Demon Dark (29 page)

I wrapped my arms around him and buried my head into the crook of his shoulder. He smelt like sunlight and the forest that was now my home. I was afraid for him, but in this moment, I needed nothing more than his touch, his courage, and his strength.

I pressed my fingertips to Breandan s face where he bore a faint scar and gazed up at him. He was flawless. I hoped he knew just how much I loved him, unreservedly, with my whole heart. The words seemed empty and lifeless when I tried to form them to explain the depth of what I felt.

He smiled. Brilliant and unrestrained, his entire face glowed.

I love you too,

he murmured.

His mouth slanted over mine. A kiss. Soft, a brief touch, press, to show me how tender his feelings could be. Then I was crushed to him, consumed by his need to have me to himself even if for just a moment.

My light merged with his and became a blinding passion that matched the fervor of our embrace. The strength of our emotion was zealous and had been understood by so few, feared by many, cherished only by us.

If my heart could speak, it would say beautiful things my mind could not express.

Do not be afraid. His words were feeling, he managed to speak his heart, he always had. He gifted me the might of his affection and calmed me enough to end it.

I reached out past the barriers of Cael s magic, grasped the surging ropes of power, and pulled everything inward. I dragged it back, wrestled it under control, refusing to give way or let go when it tore and scratched at me where I was most vulnerable.

The column of flames buckled. Collapsing, it blasted out engulfing us.

Searing power flooded me. My eyes opened wide and my pupils burned from the intense light. Knives slashed at my skin and my inner self writhed in bittersweet agony.

I whimpered and pulled back from the raw energy that was so sweet it was pain, but as I faltered, Breandan used the bond to strengthen my hold and reinforce my will.

There!

The crux of power in the midst of the mesmerizing onyx flames was rampant and crude, a sycophant melody of overwhelming darkness and insubstantial radiance. Bold, it called to me, dared me to touch it, and absorb its malicious energy, daring me to tame it for my own desires.

Conjured from the depths of his soul, a winged fury declaring war, Breandan bellowed a battle roar to shake the foundations of the earth.

I threw myself at the core of magic and swallowed its power whole.

Silence, and a brief lull, a peculiar stilling of time.

I jerked, head flung back as magic exploded contained only by my flesh. It invaded the fibers of my being then fluxed; desperately trying to claw its way out, escape the mortal bonds of its confinement.

It changed me, transformed me, even as it sought to tear me apart to be free.

To destroy me, it made me stronger.

Pain seized me in an iron grip, and my hold on Breandan was wrenched away. His arms remained locked around my back as light rushed around us, seeped from me, and whiplashed out. All emotion crushed together at the base of my throat and rippled out. My head snapped back. I gasped. Heated air rushed down my throat and gathered the pain, the torment, and the power of the earth exploded from me so forcefully my back bowed. I screamed. The piercing shriek resonated, a tortured echo that shattered the violent sounds of fire and destruction. Burning. I burned from the inside out. My body shook, the ground trembled. Hands rigid, fingers stretched apart, the joints strained and cramped. My blood boiled, and my heart vibrated like a tuning fork. The dark cloud of my hair was caught and fanned out in the blustering winds.

Slowly, so slowly, the darkness was washed away as the magic was cleansed by my own and the onyx streaks turned to gold.

I exhaled and it echoed, hollowly booming through the night. My body lost all tension. I crumpled like a crushed leaf, spiraling down listlessly on currents of air. My head drooped and my eyelids slid back.

The tornado reaching for the sky collapsed, the crux of power consumed. Shimmering waterfalls speckled with sapphire drops poured over my prone body. Breandan curled over me protectively. Cold lips, thinned with worry, pressed to my throat, his anxious pants of air rushing over my slowing pulse. He too was washed with the glistening fountain of power that had been cleansed of darkness through pain. There was an ominous scent in the air, a clean smell of wet rocks and damp earth after a rainy storm. Breandan kept his hold steady, kept my weight close to him to anchor us there.

The battle that was fought mind, body, and soul was done.

For the briefest of moments, I was wholly returned to my body. My sightless eyes twitched fluttered open. The last vision impressed on me was his glowing face, the halo of ethereal light that surrounded him. His presence was so much more intense and alluring than before.

He d changed too, somehow.

All things were connected to me, and how wondrous it felt. I saw so clearly. I felt so clearly. The bonds of my life were uncomplicated and beautiful. I remembered Maeve, more importantly, my promise to the one who loved her enough to beg me to use the power I had then to bring her back. Tears pooled above my lashes as I felt the pain of her loss cleanly. Then I thought of Lex and let go of the anger I still felt to one who had already left this world. Without being blinded by anger or hate, I was allowed to mourn and accept. In this acceptance, I found my greatest gift, the ability to move past it, and use the gifts I had been given to change it, to make my will greater than the petty emotion that had perverted and twisted my first attempt.

The sparks in my heart that had died roared to life.

I smiled to myself. However, the barest lifting of the outermost corners of my lips felt like a mockery representing the joy I felt within.

You are a gift,

I murmured and my voice seeped into the air, and found the ears of the new Priestess, attuned to the earth and magic as I had once been. I stared into Breandan s face, and he stared into mine, panicked. He knew something was wrong.

For the one I leave behind,

I finished on a sigh.

My grasp on reality was slippery, shadows in the mist. Grasping fingers reached for me, and something soft, ancient, pulled me under. I was towed away on lapping tides of death.

Breandan was swept up too. I felt him dragged along with me, his need to stay with me absolute. I was scared for him. I had not the power to resist what happened to me, but I needed him safe.

