by Nora Roberts
She rose, certain in purpose. She gathered her things and with her hound, flew to Fin’s.
She came to him in his workshop as he chose weapons from his case.
“You’re early.”
“I wanted time with you before the others, before we start. I’ve given myself to the fates, accept whatever comes. I’ll fight more fiercely for the acceptance.”
“I can only accept his end.”
“I hope that’s not true.” She crossed to him. “Will you accept me, Fin?”
“I do. Of course.”
My life, she thought again, my choice. Witch and woman.
“I give myself to you. Will you take me? Will you let me belong to you, and belong to me in turn?”
He touched her cheek, twined a lock of her hair around his finger. “I could never belong to another.”
“I never will. Belong to me, and stay with me, for this is home for both of us. I want to live with you here, in this house you built from our young dreams. I want to be married to you, as that’s a promise given and taken as well. I want to make my life with you.”
As the words squeezed his heart, he laid the sword he’d chosen down. And stepped back from her. “You know we can’t. Until I break the curse—”
“I don’t know it.” She rushed in now—no more thinking. Only feeling. “I know we let what was put on you by light and dark stop us. No more, Fin. We can make no children who would carry it as you do, and this is a grief for us both. But we’d have each other. We can’t have the life we once dreamed of, planned for, but we can dream and plan another. I gave myself to the powers greater. I may die this night, and I can accept that. But when I gave myself, the powers didn’t say to me—let him go—so I won’t.”
“Branna.” He cupped her face, kissed her cheeks. “I have to find the way to break the curse. I don’t know where the search will take me. I don’t know, can’t know, how long it might take me, if I ever find the answer.”
“Then I’ll follow you, wherever you go. I’ll search with you, wherever it takes us. You can’t hide or run from me. I’ll follow you, Finbar, track you like a hound, I swear it on my life. I won’t go back to living without what I love. I love you.”
Overcome, he rested his brow to hers. “You take my breath away. A dozen years you haven’t said those words to me. Three words that hold all the power of heaven and earth.”
“I would bind you to me with them. We’re meant, I know that with all I am. If you can’t stay with me, I’ll go with you. We can go or stay, but marry me, Fin. Make that vow to me, take that vow from me. Before we face what we have to face, take my love, promise your own.”
“Can you live with this, every day?” He rubbed his arm. “Can you live with this, and what we know we can’t have?”
She’d given herself to the light, she remembered, and the answer had come. So simple, so clear.
“You do, you live with it every day, and I’m yours. I’ll give my life for duty if my life is needed, but I’ll no longer close off my heart. Not to myself, not to you. Not to love.”
“To have your love is everything to me. We can take it a day at a time, until—”
“No. No more just today. I need this from you.” She laid her hands on his chest, on his heart. “I ask this of you. Take my love, and its promise, give yours to me. Whatever comes.”
“In my life,” he said, his voice quiet as a kiss, “you are all I’ve wanted. Above all else.”
He kissed her lightly, then released her to go to a shelf, opened a puzzle box, took out a ring that flashed light from the fire.
“A circle,” he said. “A symbol, a stone of heat and light. I found it in the sea, a warm blue sea where I swam and thought of you. I went to forget you, far away from here, from all. On an island where no one lived, and I swam away from even that, and saw this glint through the water. I knew it for yours, though I never thought to give it to you, never thought you’d take it.”
She held out her hand. “Give me the promise, and take mine. If there’s tomorrow, Fin, we’ll take it as ours.”
“I swear to you, I’ll find a way to give you all your heart wishes.”
“But don’t you see, you already have. This is love, and love accepts all.”
When he slipped the ring on her finger, the flames in the hearth roared up. Somewhere in the night behind the windows, lightning flashed.
“We’ll take it,” she said again, and clung to him, clung to the kiss.
Whatever comes, she thought, be it blood and death, they had this.
• • •
THEY GATHERED, A CIRCLE FORMED FROM HEART AND SPIRIT, loyalty and duty, and sealed by magicks. As night grew deep, they took up weapons.
“We don’t have the name,” Branna began. “Until we do we must keep Cabhan from escaping, keep him within our borders, prevent him from shifting time.”
“We build the walls strong, lock the gate,” Connor agreed. “And use all we have to draw the demon out, to draw out the name.”
“Or thrash it out of him,” Boyle countered.
