Rive (17 page)

She landed in tall yellow grass that grew over her head. Several of the
Sidhe
were around her along with Mateus and Victor.

“Spread out, approach from different angles,” Mateus whispered. He pointed in different directions and the
Sidhe
disappeared. His eyes rested on her. She saw the conflict there.

“Don’t worry about protecting me,” she hissed.

She moved with Victor and Rylan toward the back entry of the prison Mateus had assigned them.

Two watchtowers marked the front of the old brick building. Tall chain link fence completely encircled the compound, though it was broken through in several places.

“Charming,” Rylan muttered.

Victor teleported himself inside the door, then silently pushed it open. They tiptoed down the dark hallways past a lone desk she guessed once belonged to a security guard.

A gate was open and they slipped through one by one.

At the end of the hallway, a flash of movement sent them all pressed up against the wall. Celeste quieted her light.

“
Sidhe
. Not ours,” Rylan whispered. “I’ll take him out.”

Before Celeste even had a chance to object, Rylan was gone. He appeared next to the guard. In the shadows, Celeste could only see a quick blur of motion and hear a crack before the guard slipped to the ground.

Celeste and Victor ran to his side. Victor pushed open the door just a fraction of an inch.

It looked like it used to be a gymnasium. The potentiates were there, bound and gagged, many laying on the floor, silent in their struggles. Four or five nasty looking
Sidhe
moved around them, eyes scanning the doors and windows of the room.

Victor disappeared. Celeste opened her mouth to ask where he’d gone, but Rylan silenced her by pushing his finger to her lips.

All questions were soon answered when Victor reappeared with Mateus and all the
Sidhe
they’d brought.

Mateus took charge, breaking up the group into two units. One to attack the Rive
Sidhe
, the other to transport the potentiates back before they could be moved again.

He counted them off into action. “One, two, three!”

The world exploded into chaos. She ran screaming into the room, using her hand to send a pulse of energy that sent one guard flying out the window. Potentiates disappeared as the
Sidhe
on their side transported them away from danger. The remaining four guards were in keen battle with Ryan, Victor and others.

Confusion became chaos as others poured into the gymnasium. She wasn’t sure who was a friend or foe. Rylan seemed to know, so she helped fight whomever he was attacking.

She was going up against a troll-looking
Sidhe
, when she was suddenly unable to move. She tried to step forward, but something had her frozen. She couldn’t move, but slid back, away from the fight.

She tried to scream, but her mouth didn’t work. She just slid back, as mute and useless as a statue.

She couldn’t see what was moving her back, didn’t feel any pressure of hands or ropes, but she was still moving nonetheless.

She managed to flick off burst of energy, which gave her the use of her hands and feet back, but she remained still.

It was time to meet whoever was doing this.

The movement stopped in a windowless, small room. A jail cell, she guessed. She let off another burst of energy, feeling tingling back in her limbs. She had full control now, but her jailor, whomever or whatever it was, didn’t need to know that.

A shadow moved in the other end of the room, darkness against darkness. “So it seems I have captured the prize,” a male voice echoed across the room.

She strained her mouth, acting like it was difficult for her to speak. “Who are you?”

“Oh, no. The questions is, what are you?” His laughter ricocheted off the walls.

“Coward,” she spat out. “Show your face.”

He flashed into view, his long brown hair tumbling around his face. “I’m not hiding from you, red.” Conor, Regina’s guard, the one with the long brown hair who had always creeped her out, moved closer until they were nearly nose-to-nose. “Do you see me now?”

“Regina trusted you,” Celeste said.

“I’ve been her lapdog for one hundred and eighty seven years. She better damn well trust me, the old stupid fool,” he said. “But no more.
Sidhe
are not here for your amusement. We are not your lapdogs. You,”—he reached out a long finger and ran it down her face—“will never subjugate me.”

She suppressed a shudder at his touch. “If you kill us, then how will get you back and forth?”

