Chapter 38
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
The screaming began seconds later. I shoved those sounds of horror out of my mind, focusing solely on the two people who’d caused such heartbreaking havoc in my life.
Lugh’s eyes widened, as if he were surprised I’d chosen to shift in public and quickly stepped out of the way. Rachel’s scream was horror movie worthy. She took one look at me and turned on her heel, hauling ass for the forest.
I was enormous, but I wasn’t slow. Catching up with her took seconds. I caught her at the edge of the woods, hooking one sharp, black-tipped claw through her belt. She continued running like she was on an invisible treadmill until I tossed her up in the air and let her crash onto the ground.
A keening wail tore from her throat as she stared up at me. “D—don’t kill me,” she breathed. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
I wanted to kill her so badly, but she was weak and helpless beneath me. Killing someone like her was too easy. It felt…unsporting. The voice that came out of my mouth made Rachel piss her pants, the acrid scent of urine filling the air as I loomed over her.
“You are banished from this country permanently. You will have no contact with any other Lords, and if you do, I will send my people into your home to carry out the punishment you deserve. They’ll drag your sorry ass in front of your family and slowly rip you apart.
When I let you go, you will head straight to the airport.
Do not take anything with you, do you understand? ”
She blinked up at me in confusion. “You’re letting me go?”
“You are a waste of space, and your father’s eternal punishment will be dealing with you.” I released her and stepped away, concrete cracking under my massive paws.
“Th—thank you.” She scrambled to her feet and backed away.
I snorted, fire blowing from my nostrils. Rachel paled and spun on her feet. In a flash of light, she was a small wolf running away.
Barrett and Lugh circled around each other.
“Two Chimeras?” Lugh’s eyes were lit with a wild purple light. “If there are two, there must be more. How delightful. My contact mentioned only Evie and how important she was.”
I stopped in my tracks, my mind working furiously.
Realization hits me like a truck. The swans. Fucking birds.
They were next on the list. I was going swan hunting, and I didn’t give a shit if they were out of season.
Caelan had disappeared. Moira was nowhere to be found, and Garrett and Simone circled around the god and Chimera, searching for a way to assist, but doing so could get them killed.
Mom and Dad were lingering somewhere close, the comforting tingle of their combined power in the air around us. They’d step in if Garrett and Simone endangered themselves, but other than that, their hands were tied.
A real bummer, that. Dad could snap his fingers and turn Lugh into dust.
I needed to get closer to Lugh. Taking him down in a physical fight wouldn’t be easy, but I had no plans to go that route.
As if he sensed my thoughts, Lugh blinked away from Barrett. A moment later he stood before me, wearing a slight smile.
He snapped his fingers and the world fell away.
We stood in a field of heather, the sky lit by the stars. I was back in my human form dressed in clothes I had tossed long ago. A cool breeze lifted my hair from my neck and my clothing…
I took a step back. “No.”
Lugh’s soft laughter sent the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
He hopped up on a fence post and balanced on one leg.
The bastard knew his illusions wouldn’t work all that well on me, so he’d sent me back into my memories.
These were real. I knew this had happened—this moment that changed the entire trajectory of my life.
“What do you want from me?” I asked, my gaze scanning the field for the man who’d destroyed me.
“You are queen,” Lugh said. “Maybe one day I’ll require a favor.”
I searched for a way out of this place.
“You can’t leave. This is not an illusion. It’s a memory. We aren’t in the town square, and we aren’t in Scotland. We’re inside your head, Your Majesty. Everything here is real.”
“What favor?” I asked, my heart a pounding thud in my chest. He would be here soon. I wasn’t in the field for that long before he showed up.
Concentrate, Evie. Be the bridge.
I took in a deep breath even as hot tears burned my eyes.
“Open ended,” Lugh said, hopping from foot to foot like we were two friends hanging out in a field on a quiet Friday night.
“No.”
“Mmm. Finn is not far away. He’s eager to attend you.”
I bit my lip so hard, I tasted copper. “Why are you doing this? You could have asked my father for a favor, left me and my friends out of this.”
“Your friends and your father do not have the influence you do.”
I stared at him incredulously. “My father has more power than I could ever dream of!”