“We each know what’s to be done tonight, and how we’ll do it,” Fin continued. “We’re stronger for what’s shared among us, and if right’s meant to triumph, Cabhan ends tonight. There are none I would rather go into battle with than those in this room. No man ever had truer friends.”
“I say we go burn this bastard, then come back here for a full fry.” Connor hugged Meara to his side.
“I’m for it.” Meara laid a hand on the hilt of her sword. “And more than ready for the first.”
“You’ve given me family, given me home. This has been the best year of my life,” Iona continued. “And in this year, I’m going to marry the love of my life, and no demon from hell is going to stop me. So yeah, let’s go burn the bastard.”
With a laugh, Boyle plucked her off her feet, kissed her. “How can we lose with such as you?”
“We can’t.” Iona scanned the faces around her. “We won’t.”
“We have to prepare for—”
“Wait.” Iona wiggled away from Boyle, pointed at Branna. “What’s this? What is this?” She grabbed Branna’s hand, gave a tearful laugh. “Oh boy, oh boy!” And launching herself at Branna, squeezed hard. “This is what I’ve been wishing for. Exactly what I’ve been wishing for.”
“You’d think you’d have said something to the rest of us.” Meara grabbed Branna’s hand in turn as Iona swung around to wrap around Fin. “This shows right’s meant to win. Right here.” She pressed her cheek to Branna’s, swayed. “It shows it.”
“Far past time.” Boyle gave Fin a light punch in the chest. “But well done.”
Connor waited until Fin met his eyes. “So, you finally listened to me, and all my wisdom.”
“I listened to your sister.”
“As now you’ll have no choice but to do for the rest of your life. And you owe me a hundred.”
“What? Ah,” Fin said as he remembered the wager. “So I do.”
Connor gave Fin a full-on hug, then turned to take Branna’s face, to kiss her cheeks. “Now the scales are truly balanced. Love feeds the light.”
Branna closed her hands around Connor’s wrists, kissed his cheeks in turn. “Well then, let’s go burn the bastard.”
“Are we ready then?” Fin waited for assents, and for the circle to form.
“Our place, our time as the hour strikes three,” Branna said and drew a breath. “This dawn brings our destiny.”
“With fist and light we bring the fight,” Boyle continued.
“To end demon-witch on this night,” Meara finished.
“Three by three by three we’ll ride.” Connor took Meara’s hand, looked to Iona.
“With horse and hawk and hound our guides,” Iona said.
“And while these mists flow from me, Cabhan sees only what we will him see.”
Fin spread his arms, circled them, spread them. Branna felt the mists wrap around her—warm and soft. No, she thought
, this wasn’t Cabhan’s cold, bitter cloak.
They went down and out, and into the stables. While Branna braided charms into Aine’s mane, Iona stepped over. “She’s coming into season.”
“Aine?”
“Another day or two. She’ll be ready for Alastar if it’s what you want.”
“It is.”
“She isn’t afraid; none of the horses are afraid, but they know they’ll fly tonight, and why.”
“As does the hound. They’re ready.” Branna looked to Connor.
“And the hawks as well.”
“Mind your thoughts and words now,” Fin told them, “for I have to let him in, let him see enough to make him believe we go to honor Sorcha and try to raise her.”
With a nod Branna crouched to press her head to Kathel’s, then she mounted. And with the others, she flew through the dark heart of the night.
“Can we be sure we’re cloaked?” she called to Fin.
“I’ve never done so wide a mist, but it’s covered all, hasn’t it? And what would Cabhan be doing watching us at this time of the night?”
Though Fin opened, blood calling to blood. As they flew through the trees, with the whisk of the wind rending small gaps in that cloak, he felt the stirring.
And told Branna with no more than a glance.
“It has to hold, give us time to block him out of the clearing, give us the time to pay our respects to Sorcha and work the spell to bring her spirit to us.”
“I’d rather fight than try to converse with ghosts,” Boyle muttered.
“She nearly defeated him,” Iona pointed out. “She must know something that will help. We’ve tried everything. We have to try this. If it works . . .”
“It has to work,” Meara put in. “It’s driving me next to mad having him stalking us day by day.”
“She’s ours,” Connor told her. “We’ll reach her, and tonight, on the anniversary of her death, her sacrifice, her curse is our best hope for it.”
“We can’t wait another year.” Branna brought Aine down as they flew through the vines, into the clearing. “We won’t.”
