The Blue Woods (32 page)

Bree! What are you doing?
Nerina flashed by me, her claws outstretched as she galloped right for the Harpy.
This isn't a show!

Oh, right. I was here to do a job, not watch everyone else do theirs.

Making sure I was cloaked in shadows, I stepped out from behind the tree. I couldn't see the Rabbit, but I knew he was there; I could sense him like a bloodhound senses a fox. He and I were locked by some weird, twisted connection, and it would only break when one of us was dead.

I moved through the battle, unseen by the warriors. Something inside me had risen above the fray, and the magic moved through me by instinct. I had come to the place where I no longer had to work at it. The magic was just there, always inside me, always ready.

With one wave of my hand, I blasted two of the Malandanti out of time and space. The Dragon shot fire at me as I passed beneath him, but I turned it to water with a flick of my fingers. The water poured down on another Malandante with enough force to knock it out. The Dragon chased me down but Dario blocked his path, beating the black Dragon back with his own fire.

I had never felt this powerful. The Olive Grove, the birthplace of the Benandanti, was feeding me. It was like that Tudor house inside me had opened up and become the whole world. I raised my hand, staring in wonder at my white fingers. Jesus, I was magnificent.

An ungodly shriek made me turn. Nerina and Alessia had brought the Harpy down and had her on the ground. One of her wings tilted at an odd angle. I drifted away. They didn't need my help. Who did? I closed my eyes and sensed fear just to the right of me. Without even opening my eyes, I sent a blast of Pakistani magic. When I looked, I saw one of the Benandanti racing away toward the heart of the Grove.

I followed, drawn to the deep root of the power that surged through me, pulled by the fraught, electric thread that connected the Rabbit and me. That was where he was, I was sure of it. Glancing back at the battle, I saw that the Benandanti had the upper hand. Four of the
Concilio Argento
were still fighting, and the rest of the Malandanti Friuli Clan was nowhere to be seen.

Friuli Clan, follow me,
I ordered. They were the only ones I needed for the spell to work, to reclaim the site. We fled through the trees, pounding the earth with our need to get to the center of this entire war, to the place where it had all begun. I felt that source of ancient magic flow up through the ground and into my veins. My breath slowed even though I was running. God, it was too powerful, it was taking me over. I couldn't contain it . . . I was going to break apart.

“Holy shit,” I breathed, and then I was something else, something beyond me, something a hundred million times better than Bree.

The silvery bubble of the Malandanti's magic loomed around the site in front of us. My Clan fanned out around its perimeter, facing off against the two Malandanti who were inside, crouched at the base of the twisted trunk. I knew they wouldn't leave willingly; I was going to have to bring down the barrier in order for us to get inside. And there, through the murky gray magic, I spied the Rabbit. He was waiting for us. For me.

My lip curled. “Come and get me,” I whispered.

I was standing on ancient ground, the roots of the trees far deeper than grass and dirt. It ran into the soul of the earth. I could feel its power creep up from beneath my feet and twine itself into my bones. I was one with this magic. I
was
this magic.

From across the barrier, I saw the Rabbit raise his arms. The magic inside me reached out in all directions. I knew what he was going to do before he did it, maybe even before
he
knew he was going to do it. With one exhalation, I breathed his spell away. He threw spell after spell at me as I moved toward him, but each one I flicked off as though it were a fly I was shooing away.

Behind me, the rest of the Benandanti were fighting off the other Malandanti who had come to join their Clanmates inside the barrier. I rolled a wave of my power into them, surging their auras with a blast that sent the Malandanti reeling. Each spell I cast seemed to feed me, rather than drain me like it usually had. God, I felt like I could fly, like all I had to do was lift my arms to the sky and I would fly . . .

The Rabbit rushed at me, his feet stumbling over one another. And I realized the magic wasn't flowing through him like it was through me. For whatever reason—maybe because he was a total asshole—he couldn't access it like I could. My mouth broke into a full-on grin. Oh, yeah. I was going to make him my bitch and get the Malandanti the hell out of our Olive Grove.

