Rhiannon took a step toward Janis. “What exactly are you saying?”
The High Priestess raised her chin. “I can only tell you of my vision. I can only warn you. I cannot and will not ask anything of you.”
“Because we use gray magic.” Copper pushed her way past Rhiannon and Keir into the common room, obviously having just come in from the outside. Her walking cast thumped as she moved forward to confront the High Priestess.
Janis’s eyes widened. “Copper?”
“Alive and kicking.” Copper looked down at her ankle cast. “More or less.”
“You were missing so long,” Janis said, a shocked expression still on her face.
“Took gray magic to get me out of the mess.” Copper narrowed her eyes. “And then I get back to learn you kicked my sister out of the Coven.”
Janis straightened and her expression became steely again. “As I expressed, I came only to share this vision with you.” Her robes swished as she turned and walked past Rhiannon and Copper. When her gaze landed on Keir she narrowed her eyes. “D’Danann.”
“One who helped save your ass on Samhain, from what I was told,” Rhiannon said.
Janis raised her chin and swept out the common room door and out of their sight.
“Whoa.” Sydney looked at her Coven sisters. “I can’t believe Janis told us about her vision.”
“She did come to me not long before Copper made her way back home,” Silver said. “Only Janis didn’t make any dire predictions.”
“I remember you telling me about that.” Copper took an audible breath. “So just how deep are we?”
“I’d say pretty deep.” Rhiannon moved from the doorway to drop her duffel on a couch. She plopped down beside it. “The Chieftains said no. They won’t send any more help.”
The witches stared at Rhiannon.
Galia’s little face twisted with fury. “Those idiots!” She stood on Spirit’s back. But then a puzzled expression replaced the anger. “I will be back,” she said before she zipped out of the room in a poof of pink dust.
“What are we going to do?” Alyssa asked in a trembling voice.
Rhiannon clenched her hands on her thighs. “The best we can, and it’s going to have to be enough to get the job done.”
At this moment she couldn’t talk about her heritage. It was too raw, and still difficult for her to believe. Maybe she and Keir would seek help from the Mystwalkers as the Great Guardian suggested. But Rhiannon didn’t want to go near the Dark Elves.
She squeezed her hands into tighter fists. She had to set those thoughts aside and concentrate on the here and now.
A pink flash startled her. Galia came to a stop right in front of the witches and Keir.
The Faerie wrung her little hands. “It happened.” More pink Faerie dust and the scent of lilacs poofed from her wings. “I went outside and heard Jake talking to the other officers and D’Danann.”
“What’s going on?” Rhiannon’s brows pinched with confusion.
Galia turned to Rhiannon, her long blonde hair flying over her shoulders. “Ceithlenn struck again.”
A collective gasp went around the room. Rhiannon’s blood chilled and she gripped the arm of the couch with one hand.
“Explain,” Keir said in a harsh tone.
The Faerie looked a little green. “A whole theater filled with people. Jake said they are all wrinkled up, except for a few who were eaten.”
Nausea swept through Rhiannon’s belly as her thoughts returned to her vision where she had been inside the goddess and had felt and tasted everything C—the goddess had.
Keir tossed his pack on a couch as he looked at Galia. “Where?”
“Someplace called the Grand Theater.”
“By the Ancestors,” Silver said as Rhiannon got to her feet again. “That place is huge.”
Galia wrung her hands so tight they were pale. “They are afraid she has gained much power from this.”
Keir jerked the long black coat more snugly over his weapons in order to conceal them better. He was still wearing his leathers and sword since they’d just returned from Otherworld, and had worn the coat to cover them. He turned to Rhiannon. “Can you tell me where this theater is?”
“I’ll show you.” She held up her hand when he scowled. Before he had a chance to say anything, she stated, “I’m not staying behind.”
For a moment it looked like she was going to get his usual argument, but he gave her a sharp nod. “Come.”
“Can I?” Galia asked.
