Shadowborn (35 page)

I knew what I had to do.
Their mouths gaped open as they arrived. All but Brígh. She smiled through her tears.

“Do you trust me?” I asked, my voice carrying like a chiming bell upon the wind.

Cas nodded with the innocent eagerness that had first endeared him to me. Neve and Andrew followed his lead, Brígh the last.

Liam approached with a strange look of awe. “Do you really need to ask me?” His fingers moved through my energy. “I trust you with my life.”

Other minds crowded into my peripheral senses. “We need to hurry. No time to do this gently.” I allowed my power to flare over them, searching deep in their souls for their suppressed energies. All were so different.

Some were tangled forests with little pockets squirreled away. Others surged and retreated like ocean tides, though only half of the liquid power moved.

Have to hurry.

Brígh’s energy reminded me of the fountain in Freymoor, making me think she would be least likely to fight me off. One beacon of Light beamed upwards from an open plane in the core of her soul. A shadow darkened the spot beside it.

Brígh heaved forward and cried out when I touched her darkness.

“Don’t fight me, Brígh,” I shouted when her metaphysical wards started to clamp down
.
Stupid me. Because her gift was a mental one that she couldn’t share with anyone, even Gallagher, her control would be stronger than the rest.

Cas held her, arms wrapped around her chest from behind as I ripped her open wide. Gold and black rippled across her skin until she, too, burst into pure energy like me. I took Andrew next, and he helped me, having known he had the potential for darkness but hadn’t summoned the courage to go looking for it himself. Neve and Cas fought me until the three who had succumbed encouraged through touch and words that they had to embrace their true nature.

I should have been spent, but the energies mingled within me, charging me as if I were a battery designed to soak up fae energy.

Liam held his hands out. “Please, take me with you. Help me find my Light, if I have any to find.”

As I edged closer to him, wondering how it would change who he was, my Light engulfed him. He sighed and waved his arms through it. “So beautiful.”

With my senses already on high, I picked up more minds flowing in from the north. So many, all terrified.
My hair stood on end or at least prickled as it would have if I hadn’t been a glowing ball of fire.

I stared at Liam. “Are you sure about this? The others were different, more neutral than you are, more Seelie. I might not be able to undo it.”

“We’ll be the same, don’t you see? I remember. Until I saw you just now, I didn’t, but I’ve seen my mother take this form long ago. I want this.”

“Hurry, Lila!” Andrew shouted from where he’d gone to keep watch at the edge of the clearing. “The shadows are getting closer, and it ain’t no squirrel.”

I moved to Liam and did what I’d been aching to do all day. My fingers slid through his hair and reached down the ridges of his back. “Open yourself to me,” I said. “No holding anything back from me again. Ever.”

His arms slipped around my waist. “I’m yours. All of me.” He groaned and flinched in my arms.

“Where is it?” I asked against his ear, wandering his darkness. “You keep your energy all over the place, and it’s all the Unseelie sort.”

Cas’s voice broke through my concentration. “Now, Lila! Holy fuck, now would be good!”

“You all have to leave,” I hollered back, forcing my Will out to make them comply. “I have to be alone when he gets here, and I can’t concentrate with you yammering on like that!”

“We’re not leaving you,” Neve snapped, grunting as my order slammed into her, and she and the others exited the clearing to the left.

“Help me, Liam. Where is it?”

His body shook as I went deeper into him. He cried out again, jerking and squeezing me.

“You have to let me in all the way, or I can’t do this.”

With my flesh and bone turned into energy, I wondered if I could go even deeper with more than my
cumhacht
. A flex of my fingers allowed them to pass through him.

Liam’s muscles began to relax, and he went limp, both mentally and physically. Grunting and focusing on his mind, I sank fully into him. Buried far beneath the scars of distrust, abuse and years of torment by his people, I found a small glimmer.

I tore it open.

The blast sent me hurtling backwards. I braced myself, expecting to slam into the tree, but I sailed right through it.

When I managed to right myself, I found Liam hovering above the ground, colors rolling across his body, mesmerizing and bright. His laughter filled my ears and would have induced my own if I didn’t know he had to leave.

