Dark Fae (7 page)

“You little bitch
!
I’m going to steal your power.” He rolled his shoulders
,
cracked his knuckles. “And then I’m going to kill you and feed you to Morty.”

Card
slid his
sword
back into its scabbard
and came at me with his bare hands. It shouldn’t have been more terrifying than
having
him coming at me with a weapon, but it was.

Stumbling backwards, I fought to stay away from him while his laughter chased me. Fianna stood silent on the edge of the swamp.
I slammed into a Barrier, bouncing off it and hitting the ground hard.
Card had trapped me
with him
within a Barrier, effectively blocking any attempt
either
Fianna or Bres might make to help me.

Son of a bitch!

Fingers tangled in my hair and Card yanked me tight against him, my back flush against his chest. “Don’t worry,” he whispered into my ear
.
“I’ll kill you fast. You see, I can be merciful
;
our father would want that.”

One of his hands gripped my jaw and the other rested lightly on my left breast, over my heart. A pulse of energy swirled around us.

His fingers dug into me, biting at my flesh as my powers slowly began to slip away from me. This was what Luke had warned me about. I struggled, but it was no use, not against both Card’s physical strength and his innate powers.
He was stronger than me on both fronts.

Fight him, Quinn! You can turn ta tables on him!
Bres’ voice inside my head steadied me.
He stood at the edge of the Barrier, his eyes pleading with me. There was nothing he could do on that side of the Barrier
that
Card had made. I was on my own.

Bres is right, if you take Card’s power, you may be strong enough to break
Chao
s
'
hold on Ashling
,
Cora said.

A swell of
sudden
hope
that maybe I
could
save Ashling after all
was what I needed
to fight
back
. With a cry
,
I flung myself backwards into Card, throwing us both to the ground. Yanking hard, I freed myself from his hand on my jaw and turned to face him, slamming my hand over his heart.

“Card, stand
with me against Chaos
,”
I said, hoping he would see that it was the smart thing to do.

“Or?”

“We end this now.”

With a roar he tried to buck me off
. Feeling the connection he’d established between us, I drew on it, stealing his power. He tried to block me, the power stuttering. I thought of Ashling, trapped by Chaos. Everything depended on me doing this. I wouldn’t fail my little sister again.

As fast as I could, I pulled Card’s power into me, blowing through his every effort to stop me. But he was so strong that even as I took his power, he fought me. We rolled across the ground, Card pummeling me with his fists. I didn’t lift my hands to protect myself. If I didn’t take his power now, it wouldn’t matter. I
wouldn’t
be able to save myself or Ashling.

My lip and cheek were split, one eyelid was swollen shut, but I wouldn’t release my hand over his heart.
He twisted my arm and I screamed as it cracked, but my fingers never left his skin.

He sat on top of me, my right hand curled into the flesh of his chest, blood oozing out from under my fingertips. The connection between us didn’t flicker, not once.

He took a deep gasping breath. “Ah, I should have known
you’d be the death of me
.
Chosen one
.
” He began to sag under my hand.

Pausing, I asked him again. “Stand with me.
Please. Don’t make me do this.
”

“Never. You should never have been born. I was to be his heir.” He spat the words at me, h
is eyes sunk into his head, full of hatred and fury
.
“There can be only one of us.”

Tears pricked my eyes. “Then this is it.”

He grimaced, took one la
st swing at me, his fist bouncing feebly off my forehead. I closed my eyes, prayed that this would be the last death on my hands
,
and took the last drops of his power, and
,
with it
,
his life.

Bres lifted Card off me, rolling his body to one side as he gathered me up into his arms. I was sobbing
; I
didn’t remember starting to cry, didn’t remember the Barrier coming down.

“Quinn, you
be
al
l
right.” Bres
’
hands rubbed my back. “Come on, we have to go. If you want to
be
sav
ing
Luke
, that is
.”

He was right, there was no time
to feel this sorrow, we had to move fast.
Wobbling to my feet, a rush of awareness I’d never had filled my senses. Every drop of water was mine to command, from the lake, to the rain, to the moisture beading on Bres’ forehead.

I took a
slow even breath, gingerly holding my broken arm against my chest. “Let’s go
.”

Pausing, I stared down at Card’s shrunken body.
“Fianna . . .” was all I managed before she interrupted me.

“We will take care of his body.” She inclined her head to me.

Bres took off his shirt and twisted it into a bandage
to
bound
up
my broken arm. It hurt, but already I could feel the break knitting up, the split in my lip and my swollen eye healing. Ru
nning full tilt
the rest of the way
, we burst into the Banshee’s bower
,
startling the guard.

“Where’s Luke?” I asked.

She pointed to the back of the bower
,
and the trees l
eaned outwards
to
reveal the way
. With Bres at my heels, I bolt
ed down the path
, skidding to a halt in a second clearing. Luke lay on a bed of flowers, his hands folded over his still chest.

