Chapter 29 #2
The young man smiled with bright white teeth. “She’s love. And magic. Don’t we need more of that in the world?”
Carys looked at the man with her right eye and saw the swirling lights of the internet gods were still hovering around him, but he seemed completely oblivious to anything but Macha’s enchantment.
He’s enthralled by the idea of her. How long until he pulls out his phone?
As if on command, the moment Cadell stepped away from the young man, the human pulled his phone from his pocket and posed for a selfie with one of the other young people holding flowers.
It’s not her they love. Not truly.
“Agreed,” Cadell said quietly.
Godrik glared at a young woman with flowers when she approached him, and the girl backed away. “They believe it is a game.”
“It is,” Laura said. “From their perspective, this is just fun.”
Carys kept walking, leading them from the front but covering her right eye so she didn’t get distracted walking up the narrow clay path that wound from the base of Cley Hill to the summit.
All around them, revelers sang, danced, and more than one couple was having sex under blankets or right out in the open. No one around them seemed to care.
Men and women dressed in everything from beach dresses to business suits were dancing and singing around campfires and bonfires. The revelers blanketed the slopes of Cley Hill, laying out tents and tarps. A few had even set up camp underneath the swirling, blood-red sky.
“How do we defeat her when she’s pretending that it’s all love and joy and peace here?” Laura asked.
“She has enchanted the humans,” Naida said. “There is great power in this place, and the more people come, the more attention they give her, the greater her power grows.”
Carys nodded. “More people means more enchantment means more and more people and so on.”
We must break the cycle. Kill their belief in magic.
Carys knew Seren was probably right, but it made her sad.
Naida shook her head. “These humans don’t understand magic. They have no idea that some of it is dangerous. They’re just drawn to anything that seems greater than themselves.”
Someone shouted: “They want to be part of something!”
Carys heard the familiar Scottish voice above her and looked up.
“Duncan!”
Lachlan.
Duncan and Lachlan were standing near the summit of the hill, and humans pressed around them. Carys felt a well of deep and overwhelming love as she looked at Lachlan.
It nearly made her weep.
It wasn’t the bright, fresh passion that she and Duncan shared but a tested and deep love that had seen decades.
Carys experienced a flash of memories that she knew had come from her Shadowkin.
Lachlan holding her hand and running through a field when he was no more than a boy.
Watching his bright face from above, safe in the hold of her dragon’s claws.
The thrill of a stolen kiss.
The anguish of a fight and the comfort of his embrace.
She was crying when Duncan and Lachlan pulled her up to the summit of the hill.
“Carys?” Lachlan bent down. “What’s wrong?”
Don’t tell him. Seren’s voice was hoarse. Not yet.
“I’ll tell you later.” She patted his shoulder. Then she turned and threw her arms around Duncan. “You found us.”
“Are you okay?” Duncan hugged her tightly. “There was no getting into the village. I parked the van and walked with the rest of them. It was sheer luck that I found Lachlan and Godrik at all.”
The summit of the hill was teeming with people. Revelers from below who were dancing and beating drums. People walking on stilts through the crowd.
There was a fire-eater and several acrobats. It looked and felt like a circus.
“Thank the gods you are here,” Lachlan said. “Carys, did you have a vision at the well?”
Carys pointed to the eye patch. “More like supernatural, god-fueled night vision.”
Duncan frowned. “What does that mean?”
“I’ll explain later.” She stood on her tiptoes, but she couldn’t see anything through the crowd. She had to set her eyes on Macha. “Can you lift me up so I can see?”
Duncan nodded and waved Lachlan over. “Get her up.”
Carys grabbed both their hands, and the twin men lifted her to their shoulders, standing shoulder to shoulder so she could see what was going on at the summit of the hill.
Macha was sitting on a small grassy knoll in the distance while humans lay around her. There were flower bouquets surrounding her along with wads of cash, jewelry, mobile phones, and anything that seemed valuable.
“They’re giving her offerings,” Carys shouted.
“They have come to worship her,” Naida said. “They are completely under her control.”
Carys looked to her right and saw Naida on Godrik’s shoulders and Laura on Cadell’s.
More than one person was holding up their phone, live streaming the event to the rest of the world, and on every screen she saw, hearts and small thumb emojis littered the screen like bubbles floating in the air. Tiny animated presents and kiss emojis.
Thousands of people were watching. Maybe millions.
With a deep breath, Carys slid her eye patch to the left and looked at the gathering with her right eye.
“Oh.” Her breath caught. “Oh, this is bad.” She spoke to Seren in her mind. Do you see this?
I see it.
It wasn’t only humans on the hill but thousands of spirits, shadowy twisted creatures, and wave after wave of dark magic, all flowing up from the slopes around them and feeding into the red-gashed sky.
And from that red gash, power fell down on the summit where Macha lay.
The goddess was bathing in dark worship.