“No.” Keir tossed a glance over his shoulder. “This will be no place for a Faerie.”
Behind her, Rhiannon heard the other witches chatting and making their own plans to hurry to the theater.
Rhiannon had to jog to keep up with Keir’s long strides as he exited the apartment building. “I forgot my keys,” she said.
“We do not need your car. It would take too long.” He grabbed her around the waist with both hands. “Hold me. Tight.” Keir unfurled beautiful black wings and Rhiannon gasped. She’d never seen his wings. Even when they went to Otherworld he hadn’t flown.
He spread his wings like a great eagle. Before she had time to think, he pumped them and they were airborne.
She cried out in surprise and fear as she threw her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his hips. Her stomach lurched and her breath wouldn’t come easily to her. Wind rushed past her face and made her hair stand on end. They were flying in the fog and everything was gray.
Her voice trembled and she did her best not to look down. “I didn’t even have time to pull a glamour.”
“We cannot be seen.” His powerful wings moved with incredible grace for such a harsh man. “So long as I hold you, my cloak will envelop you as well.”
Rhiannon thought about how Superman flew with Lois Lane over the city and how Lois had enjoyed the flight and the city at night. Well, it wasn’t night, Rhiannon wasn’t Lois Lane, and she wasn’t looking down.
“Where is it?” Keir asked.
Crap. So much for not looking down. She peeked over her shoulder, grew dizzy, and thought she might pass out from fear. She wrapped her body tighter around Keir’s.
“Farther. Head northwest.” She pressed her cheek to his chest and for some reason thought about what she’d learned of her birth parents.
“Keir,” she said above the rush of wind over her ears. “Finding out about my parents—it’s so confusing. And meeting my father—I can’t see myself learning more about that part of me.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Aye. It will be difficult for me as well to meet my mother and her people.” He held her impossibly tighter. “We will face this together.”
Rhiannon shook her head. “I can’t believe we’re on our way to a horrible tragedy and I’m thinking about all of this.”
“It is difficult not to.” He began to descend. “Are we close now?”
She looked over her shoulder and again thought she was going to lose her lunch. “There. By that hotel with the red awnings. The place with the huge crowd of people in front of it.” She immediately put her face against his black shirt again. She was going to throw up if they didn’t get on the ground soon.
When Keir landed, he had to pry Rhiannon away from him.
“You are all right,” he said.
“That’s what you think.” She released the vise hold her thighs had on his hips and let him remove her arms from around his neck. She met his gaze as her shoes touched the asphalt and her legs trembled. “Let’s not do that again.”
They had landed in an alleyway, but the roar of a crowd could be heard from where they stood. Keir retracted his wings, took her hand, and led her toward the noise.
News vans, reporters with cameramen, and countless other people stood outside an area that had been cordoned off with yellow tape. Police stood around the circumference to ensure no one could get into the theater. Countless emergency vehicles were parked out front and red and blue lights flashe
d nonstop.
“I’ll pull a glamour.” Rhiannon glanced up at Keir. “It’s been a while since I’ve used one but it should work to get me past the police. I’ll get Jake to let you in.”
Keir opened his mouth then frowned when Rhiannon ran her hand in front of her face. Glamours didn’t always work with nonhumans like the D’Danann and the Fomorii, but humans were easy to get past.
“I can see you,” he said.
“Yeah, but they can’t.” Rhiannon walked up to a man and tapped his shoulder. The man glanced behind him and appeared confused, as if he couldn’t see anyone.
“Adios,” she said to Keir when the man turned back to view the spectacle before them.
It took some maneuvering and some puzzled expressions from people being pushed aside by an invisible witch, but she managed to get to the tape. She crawled under it, between two police officers, and hurried into the theater. In the lobby she saw theater employees being interviewed by officers. They looked pretty shaken up.
Countless emergency personnel were in the lobby wearing HAZMAT suits, and she recognized two PSF officers who did not have their protective masks on.
