Dark power sang inside her and she rocked with the force of it. Closing her eyes, she took a breath, savoring the feel of something so primal, so . . . dangerous.
“Hand it over.” Cora’s voice, short, sharp.
A column of living flame erupted in the darkness and when the fire died away, Finn and Joe were standing there, guns pointed at Cora.
“She’s not giving you shit,” Finn told her.
Chapter 42
Darius sent a white gold arrow at Joe, but he dropped out of the way and fired his weapon, knocking Darius over. Dante moved in behind Deidre, and Kellyn screamed, “You stupid bitch! I told you to kill him!”
Cora turned on her, but Kellyn laughed wildly and blinked out of existence, teleporting away from the scene.
Furious, Cora grabbed Deidre just before Finn reached her. She held a ceramic knife to her daughter’s throat and said, “One step, Eternal, and I’ll slice her open in front of you.”
Deidre knew her mother was about to kill her. And since the knife wasn’t metal, Deidre couldn’t magically get rid of it. The dark power she held so tightly urged her to use it. To free herself and damn the others. But she wouldn’t. Wouldn’t give in to the tempting urges she had once surrendered to.
She looked at Finn and tried to say everything she needed to say in that single glance.
Finn stopped dead. His gaze met Deidre’s and he felt again as powerless as he had in that damn holding room. He had tracked Deidre here through their shared tattoo and had brought Joe along as backup, to help take back the witch he loved.
Now though, he was caught. If he flashed out, Cora would kill Deidre before he had a chance to reappear and grab her.
Deidre’s hands were cupped around the Black Silver protectively, as if terrified to let her mother so much as touch it. Deidre’s eyes glittered dangerously and darkened with the force of the energy pulsing through her from the Artifact. She was in danger from more than just Cora. Behind Finn, Joe moved carefully to one side, easing closer to Darius. Finn did the same, only he went the other way, one incremental step at a time.
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded, meeting Cora’s gaze. “What are you? Demon? Dark angel? Sorceress?”
Cora laughed and hitched Deidre closer, the knife’s edge digging into her skin and sending small rivulets of blood along the long white column of her neck. Everything in Finn fisted.
“You idiot,” Cora snarled, flicking her glance between him and Joe. “I’m sister to your god, Belen.”
That news hit Finn like a rock wall.
“I see you know nothing of me. Lost in time, my brother and I,” she muttered darkly, her gaze swinging wildly between Finn and Joe as words spewed from her mouth and the knife at Deidre’s throat dug in farther. Bitterness colored her tone and madness glittered in her eyes. “We should have been worshipped. But no. Belen shunted us aside in his race for glory. He thought only of his lover, Danu—we should have been first with him. Then Belen and his bitch created the witches. And you Eternals. And with that creation, my brother and I slipped even farther into the background.”
Finn shook his head. What the hell was he supposed to do with this? And where in the fuck was Belen when his sister was running around murdering witches?
“Who’s this brother?” Finn snarled.
“Who was he, you mean,” she shot back. “Henry Fender was my brother. I felt his life end when you killed the body he wore and his spirit was lost—he was one with that body as I am with this one. We risked everything, even our immortality, for this. We became vulnerable the moment we took these bodies and you killed him. And now, you’ll feel it when I kill this bitch.”
Good to know, Finn thought fiercely. Kill the body, kill the god.
Deidre struggled, still holding on to the Artifact and Finn knew she was trying not to be overcome by the dark magic. But if it meant her life, then damn it, he wanted her to use that Black Silver.
“Take them out,” Cora snapped.
Finn felt a hard slam of shock as Darius erupted into a pillar of flame. His smile for Finn was dark, deadly and promised pain.
Seeing the look on his face must have amused Darius because he sneered, “Our goddess masked our energy signature so you wouldn’t discover us, but the Forgotten have been here all along, Eternal. And we will take back what should have been ours.”
