Holding the temporary bindings, I moved to the north. Cia walked to a position sixty degrees to my left, close beneath the moon, now high in the sky. Liz took the third place. We spread the energies we were working into the full one hundred eighty degrees of the equilateral triangle. Then we backed away, spinning the magics out until we touched the permanent circle of the outer trench, and sat—not so easy when a baby was in the way.
I pulled out the rosemary needle-leaf and placed it between my knees. Cia and Liz each placed their elemental focal between their knees. Ciainvoked the circle:“Dùin.”It was Scottish Gaelic. The circle rose around us, enclosing the half-bound demon, Death and Fear, and three Everhart sisters, but excluding my home, husband, and children. Everything I held dear was safe. Except my sisters. I mouthed my thanks to them and got a wink from Cia and a nod from Liz.
“Faoi dhraíocht,”Cia said.Bound by a spell.Her hands braided the energies, twisting, pulling, sliding them through her fingers.
“Hhí ceangal na gcúig gcaol air,”Liz said.He is bound hand and foot.She plaited the energies she held with her twin’s. They grew bright, a lovely blue and lavender tinted with paler pinks. The demon screamed, his howl full of anger and pathos and thwarted desire.
A cheangal, I thought, calling on my daughter’s angel. I wove my death energies—no. I wove my earth energies and Death’s own energies in with my sisters’.You said I could cheat death, I thought to Hayyel.
I gathered Death’s magics, magic he had passed to me freely with his boots, into my own and tied them to the single rosemary leaf. I scraped the brimstone off Death’s boot; at the same time I wiped sweat from the inside onto my fingertips. I rubbed the darkness and the sweat together and took up the weaving, letting the magics pull through the mixture. I wove the dark energies and the sweat of Death’s foot into the binding mix. Softly, I said the words“Mallachd dha! Mallachd dha! Mallachd dha!”three times.Curse him, to hell with himin the language of my mother’s mother’s people.
Death stood up fast. His eyes blazed with golden light. He glowed. Ravens began to call, the crowing of blackbirds out of place at this hour, screeching, screaming.
Fear reached into her Hermès bag and pulled two weapons, the slidesschnickinginto place as she chambered rounds. She aimed the weapons at me. Big Evan laughed, the sound all wrong, too deep, too heavy. Thehedge of thornson the house shivered and flashed a nearly black and sapphire blue. The weapons didn’t fire.
Sam stretched out his hand to me. To the death magics he had come for. The death magics he wanted to steal to rule. I said a final time,“Mallachd dha!”
Death screamed, his cry like that of the ravens. Sally, Fear of Death, screamed with him. Their wails rose, a crescendo that cracked across theair and made the boulders out back shift and slide in a grinding tumble. Fear and Death both vanished.
The demon wailed and screeched, writhing against the bindings. It began to stretch and twist and pull, the power of brimstone dragging the demon after them in a long twirling trail of dark energies. It vanished. With it went all the power in the equilateral triangle, then in the outer circle. Our own magics snapped back painfully. Liz and Cia swore at the sting.
There was only the final echo of the ravens. Silence settled upon the night.
I slid sideways and lay on the chilled ground.
Cia stood. So did Liz. Big Evan dropped the house ward and was by my side faster than he should have been able to move. He picked me up as if I weighed no more than his daughter and carried me inside. Liz and Cia gathered up the Hermès bag, the weapons, and led the horses to the backyard and grass to eat.
—
My sisters and my husband fed me tea and microwaved soup while they drank Evan’s best single malt. The Everharts helped Evan unwind my babies from thesleepy timeworking and put them to bed. It was too late for the girls to make the trek back down the mountain, so they crashed on the oversized couches in Evan’s man cave. I curled up in my husband’s arms in the bed we shared.
“Your magic is different,” Big Evan said. “It’s cooler. Less barbed than before.”
“I think... I think I figured out that death magics belong in hell,” I said. “I think I channeled them, well, most of them, there.”
“Temptation to use them is gone?” he rumbled.
I let my mouth pull into a wide smile. “Yeah. Your turn. Your magics feel different too. Hotter. More barbed.”
Evan nodded, his beard tickling my shoulder. “I never wanted to kill anything before, not with my magic. But this time, with you and the baby and the kids...” He stopped, his breathing ragged. “This time I wanted to hurt them. I wanted them to be dead and gone forever. It’s still roiling under my skin.”
I nestled closer. “Part of that is the nature of Fear of Death. It’ll goaway soon enough. But if you can’t sleep, the baby’s nursery needs another coat of paint.”
Evan chuckled. “Later. Tonight, I just want to hold you.” He kissed the top of my head.
“Cia and Liz got Sally’s bag and everything in it.”
Evan sighed. “More trouble. But that’s a problem for another day.”
“They got sucked into hell with the demon. We cheated Death,” I said.
“And Fear. Nothing wrong with cheating the bastards. It’s what life does every day.”
That’s my hubs. Full of wisdom. And strength. And all good things. “Night,” I whispered.
“Good health and happiness. From now on,” Evan whispered. I smiled into the dark. It was the Everhart blessing. And it was good.
My Dark Knight
