Chapter 35 #2
The unbridled connection to Ormr’s powers created a cacophony of rioting energy.
I sent my arms out wide again. Heat of the flames snapped and crackled around me.
Reaching for all four corners of the castle, I pulled the snapping, biting fire once more and let it build until it was heavy like a lake and I a dam.
With that pressure, I pushed my arms out, the Ulfberht pointing.
With intention, I bent the laws of physics and laid the rest of the fire line. It sailed out the front like a heavy rope falling out a window and drew a circle protecting the castle.
Shouts of alarm crescendoed as I guided the crackling rope into place.
The last of it slithered and snapped, closing the circle as I descended the stairs. The men at the base of the stairs forgot about Rowan and Tee, who’d been knocked into a door frame, and instead stared at the fire funneling out of the castle.
The fire within kept the circle burning, and once set in motion, it continued. It undulated past me as I worked my way down the stairs. Tee and Rowan, whose blood dripped from his nose, turned on the men.
I spread my arms and raised my voice to a booming level. “Did you find what you came here for? Was it me you wanted, or was I the snake in the grass?” I clapped my hands, and the fire that still clung to me sparked and sizzled out.
Three sets of eyes landed on me. The shorter, grizzled man raised his pistol.
“No.” I pointed the sword at him. The undulating line of fire grew a root and struck him in the chest. He was knocked off his feet. The other two on the other side of the river of fire were left to Rowan and Tee.
Rowan’s body softly glowed. He was magic-touched, with Orabilia’s moonlight glow coating his skin; her ethereal breath had blown into my lungs with the aid of Ethel.
TJ, Minory like me, wore a golden dragon torque on his neck, a metaphysical manifestation that matched the one around mine.
I tightened my grip on the Ulfberht, and everything our magic touched flared.
I smiled.
Tee was on the man with brass knuckles. He put a fist to his kidney like an army-trained bare-knuckle boxer—a practice he found as valuable in combat as he did back home when he was escaping from promised women’s beds.
Rowan had the trained fighter in him too, and when the ponytailed kid turned to run, Rowan stepped in and punched him off his feet. The man TJ had struck was open-mouthed, holding his back in a silent scream.
I nodded at Rowan and my brother. “Let’s move them out.”
Rowan, I noticed, refused to make eye contact with me, and opposite him, my brother could do nothing but stare open-mouthed.
“What?” I asked. “Do I have something in my teeth?”
TJ shook his head. “Not unless your teeth are towering over you in a face that looks like Granddaddy’s.”
I looked up, and sure enough, the Viking was back. He felt a part of me like a visible memory—keen to do as I asked and lend his lived knowledge to me—then fade when the need for him was gone.
I grinned at him and felt the air crackle with sparks. “TJ, meet Ormr.”
Tee gave the glowing transparent silhouette following me a salute.
“Come. Grab a man.”
We grabbed the collars of the downed men and moved through the front door. There, I could feel the heat of the circle of fire; it was still siphoning its power from the flames within. But as I dragged the young man through it and down the walk, a chill ran up my spine.
A gunshot rang out, and something clipped my shoulder. I was only one part metaphysical being. I felt a sting as my shoulder snapped back. I lost the grip on the man I was dragging and stumbled. I was flat on my backside on the gravel, staring up into the night sky, before I knew what had happened.
Rowan was quickly on all fours over me. Then there was TJ. The wave of his soft golden light made his tan seem darker, and his eyes glowed delicately within their sockets like a night animal used to the dark.
“It’s OK. I’m OK,” I said and sat up.
I rolled my shoulder. TJ saw the wound as Rowan braced me with my good arm. He then put his hand to my cheek. We were below the opposite wall of the walkway, and it gave us temporary shelter.
TJ murmured, “Just nicked you. But it’s a decent gouge.”
Rowan and I shared a long gaze in which he connected us. The cooling buzz of his power washed over and through me, and he asked for something I didn’t understand.
“Protection? Of course. I’ll protect you; stay behind me.”
“Not tonight.” His lips crushed down onto mine, and his passion made it evident that he’d spent the day watching his clan, his loved ones, his family artifacts come under fire. What he was about to do was retaliate. He was going to find the man who had pulled the trigger and put him in the ground.
Then he was gone.
“Rowan!” I fell forward in his absence and shouted as he cleared the wall and disappeared like a Scot moving into battle.
“Pip—”
“Goddamn it.” I felt anguish move through me, mixing with the power I was consuming. The fire arc dimmed with it, and TJ looked from the fire, then back to me.
“Pipsqueak. He needs to do this.”
“I can protect him. He—”
“I don’t know how all this magic stuff works, but how about you use whatever it is that feels like it’s pulling my fillings out and weakening my knees and put it into Rowan.”
I felt like wailing. “He’ll drown,” I managed to say.
“He won’t.”
I looked askance at my older brother. I really wanted to believe him, but I couldn’t take his word on this one thing.
“This afternoon he—we—discovered that he can funnel your overflow of energy into others. I’m thinking it has to do with people you connected or Ethel connected that night on the cairn knoll.
If I was a guessing man”—TJ held his hands out, indicating his golden glow—“this is coming from him.” He rubbed his fingers together.
“Has that brother feel to it.” I noticed the blood on his hand where it had been on my shoulder.
“If this light is residual from him, and it feels like you’re taking it, like a loop of energy, then something tells me that whatever you two have going on, he can likely build up that energy to become as powerful as his great-granny,” he said, talking of Orabilia. “He’s not gonna drown, Pip.”
I blew out a breath at the hope he gave me. “Damn, Tee.”
“What?”
I hugged him tight. “I’m so glad this one time you did your homework.”
He grinned. “Yeah, this time felt like I should pay attention to what I was being taught.” Then he chanced a glance over the wall. He ducked as a bullet hit the opposite side, spraying rock fragments into the air.
“Now seems like the right time to give it a go.”
Looking at the empty space where Rowan had been, I spoke into our connection: I give you all that I am and all that you need until you tell me to stop. Then, I released into it.