He laughed again, a creepy nasty laugh that made her want to jump out of her skin. “When all the
Tuatha
are gone, when all your potentiates are gone, then you will help me destroy the connection between
Tuatha
and
Sidhe.
The seam will be opened forever.”

“You don’t have the potentiates. You can’t get them all. This won’t work.”

He frowned. “Then I will have to go wipe out your precious little compound, won’t I? So sad. So many lives wasted.” His smile was back. “Don’t worry. I’ll get them back, and now I have you. And we will have lots of fun together.”

She leaned back. “You’re really going to do this?” She pretended to strain against the magic, but she could move freely now.

He smiled, snapping his finger in the air. A strange
Sidhe
appeared next to him. He was at least seven feet tall, dressed in all gray. Chains and knives hung off various holsters in his body. His face was close to human, but definitely not there. His eyes were too big, like the cheesy alien posters she’d seen in the mall.

“Yes,” he spoke in a weird, nasal tone.

Regina’s former guard kept his gaze on Celeste. “They’ve taken the potentiates back to the compound. Move all forces there. Kill everyone. Make sure her boy toy, Rylan, dies a horrible death.”

Celeste gasped, forcing herself to stay still. But it had started, an anger and rage so powerful it made her shake.

“Done,” said the creature.

“Wait!” Conor held up his hand. “Find her human parents. Bring them here. She’ll watch them die.”

The creature disappeared, leaving Celeste and the former guard alone in the dark dank room. Her anger built and built, like steam behind a teakettle.

The shaking was beyond her control now. The walls moved with her anger.

He looked around. “What’s this? Are there earthquakes in this part of the world?”

“No!” Celeste screamed. She burst into light, so bright it lit up every square inch of the room. Her birds descended. She heard them outside screaming and clawing.

“You!” He backed away from her. She felt something flow out of him, that thing he’d used to control her. It was like a fly batting against an elephant. She pushed it away with her mind.

She held out her hand. Her movement pinned him against the wall with an invisible force she directed at him. His threats to kill her loved ones throbbed in her head. She clenched her fist and he exploded into a mess of goo and flesh.

She dropped to her hands and knees. She’d killed him. He was gone.

She stumbled back to the gym. It was completely empty except for her birds. Tons and tons birds filling the space.

“Rylan!” she screamed. The hysteria in her voice surprised even her. “Victor?” She sank to the floor. Dublin needed her now.

Chapter 20

“Celeste!” Rylan’s voice carried through the dark halls.

“I’m back here!” she yelled.

His footsteps echoed in the space around her. He sprinted in, folding her into his arms. “Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m fine.” She squeezed him. “You?”

“Yes.”

“Where were you?” she asked.

“We took all the potentiates back and realized you weren’t there. I came back.” He pushed his hands through her hair, and then stroked her face with one hand. “Are you really okay? What happened to you?”

“Regina’s guard is behind it all. He captured me using some sort of magic to pull me away.”

He pushed her hair back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even see that.”

“No.” She pushed his finger to his lips. “I let him. We have to go back to Dublin. He sent his entire army there and told them to get my parents too. We have to go.” She pulled him up with her. “Take me back, now. I have to stop them.”

“Okay.” He looked over his left shoulder. “Where is he?”

“Dead. I killed him.”

He moved in the dark, his eyes flashing. “Good. Let’s go.” He pulled her against him and they were moving through the air.

They landed in the courtyard. It was quiet and dark. The witches were still camped outside behind the sentries. “Get inside!” Celeste screamed. “They’re coming.”

The sentries glanced at each other, uncertain of her authority. “Get inside now or you will die! There’s a whole army of them!” Celeste shouted.

Something about her urgency must have finally resonated with them, because as her and Rylan ran toward the building, footsteps and shouting echoed behind them.

“Get inside!” Rylan paused at the door, motioning for the reluctant witches to follow.

They ran into the atrium, smack into Regina. “What’s happening?” she asked.

“Your main guard, Conor. He’s behind Rive. He’s the betrayer,” Celeste said, still breathing hard from her run.

“What? I told him everything!” Regina shouted. “Where is he?”