As agreed, Fin and the three went to the edges of the clearing, each taking a point of the compass. She would begin, with hopes that rather than holding Cabhan out, the ritual would give him time to slip through—and be closed in.
She lifted her arms, called to the north, poured the salt. Iona took the west. It was Connor, at the east, who whispered softly in Branna’s head.
He’s coming. Nearly here.
As her brother called on the east Branna’s heart tripped.
The first step, luring him, had worked.
Fin called on the south, then all four walked the wide circle, salting the ground while Boyle and Meara set out the tools for the next part of the plan.
She felt the change, the lightest of chills as Cabhan’s fog mixed with Fin’s.
As they closed the barrier that would keep all out, keep all in, she prayed he wouldn’t use the swirls and shadows to attack before they were ready.
Struggling not to rush, she lifted the roses, offered the bouquet to each so they could take a bloom. Fin hesitated.
“I can’t see she’d want tribute from me, or accept it.”
“You’ll show her respect, and give her the tribute. She must understand you’ve fought and bled with us, and we can’t defeat Cabhan without you. We have to try, Fin. Can you offer forgiveness to her for the mark you carry, with the tribute?”
“I have to try,” was all he said.
Together, all six approached Sorcha’s grave.
“We place upon your grave these pure white blooms to mark the anniversary of your doom. Bring wine and honey and bread, a tribute of life given to the dead.”
It grew colder. Branna swore she could all but feel the rise of Cabhan’s excitement, his greed. But she found no name in the undulating fog.
“These herbs we scatter on the ground to release your spirit from its bounds. With respect we kneel and make to you this appeal. Sealed with our blood, three and three, fire burn in through the night and meet our need most dire, grant us what we ask of thee.”
One by one they scored their palms, let the blood drip onto the ground by the stone.
“In this place, at this hour, through your love and by our power, send to us your children three so all may meet their destiny.”
A howl came through the fog, a sound of wild fury. Fin dropped the cloak as he drew his sword, leaped to his feet beside Branna and the others.
“Send them here and send them now,” Branna shouted, and Fin and Connor moved to block her from any attack. Iona, Boyle, and Meara worked quickly to cast a circle while she finished the ritual.
“Those with your powers you did endow. Three by three by three we fight.” She shot out fire of her own to block Cabhan from pivoting into an attack as her friends hurried to cast the circle, and open a portal for the first three.
“Three by three by three we take the night. Mother, grant this boon, let them fly across the moon and set your spirit free. As we will, so mote it be.”
The ground shook. She nearly lost her footing as she spun around to race toward the circle, glanced back quickly to see Cabhan hurl what looked like a wall of black fire toward Fin and Connor. Even as she reached for Iona’s hand, to join what they had, the wind picked her up like a cold hand, threw her across the clearing.
Though she landed hard enough to rattle bones, she saw Fin battling back with flaming sword and heaving ground, Connor lashing the air like a whip. Light and dark clashed, and the sound was huge, like worlds toppling.
Meara charged forward, sword slashing, and Boyle released a volley of small fireballs that slashed and burned the snaking fog. With no choice but to attack, defend, it left Iona alone to complete the circle.
He’s stronger, Branna realized, somehow stronger than he’d been on Samhain. Whatever was inside him had drawn on more, drawn out more. The last battle, she thought; they knew it, and so did Cabhan.
He called the rats so they vomited out of the ground. He called the bats, so they spilled like vengeance from the sky. And Iona, cut off, fought to hold them back as hawk, hound, horse trampled and tore.
Duty, loyalty. Love. Branna sprang to her feet, rushed through the boiling rats to leap onto Aine’s back. And with a ball of fire in one hand, a shining wand in the other, flew toward her cousin and the incomplete circle.
She lashed out with fire, with light, carving a path. She called on her gift, brought down a hot rain to drown Cabhan’s feral weapons. When she reached Iona, she released a torrent that drove all away from Sorcha’s cabin.
“Finish it!” she shouted. “You can finish it.”
Then came the snakes, boiling along the ground. She heard—felt—Kathel’s pain as fangs tore at him. The fury that burst through her turned them to ash.
Branna wheeled her horse to guard Iona, but her cousin shouted, “I’ve got this! I’ve got it. Go help the others.”
Fearing the worst, Branna charged through the wall of black fire.
