper whispered. Disbelief coursed through her veins like ice water. It wasn’t possible. He wouldn’t kill her.
He clenched his jaw, swung the blade down, and Copper closed her eyes, prepared for the death blow.
She heard a scrape against the rope, a sharp tug at her wrist, and the binding was suddenly free. Her eyelids sprang open. He had sliced the tie from one of her wrists.
Shocked, she watched him free her broken ankle and she bit her bottom lip until she tasted blood as she tried not to scream from the pain. In quick movements and even quicker strokes, Garran cut the bonds from her other ankle and wrist.
When he finished, he carefully brought her to her feet. She couldn’t help but want to cry out before she had a chance to put all her weight on her left ankle. For a moment she sagged against Garran, unable to stand on her own, and he gently held her. His earthy scent was almost comforting—if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a traitor.
She separated herself from Garran’s arms and glanced at where Darkwolf, Junga, and Sara stood, and was relieved that they were solely focused on the door.
“The blood.” Copper kept her voice low as she looked down at the fluid still moving through the etchings. “We have to stop it”
“I am not here to hinder the opening of the chamber.” Garran sheathed his dagger, his silvery eyes reflecting the red light seeping from the door. “Balor has promised all the Dark Elves may again tolerate light and live aboveground in your world when his body is freed. Once the door is open that promise will be fulfilled.”
He gripped her arm tighter, his eyes meeting hers. “I wish only for you to live.” He glanced at the floor. “You have bled enough.”
Open-mouthed, Copper balanced on one foot in the center of the circle. “You don’t understand. To allow these creatures out would devastate my world.”
He placed his callused palm against her cheek and his earth-and-moss scent flowed over her again. “Come with me, Copper. I have wanted you since you came to Otherworld. I have waited only for you to come to me willingly.”
She would have backed up if she could have. “You’re a traitor, Garran. You could have let us all out of the bubble prison long ago, but you didn’t.”
“In order to free my people from darkness, I could not.” He glanced up at the door that was a fraction wider. When he looked back at her she saw regret, yet caring for his people in his eyes. “Come with me now. I will protect you.”
She shook her head. “No.”
For a moment he looked like he was going to take her against her will. His muscles flexed and his jaw tensed. He glanced at the doorway and back to Copper.
“Come!” he commanded in a low voice filled with urgency and passion.
“I can’t.” Copper looked to her sister who was still on the cavern floor but stirring again. “I have to help my sister and I have to stop that door from opening.”
Garran brushed his knuckles across her cheek and pressed his lips to her forehead. “May the gods and goddesses be with you, Copper.” He gave one last look at her, released her arm, and slipped away into the darkness.
Shock filled Copper over her exchange with the Drow king, but she couldn’t think about Garran.
Her heart pounded as she glanced down at her sister, and Copper thanked the goddess Silver was moving, pushing herself up from the floor.
The red glow from the opening door cast a crimson sheen across her sister’s hair. Silver shoved her hair out of her face and over her shoulder, then braced both hands on the floor and took a deep breath. She didn’t seem to have the strength to get to her feet.
Copper’s gaze shot back to the door. Now it was open just enough that bodies were closer to squeezing through. Growls, snorts, and cries were so loud Copper wanted to clap her hands over her ears. Now she could smell something like really bad dog breath mixed with the other horrible smells.
Junga’s, Sara’s, and Darkwolf’s attentions were focused solely on that door. The way Copper now stood, she could better make out the side of the warlock’s face.
A triumphant smile curved the corner of his mouth. The demon Junga gave a growl of approval, and Sara made a sound of delight
Copper felt her useless wand in her back pocket and ground her teeth. She would do this using hand magic. She had to do it.
Keeping her weight off her right leg, while trying to ignore the screaming pain, she mentally prepared herself for the spell. She raised her hands, palms facing the door, and began to chant the spell she’d practiced all day when she’d jogged the length of the three-mile-long park and back.
“Goddess, hear our words, our plea.
In this time out of time,
In this place out of place.
Goddess, we raise our hands to thee.
In this dark beyond darkness.
In this world beyond worlds.
We await your grace.
We await your power.
We stand at the threshold.
Goddess, please protect your children.
And banish evil to the Underworld realm.”
A faint golden glow emanated from her palms, but that was it.
Copper’s whole body tensed. She focused. Repeated the spell louder this time, certain she wouldn’t be heard above the sounds the beasts were making.
