Chapter Eight #4
Except Grandmother had failed to rescue him. He must have been too far gone. I danced back, retreating, keeping his attention on me. His hate-twisted face told me he meant to spread me across the throne room floor like a layer of tomato sauce on a pizza.
Dearg straightened behind him, pointed ears pricked forward, his glowing eyes bright against the black fur. He struck, Dragon’s Breath a blur of green light.
Respen screamed as both back legs collapsed underneath him. He hit the floor in a heap, as Dearg circled for his head, the big blade lifted for the killing strike. He must have hamstrung the ‘taur.
“You took your sweet time,” I told him as Respen rolled over and tried to kick him with both forelegs. He shied back, and the massive hooves missed.
“Waiting for my moment.” Dearg flashed me a grin as he swung his sword down at Respen’s head. Their blades crashed together in an explosion of sparks. “I knew you could keep ahead of him until I got it done.”
That phrase sent a wave of warmth through me. He believes I can handle myself. He didn’t see me as the helpless child I’d been -- even though I’d certainly felt helpless.
Before he could settle into serious hacking, a flaming ball of magic flashed past my head. “No!” I yelled.
But even as my heart stuffed my throat, I flung out a spell to contain the fireball -- the blue hemisphere of a shield to protect Dearg.
It should have been enough to save him, but Siobhan’s blast slammed into the shield and began to eat its way through. Fuck. My mother couldn’t attack me, but Dearg was a different matter. The blast finally disrupted the shield completely and slammed into Dearg’s shoulder, catching the fur on fire.
I hit the burning fur with a suppression spell, and the fire went out. Before I could try to heal Dearg, he began to glow, shifting to human form.
Relief surged through me, followed a heartbeat later by rage.
I went after my brother, hurling spell blast after spell blast at him, drawing hard on the power of the earth to do it.
Crippled by Dearg’s attack, he had to throw up a shield.
When he tried to drop it to launch an attack of his own, my next blast nailed him.
Cursing, Respen shielded, then energy flared white inside the glowing hemisphere.
I paused, startled, as the light vanished.
Respen had shifted to heal his own injuries, this time into a Sidhe warrior.
He rolled to his feet, tall and broad-shouldered in Sidhe armor, the visor of his helm raised.
Staring at him, I saw an uncomfortable resemblance between the two of us.
Our eyes were the same peridot green, the line of our noses were similar, and his jawline was a male version of mine, though he towered over me and probably outweighed me by seventy-five pounds.
“There you are, you son of a bitch,” I muttered. This has to be his true face.
“You honestly think you’re some kind of demigoddess?” Respen sneered. “I’m going to hack your head off and present it to Mother.”
“Sure, Norman.”
Respen looked baffled and irritated. “What?”
“You’re the kind of guy who’d dress as his mother to stab a woman to death in a shower.” Sword in my right hand, I threw a blast at him with my left, pumping everything I had into it.
He dropped the big hemispheric shield, replacing it with one the size of the medieval version, probably so he could attack and shield at the same time.
He deflected my blast and charged, sweeping his sword in huge, showy figure eights.
I parried, dancing backward as he tried to overwhelm me with his greater strength and weight.
Respen’s face contorted in a snarl of sheer bloodlust. I retreated, parrying his blows, letting my movements get a little sloppy, as if I was tiring.
Sensing an advantage, he lengthened his lunges, trying to get closer, pounding his blade against mine even harder.
I let my weapon droop a bit. Come get it, you son of a bitch.
Then I deliberately tripped over my own feet and fell flat on my back. He started to raise his sword, his face contorted in a rabid grin. “Now, you little…”
Dearg lunged, but before the prince could impale Respen on Dragon’s Breath, Siobhan blasted Dearg. At my lover’s cry of pain, I snarled, “Okay, that’s it!”
Drawing hard on the earth’s magic, I rolled away a heartbeat before Respen could behead me.
A blast of my earth magic propelled me off the ground, and I leaped five feet straight up to kick Respen in the face.
I didn’t pull the kick at all, giving him the full impact of demigoddess strength.
Knocked him right on his ass, though it didn’t break his neck as I’d intended.
I hit the ground and closed, about to cut him in two when a huge hand clamped over my shoulder and jerked me off my feet. I twisted around, swinging my sword up in a hard, diagonal arc, meaning to take my new attacker’s head off.
Narrow orange eyes stared at me in hate from a face that was far too familiar. My heart froze in my chest, iced over by sheer fear.
Bloody Olwydd, my perverted childhood nightmare.