“No
,
”
I whispered. We were too late.

Bres grabbed my
good
arm. “The old man said there was a time that you could call Luke back from death.”

The Banshee guard followed us into the clearing, Fianna close behind. “How long has he been dead?”

The guard shrugged. “
A
while
, I suppose.”

Fianna stepped up. “
With
the time
that
has
already
passed where he can be brought back,
you will have wasted
the healing power of the cauldron
if you use it
.”

“I’ll take that chance
,
”
I said.

Dropping to
my
knees beside Luke’s body
,
I reached out,
then paused, staring at
Card’s
blood still cooling on my
fingers
.
I closed my eyes to block out the sight.

Damn, I knew there was something I’d forgotten. “How do I make
the Cauldron
work?” I asked.

Fianna came to my side and pressed my hand over Luke’s silent heart. “Here. It is like all magic
;
you must
will
the healing to begin.”

Pressing my palm hard into his cold skin, I prayed we weren’t too late. The warmth in my arm slid down to my fingers, the skin on Luke’s chest around my hand slowly gain
ed
colour. “Come on, Luke
, this isn’t the end, not yet. I still have to kick your ass for lying to me
,
”
I whispered.

Bres crouched beside me. “He’s a fighter
.
W
e aren’t too late.”

But nothing was happening
.
Luke didn’t take a breath
;
he didn’t pink up other than around my hand. “Come on, please don’t die on me.
I’ll let the whole lie
about Bres
slide, if you just come back.
” There was nothing, not even a glimmer of movement. This wasn’t fair
!
W
e’d fought so hard
!
I wanted to hit something, to lash out. Anything to not feel this gaping hole. I
couldn’t lose him
.
I couldn’t lose another person who
m
I cared about
.

Slipping my broken arm out of the sling,
I put my other hand on his forehead. “Damn it, Luke!” I yelled, “Don’t you dare back out on me now!”

A bright flare of heat snapped between my hand and his chest, jerking his body like an electric shock. The intensity of the light dulled my eyes; I turned my head, but didn’t let go of him.

“
Ashling?
Quinn?
”

My head whipped around so hard I smacked into Bres
, giving me temporary stars
. “Luke?”
I was afraid my eyes were deceiving me.
He had r
umpled
hair, bags under his eyes and a gaunt frame from the poison burning through his system, but he was alive.

Luke
started to sit up, but I pushed him back down. “No, you can’t
.
N
ot
yet.”

“I feel fine.
”
He
paused, “I thought for a minute there that you were your sister.
What happened? Where’s Aednat?”
h
e
asked. Then his eyes flicked to Bres. “What the hell?” Rolling away from me, Luke got to his feet and shot a ball of fire at Bres
,
who ducked the flames and spun out of the way.

“Luke, stop!” I yelped, ducking under a second gout of flame. “He’s on our side! It was Chaos who turned him against us!”

Bres continued to dodge the fire, though I could see it was wearing on him. I did the only thing I could. Running to
Bres, I pressed my back against his chest and faced
Luke. “Stop this, I need you both to stand with me. Please, Luke
.
Bres helped me save your life. He was ready to give up his own to save yours.”

Luke looked down at me, his eyes full of confusion. “What happened?”

I quickly explained about Aednat, the poison
,
and the Cauldron. When I got to the part about Card, the pain of it hit me in the gut like a punch.
I sank to my knees. I’d killed my brother, and though I didn’t love him like I loved Ashling, what did it say of me that I could do it at all?

Luke’s arms
gingerly
went around me
,
and I let my body collapse against his. I was exhausted and heart sore, and we still had so very, very far to go. Excalibur, the three Smiths
,
and Chaos all loomed ahead of me, of us.

A second set of hands touched my back and I reached for Bres. Luke stiffened up. “I need you both
,
”
I said.
He relaxed and Bres gripped my one hand, his fingers interlocking with mine.

“We have to keep her safe
,
”
Bres said, as if I weren’t even there.

“Agreed
,
”
Luke answered.

I grunted and closed my eyes, feeling grateful for this one moment of respite. It was far from perfect, but I suspected it was all I was going to get.

Fianna came to stand beside us.
“You should rest before you seek out the three Smiths. Luke,
while
you may be feeling up to the task, your body should still heal
.
Bres and Quinn
, you
should rest too after
your
fight for the Cauldron.” She never mentioned Card, for which I was glad.

We were let to a third bower
. T
his one was smaller and cozy. Three beds were made up of cedar bows, moss and maple leaves. They looked heavenly.

I crashed on the middle one, my eyes shutting as the two men spoke softly in the background. I didn’t care, as long as they didn’t start fighting, they could talk all night.