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 queen Fomorii was just waiting for the opportunity to strike. If the shield fell, the demon was going for the kill.
“Now what?” Copper said, her voice trembling. Her eyes darted to where the Sara being crouched. “Goddess, what has Sara become?”
Silver’s eyes were 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!
Twenty-six
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 that he knew to be Junga. He reached her and hovered over her within fighting range. With an angry slice of his blade, his sword connected with her shoulder. Blood spurted and the queen Fomorii shrieked. She swung her long arms up and swiped her claws at him, attempting to rip him from the air.
Blood poured from the wound in her shoulder, but it was already healing. There were only two ways 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 already in Copper’s world.
He dodged and feinted as he attempted to gain position in order to behead the demon. She was too strong, too fast, and her apelike 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 thirteen Tuatha D’Danann warriors were outnumbered by the creatures that had been released from Underworld, but they were better trained at the art of battle. Thus far not one of the D’Danann had succumbed to any of the beasts they were fighting. Already a couple of the Fomorii had been beheaded, their bodies turning into silt the moment their heads were sheared off. 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 up, then dived into the fray once again.
Darkwolf barely had time to throw a shield up around himself before Hawk touched down and arced his sword through the air straight at the warlock’s neck. Instead of connecting with flesh his blade rebounded off the protective shield, just as it had happened during the battle of Samhain. Hawk stumbled back.
“That is getting old,” Hawk grumbled and barely regained his footing before he was forced to face one of the Fomorii, a red beast with at least six arms.
Keir tore into the fray with the roar of a madman. His dark eyes were like a falcon’s as he ripped through one Fomorii after another.
That fiery-headed woman-creature watching the scene from the rock—it was as if the being were waiting for something. Waiting to attack?
Tiernan darted back to Junga, his sword high. As he prepared to swing, a one-eyed purple demon joined the queen, and Tiernan was now fighting two beasts. Sweat poured down his face and his veins roared with the lust for battle.
As he took the two demons on, he was thankful Copper and Silver were behind a protective shield.
He glanced their way. His heart nearly stopped and he almost faltered when he saw their shield vanish.
The two witches began to fight the demons with their magic.
From behind the shield, Copper and Silver looked at one another as the battle raged. As one they nodded, raised their hands, and faced the demons.
They dropped the shield.
Immediately, blue ropes of power whipped from Silver’s fingers to wrap around a red demon charging Hawk. She jerked the demon off its hind feet. Hawk took the opportunity to slice the beast’s head from its shoulders. The demon’s head and body turned to silt. Silver wasted no time in snaking her witchcraft around another demon.
Copper had a hard time keeping her balance on one foot, but she was intensely focused on her witchcraft. Her confidence had risen and she knew she could perform hand magic with the strength of her belief and the power that had grown within her.
Between her palms she instinctively gathered some of the golden bubbles that floated from her body and formed them into a large ball. Winding her arm, she prepared to use her best softball pitch. She released the spellfire ball. It bulleted toward one of the two demons attacking Tiernan and struck one of them. The purple demon’s head burst into fire. With the skill of the finest swordsman, Tiernan beheaded it.
The stench of burning flesh joined the malodor of rotten fish. Copper tasted blood in her mouth and realized she was biting the inside of her cheek.
No sooner had she released the first pitch than she flung another one, this time straight at the demon queen.
Junga saw it coming. She leaped through the air, the spellfire barely grazing her back.
Flapping his wings, Tiernan started to go after her, but was waylaid by a great Basilisk that rose up between them.
The Basilisk looked like a giant snake, but the thing had a fan of bone and skin that was like a crown at the back of its head. It was so damned tall—at least two times the height of one of the D’Danann, and as thick around as the circle of runes that Copper still stood in the middle of.
Tiernan’s sword bounced off the Basilisk’s armorlike scales. Copper’s heart pounded when she saw the green poison dripping from the beast’s fangs as it gnashed them at Tiernan. Copper didn’t know if the poison was deadly to the Fae, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
Nearly without thought, she had another ball of spellfire in her hands. Gray magic threatened to consume her. She couldn’t let the beast hurt Tiernan!
At the same time she couldn’t let the gray magic turn her to the dark. How could she have so carelessly used gray in the past? How could she have been so cocky? She needed to be more careful. To not use it so blindly.
With all the white magic she could muster, and keeping a tight rein on her gray witchcraft, she pitched the spellfire straight at the Basilisk’s mouth.
A tremendous flash blinded the beast, giving Tiernan the opportunity to lop off the Basilisk’s head.
That was the second time she’d saved Tiernan’s ass. But who was counting?
A green demon roared and leaped at her, diverting her attention. The Fomorii’s several eyes flashed with the red glow in the cavern. Shit. She pitched a spellfire ball at it, but this one bounced off.