“Go now.”

He flashed a defiant smile. “I will never leave you again.”

“You can’t help me this time. I have to figure this out on my own.” I sent a burst of energy at him, laced with my Will. “Go.”

As he sped toward the trees, frustration burning in his eyes, he said, “You can’t keep me away from this fight.”

“I can, and I will.” Using my Sight, I located Neve and Andrew. “Keep Liam away. Tell him … tell him I love him.”

31

Overwhelming panic swirled in my body, making it hard to think. I still didn’t know how to defeat the dark freak and had run out of people to ask. I only knew I didn’t want to give anything away and had to reabsorb my Light.

It wasn’t as easy as normal, but I managed just before figures rose out of every shadow around me.

Out of the dark splotch beneath Talawen’s tree, a familiar form grew. Juliet’s head emerged above the ground, a scream pouring from her mouth. Alastair held her by the back of her neck with his smoky fingers.

I lunged toward them, but Alastair squeezed harder around her neck. “Oh no, Lila. We’re going to do this my way.”

Juliet opened her mouth repeatedly as if failing to bring in air.

“And what way would that be?” The whirlpool of power circling in my center wanted to break free and strangle him, but with no physical form, I could try all I wanted, and he’d laugh at me. Instead, I kept it swirling and ready.

“Since my employers have been delayed on their way to claim you, we’re going to do this the sporting way.” His laughter, a sound like shattering glass, made me grind my teeth together.

I’ll give him sporting.
I put out the call to Parthalan. “
Circle the area, but do not let the Shadowborn see you.”
I hoped my instincts hadn’t gone astray on that one, and he didn’t end up screwing me over.

“I’m right here, Alastair. Let her go, and we’ll play whatever game you like.”

“We are coming, Missstresss,”
Parthalan answered through our link.

“Do you think I’d be that dense?” With his free hand, Alastair removed the silhouette of a hat and set it on a broken branch protruding from Talawen’s tomb.

I started to close the link to Parthalan, thought about it, and left it open. The entire nation of undead would be linked to me through him, and no matter how far away they might be, the link would let them react in seconds rather than minutes.

The mass of shadows around me writhed with opened mouths as if screaming, but no sound came out. I had no choice but to pull my senses in closer so their terror wouldn’t rip my heart out and undo me.

“I’m listening, so tell me what you want.” I kept my arms flat at my sides, though clocking him in the face would have been so sweet.

“What I want is for us to play hide and seek until either I claim your soul by wit and trickery alone, or you run out of the fae power you hide behind.”

“And if I don’t agree?” I swallowed and steeled myself for his next response.

“Then I will rip out Juliet’s soul, destroy her body and strand her in the In-between for eternity.” Bitterness dripped from his voice. “And then I’ll do the same to every child who crosses my path until you surrender.”

No!
I didn’t want him to know he’d unnerved me, so I blanked my face. “Is that what happened to you, Alastair? Did someone deliberately do this to you?”

“Don’t get philosophical with me, you faerie bitch.” He jerked the girl toward me.

Juliet struggled silently in his grasp. “Don’t be mad, Lila,” she cried. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”

Tears pricked my eyes. I smiled, though it ended up a shaky expression. “It’s not your fault, sweetheart. Alastair needs help, and nothing you could have done would have stopped him from getting what he wants.” My thoughts fell silent when I realized I was talking to myself, too. Juliet reminded me of myself after Parthalan killed my family. Lost, drowning in guilt because it was my fault.

“Isn’t that precious.” Alastair bellowed out broken laughter again. “Too bad your fae existence is about to end, or you could have been her faerie godmother.”

That was why I had such a need to save her.

I had to believe I could be saved, too.

Something clicked in me, spread open the way the floor had the night my mother hid me beneath Gran’s bedroom. The swirling energy spun faster, and I somehow knew I had the capacity to absorb more, and fast.

A big fat ‘fuck you’ burned in my throat, but I forced it down. I had to keep focused on the puzzle.