She stepped aside where she couldn’t be seen when she ditched her glamour, and then she walked up to the PSF cops. They found protective gear for her, along with a mask, and let her into the theater.
Immediately, the smell of burnt sugar slammed into her along with the putrid odor of death. Her stomach clenched. When she made it through the doorway, into the theater, she was almost certain she was going to be sick.
Corpses filled the red velvet seats in the old-fashioned, one-screen theater. The bodies were withered, most shriveled beyond recognition.
She looked away and searched the enormous room for Jake and the D’Danann who were bound to be here. The lights were on and she was able to see everything clearly.
The D’Danann and PSF officers were scattered throughout the theater, wearing masks, no doubt searching for clues.
Even with their protective gear on, Rhiannon recognized a few members of their team. By the screen, Jake was talking with Tiernan, Hawk, Sheridan, and a couple of officers. Rhiannon made her way down the aisle until she reached them.
“There’s no way to keep a lid on this kind of mass murder,” Jake was saying, anger and frustration in his voice. “Shit. All I can think of is to have a statement made to the press that it was a terrorist attack.”
“This is going to cause some serious problems,” Rhiannon said, thinking of Janis’s prediction about panic and riots.
“Of course that’s the understatement of the last twenty centuries.”
Jake acknowledged her with a nod. “Things are going to go to hell in a hurry.”
“News of the Chieftains?” Tiernan asked Rhiannon.
Rhiannon scowled. “They said no.”
“Godsdamnit!” Tiernan clenched his hands. “This war will be over before the sun rises if the goddess uses her powers against us.”
“Ceithlenn will be very strong now.” Sheridan gestured to the theater full of bodies.
Rhiannon rubbed her forehead above the mask as pain spiked her head—as always—from the mention of Ceithlenn’s name. Her head ached and she felt exhausted to her bones.
Keir’s promise that they would find a way to defeat Ceithlenn rolled through her thoughts, but right now she had a hard time believing in his words.
“Jake, Keir is outside and more of the D’Anu are on their way. Can you send someone to give them gear and let them in?”
Jake gave the order to one of his officers who hurried out of the theater. He turned back to them. “With or without more help from the D’Danann, we’ve got to kick this bitch’s ass.”
“You’ve got that right,” Rhiannon said.
The D’Danann and Jake talked about what they’d found. Pretty much nothing but four sets of bones with meat and blood still on them, and a whole auditorium full of mummies.
Rhiannon took a deep breath but that was a mistake. She just sucked up more of the smell of death and burnt sugar. She coughed, almost choking on the stench.
Keir came up beside them and rubbed Rhiannon’s back until she stopped coughing.
They brought him up to speed on their conversation and Keir pushed back his coat and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. “We need to strike her first and strike her hard.”
“Now to find the bitch so we can do just that.” Rhiannon shoved her hair out of her face and looked around. “The bad vibes in here might be enough to give me a good vision.”
“Are you certain that is wise?” Keir’s voice was both gruff and concerned.
Rhiannon nodded. “When they get here, I’ll combine my strength with that of my Coven sisters’. We’ll find something. I just know we will.”
Jake and his officers continued searching for clues as Rhiannon waited for her Coven. It wasn’t long before they arrived.
Silver, Alyssa, Hannah, Sydney, Mackenzie, and Copper joined Rhiannon. Cassia always stayed behind to tend to matters there.
Hawk didn’t even want Silver in the room because of her pregnancy, but she was wearing protective gear like the others and there wasn’t much he could do since she was already there.
The D’Danann gathered around, and so did the PSF.
Rhiannon motioned for them to step away.
After everyone gave them some space, the seven witches joined hands. Rhiannon gripped Sydney’s hand on one side and Alyssa’s on the other. With the scene being so fresh and reeking of Ceithlenn, Rhiannon had a gut feeling she was going to be able to get some kind of vision.
As she lowered her eyelids Rhiannon told her Coven sisters to close their eyes.