Only a brighter glow came from her fingertips and no more.
She ground her teet
h harder.
This time she took all the pain in her body, all the rage, all the frustration, and poured it into her gray witchcraft.
Dark gray magic filled her so powerfully that her vision turned almost black. She could feel the darkness of sorcery calling to her…calling to her. Her body shook and her mind filled with black thoughts.
She could control all the beings that would escape through the door. She could rule. She could make everyone who had hurt her family, killed her mother, pay. She would use dark sorcery for good, and all that was evil would answer to her.
Intense pain filled Copper as shock slammed into her like ice water.
No. No. No! How could she even be thinking this way?
With everything she had, she jerked herself away from the dark.
How could I have taken gray magic so lightly? I risked my soul, my life—risked everyone’s life so arrogantly, like it would never cost me and those I love.
It came to her, in that flash of time, that no matter what, she wouldn’t have been able to save her childhood friend, Trista. And at such a young age, she might have lost herself to the dark.
Copper shoved away the gray and chanted the spell louder yet, using only white magic. Safe, pure white magic was all she needed to close that door.
Just a second before she finished the chant, the door opened another crack and beasts began to pour through the opening.
Copper could hardly breathe and could barely continue the chant.
Sara broke away from Junga and Darkwolf to stand in front of them, just a few feet from the doorway.
She spread her arms wide.
A brilliant red glow suffused her body, followed by what looked like black fog.
Shock registered on Darkwolf’s face as his gaze swung to Junga, and Junga roared.
Copper’s terror magnified the spell as she yelled the last lines of the chant.
Brilliant golden light poured from her body.
Shot across the room.
Rammed into the door.
Slammed it shut.
The crunch of stone crashing against stone rose above the snarls and shrieks of the Fomorii, Basilisks, and Hounds of Underworld that had escaped. Screams cut the air from two Fomorii smashed between the great stone door and doorway as they tried to squirm free.
“No!” Darkwolf shouted and whirled to face Copper. The red light in the cavern had dimmed, but she could see rage twisting the warlock’s features. The red of his gaze matched the unholy red of the eye at his chest.
But Copper’s gaze was torn from him to Sara.
When Sara turned, her eyes blazed even redder than Darkwolf’s. Her hair looked like living fire, flickering red, orange, yellow.
She was the fire-haired being from Copper’s dream.
And Sara’s clothing—it was as if the being that possessed her changed everything about her, down to the black leather she now wore.
Sara spread her arms and bent her back. Great wings sprang from her arms, anchored at the middle of her back—like bat wings. She gave a hiss and a cry louder than the roars and snarls in the cavern.
Copper’s attention whipped back to Darkwolf. The warlock raised his hands as Fomorii charged Copper.
Purple light shot across the room from Darkwolf toward Copper as Junga charged. At the same time, the Sara creature took to the air. Terror rode Copper and she tried to throw up a shield.
Her hand-magic didn’t work.
Just before Darkwolf’s spell slammed into her, a blue bubble of protection surrounded Copper. Her gaze cut to her sister who was on her knees, blue light flowing from her hands and forming the shield around them both.
Instead of rebounding Darkwolf’s magic, Silver’s shield absorbed his power, strengthening the protection around them. The bubble shimmered bluish-purple, and Copper knew Silver was using her gray magic to protect them.
In that instant she saw the struggle on her sister’s face, saw the connection between her and Darkwolf.
“No, Silver” Copper shouted. “Use white magic to battle him or he’ll pull you over the edge!”
Copper’s heart beat frantically as she channeled her energy through her hands. To her shock gold magic poured from her palms. Her magic joined with Silver’s blue and the purple, causing it to have an iridescent sparkle. Copper still felt shakiness in the bubble of protection as the Fomorii crashed against it.
With all her might, with all her focus, and with all the love she had for her sister, Copper thrust more energy from her body into the shield.
Golden bubbles began pouring from her body to join with the other magic. Gold bubbles that had appeared the times she and Tiernan had made love.
Love.
That soul-deep connection that she had with her sister, on another level she had with Tiernan.
She’d thought it was sex magic.
It had been love magic.
She shoved the thought from her mind and focused on the warlock and Sara. The now fire-haired being flew around the cavern like some great flaming bat, assessing the situation.
Who was more dangerous at that moment?
What had Sara become? What was she capable of?
