“Call her now, William! Now!”
BRIENNE!He shouted it with his voice and his thoughts and his heart and his soul.
In horror, he watched the firefight outside the circle between Brienne and her father end in a flash—one second she held him back and in the next she disappeared. He heard Hugh’s victorious laugh ring out. If Hugh entered the circle now and completed the other ritual with his blood, the world would end in fire and destruction.
In the next instant, before he could breathe or move or think, Brienne materialized from the torch that Hugh’s man held. Still fire, she held out part of her and it became her hand and arm. Aislinn grabbed her, joined the three, and cut her wrist over the pool of their blood, adding the molten-gold colored blood to theirs. The marks of their bloodlines lit up on their skin, and suddenly the stones vibrated, sending out a sound unlike any he’d ever heard before. Chiming bells or singing stones? A barrier formed between the stones, keeping them inside.
And Hugh was outside.
“We are not finished yet, and he still has the power to destroy those outside,” Aislinn said. “The stones must be marked and sealed.”
The warblood turned and saw a great chasm form in the center of the circle. A roar emanated from deep within it.
“The goddess will try to escape now. Find the stone carved with your symbol and”—she smeared some of the gathered blood onto her mark—“and place yours on it.”
He dipped his hands into the blood and smeared it on his arm, covering the mark in blood that boiled and swirled with the mixed colors and powers of the three of them. Brienne did the same, and they ran into the circle to the stone carrying their symbol.
The roar from the center of the circle increased, and the warblood saw talons and glowing eyes there. And fire, long bursts of fire and molten streams against whatever held it captive. The ground shook and the stones’ song grew louder and louder.
He found his stone and waited for the fireblood and priest to take their places. When they did, they raised their marks and placed them in the carvings at the same moment.
The sky above them glowed and swirled, creatures or beings appeared over them, and the stones melted and reached for that sky before bending over to touch in the middle, over the abyss. The altar stone cracked in two, and the pool of blood flowed onto the ground and dripped into the void. Screams of rage and agony erupted as the pit sealed from the edges into the center. Then it was gone, all of it, leaving them in the middle of an empty field, the stones buried once more deep in the earth.
The warblood, the fireblood and the priest were gone, and only William, Brienne, and Aislinn remained.
But Hugh de Gifford was only defeated, not dead.
William took Brienne in his arms and kissed her hungrily, then stepped away. Therewouldbe time for them, but first he needed to deal with the threat to his men, their people.
“Come, my love,” he said to Brienne, holding out his hand to her. “There is still much to do.” Pointing to Aislinn, he ordered the man who’d witnessed it all, “Protect her.”
Then, with his mate at his side, he strode toward the fighting.
ChapterTwenty-Five
Hugh the fireblood laughed when he vanquished his daughter.
Now all he must do to complete his quest was enter, destroy the altar stone, and join his blood with the warblood over the barrier to break it and free Chaela.
She would be glorious! Freed after centuries, aeons, she would rise above them and destroy all who opposed her, who opposed them. They would rule the world together. Gathering his form, he turned to enter the circle.
And could not!
The stones changed and glowed and kept him out. He tried as a fireblood and then in his human shape, but a force greater than he’d ever encountered, stronger than anything the goddess had ever produced, kept him out.
Gazing into the circle, he watched as his daughter materialized from the flame of the torch, a power he did not know she possessed. Pride would not stop him from destroying her now and destroying every one of those who had helped her.
“No!” he screamed as she spilled her blood with the others. “NO!”
She could not do this. She could not stop him, stop the one who gave her the power in her blood!
He became a fire of immense size and strength and tried to burn his way through whatever kept him out, but it did nothing. He pushed himself through the air, circling the stones, burning and forcing against it until a terrible noise filled the air from within it, a cry of suffering and anguish so deep that it shook the earth.
When the stones bent to join in the center, he knew he’d lost.
Hugh did not waste his time or the men he had left. He changed his plan and called out orders to Eudes and the others to gather. Creating a wall of fire, he sent it out at the attackers, forcing them away so that he could escape. Riding away from the site of his first defeat, he offered up his prayer and pledge to his goddess. He knew it was not a complete failure, for he’d taken steps to begin the chaos that the goddess would finish.
Now that he knew how the priests communicated and what knowledge they shared, he grabbed one of them as they rode past. Not seeing Brisbois, and realizing he would die at the warblood’s hand in the circle, Hugh tossed the priest to Eudes, who would now have to extract that information that his torturer would have. With the priest, he could gain the location of the next circle, his next chance to free her and destroy their enemies. As they reached the top of the ridge, Hugh opened his senses, trying to get some idea of where they needed to go. Ripples of power echoed to him from the north. The priest Aislinn would discern the specific location from signs inside the stones, and their prisoner would share that with him.