The demon was close now. Too close. Still she drew back to pitch—
A blade sliced the demon’s head from its body. As the Fomorii fell to the cavern floor in a pile of silt, she saw Tiernan standing on the other side of it, his blade covered in blood. Their eyes met for just a fraction of time before they turned back to the battle.
Copper pitched again and again. Her magic slammed into two hounds of the Underworld, and she saw Zephyr attacking the hounds, as well. They howled at her magic and his powerful stings. The beasts snapped their jaws at him, but he ea
sily dodged their mouths and stung them again on their faces, their eyelids, their snouts. He traveled from one to the other like a tiny whirlwind. The hounds howled continuously and rubbed at their heads with their paws. They were distracted just enough that two of the D’Danann were able to kill them with ease.
With two more pitches, Copper brought down another Fomorii that was immediately beheaded by a D’Danann warrior.
She whirled to fight another demon and came nearly face to snout with Junga. The demon lunged at Copper. She dropped, rolled, and screamed as she wrenched her ankle again and the pain caused stars to burst behind her eyes.
Copper didn’t let the agony slow her down. She continued to roll away from Junga at the same time she gathered a spellfire ball in her hands. Her heart slammed against her breastbone as the demon leaped into the air.
She wasn’t going to have enough space to throw the spellfire ball. Her magic would consume them both. She’d be damned if she’d die without taking the demon out. Resolution filled her and she held the ball in front of her . . . prepared to die.
Just as the queen demon made her descent over Copper, an arrow caught Junga in the shoulder. The impact and resulting explosion was so powerful it flung the demon away in mid-leap. She slammed into a stalagmite.
Instantly Copper recognized the shaft. A Drow arrow!
In the next moment she was yanked to her feet by a strong hand. Again she almost passed out from the pain of the pressure on her ankle. Before she had time to process the pain or the hand on her arm, she was flung over a great naked shoulder. Whoever had her had the bluish-gray skin of the Dark Elves.
In no time the Drow warrior deposited Copper on her backside off to the side of the battle. Her gaze shot to her protector. Garran!
She tried to push herself to her feet, but he put his hand on her shoulder and forced her back down. He gave her an intense look. “I never meant to jeopardize your life, Copper.” His features were grim. “This evil—we thought only to release Balor to allow the Drow to walk in daylight once again. Not this. We never wanted to free such creatures.”
His long silvery-blue hair was wild about his shoulders and his gem-studded metal and leather straps that crisscrossed his broad bare chest glinted in what red light was now in the cavern. He turned away from her and faced Junga.
She saw that the other Drow had joined in the melee against the beasts. Drow arrows were piercing demon flesh, the diamond heads exploding. Where the arrows ripped the flesh apart, the wound immediately healed in the Fomorii—unless it reached the demon’s heart, and the arrowhead exploded within that pulsating organ, killing the demon.
The Sara-creature scowled and began pacing back and forth, glancing at the closed door with fury on her features. Drow arrows exploded in the air around her, not a single one reaching her flesh. The D’Danann who tried to attack her simply rebounded backward as if the being were shielded.
Copper took this all in within a moment. Much of what she realized came from her witch’s intuition.
When her attention snapped back to Garran, his jaw was clenched as he turned, nocked another arrow in his bow, and aimed it at Junga.
The demon leaped into the air again, this time directly for Garran. Standing firm, no emotion on his face, he shot his arrow straight toward her chest. Junga twisted her body while in flight. The arrow entered the flesh beneath her forearm and blood splattered as the tip exploded in her flesh.
But it had missed her heart.
Junga pounced on Garran.
Slammed him to the floor.
His head struck with such power that Copper heard a crack. His head fell to the side.
Junga raised her claws to dig into his flesh.
A Drow arrow exploded in her hip.
Naal! Garran’s brother was behind Junga.
Junga screamed and toppled off Garran. She was to her feet in a fraction of a moment.
She whirled on Naal and flung him to the cavern floor, his head hitting a huge cone of stalagmite. Before Naal could react, Junga raised her powerful arm.
Dug her claws into his chest.
Ripped his heart out.
And ate it as it still pulsed in her claws.
Naal’s body disappeared like sparkles of obsidian.
Horror widened Copper’s eyes and she screamed, “Nooo!” Such fury raged through her, hot and molten, that she gathered the biggest spellfire ball yet. She poured all the magic she could into that ball without tipping too close to the dark, wound her arm, and flung it at the demon.
From her position on the floor she wasn’t able to pitch accurately. The spellfire hit Junga on her side, but it was powerful enough to knock her a good twenty feet away from where Naal had died. The demon slammed into a large stalagmite. This one cracked and a huge chunk of it fell onto Junga, striking her temple.