The list the elves gave me scrolled through my head. My feelings for Nix and Liam were clear, and I thought, by my body’s reaction, that I’d managed to forgive myself for my family’s death. I’d begun to learn my people and let them know me. The last one was for me to either accept my bond with Parthalan or find a way to dissolve it.

Although it didn’t scare the bajeepers out of me anymore, I’d never accept my connection to him. Could my new energy destroy it?
No.
Venturing into my mind where our bond existed might turn me into a psychotic lunatic when I needed to keep my wits about me.

Was that what I needed Parthalan for?

“I see the cogs turning in that brain of yours,” Alastair twittered. “Cross me, and she will suffer an eternity of torment. Lost and alone in the dark. You have until Juliet loses consciousness to decide whether you will play with me to save her. Or not.”

At her slowing struggle against the grip on her throat, I lurched forward, a growl burning in my throat. “Stop it! I agree. Damn you, I agree.”

When he pushed her down into the shadow again, I realized he had no intention of letting her go no matter what I did. If I didn’t kill him, he’d never stop destroying lives.

You have to figure this out. Think!

“As per my orders, I’ll give you to the count of five before I’ll come for you.” He rolled his shadow hat along his arm, dropping it on his head. “Happy hunting, my children.”

“Wait, I thought you said it was just you and me.”

“Five. Assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups, wouldn’t you agree?” His tone fell low and sharp. “Now, run. Four.”

I really hated that guy. As I took off in the opposite direction, I thought. Talawen said I needed an extraordinary amount of energy to kill Alastair, to look beyond my world to find it. Could I gather power in my regular form without him knowing it?

I brought enough Light to my flesh to drive back the wall of Shadowborn who blocked my path. With a thousand of them hunting me through unfamiliar woods, the chances of finding the time to concentrate on gathering energy dwindled to nil.

The time for distraction had arrived.

I had to hope Alastair would think the Sluagh hunted me as well so he wouldn’t get pissed and kill Juliet.

Through my link with Parthalan, I relayed my plan. “
Keep them away from me for a while if you can. Swoop down as though it’s me you want, but don’t let them touch you. From what Alastair said, I gather the others can’t steal your souls, but they can hold you until he comes to do the job
.”

The sky darkened as I finished my commands. Parthalan must have had them waiting nearby.

Crafty.

Wings drummed by the thousands above me as I continued to leap over logs and dart around bushes. My Sight told me two groups—one to the left and one to the right—of Shadowborn flanked me.

A storm of feathers surged overhead, circling above the trees over my position. I’d never searched for fae minds with my eyes open, nor had I ever been able to penetrate the wards around either city. Would they come to me even if I contacted them? Would they all hate me for making them realize their true natures?

I had no time left to debate the moral implications of what I had to do. My Sight traveled across the land in a blur. With my purpose a burning icon in the distance, I understood how Neve had been able to run so fast, to direct energy to whatever part of me needed it, even the Goddess’s senses. Fae lit up like tiny flames in my head. First the Seelie—shiny and bright. The Unseelie moments later—when my inner vision reached the Black City. They came as red embers, sparking and flaring.

A dark shape filled my vision to the left. One of the Sluagh darted at me, knocking me out of the Shadowborn path. They grabbed the Sluagh and sucked it down into the earth.

Shit.
I hated being right. Were they forever dead?

Gritting my teeth, I reached out to all those fires in my mind and stoked them to life, summoning them to me. Through my Goddess-given connection to them, they would sense my urgency and know what I needed. Energy flowed in warm columns from them, filling my body. I still didn’t know what to do with it.
Fucking peachy.

More Shadowborn came for me. Another of Parthalan’s people knocked me out of the way and into a thorn patch only to disappear into the ground afterward.

With each one that fell, the singular Sluagh mind screeched in my head. A searing jolt of pain ripped through me.

So far, I’d only siphoned the surface energy from the fae.

Their flames grew stronger, hotter. I gasped.

Had I forced my Will on them? Had I erased the small bit of ground I’d achieved with them? I continued to run until I found myself back in the clearing, a wall of shadows closing me into the space.