“No.” Chara stood in front of Marek, gripped his arms, and met his eyes. “We have to wait for the others, or all will be lost. If you try to do this on your own, darkness wins, and you lose your soul.” Never so frightened for him, her vision hazed red, and her dragon spoke through her. “Do you hear me, dragon mate. We have to work together, or your kin will perish, and we'll be separated for all eternity.”
Would this work? Was she getting through to him?
Thankfully, though it took longer than she would've liked, it seemed she was, because when he growled again, it was clearly at the darkness trying to overtake him. Darkness that soon lost the battle when his eyes returned to normal, and he nodded all was well.
He would wait.
“We’re coming,” Julie said into her mind. “Darkness is pursuing, but we’re on our way back to you with David.”
Glad to hear it, she took up arms beside Marek. Meanwhile, black, murky power seemed to grow around Destiny while Leviathan edged closer.
The goddess threw back her head and laughed when robed monks appeared out of thin air and attacked. Marek remained close to Chara as lightning crackled over his blade, and he cut down two at once. She sliced at another, ducking beneath his blade before she flung her ring hand in the air, chanted, and he went flying.
“I cannae shift,” Marek said into her mind. “Can you?”
She tried but couldn’t either. “No. Why do you think that is?”
“Because it’s not time yet,” Julie said into their minds. “There’s one last fiery ley-line shining, and I think it’s stopping you for some reason. At least until we’re all together.”
Chara did her best to fill everyone in telepathically about what Destiny had revealed, but she wasn’t sure her words got through. There was too much darkness and mayhem. Fighting and confusion.
Destiny swung down from her horse before she and Leviathan circled each other, bracing to attack. The Ancient was so enraged his eyes sizzled with fire, and steam poured off him. An eerie sight when combined with the soupy blackness twisting off the goddess. More so, her father, who seemed to have an impregnable hold on her.
Meanwhile, Marek crossed blades with three monks at once, slashing them down only for more and more to rush him. Chara did her best to help, having more luck with magic than her blade. Eventually, it wasn’t just monks but an endless stream of possessed Scotsmen. It seemed for every one they killed, two more popped up. Like a ceaseless game of evil whack-a-mole.
Fortunately, everyone else arrived and joined in the fray, doing their best to protect King David while they fought. Though Chara wished he wasn't here, she realized this was probably the safest place for him. For the sheer power coming at them would have found the king, no matter where he was. At least this way, they stood half a chance of protecting him.
“Watch out!” Marek ran a blade through a man who had snuck up behind her.
“You too!” She thrust out her hand and flung away a monk who almost got to him.
Ethyn intercepted a dagger before it hit Marek and Ciara downed a monk who nearly got a hold of Chara.
“How are we supposed to defeat these things?” Madison exclaimed as she and Cray joined them, fighting all the while. “There’s no end to them, and we can’t shift!”
“Not yet,” Chara replied. “But I have a feeling that might change.”
Or so she hoped because things only seemed to be getting worse by the moment.
As high as the eye could see, a massive tornado of darkness swirled around the lot of them, and Leviathan had yet to do as Destiny asked. Not to say Chara wanted him to. Hoped he didn’t. But what if that was the only way? What if that’s how Destiny had designed it?
Because one way or another, or so she prayed, this was all part of Destiny’s grand design.
“’Tis colored now,” Tiernan exclaimed in their minds. “The stone in the center of my tattoo is colored, and the whole thing...”
He trailed off as the tattoo left his arm and began rising and spinning, a myriad of colors in the darkness. Every gem’s color, every gem’s magic.
“Holy...” Chara whispered as everyone’s rings ignited in answer.
Though monks and possessed Scotsmen kept coming at them, they slowed down as everything began changing. Suddenly, Chara’s gem flared so brightly, it blinded all before everyone shifted to another location.
They weren’t in Scotland anymore but at the Irish Stonehenge.
As the compass kept turning overhead, so too did the stones. It almost felt like they stood inside a great safe being unlocked. Different eras came and went. Ethereal moments sped by. Moments marked by all five important stones in the circle.