For a long time, all Rhiannon saw was blackness, and her head ached bad enough that she wanted to drop to her knees. The burnt-sugar-and-death smell was so strong she had a hard time blocking it out.
When she finally did, the blackness behind her closed eyelids began to lighten until she was no longer in darkness but wrapped in fog.
She found herself on a sidewalk in front of a tall brick building of penthouse suites. She recognized it towering above its shorter neighbors between the Embarcadero and the bay.
This time it wasn’t Ceithlenn she saw in her vision. She recognized Junga in her human form—Elizabeth. Anger flared through Rhiannon and the scars on her cheek burned. She had to struggle to pull herself back into the vision.
She mentally followed Junga as she walked up the concrete steps in front of the building and through the door that was opened for her by a security guard.
Junga went through the marble and brass lobby and into one of two elevators. Rhiannon entered with her and stood beside the Fomorii Queen, who slipped in a key card and pushed a button for the fourteenth floor.
Rhiannon’s heart began racing. Could this be it? Could this be the time she would find out where Ceithlenn’s lair was?
Rhiannon could smell human perspiration and perfume. No fish smell because Junga inhabited a human body. The person Junga had taken over had been a wealthy woman named Elizabeth, and the host body was graceful, elegant, stunning looking.
Rhiannon would never forget the demon inside that human body. Horrid, twisted features and a blue hide. Long claws tipped with iron.
When the bell dinged and they reached the fourteenth floor, Junga stepped into a semicircular foyer and used her key card to enter a penthouse.
It was sumptuous. Rhiannon had never been in a place that exuded so much wealth.
But then she realized she’d been here before—when she’d watched Ceithlenn, the time the evil goddess had broken her mind. Just the thought made Rhiannon feel like she would go up in flames.
At the same time, excitement burned through her belly. She knew where their lair was. She didn’t see any sign of Ceithlenn, but this was the place. She smelled burnt sugar and the odor of rotting fish so she knew the Fomorii came here as well.
The scene fast-forwarded through her head with Sara coming into t
he room. She turned into her horrid goddess form, left then returned. For some reason, the goddess didn’t sense Rhiannon’s presence this time, thank Anu.
Then Ceithlenn turned Junga and Darkwolf into the hideous creatures Copper had dreamt about, and Silver had scried in her cauldron.
Rhiannon’s stomach churned.
The vision faded.
Gray fog wrapped her again, until she slipped back into her own body. Her eyelids snapped open and she saw her friends with their eyes still closed. Rhiannon’s breathing came harsh and fast.
“I’m back.” Rhiannon let go of Sydney’s and Alyssa’s hands and pressed her fingertips to her throbbing forehead. “You can all open your eyes.”
Everyone complied and looked at Rhiannon, who dropped her hands to her sides and tried to keep her features calm. “Did you see the vision?” she asked her Coven sisters.
All of the witches shook their heads. Alyssa said, “Not a thing.”
Rhiannon sucked in a deep breath. “You want the good news first, or the bad?”
25
In the common room, Silver shoved her daggers into special sheaths in her boots while Rhiannon shrugged into one of the Kevlar vests Jake had given each witch for the attack on Ceithlenn’s lair.
Spirit stood at Rhiannon’s feet and meowed, as if telling her to be safe. Or warning her.
Keir, of course, had argued against the witches being involved in the mission, and Rhiannon had threatened to spellfire his ass. The threat hadn’t worked, but neither had she given in.
Keir wasn’t the only one who was being overprotective. Hawk was flipping out that Silver was going, despite her pregnancy.
Tiernan was furious when Copper insisted on being included, ankle cast and all, even though she did get around pretty well, considering.
Jake and his officers tugged on their own protective gear, along with kneepads and tactical gloves. The gloves were thin, with nonslip material to pull a trigger and hold weapons. Gloves were useless to the witches since they needed their hands to perform any kind of magic.
The Wicked Page 21