The Forgotten. Damn the capricious gods who paid no attention to the very beings they created. How could his god not have even fucking noticed that his rejected Eternals were trying to stop the Awakening?
Then Dante too was covered in flames and the two men flanked the president, protecting her. Joe was no match for two immortals and Finn couldn’t fight them, the president and save Deidre.
As if she were reading his mind, Deidre whispered, “I love you. I’m sorry we failed.”
“Hand it to me,” Cora warned.
Finn shook his head, silently telling Deidre to hang on to the damned Artifact. If they were meant for oblivion, then they would meet that fate together. He called on the flames and as he did, Dante laid one hand on Deidre and she stiffened in response. Seconds ticked past, flying and crawling all at once.
“Get out of here, Joe,” Finn ordered.
“Screw that,” Joe said.
“Here!” Deidre lifted the Artifact, so that Cora would have to move the knife away from her throat to grab it. Of course she did. With a satisfied sigh, Cora let Deidre go, grabbed the Artifact in both hands and smiled down at it as if it were a long-lost lover.
Cora sighed, sliding her fingertips across the shining Black Silver. “Finally, it’s mine,” she crooned, backing away from all of them. “Nothing can stop me now. Belen will pay for what he did. You’ll all—”
Finn flashed to Deidre, grabbed her and flashed back to a safe distance. She was protected from the creature who had been her mother, but the Artifact wasn’t. They couldn’t allow Cora to have it. Couldn’t—
“What the— No!” Cora lifted horrified eyes to Deidre. “What’s happening—” She dropped the Black Silver to the snow at her feet and it shone like a stain on nature. “You!” She turned a vicious gaze on Deidre. “You did this. To me. To me!” Her body trembled and quaked as if she were being shaken by the hands of the gods themselves. “You think you’ve won.” She gasped for breath, fought for it. “But you’ve won nothing. There’s worse than me out there. And they won’t stop until you’re all dead.”
Finn tightened his grip on Deidre as Cora convulsed. Then she let out a piercing, blood-chilling scream and exploded into dust. Her ashes scattered across the Black Silver still gleaming darkly in the moonlight.
Finn whipped around to face the Forgotten, but it was too late. Darius flashed out and was gone. Only Dante remained and Finn headed for him, wanting nothing more than to pound the Forgotten Eternal into the ground.
But Deidre caught his arm. “No, don’t. He’s the reason I’m alive. He asked me to trust him one last time and told me to give the Artifact to Cora.”
“Why?” Finn asked the question and if he didn’t get a good answer, he’d kill the Eternal where he stood.
“Because not all Forgotten are out to destroy the Awakening,” Dante said. His flames blinked out and he was just a man, standing in the snow beside the dust of a fallen god.
“Some of us seek atonement, just as you do. Belen created us first, and for a time, we thrived. But we were filled with our own power and created so much chaos . . .” Dante shrugged in acceptance. “Belen had no choice but to cut us off. He discarded us in favor of your kind. And, some of us took it better than others,” he added ruefully with a glance at the spot where Darius had been only moments before.
Joe walked up to join them and took a stand on the other side of Deidre, his plan to protect her obvious from his stance.
Finn was withholding
judgment on this Eternal, but he had saved Deidre. “How did you know what the Artifact would do to her?”
Dante smiled. “Belen himself told me. He knew what his sister had done and wanted me prepared to save the Awakening. He couldn’t turn to any of the Eternals—it was part of the atonement spell cast. He and Danu are forced to stand back and allow you all to succeed or fail on your own. But he could call on those few Forgotten who still believe in him.” He bent down and picked up the Artifact, then tossed it to Finn. “Call it a loophole. Anyway, since the witches created the Artifact against the wishes of Danu and Belen, the power locked within it is repellent to the gods. The Black Silver reacted to the god-link within Cora’s assumed body. Her own spirit was as repelled by the energies as Belen or Danu’s would have been.”
“Thank you,” Deidre said.