First, when Chara’s little unicorn met Marek.
Then the moment Cray and Madison’s young dragons first looked around their stone and locked eyes.
When Ciara's Woodland Druidess met Ethyn's Fianna.
The moment Chloe’s fairy first sat beside Aidan.
Everything slowed when Julie’s Claddagh ring appeared on the stone that connected her to Tiernan, then stopped altogether when she picked it up.
Though the twister of darkness still raged, it became more transparent, struggling against the trap that had been sprung both from within and without. After all, robed Guardian Witches had appeared in a circle around the stones, as had Goddess Étaín, who had her arms flung up in the air. All chanted, harnessing the added power of the solstice, as the sun edged toward the horizon beyond the swirling darkness.
They weren’t just harnessing but freeing the power of the five stones at just the right time.
Up against an enemy they’d sorely underestimated, darkness flailed as all but Destiny and Leviathan finally embraced their dragons. Between wizard and dragon fire going every which way, Chara panicked for King David only to catch sight of something amazing.
“It’s her,” Chara said, tearing up at the sight of the ethereal unicorn protecting the king. “It was never my ghost from another life but my mother’s ghost.”
Though she never said a word, when her mother’s eyes met hers, she knew everything was going to be all right. That Scotland was going to be all right.
At such a great cost, though.
For, with every great beginning comes an equally epic end.
Cries of anguish rent the air as they continued fighting a darkness that dwindled down more by the moment. With it, the monks and possessed Scotsmen were defeated until nothing remained but darkness around Destiny and Leviathan as they battled. More specifically, Leviathan and the God of Death, who was furious, his black aura fiery and sparking. Based on the way Destiny staggered, he was weakening too. How could he not with so much good magic around him? So much love?
The sun was close to hitting the horizon.
Weapons at the ready, dragons shifted back, and everyone formed a circle around them while the Guardian Witches and Étaín chanted. An odd sensation washed over Chara as Destiny and Leviathan continued fighting. If she wasn’t mistaken, the Viking bided his time. Waited for something.
“My offspring really did choose poorly giving ye that dagger,” Donn Fírinne mocked. His voice sounded more off than usual as he staggered again and scowled.
The sun sank lower still.
“What is it?” Leviathan mocked right back, stalking Destiny when she staggered back until she hit the sacrificial stone. “Not feeling quite right anymore?”
The god blinked, confused by his weakening state, before his gaze narrowed on the Claddagh ring Destiny wore. A ring with a gem that shone the same color as Chara’s but burned like fire.
The chanting increased.
The sun continued sinking.
“What did ye do, daughter?” the god rasped, glaring at the ring before his eyes shot to Leviathan’s dagger. Better yet, Destiny's dagger. He fell back, clearly unable to hold himself up.
The god’s voice changed, and Destiny got through. “It’s time, Viking. Don’t let me down.”
“Oh m
y God,” Chara whispered, blinking back tears. She’d been right about Destiny’s endgame, hadn’t she? “What did you do, Destiny?”
She started forward, but Marek held her back when Leviathan leaned over the goddess on the sacrificial rock and held the tip of the dagger to her heart. An awful sandpaper-like screeching came from the darkness around Destiny, but she stayed strong. Her gaze never left Leviathan’s face.
“Do it now,” she managed, struggling to keep her father contained.
The chanting grew louder, the sun seconds from hitting the horizon.
Yet Leviathan hesitated, stalled, fighting some inner battle as his eyes stayed with hers. He white-knuckled the hilt as if ready to do it, then hesitated again, frustrated.
“He can’t do it,” Chara whispered. Tears rolled down her cheeks at the sight of her friend lying there prone. Willing to die for everyone. “He can’t kill her.”
“Do it,” Destiny roared. Though clearly weakened, she gripped her hand around his on the hilt. “I can’t do it alone, and we’re out of time.” She pleaded with her eyes and managed one last weak roar as the sun hit the horizon and shot through Bull Rock. “Now, Leviathan!”