Victor skidded into the room. “What’s going on? Where were you?”

“No time. There’s an army headed our way. They’re all coming here, now,” Celeste said.

Regina’s jaw dropped. She stood motionless in shock, but it went away quickly. “Get the potentiates out, and the
Tuatha,
you guys need to run. Now!” she screamed.

At her command, the guards scattered.

Regina stormed toward the front of the compound.

“Where are you going?” Victor said. “We need to get you out of here.”

Regina pivoted. “This is my fault. I must face them. I will not flee.”

“Fine!” Celeste said. She ran to the door, placing herself between Regina and the exit. “That doesn’t mean you have to go outside and get yourself killed.”

As she finished her words, the building shook with explosions. Screams echoed through the halls.

“Too late. They’re here,” Victor said.

“Get everyone out or underground,” Celeste said. “I’ll do the rest.”

She sprinted outside over Rylan’s and Victor’s objections. What she saw made her skid to a stop.

Dark figures permeated every space on the wall. They slid through like individual nightmares coming to haunt her every move. Mixed in with them were
Sidhe
of every size and shape. Several large creatures stormed through the wall, including the Revolving Beasts. More and more figures poured into the compound. Hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands.

“Whoa!” Victor said behind her. “Don’t get killed,” he muttered. He pushed past her, surging into the oncoming crowd with a long sword. Mateus joined the melee. The
Sidhe
on their side poured out of the building, forming individual clashes with the Rive.

“Keep them out!” Rylan shouted to the fighters. “We’ve almost got everyone evacuated,” he said to Celeste.

Regina walked past Celeste, down the stairs, toward the battle.

“Regina. Stop!” Celeste tried to get to her, but Rylan held her back.

Rive
Sidhe
began charging up the stairs.

Rylan ran into them, using his fists to beat them back.

Regina calmly walked into the middle of the lawn as if she was taking a leisurely stroll though a garden instead of walking into a bloodbath. She stopped in the middle of the lawn, almost not visible in the clashes around her. “Stop!” she shouted.

Everyone paused, even the Rive.

She stood among them, a blip of pale blond hair and a white dress bathed in moonlight, still and beautiful.

Then she turned into water, a gushing living geyser that moved all around them.

Her waterfall moved, taking out two Revolving Beasts in a river that snaked through the air.

“Kill it!” shouted one of the Rive.

The hoard of evil focused their attention on her, converging on the moving water, trying to hurt her. She was lost to Celeste. Her human form gone. Celeste could barely track the silver river that flowed through the air at an amazing speed.

One of the taller Rive
Sidhe
flashed a red bolt from his fingertips that caught the torrent of water. The waterfall disappeared and fell to the ground, leaving a crumpled, soaked Regina on the ground.

“Regina!” Mateus ran toward her, sword swinging as he cut down the
Sidhe
that dared to stand in his way.

The vacuum of sorrow in her chest told Celeste that Regina was dead. Celeste felt the void in her soul, as she sure Mateus did, but he crouched over, shouting her name as he pulled her bloodied body into his arms.

The Rive surged forward, taking full advantage of the distraction. The crowd folded into each other in front of her,
Sidhe
on
Sidhe
, swords flying, lights flashing as magical and earthly weapons collided.

Pain ripped through her chest.
Another Tuatha is down,
her mind told her. Her eyes bounced over the battlefield; Rylan at the base of the steps, fighting of a weird wolf-like beast, Victor in the middle of the melee, holding a long sword, covered in sweat and blood, precious Tink on the outskirts with the other natural witches, casting hexes and trying to heal the injured.

They would all die. Then she would, and the seam between the worlds would open. This horror in front of her would spread across the earth like the blackest of plagues.

She tipped her head back, feeling the stars and the moon on her face. “No. I can’t let this happen.”

Her birds burst into existence, flooding the battlefield with darkness and feathers. They screamed and cawed, blocking out all the other noises.

The stars and moon seemed to answer, bending toward her until she was bathed in their light.