“Yeah.” Finn nodded. “I owe you.”
Giving Deidre a slight bow, Dante then looked at Finn and said, “No, you don’t.”
“Where are you going now?”
Dante shrugged again. “Not sure. But I’ll be around.” Then he called on the fire and flashed out.
“Well, there’s something you don’t see every day,” Joe said quietly. “Unless you’re us.”
Finn laughed and pulled Deidre in close. He didn’t think he would ever be able to hold her tight enough, near enough to make up for those moments when he had come so close to losing her. The Artifact burned in his hand, dark power swirling, but it was weak, as if being in Cora’s grasp for even such a short time had drained some of its energy.
Curling his fingers around the damn thing, Finn released Deidre, but kept her hand firmly in his. He wasn’t ready to stop touching her just yet. “Are you all right?”
“I am now. I was tempted by the Artifact,” she admitted, “and I’m in no hurry to hold it again, but I don’t think it has the pull on me it once did.”
“According to their Mates, your sister-witches had a harder time resisting its pull.”
Deidre looked up into his eyes. “We’re all different, Finn. Our hearts, our minds, our souls. And that’s a good thing, right?”
“Yeah, it is.” He shifted his gaze to where Cora had died only moments before. “Will you be all right with what happened here tonight?”
Deidre followed his gaze. “I will. She wanted us dead, and we won. So yes, I’ll be all right. But the president’s dead, Finn, and we don’t even have a body to prove it. What’re we supposed to do now?”
A slow smile curved his mouth. “I think Joe might have an idea about that.”
“Joe?” Deidre asked.
“Joe Rooney, son of the vice president,” Finn said.
Judging by the look on her face, Deidre was stunned. “I thought VP Rooney’s son died overseas three years ago.”
“The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated,” Joe told her, then shrugged. “Dad wanted me to be able to stay undercover in case he needed me. He never trusted your mother.”
Deidre glanced again at the spot where Cora had died. “Smart man. Why don’t we go see him?”
An emergency meeting was called at the White House. VP Rooney broke the news of the death of the president to her cabinet and was given the oath of office by the chief justice. After that, the cover-up began. And no one did cover-ups like DC. The press was told that an autopsy was performed by newly sworn President Rooney’s personal physician and it was deemed that Cora Sterling had died of a heart attack.
The country went into mourning and nations around the world sent representatives to attend the state funeral.
Deidre and Finn met with President Rooney and his staff two days before the funeral. Ostensibly, she was there to offer good wishes to him. In reality, they were there so that Finn could check to make sure there were no more “others” hanging around.
Once that visit was over, President Rooney faced Finn in the Oval Office. “Well?”
“They’re all clear,” he said, then added, “Unless there’s another goddess wandering around masking their power. But what’re the chances?”
The president didn’t smile, just shifted his gaze to Deidre. “I want you to know, I’ll do everything I can to stop the persecution of witches. And I’m issuing a pardon for the both of you and the other members of the WLF. You can return to your normal lives.”
Deidre shook her head sadly. “Mr. President, until every woman and witch is released from prison or from the fear of imprisonment and execution, there is no ‘normal’ for any of us.”
“She’s right,” Finn said, pulling her in close to him. “And you should know, the WLF isn’t going anywhere. We’ll be here, working to free every last witch on the planet and we won’t stop until it’s done.”
“Change will come, but it won’t be fast. Or easy.” Finally, the president gave them a rueful smile. “I’m not surprised you’ll continue to fight. And I suspect my son will be joining you.”
“Yeah.” Finn grinned. “I know he will.”
Deidre laughed as Finn called up the flames and flashed them out.
Chapter 43
Haven welcomed them.
The moment they arrived in Wales, Deidre had felt a surge of peace, of warmth. It was as if her soul had come home, at last. She had never been there before—at least, not in this lifetime—but she recognized Manorbier Castle and could have found her way through the grounds blindfolded.