I pushed my hand through the air, pushed my magic toward him, and with a loud pop, a little green halo appeared above his head.
Get on your knees,
I thought, and he obeyed. I didn't even need to speak; my power broke down any taboos that might have been left between the Malandanti and us.
Kiss the ground
, I told him, and he bent forward until his forehead touched the ground.
Stay there.

With the Rabbit out of the way, I turned my focus to the barrier surrounding the Grove. Their magic was strong; I could feel its pulse deeper and deeper the closer I got. I reached out to touch the glowing silvery dome, and it shocked me even before my fingers met it.

Okay, so it wouldn't go down easy. But neither would I.

Snarls and growls and yelps filled the air as the two Friuli Clans battled each other, but I tuned it all out. I pulled out every strand of magic from each of the sites, weaving them together to create a weapon powerful enough to break through the barrier. The sounds of the battle around me grew louder and louder, sharpened to a point where I could no longer ignore it. A Benandante Wolf flashed past me, blood streaming down its mottled brown coat, a Malandante Cougar hot on its tail. If I didn't destroy their magic soon, we would lose.

I raised my arms, and the weapon I created lifted into the air, a multicolored arrow made of light. I drew it back, as though I had a bow to shoot it out of, but just as I was about to let go, something blasted me off my feet.

“You just don't get it, do you, you little bitch?” The Rabbit stalked toward me, magic pouring out of his hands. “You can take down Tibet, and you can even take down this site, but the Malandanti will always win. We have power you cannot even imagine.”

Seriously? He thought knocking me on my ass was going to get him a win? Fuck this guy. I pulled myself back up to standing and stomped my foot. The earth beneath us shook, and cracks of light shot out in all directions. The Rabbit stumbled backward, his magic stunted. I came at him, my body lit from within. The power of the Olive Grove lifted me off the ground, bore me aloft on the invisible backs of all the Benandanti who had come before me. The Rabbit stared up at me as I hovered above him, his cloak of shadows gone, his weaselly little face pinched with shock.
You have no idea what true power is, you fool,
I thought.

The Rabbit pressed his hands over his ears; he'd heard me. There was no barrier I couldn't cross, no taboo I couldn't smash. I was beyond anything he'd ever encountered. I was so full of magic that my body felt like it had expanded all the way to Switzerland. But it was totally different from when I'd first felt it, that day in study hall when I'd made people bend to my will. There was so much goodness in this magic, so much strength. And I realized . . . the more good I did with this power, the more powerful I became. What the Rabbit did with the magic, wielding it for bad, weakened him.

I reached up and my fingers grazed the weapon I'd fashioned.
Get ready,
I told the Friuli Clan. My voice sounded like someone else's, the voice of someone maybe one day I'd become. I arched back and, with every ounce of my being, shot the arrow into the heart of the Malandanti's barrier.

The magic screamed in my ear as it went down. I watched it sizzle and fizz like a fire desperately trying to stay lit. One extra push of the Redwoods magic from me, and it went out with a last gasp.

The Benandanti rushed in to take down the last remaining Malandanti. I drifted back to earth. They didn't need me to retake the site; that spell belonged to the Clan alone. My feet hit the ground just as the sky illuminated into brilliant, beautiful Benandanti blue. It was done. The Olive Grove was ours again.

Breath found its way back into my body. The magic was still all around and inside me, yellow and green and red smoke flooding in and out of my pores like sweat. I heard dim cheers in my head . . . the Benandanti Clan and the
Concilio Celeste
celebrating . . . but the magic was so loud that it drowned everything else out.

“You think you're pretty clever, don't you?”

I blinked. The Rabbit stood over me, his cloak gone, just him and his stupid tweed jacket.
Actually, yeah, I think I am.

Words were still beyond me, the magic still so strong. But the Rabbit's jaw tightened. He'd heard me; I was sure of it.

“How the hell are you doing that?”

How are you not?

“You little cu—”

You can't even access this magic, can you?