Would he do it? Could he in the end?
Moments later, they found out.
Chapter Thirty-One
MAREK KEPT CHARA close and held the Viking blade at the ready when everything unraveled in violence. Leviathan clenched his jaw in resolution and, at last, slid the blade into Destiny’s heart only for the two of them to burst into flames.
Nothing but a black mass of hatred, the God of Death roared with anger and shot up out of her. When he did, time sped up, and sunset became sunrise. The light shining through Bull Rock became not what he used to cast his dark spell but the Guardian Witches’ solstice light.
What the god thought would ultimately be the MacLomain’s end was instead the foiling of his own dark deed and his own banishment. One that, in combination with the power of the rings and his severely weakened state, made him roar in pain and denial.
Though he struggled to hang on, too much came at him. Not just the rings, but based on the piece of rock warming in her pocket, the power of the sacrificial table in its entirety, including the piece in New Hampshire and the Stone of Destiny. Add the Viking blade's lightning and the ungodly flames burning off of Leviathan and Destiny, and the god didn’t stand a chance.
Finally, at his brink, unable to take any more, the God of Death released one last roar of defiance, and vanished in a whip of smoke, vanquished back to whence he came.
“Destiny,” Chara cried, still held back by Marek. “This can’t be how it ends.”
Almost as if her very words—those said by her little unicorn then in a dream—triggered it, the flames died, leaving Destiny and Leviathan whole and unscathed. Steam rose off them, curling and twisting on the morning sunrays. Destiny remained unmoving as though dead and Leviathan braced on the rock with his head bent over her.
Thankfully, the dagger was in his hand rather than lodged in her chest.
“Thank you,” Julie whispered as Étaín and her Guardian Witches faded with the rising sun.
“It is done,” Grant said softly, appearing whole in this place of in-betweens. His tender gaze went to Destiny with thanks. “The final sacrifice has been made. One of five total needed to offset the power of the unicorn’s sacrifice.” His eyes rose to everyone. “Though the God of Death will always be, his power over this place and the MacLomains is finished as are his minions and descendants, the Brotherhood.”
Adlin appeared moments later and looked at Grant with understanding.
It seemed both already realized the entirety of what had happened here.
“Why was Destiny the sacrifice?” Chara sobbed, heading for her friend when Marek finally let her go. “I don’t understand.”
“Because this is what she chose,” Leviathan rumbled, finally lifting his head, miserable but clearly proud. “This is what she was willing to do to make up for all the harm she caused.”
“But it wasn’t harm.” Chara sat on the rock and took Destiny’s limp hand. “It was...” She paused and narrowed her eyes. “Is she so warm because of the flames or...”
Her words died off when Destiny’s eyes fluttered open, and she looked at Chara.
Chara’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Oh my God, you’re alive!”
Destiny blinked and peered at her in confusion. “Who are you?” She sat up and looked around at everyone, discombobulated. “Where am I?”
“You’re just a wee bit lost, lass.” Grant smiled and held out his hand to her. “You were just heading to your new home. Let me get you there safely, aye?”
Her gaze flickered nervously from Leviathan to Grant. “My new home?”
“Aye, you just bought it.” He wiggled his fingers that she take his hand. “’Tis a beautiful chalet in Winter Harbor, Maine.” He looked at her curiously. “Surely, you remember?”
She thought about it for a moment before she nodded slowly. “I think I do, actually.”
“Good then.” He smiled more widely. “Off we go then so you can start anew, aye?”
“I really do need to start over, don’t I?” Destiny whispered, taking his hand. “Do you know who I am?” She shook her head. “I can’t seem to remember.”
“Your name is Destiny,” Chara managed, seeming to understand that this wasn’t going to be a normal goodbye. Not for any of them. Destiny was too out of it. Too...different.
