Chapter 14 #2
“I brought Warwick back . . . did I pass on anything?”
“I’d have to see Warwick’s aura now, but solely by going off what I saw between you two before.” Tad dipped his head. “Yes. I think you both would be the same. You gave part of yourself to him. But now that your magic is gone . . .”
“Wait.” Morgan held up her hand. “Your magic is gone too?”
“Of course.” My mom looked at her. “They are connected. Their power is linked.”
Morgan pinched her mouth. “I was still hoping.”
My mother strolled over to me, timidly reaching out and placing her icy hand on mine as if to mimic what Tad did.
She had never even held me before her emotions were ripped from her, becoming a necromancer.
I could see she wanted to be motherly to me but had no idea how, the instincts not coming naturally.
“I know what you came for.” She petted my hands before dropping hers away, awkward and stiff. She stepped back. “You cannot have it.”
“What?” Killian barreled forward, ire lifting his shoulders. “It’s part of her, right?” He motioned to me. “Then she has a say in what happens to it. And she promised it to me.”
“And what do you seek it for, Lord of the Fae?” My mother took her stance, her clan flanking around her.
“Do you not possess enough power? Or will you soon be just like the human side, filling the river with your dead? Sending more and more to us until this land is piled in bones, screaming for mercy, and we can no longer consume their pain and torment.”
“Wait. What?” I blinked, my mouth dropping.
My head snapped to the archway where I saw the skeletons come from last time.
The army my mother had. Of course, they weren’t there now, as witches had no power to animate the dead.
“Those bodies . . . they were from the river? You know they were from HDF experiments?”
“As witches, we can still sense their pain, feel their story. Dozens and dozens a week are coming from the city.” Roan spoke for the first time.
“They still seem to be attracted to this place, even if we can no longer call them to us.” Strangely, it almost sounded like he missed being a necromancer.
There was a twisted strangeness in knowing every dead body Istvan’s scientists were throwing into the river was coming here. To the sacred fae land of the dead, finding their way to my mother’s clan.
“Humans too?”
“In death, we are all equals.” Sam’s deep voice cut to me. “Something the living could learn from.”
“We still cannot let you have the nectar.” My mother’s voice was clear.
“In death and now in life, we have pledged ourselves to guard it. Protecting it from those who will use its power for harm.” Her eyes darted to Killian.
“Even if they think they will not. Corruption and greed seep quickly into the souls of those who already have a taste for those indulgences. The four treasures of Tuatha Dé Danann proved that. This might be even more coveted.”
Killian lifted his lip, showing his teeth. “But if it holds no magic anymore, what does it matter?”
“Exactly, what does it matter to you?” Mother traveled to Killian. “The distinction that you hold the most powerful object in the world?”
“I see nothing wrong with that.”
“Wars have started for less. Great damage can come from merely having it and the fool who runs his mouth off.”
Killian’s eye blazed, his anger at her insult climbing over his muscles. In a blink, this could all go to hell. And as much as I cared for Killian, I would not let him lay a hand on my mother. He’d have to kill me first.
“Stop.” I tried to step between them, my mind unstable in its natural zone. Both sides held weight for me. “You will not fight each other.” My request was directed at Killian, pleading for him to back off. “Please.”
“It’s mine, Ms. Kovacs. You promised me.”
“I made a deal.” Slight difference.
“Humans,” he snarled. “You stand behind no words your mouth utters.”
“Technically, when I made it, I wasn’t either a human or fae.”
“You’re acting human now.” He lifted his brow.
Ouch.
I turned to face my mother, her head already shaking.
“As long as it is safe here, it will not leave this land. We are its guardians. Please, Brexley.” Her dark eyes met mine, and for one moment, I felt like I was truly looking at my mother. The one I would’ve had growing up.
Then it was gone.
“But if you force my hand, we will fight you.”
“And you will lose, my dear.” Tad sighed unhappily.
He muttered words under his breath, none of them making any sense to me, but I could feel the power behind them. The rise of his staff, his determined expression. A force slammed into us, scattering us back like pebbles, tumbling and rolling away in all directions.
“No!” my mother bellowed, her voice absorbing into the funnel of energy whipping around. My nails clawed at the stone, trying to hold on, blinking against the debris beating on my face and into my eyes.
Pure light glowed from Tad, his focus on the well. Raising his cane higher, he muttered a chant I could not hear, the tornado he created flapping against my eardrums.
Every inch of my skin felt his magic. I had been around a lot of fae—powerful ones—and I had never felt anything like this. Druid magic unleashed was something else entirely. Fae were born with magic. It threaded through their very being, making it personal and specific to the person. It was them.
But Druids had a relationship with the earth, borrowing its raw power. You smelled the soil and vegetation, you heard the crackle of electricity, you tasted the water from the river and felt the wind bat at your skin, answering his call. Untamed energy being funneled into a command.
Battering at my face, I grunted against Tad’s power.
Untouched, he lifted his arms higher. So much magic swirled around me.
I knew it was probably in my head, but I swore I felt a scrape in my belly, a fluttering deep in my soul, like a heartbeat, as I watched the box with the nectar in it rise out of the well.
It was suspended for a moment, then it floated down to Tad’s arms. The moment it touched, the energy keeping us at bay vanished. The tornado winds evaporated; the sky, still and clear, blinked down on us peacefully.
My chest heaved, the sound echoing in my ears, my arms shaking and still clawing at the ground to hold on.
For a moment, no one moved, discombobulated from the intensity and the fact he flattened even the most powerful fae to the ground. Glancing back at Killian and his expression, this fact had not been overlooked. And I can’t say he was thrilled at all by it.
“I warned you!” My mother lurched up, grabbing her scythe, the other six getting up, wielding their weapons of death. Our side reacted the same, getting to our feet with weapons drawn. “The nectar does not leave our protection. We will fight you to the death if we must.”
“How kind of you to do all the work for us.” A raspy, nasal voice came from behind us, and we all spun to face the intruder, horror flooding my veins. “Little did we know in coming for her, we’d find something even better.” he motioned his gun at me.
Captain Kobak, the man too sadistic to train us for deadly combat at HDF. The man out hunting fae to torture and test stood with a troop behind him.
“And they say fae are hard to sneak up on.” He pulled the trigger.