Lugh’s brow furrowed. “You really believe that don’t you?” He laughed and hopped off the fence post. “No. He doesn’t. Your father was made from…” His voice trailed off and he squinted at the sky. “Primordial ooze, I suppose. His powers are limited.”
I’d never seen my father unable to do anything.
“I see your doubt,” Lugh continued. “But he is. He’s more powerful than anyone you’ve seen, of course.
Especially your Lord. A Shifter Lord is usually a one-trick pony, though there are a few exceptions out there.
Cernunnos can walk through worlds and perform many feats, but his bloodline does not have the glory yours does. ”
I frowned. “You’ve got the wrong droid.”
Lugh blinked. “What?”
Not a Star Wars fan, then. I moved a few steps closer. “You’re betting on the wrong horse. I’m just a girl with a messed-up bloodline who keeps rolling around in shit and somehow coming up clean.”
Footsteps were coming up behind me.
Lugh looked over my shoulder and smiled. “You’re about to have company.”
My body shook, the memory of what was about to happen playing in my mind over and over again. “Even if I could help you, I wouldn’t know how,” I said hurriedly.
I took a few steps closer to Lugh. “Please,” I begged. “Please don’t make me relive this.”
Lugh smiled. “You don’t have to. I’ll need help in the future, and it’s the kind of help only someone of your ilk can help with.”
That told me I wanted nothing to do with the favor at all.
The footsteps behind me came to a halt. I looked over my shoulder.
Finn stood there, tall and handsome, moonlight gleaming on his dark hair. “Hey.”
He shoved his hands in his pocket and gave me a sheepish smile.
It had started out so innocently. The way he looked at me that night made me feel like everything was going to be okay, like maybe I was worthy of love, worthy of someone staying with me when things got hard.
I couldn’t…
I couldn’t go through it again. I wasn’t sure I’d survive.
And when the wind shifted and a slight furrow appeared on Finn’s brow, when he inhaled a deep breath and that crimson sheen rolled over his eyes, I knew I’d rather die than experience that night again, even if it was only inside my head.
I threw open all the doors in my mind, power such as I had never known flooding through my body and launched myself at Lugh with such speed the god had no time to react.
Even as he blinked out of existence, my hand was locked tight around his wrist, and I thought of the darkest, most dangerous world I could imagine.
I had no idea if it would work, if the image in my head even existed, but that was the theory of the universe, wasn’t it? The theory of the fae, too. Multiple worlds stacked on top of each other. I’d seen it firsthand with my mother.
The bridge opened in my mind, every fae realm and more realms I never could have imagined available to me. All I had to do was reach out and touch them. I could go anywhere, leave my life and start all over in a new world of flowers and forests.
But I had no desire to leave Moira or Ash or Tess or my mother and father. My life was here.
But Lugh’s wasn’t.
The god ripped and scratched and tore at me, trying to loosen himself from my grip. His teeth were pulled away from his lips in a rictus of effort, but I held on like a pitbull on a tire swing.
Magic boomed in my voice, in the air around us. “YOU ARE NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH TO BARGAIN WITH ME.”
Lugh cringed. “I’ll take you out. Just…don’t. Don’t do this.” Real fear flickered over his face, his voice a plaintive whine.
“TOO LATE.”
I chose the coldest, darkest realm, a place of barren stone and monsters, of shadows and hate, and held it in my mind.
“Evie. No. Please.”
A swirling vortex appeared beside us. When Lugh saw the world I’d chosen, he went feral. The god kicked and screamed, tossing out image after image that bounced right off my power. We were no longer in my mind. Where we were, I had no idea, only that I was the one in charge here.
“I’ll do anything,” Lugh begged. “I’ll disappear and never return. I’ll—”
“You kidnapped my friend. You brought in a woman to tear Caelan and me apart. You manipulated people I loved, and then you tried to manipulate me. You signed your death warrant the second you took me back to that field in Scotland.”
“We can talk this out. You don’t have to do this.”
But I did. With barely a thought, I moved the portal closer.
Lugh let out an unholy shriek and pulled with all his power.
It wasn’t enough.
With a heave of effort, I tossed Lugh through the portal and watched him slam against jagged, jutting stones. And when he turned and tried to stand, I waved and slammed the door shut, mentally severing his link to the bridge. The sound of his agonized scream echoed in the nothingness.
All the power I’d summoned drained away in an instant, and I found myself plummeting through nothingness.