Chara wiped away her tears, and visibly pulled herself together before she took her friend’s shoulders and met her eyes. “Your name is Destiny, and you’re truly the best friend anybody could hope for.” She embraced her tightly before pulling back and tearing up once more. “Thank you so much for everything. I’ll never forget you.” Before Destiny had a chance to respond with confusion, Chara gestured to Grant. “Now, it’s time for you to go enjoy your new home and finally relax.”
“That doesn’t sound bad,” Destiny murmured, issuing a little yawn. “I feel like I need it.”
“Aye, lass, and ‘tis well deserved.” Grant smiled. “Are you ready, then?”
“I think so.” She took his hand again but stopped next to Leviathan in passing, frowning in renewed confusion. “Do I know you?”
His gaze lingered on her face for a moment before he clenched his jaw and shook his head. “No, you don’t know me, Destiny.”
Her brows pulled together. “Are you sure?”
He hesitated a moment before he nodded. “I’m sure.”
Destiny stared at him a few seconds longer before she nodded okay and followed Grant. While she offered a kind smile of hello and goodbye to the women, she didn’t stop but continued on her journey.
Like those before her, Destiny never looked back but faded into the sunrise with Grant.
Though her friends were sad to see her go, they were also happy for her. Obviously, something had changed about the goddess, and she no longer remembered them, but at least she was still alive. More than that, it appeared she finally had her own life to live rather than overseeing everyone else’s.
“What happened?” King David said softly, wide-eyed as the Stonehenge faded, and they returned to Scotland. This time they stood on the shores of Argyll with a ship waiting. David blinked in confusion. “All I remember is being with Phelan and the unicorn.”
There was no sign of Adlin to give them much needed answers, but Marek imagined they’d see him again soon enough.
“This is it, isn’t it?” Chara said into Marek’s mind. “This is the final goodbye in more ways than one?”
“I believe so, lass.”
By the looks of it, the ship was bound for France. David’s men were going about their business loading what meager belongings they had as though their king had never been missing.
But then that was the way of magic.
A little girl who had to be King David's wife, Joan of England, waited aboard, peering down at him curiously.
; “We have arrived safely.” Tiernan crouched in front of King David and rested his hand on his shoulder. “Now ‘tis time for ye to start anew, my king. For ye must go to France then return one day to rule our beloved Scotland once more.”
“Ye are not coming any further, aye?” David blinked back tears, trying to stay strong. “This is where we say goodbye?”
“I’m afraid so.” Julie placed her hand on David’s other shoulder and smiled through her own tears. “It’s been an honor serving you, King David.”
“Thank ye for...” David cleared his throat and tried to remain dignified. “Thank ye for everything ye’ve done for me.” He stood up a little straighter and ignored the tear trickling down his cheek when he looked at everyone. “And thank ye for defending Scotland so well. Ye would have made my da proud...ye made me proud.”
“As did ye us, King David,” Aidan said. “Ye will always be our true king.”
Everyone echoed their agreement then said their individual goodbyes.
“Ye have my undying thanks, unicorn dragon,” David said when Chara crouched in front of him. He glanced from the little girl on the ship back to her. “Whilst ‘tis probably best I dinnae take ye as a mistress, after all, ye're always welcome to come visit.”
She smiled and embraced David only for him to whisper words in her ear Marek caught. Words referring to the unicorn that had appeared mid-battle to protect him.
“Yer mother says she loves ye and that she’s verra proud of ye.”
“Thank you for letting me know.” Chara wiped away a tear. “I’m glad she was there for you.”
“I will never forget any of ye.” King David looked at them with his heart in his eyes, then smiled when Phelan jumped up on Ciara and Ethyn. “Neither of us will.”
“Take care, my king,” Tiernan said one last time, remaining vague for the sake of time travel. “Mayhap one day ye will stop by MacLomain Castle and say hello, aye?”
“Aye.” David smiled. “I would like that.”
“I’m going to miss him,” Julie murmured as David, at last, waved goodbye and boarded, Phelan bouncing along beside him. “More than I thought possible.”
A Scot's Retribution (The MacLomain Series: End of an Era Book 5) Page 20