More pressing was the realization I d failed. Cael was alive. I felt it. He would destroy everything and everyone I loved. He would take everything good in the world and twist it because his spirit was broken beyond repair. I never should have hesitated. My weakness and confidence that I could make him see sense had brought us to this brink, a precipice demonkind could not come back from.

Perhaps this everlasting dark was my punishment. I shied inwardly from the notion. For some reason, I wasn t convinced of that.

I tightened my arms around Breandan and severed his connection to me through the bond. The deadening shadows would not claim Breandan too. I would not let them. He jolted as his connection to me snapped. The divide was stark and painful. He pressed his lips to mine as if this alone would fix what I had broken.

Something inside me cracked. Reluctantly giving way, this vital connection had kept me secure within my body. I twitched, the break sharp and undeniable in its finality. Unable to hold on longer I let everything go.

Heavy eyes shut, spirit fading, Breandan was the one I dreamed of. He smelt like fresh earth, felt warm like the sun. The sound of his voice calling me return was bittersweet. The tone was mellifluous yet filled with agony.

My essence was wrenched away. It collided with a nothing so vast it was solid, and I shattered into sparkles of power. I flowed away from this world to rush toward the warm light of another, knowing life left my body.

He promised his hold on me would never falter. It didn t.

He never let me go.

Breandan

Golden leaves from ClanTree twirled down through beams of light. A pastel dawn streaked with soft pinks and purples crept over the horizon, pouring warmth over the tree canopy.

Breathing hard, I tightened my arms around her body. I shook her. She did not move. Eyes wide and staring she looked past me, and I didn t understand why.

Breandan?

A tinkling voice asked, apprehensive.

Eyes burning, I looked up to see my sister. My dead sister stood over me, bewildered and confused. At her feet was a were-panther, shivering. It Changed from beast to human. Alec was left naked and trembling.

Tears falling, Maeve reached out to him and held him close. He buried his head in her fiery hair repeating one word.

How?

Rae.

Maeve murmured and tuned back to me.

I felt her. She brought me back. It was her gift.

How do you know this?

Daphne demanded.

She stepped forward, but a shaft of sunlight burnt her skin. Angry red welts marred her pale forearm, the blisters smoking faintly. She jerked back to hide deeper into the shadows, her face tightening as the sun climbed.

She forced her body to stay awake, but soon she would have to go to ground or she would collapse.

Lochlann fixed his gaze on her and eyed the shrinking shadows.

Maeve swallowed hard, unsure of herself, a rare thing.

I & heard her. No. I felt her magic. I think & I think I am High Priestess.

As she said the words, there was a crack of lightening and thunder rolled. Three glowing orbs slammed into the floor before her, embedded in the wood. Everyone cried out and jumped back, all but Maeve. She knelt down, hair falling over her face. She used her fingers as rakes to dig them out, held them in her palm, mouth parted in shock.

The amulets,

she murmured.

How did she do that?

Conall s knees buckled.

My sister wears the circlet. She is our Priestess, she must be. Only the women of our bloodline carry this honor.

He swayed and whispered brokenly,

It s my fault. I m the Elder and when the time came I should have claimed him. Cael. I let my father s anger blind me. I placed all faith in Rae to protect us from him.

Tears streamed down his face.

I helped create a monster.

His eyes closed and he hunched over, head pressed to the ground. He rocked on the spot, mumbling to himself.

Gods, forgive me.

Alec clung to Maeve, terrified to have her more than an inch from him.

You said it was a gift,

he muttered.

A gift for who?

Maeve connected the amulets together, stared at them. She turned pained eyes on me then and placed a hand on my shoulder, the other hand holding the amulets to her chest over her heart.

A gift for the one she leaves behind.

Moving away from her in horror, rejecting her words, I cried out, screaming in defiance. In my agony, I roared and cursed all creation. Then I begged. Face turned to the sky I begged them unashamedly to give her back.

The gods cannot give Rae back to you, Breandan.

All turned to Ana, who stood with her hands behind her back, blond braid loose, her golden hair was caught in the wind, flickering across her face and neck. Her blue eyes glowed golden at the edges, the power of her bloodline flowing through her unchecked.

Rae is no longer the fairy Priestess. That power has passed onto Maeve. I feel it in her. A new line has begun. Good, because we ll need a Priestess power to help defeat Cael.

He s dead,

Lochlann said flatly.

He died on the end of my blade.

Ana made a small noise of derision.

My father uses witchcraft. He also has the ancient bloodline running through his veins. You honestly think a sword is enough to destroy him?

Iron is poisonous to fairy

He s half human,

Ana spat.

He does not carry that weakness, but he can heal, and fast.

She motioned to the space around us.

If he s dead, where is his body? You don t think in his two centuries of life others have not tried to kill him? For power, for glory, or revenge? How do you think all my brothers and sisters died? I m the only one left because of my Sight and because he thought to cage my powers. I stayed out his way, biding my time, seeing the future, and knowing Rae was our only chance.

There was a pool of blood where the he-witch had lain but nothing else. Lochlann stared at the spot as if will alone would summon Cael s corpse.

Cael had survived and tricked us all.

I shook my head, unable to accept this, any of it. Futile. I could feel Rae was no longer in the cooling body I held in my arms. Still, I mumbled,

She cannot be dead. She cannot be.

She doesn t have to be.

All heads snapped up and to Ana. She pointed to the body in my hands that began to feel light as air. It was fading away.

That body belonged to Rae the fairy, and now it will fade. Unless &.

What,

I demanded harshly.

Tell me!

Ana brought the grimoire out from behind her back.

Unless we summon her back. With you here it is possible.

No!

Lochlann boomed. He took a threatening step toward her. Amelia snarled, previously silent at Ana s feet, but now she bared her teeth. The fur at the scruff of her neck stood on end. Lochlann eased back.