Chapter 41 #2
Brychan held out an open palm to try and summon his staff back, but was met with the same issue Dylan was facing.
The floating skull flew towards us, and I summoned a ball of shadows, aiming it directly at the creature's head. To my surprise, the magic hit its mark, toppling the head to the ground. But my triumph only lasted moments as the head returned to its original position within seconds.
“Oh, this is ridiculous. What's it going to do, sing me to death?” Brychan said with bravado.
He stood his ground as the ghoul flew towards him. I braced for the collision, but it never came. The Mari Lwyd had stopped inches from Brychan.
“Nothing but a parlour trick,” he taunted.
Its jaws opened, but no scream sounded this time; instead, black shadows snapped out, grabbing Brychan's face.
The shadows seemed to drain something out of Brychan's mouth, and the more it took, the more the colour leeched from Brychan's skin.
His eyes quickly became no more than two sunken sockets, and his skin aged drastically.
Dylan shot his arm out and gripped the back of Brychan's habit, hauling him away. For a moment, the Mari Lwyd seemed stunned that its dinner had disappeared. Luckily, Brychan's face seemed to return to normal.
“It drinks your soul,” Dylan gritted out as he swiped Caledfwlch at the ghoul.
“Delightful.” I shot as many balls of shadows as I could, but they didn't seem to affect it at all.
I pulled Carnwennan free, launching my dagger at its chest—or where its chest should have been, I guessed.
As my dagger connected with the sheet, the Mari Lwyd burst into pieces. It let out an ear-piercing scream like the other one Dylan had defeated.
Brychan didn't miss a beat. As soon as Dylan and I lowered our weapons in exhaustion, he had the sharp end of his staff pressed to my throat.
“Nothing personal,” he spat.
Dylan pointed his dagger at something behind Brychan. “I think you've got bigger problems than us.”
Dozens of red eyes blinked open at the end of the corridor. Brychan was sprinting down the corridor in an instant.
Dylan and I followed closely as the chorus of screams chased us down corridor after corridor.
I flung both my daggers behind me, earning a few wails and confirming I'd managed to take some down. But for every one I seemed to hit, a new pair of eyes appeared in its place.
“It's trying to tire us out; we stand a better chance of stopping and fighting it,” I called to Dylan.
He seemed inclined to agree as we turned down another identical corridor that led to who knows where.
“On the count of three, we stop to fight. Agreed?” he called to Brychan.
“Agreed.”
“One, two, three.”
The three of us skidded to a halt and drew our weapons. As I lifted Carnwennan, my sleeve caught on something.
A door handle.
Swinging it open, I called for Dylan and Brychan to follow.
I stepped out onto a ledge and my centre of gravity tilted forward.
As my arms pinwheeled at my sides, the fifty-foot drop to the base of the tower came into view.
There was nothing for me to grab on to; I had walked straight into one of the tower's traps.
I snapped my eyes shut. If I was going out splattered on the floor of a tower, I would rather not watch it happen.
Suddenly, the collar of my habit pulled so tightly that my airway was cut off. Someone gripped the back of my habit and hauled me back over the ledge. I felt the hard, muscled chest of Dylan pushed against my back.
“Thanks,” I said breathlessly.
“Don't mention it,” he grumbled in response.
Dylan slid from behind me, guiding me to stand side by side with him. Our backs pressed up against the door we'd come through. The ledge we'd ended up on was no wider than a single step on the staircase.
I dared to peer down; the bottom of the tower below us was a bloodbath.
Due to the Coven colours everyone wore, I was able to guess who was who in the massacre below. Seren stood in the middle of the tower with her staff extended. She was being circled by Osian and Mared, who I'd hardly seen in the first trial.
I was so focused on the fight happening below that when the other voice next to me spoke, I nearly tipped off the ledge.
“Well, isn't this cosy?” Brychan said.
He gripped the front of my habit and yanked me over the edge, sending me plummeting to my death.
But thank the gods for Dylan, who hadn't let go of the back of my habit the whole time we'd been standing on the ledge.
He yanked me out of Brychan's grip and tucked me into his chest. With his other arm, he gripped Brychan's face and lifted him in the air. His feet kicked out as Dylan held him over the ledge.
“You don't give it up, do you?”
Brychan whimpered and pleaded exactly like he had when I'd held him over my shadows the night he put his hands on Jazz.
Dylan looked between the drop and Brychan as a cruel smile spread on his lips.
“Come to think of it, letting you fall to your death would be way too nice. I have a better idea.”
He yanked the door open and threw Brychan back into the corridor where the Mari Lwyd lay waiting. Dylan put all his strength into keeping it shut as Brychan's screams sounded from the other side.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked as my heel rolled over the edge. Dylan placed a steadying hand on my hip.
“Even if we find a way up or down from here, that door isn't going to hold against all those Mari Lwyd in the corridor. Fighting them looks inevitable.”
I took a deep breath to steady myself, then nodded at Dylan. He flung the door open and threw himself into the corridor headfirst.
I could hardly see my arse from my elbow as ghouls came at us from every direction. I flung my daggers relentlessly, and still unable to wield his axe, Dylan did what he could, chopping them down by hand.
