Page 65 of Duncan

“You shallnae use the wee fiend against us again,” Speal said, her voice slurring over the words. “’Tis time you have the vengeance you’ve earned, Derdrui.”

As the Cait Sith surrounded their sovereign, the enchantress hung helpless, still skewered by the stone ash’s limbs.

“Release me at once, or I will make you suffer as you’ve never imagined,” the dark Fae promised, glaring at each one. “I shall chop you up and make you watch as I feed the parts of you to vermin. You shall know pain unlike any ever known in this realm.” As they crowded closer she shrieked her last words. “You cannot do this to me. I am your mother.”

Nicole glanced back once, and saw the shifters’ bodies changing as they converged on the enchantress under the light of the rising full moon. Black fur covered their flesh, and talons sprang from their fingertips. They yowled and hissed, baring long, sharp fangs. Then Duncan touched her cheek to turn her attention to him.

“You shouldnae watch any more, my lady,” he said, putting his arm around her and walking with her along the path, leaving Shaw behind with the shifters.

As they made their way back to the bay, Fiacail passed them, followed by a large group of young hybrids. They also began sprouting black fur. More Cait Sith in the midst of changing came up from the shoreline, falling to all fours as they rushed toward the Stone Forest, where a furious yowling had started. Then came the sound of the enchantress screaming again, but this time with horror and agony, and Nicole finally understood why Duncan had told her not to look.

When they reached the shore they found Nyall and the men of the garrison hauling the bodies of the dead shifters over to an enormous pyre where more were burning. In the shallows Jamaran stood speaking angrily with King Merrick, who shrugged before he dove into the water and swam with a dozen dolphins toward the pod of killer whales in the center of the bay.

The captain came over and inspected them both. “Tell me you’re no’ shifters that killed Mistress Fairburn and my brother.”

“We’re no’ shifters, and the killing, ’tis over for the night,” Duncan told him. “Mayhap for good.”

“Thank the Gods,” Nyall said. “’Twould be me and the garrison burning on that pyre, had Merrick not brought every whale-killer in the north sea to our waters. How he convinced them help us fight the hybrids, I’ll never guess. After seeing them hunt and kill, nor shall I ever again swim near any whale-killer.”

Jamaran slogged through the surf and came to join them, his expression furious. “Merrick’s told the elders he’s abdicating the throne. We’ll crown a new king on the morrow, if those shifters that yet live dinnae slay us all.”

“Who is the new king?” Nicole couldn’t help asking.

“Me.” As Duncan and Nyall grinned, the Selseus commander muttered something in another language that sounded vile, and waded back into the sea.

“Look over there,” Nicole said, pointing at the sky above the Stone Forest, which had lit with an aurora borealis in a beautiful shade of silvery blue. “Did we do that with my pendant?”

“I cannae tell you, my lady,” her lover said. “Only I remember, ’tis the same magic I saw lighten the sky the night before my sire ended himself.”

“The magic, ’tis enchanting the entire island,” Nyall said, staring at the spot, which appeared to be expanding. “Mayhap we should take cover.”

That was when the sky exploded with millions of blue lights.

Chapter Seventeen

The morning after the shifters’ attack, Meg sat down by the tidal pool, reaching to idly trail her fingertips through the salt water collected by the rocks. For the first time since being castaway on Caladh, she didn’t loathe the smell of salt in the air, or the mist dampening her gown from the waves crashing against the rock walls. The wetness on her skin was simply that: wet.

Facing death at the hands of the wicked dark Fae enchantress and all her half-mortal daughters had made the sea seem rather tame by comparison—or perhaps it was how she had been changed when the sky had burst with stars.

“You drowned my wee sisters.” If the girls had been that, she thought sadly. Since learning she was likely Derdrui’s halfling daughter, she grew bilious whenever she thought of her origins. “Only ’twasnae your doing that slavers chained them in that ship, or that I couldnae free them.”

She stared for a long time at the horizon. Whatever the enchantment had done to her last night, it reversed the changes to her body and wiped clean all the dark resentment from her heart. The boon of being half-Fae, immortality, might still be hers. That meant she would spend eternity alone now, loving another immortal and yet unable to love him.

Two webbed-fingered hands encircled her ankles as a wet golden head surfaced.

Meg allowed herself to look into the heavenly beauty of Merrick’s eyes for three heartbeats, and then averted her gaze.

“You’ve a hundred new immortal females you may plague, Fish King, and choose from them one to transform as your new queen,” she said flatly. “Go now and leave me in peace.”

“Jamaran now sits upon the throne,” he said, hoisting himself out of the water to perch beside her. “The choice of queen, ’tis his, although I reckon he shall persuade the elders permit him name Caroline and Nyall as his consorts.”

He’d given the commander his throne? she thought, at first confused and then horrified. That meant–

“You gave Jamaran rule? Did you take leave of your wits?”

“I never desired the crown.” His expression calm, he looked out at the horizon. “My dream, ’twas exploring the world beyond these waters. When the traitors murdered my sire I begged the elders choose another, but they wouldnae heed me.”

She saw he was removing the circlet of violet-gold metal that he always wore. “Why didnae you give Jamaran that?”