It choked her, the stench of sulfur. She pulled rain, warm and pure, out of the air to wash it away. The fire snapped and sizzled as she fought her way through it.
They bled, her family, as they battled.
Once more she wheeled the horse, pulled her power up, up, up.
Now the rain, and the wind, now the quake and the fire. Now all at once in a maelstrom that crashed against Cabhan’s wrath. Smoke swirled, a sting to the eyes, a burn in the throat, but she saw fear, just one wild flicker of it, in the sorcerer’s eyes before he hunched and became the wolf.
“It’s done!” Iona called out. “It’s done. The light. It’s growing.”
“I see them,” Meara, her face wet with sweat and blood, shouted. “I can see them, the shadows of them. Go,” she said to Connor. “Go.”
“We’ll hold him.” Boyle punched out, fire and fist.
“By God we will. Go.” Fin met Branna’s eyes. “Or it’s
for nothing.”
No choice, she thought, holding out a hand for Connor so he could grip it, swing onto Aine with her.
“She’s hurt. Meara’s hurt.”
“We have to pull them through, Connor. It’s the three who bring the three. Without them, we may not be able to heal her.”
Kathel, she thought, bleeding from the muzzle, from the flank, Alastar slashing hooves in the air, hawks screaming as they dived with flashing talons.
And for nothing if they couldn’t bring Sorcha’s three fully into the now.
She rode straight into the circle, slid off the horse with her brother. She took Iona’s hand, Connor’s, and felt the power rise, felt the light burn.
“Three by three by three,” she shouted. “This is magick’s prophecy. Join with us no matter the cost, come through now or all is lost. Stand with us on this night and by our blood we finish this fight.”
They came, Sorcha’s three. Brannaugh with bow, Eamon with sword, Teagan with wand and great with child. Without a word they joined hands, so three became six.
Light exploded, all white, all brilliance. The heat of power poured into her, staggering, breathless, beyond any she’d known.
“Draw him away from them!” Branna heard her voice echo over the shaking air. “We have what will take him down, but they’re too close.”
“For me.” Sorcha’s Brannaugh held out the hand joined with her brother’s. Arrows flew from her quill, flame white, to strike the ground between the wolf and the remaining three.
Crazed, the wolf turned, charged.
Branna broke the link; Connor closed it behind her.
“Hurry,” he told her.
“A bit closer yet, just a bit.” But she reached in the pouch, drew out the poison. The bottle throbbed in her hand, like a living thing. As the wolf leaped toward the circle, she sent the bottle flying.
Its screams rent the air, slammed her so she staggered back. All he’d called from the bowels of the dark flamed, and their screams joined the wolf’s.
“It’s not done.” Iona gripped Teagan’s hand. “Until we kill what lives in him, it can’t be done.”
“The name.” Branna staggered, but Eamon caught her before she fell. “The demon’s name. Do you know it?”
“No. We’ll burn what’s left of him, salt the ground.”
“It’s not enough. We must have its name. Fin!”
Even as she started forward, he waved her off, dropped to the ground with the bloody body of the wolf. “Start the ritual.”
“You’re bleeding—and Meara, Boyle. You’ll be stronger if we take time to heal you.”
“Start the ritual,” he said between his teeth as he closed his hands around the wolf’s throat. “That’s for you. This is for me.”
“Start it.” Meara sprawled to the ground with Boyle. “And finish it.”
So they rang the bell, opened the book, lit the candle.
And began the words.
Blood in the cauldron, of the light, of the dark. Shadows shifting like dancers.
On the ground, Fin dug his fingers into the torn ruff of the wolf.
“I know you,” he murmured, staring into the red eyes. “You’re mine, but I’m not yours.” He tore the stone away, held it high. “And will never be. I am of Daithi.” The brooch fell out of Fin’s shirt, and the wolf’s eyes wheeled in terror. “And I am your death. I know you. I have stood at your altar, and heard the damned call your name. I know you.”
What was in the wolf pushed its dark until Fin’s hands burned, until his own blood ran.
“In Sorcha’s name I rebuke you. In Daithi’s name, I rebuke you. In my name, I rebuke you, for I am Finbar Burke, and I know you.”
When it came into him, it all but shattered his soul. The dark pulled, so strong, tore so deep. But he held on, held on, and looked toward Branna. Looked to her light.
“Its name is Cernunnos.” He heaved the stone to Connor. “Cernunnos. Destroy