When my connection to my daggers wavered, I threw countless balls of shadows at them, but these proved to do nothing except annoy them more.
As we got down to the final one, which was nothing short of a miracle, I launched Carnwennan directly at its chest with all my might.
Dylan called my name as if to stop me, but my dagger hit the target beautifully, and the final Mari Lwyd exploded into pieces.
I held out my hand, expecting Carnwennan to land in it with ease, but for the first time, I felt some resistance from the dagger.
Looking towards where the last ghoul had stood, I saw why my dagger was struggling to come back.
It was buried deep in Brychan's chest. Dylan and I both moved to stand by him as the blood seeped from the wound.
He dropped to his knees, grasping at the dagger to pull it free.
Here's our fucking chance.
Gods, I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard that voice again. It had been radio silent since the last time I'd come face to face with Brychan.
As if my power heard the internal conflict in my mind, she spoke directly to me. When will you learn that people like him will stab you in the back as soon as it's turned?
I can't bring myself to kill him, I responded.
Suddenly, with no control over my limbs, my hands clasped over Brychan's on the handle of the dagger. I twisted the blade all the way around before pulling it from his chest.
“P-Please,” he begged, reaching up a hand toward Dylan.
Interlacing my fingers with Dylan's, I led him away from Brychan's body.
I lifted an open palm, and Carnwennan returned. A small smile played on my lips as I heard Brychan gargle out his final words: “Bitch.”
As we left his body behind, Dylan pressed a single kiss to my head.
“Atta girl.”
“Did you notice the smell of his blood?” Dylan asked as we ascended what I hoped would be the final staircase.
“Can't say I did.”
“It was sweet. Exactly like yours was when you had the foxglove in your system.”
I stopped and turned back to Dylan.
“You think Brychan was drugged?”
Dylan gripped me around my waist and spun me back around, urging me to keep moving.
“I think we all were. When we were standing on that ledge, I could see that Seren, Mared, and Osian down below didn't seem to be able to summon their weapons either.”
“Aeron?”
Dylan nodded. “I think he did it because he knew killing the Mari Lwyd was easier if someone could wield. But you've built up an immunity to low doses of foxglove from being given it for so many years. What that does tell us is that Aeron didn't know about the foxglove in your blood.”
Clearing the final step, we turned into an open room that seemed to be a bell tower.
“Granny really is keeping secrets.”
The tower we stood in was open on all sides. Miles and miles of lush green hills could be seen from every angle. At the centre of the floor was a summoning circle painted in the usual blood, and stag horns made up the symbol in the middle.
“First one who steps through the circle wins the trial,” Dylan said, gesturing for me to step into the circle.
I gave him a questioning look that he seemed to understand.
“When it isn't a clean cut as to who won the trial, they include a summoning circle for a first past the post win instead. I'm guessing as we both killed a number of Mari Lwyd, they can't determine who won, so they put this here for someone to find.”
“But why should it be me? We both fought those ghouls.”
Dylan snorted, and his gaze dropped to my lips. “Can you just do as you're told for once?”
One of his hands gripped the back of my neck, and the other dug into the flesh of my hip.
As he towered over me, I tripped backwards.
He caught me, barely. We were so close, his lips brushed against mine.
When he licked his lips and leaned in closer, my eyes fluttered closed, and I readied myself for his kiss.
“Good girl,” he mumbled as he let go, and I fell through the circle.
I hit the ground with an ooofff as the five Carnyx bellowed in unison, announcing my second victory.
I rolled onto my back to try and catch my breath after the wind was knocked out of me from landing.
A figure folded out of the sky above me and landed straddling my lap. I started to wriggle myself free, but when they pinned my arms above my head, I realised it was Dylan.
“You're a prick,” I spat.
“I've been called worse.” He shrugged and stood.
He reached out a hand to help me up, but I swatted it away and gave him my middle finger instead.
We'd landed in the heart of the campsite outside Llwyn Onn. Thousands of people stood in a circle around us, cheering.
This wasn't really the place for a domestic, but I was fucking furious.
“You're just letting me win because you're too scared to actually go head-to-head with me.”
As soon as I said it, I felt stupid, but my barb seemed to light a fire in Dylan's eyes as he prowled closer.
“A little ungrateful, considering how much I've helped you these past weeks.”
I snorted. “Help? I would have won those trials without you. If anything, you've just slowed me down.”
Dylan reached his hand towards my face but thought better of it and snatched it back. His jaw was clenched tight as he turned.
The next person landed in the circle like I had with a thud, her red habit seemed soaked through. I held my breath as I waited for Alaw to stand, but she just lay on her side, completely still.
Dylan dropped to his knees beside her. “We need a High Healer! She's bleeding!”
From the crowd, a stone-faced Sioned emerged and spoke in whispers to Dylan. He lifted Alaw, whose chest barely rose and fell, and carried her into Llwyn Onn, following Sioned.
I took a step to follow him, too, needing to know if Alaw was okay, but a flash of purple folded into the circle.
Seren stood with her spear outstretched in front of her, drenched in blood. A small piece of red fabric hung from the hook attached to the whip portion of her Arf.
Seren picked it off and threw it to the floor before sauntering off towards Llwyn Onn.