Darkwolf’s nose was slightly crooked now from the punch Copper had dealt him earlier. Although it no longer bled, she couldn’t help a bit of satisfaction at the bloodstains left behind on his shirt. It was the perfect reminder. He wasn’t invincible.
Shock registered once again on his face when he glanced to where Sara now perched on a huge stone, her red eyes and hair blazing. She crouched, her feet on the rock, her hands between her knees as she gripped the edge of the boulder. It was surreal—like looking at a kind of comic-book gargoyle.
Even as she took everything in, Copper didn’t let up on her magic. To her surprise it didn’t drain her. If anything it made her feel almost omnipotent.
She no longer felt pain, no longer felt anything but the power of her witchcraft. She no longer had to hold up her hands—her strength radiated from her in waves and in the golden bubbles.
Silver rose to stand beside Copper. A healthy glow had risen in her cheeks, and dark circles no longer marred her eyes.
Copper stared at the countless Fomorii, the snarling red-eyed hounds, and the Basilisks that had slipped out of the door. Some vanished into the darkness, and others attempted to attack the shield surrounding Copper and Silver.
So many beings had escaped.
Vibrations traveled through her every time a demon slammed its body into the shield. Thank the goddess it held.
Junga slowly paced back and forth before the bubble, her eyes focused on Copper. Spittle dripped from the corner of the demon’s mouth, and Copper knew that the Fomorii queen waited for the opportunity to strike. If the shield fell, the demon would go for the kill.
“Now what?” Copper’s voice trembled as she tried to maintain her balance on her uninjured foot. Her gaze darted to the Sara being, still crouched and watching. “Goddess, what has Sara become?”
Silver’s eyes focused on Darkwolf’s as if she couldn’t break the connection.
“I don’t know what to do next,” she said. “There are too many of them for us to fight alone. And our magic—how long can we hold out?”
A tiny dot of anger buzzed past Silver and Copper.
Zephyr!
Battle cries rent the air.
Forms shot past the sisters. Copper caught the flap of wings, the glint of metal.
The D’Danann!
26
Rage filled Tiernan as he darted through the air. He tasted battle-lust and blood on his tongue. The stench of filth, of rotting things, and a sickly-sweet odor filled the air.
He charged the blue demon he knew to be Junga. He reached her and hovered within fighting range. She hadn’t noticed him.
With an angry slice of his blade, his sword connected with her shoulder. Blood spurted and the Fomorii queen shrieked. She swung her long arms up and swiped her claws at him, attempting to rip him from the air.
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Blood poured from the wound in her shoulder, but it was already healing. Only two ways made it possible to kill a Fomorii—rip their hearts out or behead them. Otherwise their bodies healed almost immediately.
Tiernan flapped his great wings and dodged the demon’s deadly iron-tipped claws. He prayed to the gods that none of the other Fomorii released from Underworld had coated their claws in iron like Junga and the Fomorii remaining on Earth.
He dodged and feinted as he attempted to gain position in order to behead the demon. She was too strong, too fast and her ape-like arms were too long. She was one of the most powerful and formidable Fomorii he had ever battled.
Tiernan darted up and out of Junga’s reach to give himself a chance to assess the situation. His gaze swept the cavern. With his heightened senses and keen vision, he quickly took in what was going on around him.
D’Danann battle cries filled the air along with the shrieks, roars, and snarls of the beasts they fought. The air was thick with the rank Fomorii odor of rotten fish, the Basilisks’ odor of feces, the filthy stench of the hounds of Underworld, and the smell of bloodlust.
The creatures released from Underworld far outnumbered the thirteen Tuatha D’Danann warriors.
But the warriors were better trained in the art of battle. Thus far not one of the D’Danann had succumbed to any of the beasts they fought.
A couple of the Fomorii had been beheaded, each body turning into silt the moment a warrior sheared off its head. A Basilisk and one of the red-eyed Hounds of Underworld had been destroyed, as well.
Although the D’Danann remained relatively unscathed, Tiernan saw one of the hounds rip open Urien’s leg with its tremendous jaws. Urien seemed oblivious to any pain, flapped his wings, rose, and dove into the fray once again.
Hawk touched down in front of Darkwolf and sliced his sword through the air, straight at the warlock’s neck.
Darkwolf barely had time to throw a shield around himself.
Instead of connecting with flesh, Hawk’s blade rebounded off the protective shield, just as it had happened during the battle of Samhain. Hawk stumbled back.
The Seduced Page 30