“Shut up!” And then he slammed his fist against my jaw.

So freaking typical, a guy resorting to violence when a woman uses words he doesn't want to hear. Problem was, being punched in the face really hurt. I fell back, pain ricocheting across my skull. The Rabbit reached down and grabbed my sweater, dragged me up, propelled his arm back for another blow . . .

A jet of fire shot right past his ear, so close I smelled singed hair. He dropped me. I scrambled backward as a huge shadow loomed over me. Dario lowered his wings around me, opened his jaws, and breathed another lick of flames at the Rabbit. And like his stupid code name, the Rabbit turned tail and ran, disappearing into the darkness beyond the Olive Grove.

Get on,
Dario said, dropping low so that I could climb onto his back.

I could've handled him myself.

Oh, I know that. I was just worried you'd give him something worse than fire.

I held on to the little ridge at the base of Dario's neck and smiled. He lifted into the air, and it hit me:
I was riding a freaking dragon.
I wondered if I could put that under Special Skills on my future résumé.

You were magnificent back there, Bree. We could not have retaken this site without you.

A snippy retort formed in my mind, but I let it go.
Thanks.

Dario winged back into the valley where we'd all met up before the battle. Below us, I spotted a dozen figures, their auras streaming around them like cloaks made of stars. I could feel Nerina and Alessia nearby. I could feel all of them: the Friuli Clan guarding the now-regained site, the rest of the
Concilio Celeste
racing back to safety, the Twin Willows Clan all the way back in Maine, the Redwoods, the Congo, Angel Falls, Pakistan, the Snow Leopards of Tibet. I felt them all inside me, my soul as expanded as it had been when I'd been working the magic.
There's something here,
I said to Dario.
Something more powerful than anything I've ever encountered.

It's not the site, Bree. It's you.

What do you mean?

The hillside rose before us and Dario landed gently on its crest. The rest of the Benandanti gathered around us. I lay forward on his neck because I didn't want my Dragon ride to be over quite yet, but also because I didn't know if I had the strength to stand up by myself.

I wasn't sure I would see this in all my many lifetimes,
Dario said. He'd opened his thoughts to everyone else, and I could feel them all listening with hushed attention.
I had almost given up hope.

See what?

Dario raised his wings so they fanned around me. I was caught in the middle of his aura, surrounded by celestial light. I held my hand in front of my face. No. It wasn't his aura that enveloped me—it was my own. Somehow, even though I could not separate my soul from my body, I had grown my own aura.
What's happening to me?

Wind scattered over the hill. A faint line of gray appeared on the horizon.
You've crossed over. You've moved beyond the place of the mages to the place where the magic of all the sites joins. You have become . . .

I held my breath.

. . .
the Abbess.

Fine, I Get It, Soft Doesn't Necessarily Mean Weak

Bree

“What the hell is the Abbess?”

I paced the length of the rug in Alessia's grandparents' living room. The Clan and the rest of the
Concilio
had scattered to safety while Nerina, Dario, and I had headed back to the house. It was the wee hours of the morning, but my body buzzed with energy and restlessness. Remnants of magic still curled around me, wisps of multicolored smoke rising off me like steam.

“The origins of the Benandanti are shrouded in mystery,” Dario said from the tall, throne-like chair beside the couch. “But it's believed that the magic was discovered in the days of ancient Rome and that the goddess Diana created the Benandanti to protect the gods.”

“Diana?” Alessia piped up from her seat on the couch next to Nerina. “Like, the goddess of the hunt?”

“But that's myth.” I paused long enough to stare down at Dario. “I mean, the gods and goddesses were things that people made up to explain their world.”

“Oh, ye of little faith.” Dario smiled and stroked his trim little beard. It was hard to reconcile this neat, skinny guy with that massive Dragon. In human form, he looked like someone who spent his days taking notes in museums. “The gods and goddesses of ancient cultures were real.
Are
real.”

“Come on. You can't tell me Diana is still hanging around Mount Olympus.”