Flynn, of course, had no such compunctions. He walked up behind Arthur and clamped two hands on his shoulders. “Boo!” he cried in Arthur’s ear.
Arthur leapt two feet in the air, spun around, and clobbered Flynn around the head. I sniggered. Aline and Smithers may have been the ones heading to the underworld, but Flynn was the one with the death wish.
“Boys,” Clara called from the sidhe. “We’re ready.”
I approached the mounds that formed the gateway to the fae realm, the place I’d spent my entire life plotting to escape. All this time, I had no idea that Daigh knew how to resurrect thedead. I knew then that he’d kept it secret so he could also keep his evil deeds – such as the death of my parents – buried forever.
At the entrance to the mound, Clara had placed a pile of twigs and bracken. One wave of Arthur’s hand and the fire caught. It wasn’t the raging blaze, but it would do for our purposes.
“Are our sacrifices ready?”
Aline and Smithers stepped forward, joining hands as they faced Clara over the fire. Aline wore Maeve’s pendant, and Smithers had the ampulla I’d recovered from DS Judge around his neck. Aline’s jaw was set in a firm line, the same expression Maeve wore when she’d decided something and there was no changing her mind.
Sacrifice.It was the bond of a parent to a child – the love that defied dimensions and would bring down kings. Daigh may have raised me, but he’d cast me aside as soon as he no longer needed me. In all his plans and schemes, he’d never accounted for the fact that love could be his undoing.
And yet, as my gaze fell on every face in the circle; on Rowan, who’d trusted me when no one else did. On Flynn, who’d been the first of the guys to show me what it meant to have a friend. On Arthur, who had been willing to admit he’d been wrong. My gaze flicked to the box and the body lying under the tree. I would leap into the flames for any one of them, and for the first time, I didn’t doubt they would do the same for me.
This is what it is to have a family.
After casting the circle with salt and fire, Clara lifted her hands skyward, indicating that we should do the same. I stood between Arthur and Kelly, who’d insisted on being involved even though she wasn’t a witch. “I’ll do the belief magic,” she’d said. No attempt to explain that belief magic didn’t work like that would dissuade her. Jane was the only one sitting out the ritual. She remained under the tree with Connor, keeping a watch over the bodies.
“The clay steals the clay,” Clara intoned. “Death’s wings have swept away two souls who are before their time. We humbly submit for their return and offer in exchange these worthy replacements. Let the clay steal the clay.”
“They clay steals the clay,” we chanted. “The clay steals the clay.”
At least our chant was in English. Corbin always made us chant in Latin or Orcish or whatever extinct language he was obsessed with that week. As I spoke the words, I focused on drawing up my spirit magic. There was precious little left after our efforts with the Slaugh, but a trickle still snaked through my veins. I hoped it would be enough. Thinking of Maeve and her bright smile, and Corbin and his sacrifice drew up a fresh burst from a source deep inside me. I forced the magic through my palms. It crackled in the air as it merged with the other witch’s power, creating a great cone that extended down over our circle.
The ground shook. I dug the heels of my boots into the earth to hold myself upright, and kept pushing. I remembered Maeve’s quick mind and how she stood defiant even when she was scared, how she got that authoritative tone in her voice when she lectured one of us about science, how I kissed her for the first time and it was like no kiss before that had ever existed.
Spirit magic churned inside me, pulsing against my palms as I fed it into the spell. The ground bucked and swayed, sending chunks of dirt cascading from the sides of the sidhe.
A dark crack opened in the earth in front of me, running front the top of the sidhe steps out toward Clara – a dark path none should ever follow. Black fog poured from the crack, which widened, the earth groaning as it was torn asunder.
Aline gripped Smithers’ hand. “Are you ready, my love?”
Smithers’ nodded.
Aline flashed him a bright smile with no hint of sadness. They broke from the circle, and together they leapt into the darkness, into their doom.
The void shuddered as the darkness embraced them. My stomach clenched as a flash of green caught the corner of my eye. A figure darted from the forest behind the sidhe, running toward us at full speed. It broke through the circle and paused on the edge of the void, white plaits whipping around her face, arms outstretched, ready to jump.
“Liah!” I cried.
Her face spun toward me, her expression ice. She nodded and dived into the void.
I surged forward and dived after her. As I toppled into the void, another body brushed against mine. Isadora’s eyes met mine, her mouth curled into an O of surprise. I tried to shout at her to get back before she fell in herself, but the darkness filled my mouth with gloom. My body exploded with pain as it collided with terror itself, and the Underworld swallowed me completely.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-FIVE: CORBIN
Maeve crackled with power. A cold glow rose off her skin, a blue flame burning bright with power. Daigh stiffened in her arms as she pressed her hand to his temples and blasted his mind with her pain. She screamed, he screamed, and the whole of the underworld groaned under their collective agony.
My breath caught in my throat. My legs froze in place. I didn’t know what to do, what I wanted Maeve to do. I wanted to see Daigh suffer as much as she did, but was this the way? Was this the right way?
Maeve’s eyes fluttered open, and her body went slack. She tore her hand from Daigh’s temple. The air whispered as her magic snapped from his mind. She stepped back. Daigh wobbled on his feet, steadying himself against the steps.
“Sorry father,” Maeve said, staring down at the blue light glowing around her hands. “I never was very good at listening to my parents. I don’t want to kill you. I think we should talk.”