Junga shook her head as she rose and stumbled as if dizzy.
Copper pushed herself up and balanced on her left foot. She readied another ball of spellfire, but the demon glanced away from Copper, toward the battle. With one more look of demon hatred at Copper, Junga leaped toward Darkwolf.
Twenty-seven
Intent on retrieving his prize, the witch who belonged to him, Darkwolf dropped his shield a second after Silver and Copper released theirs. The pain in his broken nose was forgotten as he focused on Silver. Despite the smell of blood, Fomorii, and other stenches, he could swear he caught Silver’s sweet lily scent.
Her power snaked around a demon and she saved her lover, and then she wrapped another Fomorii with her power.
Her lover. Darkwolf ground his teeth so hard his jaw hurt. By Balor, how Darkwolf wanted to destroy the D’Danann bastard.
As she battled, Darkwolf had no doubt Silver’s consciousness was partly focused on him. He reveled in the fact she had to keep giving a part of her attention to him, even if it was to keep her guard up. She knew what he could do to her.
He glanced to the being that had once been Sara. The creature watched. Waited. Then its flaming red eyes met Darkwolf’s and fear slammed into his chest as the eye hanging around his neck told him who or what the being was. The pain in his head was so intense he almost dropped to his knees.
The being was Ceithlenn. Balor’s wife.
No more were Ceithlenn or Sara simply seers, they had united, joined with some evil essence from Underworld, and had become something fierce. Dangerous. Deadly.
Just how dangerous and deadly? And to whom?
One thing he was certain of, one thing he felt in waves from across the room—Ceithlenn was furious that Balor’s body and soul had not been released from Underworld.
But the battle was going awry. He would have to leave the demons to fend for themselves. The Ceithlenn-Sara creature remained untouched by Drow arrow, witches’ magic, or D’Danann talons.
When he ripped his gaze away from Ceithlenn’s, he focused on his target.
He would have Silver for his own.
For the moment, not harried by any of the D’Danann or the Drow traitors who had joined against him, Darkwolf stalked Silver, who was a good fifty feet away. He raised his hands. The power of Balor filled him as he prepared to destroy all that stood in his way.
Silver whirled to face him. Her features were a mask of hatred. No fear whatsoever.
Jaw clenched, she gathered a huge ball of spellfire and flung it at him.
He waved his hand, casually causing the ball to flick to the side. It bounded toward a stalagmite. The cone of minerals exploded on contact.
Shock flickered across Silver’s face, immediately replaced by determination.
Junga bounded toward Darkwolf, drool and blood dripping from her fangs.
“Prepare for transference!” he commanded Junga as she joined him.
Just as Junga transformed into Elizabeth’s shell, a ball of Copper’s golden spellfire came straight for Junga.
“You bitch!” Copper shouted as she flung the spellfire.
The demon-woman dodged, but the magic g
razed her cheek, cutting her open like a knife. With a scream she dropped to her knees.
Copper gathered another ball of spellfire, but held up when Silver shouted something Darkwolf couldn’t hear.
Darkwolf readied his ropes of magic to once more bind Silver so that he could use the power of transference to take her away with him, when instead she stunned him into a momentary stupor.
She flung up a bluish-purple net of power.
A net.
It looked like a fisherman’s net, thick strands crisscrossing one another like a checkerboard. He barely had time to throw up a shield of protection around Junga and himself before the net encompassed the shield.
He and Junga were trapped.
If he released his shield, they would be covered by the net. Captured by a witch’s inferior power.
Darkwolf growled, the sound pouring from his chest like one of the demons. He had no options left. Not this time. He glanced at Junga, who was on her knees. She held her hand to her bloody human cheek. His own broken nose ached and blood began pouring down his face again.
Darkwolf grabbed Junga’s upper arm and prepared himself for transference as he said, “Balor bahamenor.”
The last thing he saw was the glow of Ceithlenn’s narrowed eyes.
Twenty-eight
Copper’s heart ached at Naal’s death, and fury rocked her as Junga and Darkwolf disappeared.
As soon as they vanished, she hobbled back to where Garran lay still. Her heart stuttered until she saw him move and groan. The bloodied warrior shook his head, then seemed to come to his senses. With a shout he pushed himself to his feet at the same time he grasped his bow from the cavern floor.
Relief poured through Copper. She started to turn back to the battle.
“Stop!” A tremendous voice boomed through the cavern loud enough to cut through the growls, shrieks, and shouts. The voice shook the room so that rocks and chunks of stalactites rained from the ceiling. Copper whipped her head in the direction of the red-eyed, bat-winged, fire-haired being where it had been perched or pacing during the entire battle. “I am Ceithlenn, wife and soul of Balor. When the time comes, you will all be extinguished.”
Seduced by Magic Page 32