It was confusing and painfully loud, with blinding flashes of light and paralyzing screams. There was fire in the sky; trailing after soaring sorcerers and erupting from the mouth of a dragon-djinn. I added to it; wrapping burning bundles of thorny vines around the shadowy shapes of diving witches. They'd fall before me, writhing in agony, and I'd feel only a moment's regret over their pain. These were people who had stolen life from others. They were thieves and murderers and now they were after a magical child for no other reason than revenge.
“Try to keep one of them alive!” Tiernan shouted to me over the roar of the mini tornado he'd summoned.
“What about him?” I pointed to the witch being tousled about in Tiernan's tornado. “Mine tend to come out on the crispy side.”
“Alright,” Tiernan waved his hand and the tornado followed his motion, bringing the witch straight to the ground.
The air magic dispersed as I strode forward and slapped some silicone lined handcuffs on the dazed man. He wasn't a fairy, so the iron handcuffs wouldn't hurt him or weaken his magic, but they were the only kind of handcuffs the extinguishers had and hunters didn't bother with handcuffs. After the iron cuffs were in place, Tiernan punched the witch in the face. Really hard. The man collapsed into a heap.
“That works,” I shrugged and then screamed suddenly as someone grabbed me from behind and lifted me off the ground.
I flailed about and Tiernan followed us up into the air but it was Raza who flew up behind my assailant and simply tore the man's head from his body. I started to plummet as blood gushed over me and the arms which had been holding me tight, fell away. They were replaced by new arms; bulging sin-black biceps. One wrapped tight around my waist as the other crossed over my chest. I felt Raza's cheek nestle against mine, his scent smokier than usual.
As we gently met the ground, his hands clenched into my flesh and his lips brushed my cheek before he released me. I turned to face him and he set a talon to my temple, just barely touching me with the tip. He drug it lightly down my face as he looked me over. Then he nodded, satisfied that I was unhurt, and leaped back into the sky. Firelight caught him in its embrace, turning him from a guardian angel into a demon, and I shivered. It felt like I'd just been saved by Satan; set back upon the earth to watch as he waged war on Heaven.
“Seren!” Tiernan shouted and grabbed me. “Are you alright?”
“I'm good,” I glanced at the body of the decapitated witch, which had landed nearby. The grass was turning into a bloody swamp around the corpse. How much strength would it take to behead someone with your bare hands? I shook off the morbid fascination and looked back to Tiernan, “Where's Cat?”
“Still inside guarding Johnny,” Tiernan assured me.
“Good,” I looked around at the battle and was grateful that she wasn't in it. “What about Teagan?”
“His own people will have to worry about him,” Conri said as he ran up to us. “We've got the upper hand as far as magic goes but we're outnumbered. They just keep coming, Princess Seren.”
“Then we will keep fighting,” I flung my hand out and a body dropped before us, covered in firethorns and screaming in agony. “Keep fighting until theystopcoming.”
“Yes, Princess!” Conri grinned, looking a little demonic himself, with his curling ebony horns poking out of his dark curls.
Then he lifted his head and howled, long and loud, but the sound of it seemed to just coast by me. I felt the vibration of its passing but it was like he had directed it upward. I focused on the sky and saw a shadow flinch and then a horrible shrieking carried down to us. The dark shape plummeted, striking the ground with a solid thud, but what was really fascinating was what I heard as it fell; cracking. It sounded as if the body had been breaking before it even hit the earth.
Conri looked back at me and smirked, “You're not the only one with a cool mór.” He bounded off in a loping run.
“What exactly is Conri's personal magic?” I asked Tiernan.
“The shatterhowl,” Tiernan smiled. “He can break things with his voice and he can be very specific about it.”
“Conri Shatterhowl,” I mused as another howl echoed through the night. “I'm so glad I knighted that fairy.”
“Yeah but can he do this?” Gradh, my only female guard, held up a hand and twisted it in the air.
Moisture condensed around her fingers and then hardened even further, freezing into lethal looking shards of ice. She lifted her hand and searched the sky but she didn't have to look long. A witch landed right in front of her, its form hidden by tentacles of darkness. Clawed hands reached out of the murk but Gradh was already prepared; she flung the blades of ice into the masked shape and the witch screamed.
The dark mist slipped away as the witch fell, clawing at the icicles embedded in her chest. As we watched, her screams faded and her arms fell to her sides. She was actually quite beautiful; with long chestnut hair and soft honey skin. But all that changed as soon as death came for her. The years she had stolen slipped away and her skin withered, her hair seeping into gray and then stringy white. Finally, an old woman laid on the ground before us.
“Nicely done, Queen Elsa,” I commended Gradh.
“The witch's true age is revealed,” Tiernan said from my left.
“That's one bitch,” Gradh grimaced and ran off.
“Danu damn them!” Tiernan swore suddenly and ran off too.
I followed his movement and saw that the man he'd left bound and unconscious was being carried off by two witches. They made it about three feet up into the air before Tiernan reached them. He leaped up beside them and tore one of them away with an arm around his throat. The other witch fell under the heavy burden of the unconscious man. I ran towards them but before I could get close enough to help, the second witch had dropped his cargo and followed it to the ground.
Through the shadows fluttering around the crouching witch, I caught the glint of steel. I frowned and ran faster but it was too late. The rescuer had turned into an executioner. One hand held the blade that had cut open the man's chest and the other held a heart. The shadows fell away as the heart was lifted to the witch's lips and a young man was revealed. He looked no more than sixteen, with a cherubic face and a little, pouting mouth that opened wide to take a bite of the bloody heart.
“You sick son of a bitch,” I declared as I came within casting distance of him and sent a thorny vine up from the earth to encase him.