Meeting her sister-witches and discovering an instant kinship was balm to a heart still bruised by the betrayal of a mother she had once loved. With pride, she wore the coven’s traditional floor-length toga, baring her left breast—and her Mating tattoo—to the world. She had found her place. With Finn. With the WLF at home. And here. At Haven.
“It’s an odd thing,” she said, leaning back against Finn. “Being here, belonging here.”
They stood in the ceremonial chamber. Across the room from them burned three fire cages, each of them containing a shard of the Artifact returned to Haven by the witch who had once hidden it. Deidre stared at the cage where she had placed her piece of the Black Silver and felt as if everything had finally been righted.
There were other pieces of the Artifact still out there of course, Deidre thought, flipping her long braid over her shoulder. There were more Eternals and more witches still to Mate. Still to accomplish their tasks. But with the help of Danu, Belen and those who had already succeeded, the coven would eventually complete their atonement. She just knew it.
“It’s strange for me too.” Finn kissed the top of her head and wrapped one arm around her middle, holding her to him. “Back in the day, none of the Eternals were ever welcomed into Haven.” He stopped and looked around at the intricate carvings on the rock walls veined with silver. “It’s nice.”
“Yeah.” She tipped her head back to look up at him. “You’ll notice, we’re back in a cave. I’m getting to be really comfortable underground. What’s that say about me?”
He grinned. “It says you’re going to love my cave in the Mexican desert.”
Deidre laughed and turned in his arms. “It figures you’ve got another cave somewhere.”
“That one’s got a hot tub. Underground spring. You’ll love it.”
Truthfully, she thought, as she stared up into her Mate’s eyes, she would love it anywhere as long as he was there with her. Haven would always be here, waiting for them. A safe place. The home of her heart, her soul. The place where the trouble had all begun and where it would finally end.
She laid one hand on his broad, bare chest and felt the steady beat of his heart. “Are you used to that yet?”
He covered her hand with his, pinning her there to the beat of his heart, to the Mating tattoo that bonded him to her. “No. Not really. Feels good, though. How are you dealing with immortality?”
“Weird to think about
it,” she admitted. “But more time with you is a very good thing.”
“Agreed.” He lifted her chin with his fingertips and kissed her.
“Oh, man,” Rune called out as he and the others entered the dining chamber. “I don’t need to see that.”
“Close your eyes then,” Finn growled and finished kissing Deidre before he broke away and smiled.
Watching his brother Eternals with their Mates, Finn felt hope for the first time in a long time. But as Egan walked into the room behind the others, that hope was dampened slightly.
According to the others, Egan was beginning to deal with what had happened. But when Finn looked into those gray eyes, he saw nothing of his old friend there. Only the eyes of a hunter.
Mairi, the once and future High Priestess of the coven, spoke up into the suddenly charged silence. “Deidre, if you’re ready, we’d like to try the location spell now. We need to find Kellyn.”
“I’m ready,” she said, stepping from the circle of Finn’s arms. “But you should know, she’s not going to be easy to catch. And she’s dangerous.”
Egan spoke up before anyone else could. “All you guys have to do is locate her. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Egan”—Torin’s voice held a warning—“this isn’t just about you and Kellyn. What happens to each Mated pair affects us all.”
Egan snapped him a hard look. “You spend a few months at the bottom of the ocean and then we’ll talk. For right now, she’s my witch. And I’m going to find her.”
Finn and Deidre flew back to DC in time for the funeral. Thank God the Mating was complete and her powers were under her control so they could take the jet Finn owned to fly back and forth from Haven. If she were still in the Awakening, her magic would have been too unstable to risk flying. She could have brought down the plane. And after hearing her sister-witches’ stories, Deidre really hadn’t wanted to spend days on a boat.
It was, she thought, too bad that Finn couldn’t yet flash them across the ocean. The distance was too great. But as his powers grew with their Mating, who knew? She smiled to herself. Maybe one day.
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