Chapter 36

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

C adell carried them over the loch, circling the fae forest in the distance before he turned back to land in the meadow closest to Duncan's cottage.

"I can already feel her magic." Lachlan dropped to the ground, and his sword was in his hand. "Carys, stay behind me."

"Got it." She wasn't an idiot. Lachlan was a trained soldier, and she wasn't.

Cadell transformed into his human form and ran with her.

"Nêrys, you're still weak from her spell."

"I'll be fine." She was lightheaded, but there wasn't enough time to recover.

Behind them, Carys heard Mared's coracle drop with a wooden thunk , and two pairs of footsteps came running out.

"Mared will watch from the sky." Dafydd was huffing as he ran, and he carried a bronze axe in his hand. "If the witch has called for reinforcements, she'll tell me."

"The wards are already up around the place." Lachlan started running toward the cottage.

"She's one woman," Duncan said. "How powerful can she?—"

The force of an invisible barrier slammed into them and cut Duncan off.

Carys hit the ground as if she'd run into a wall. She felt sick to her stomach and turned to retch, but nothing came out.

"What is that?"

"Black magic," Lachlan muttered. "She's more powerful than we knew."

Dafydd narrowed his eyes. "I feel fae magic too, my boy."

Duncan walked back and forth along the edge of the shimmering barrier, which flexed and pulsed with power. "Fae magic, is it?" He drew his dragon steel from the scabbard at his side and plunged the tip of it into the earth.

There was a scream in the distance and a shuddering groan as the earth lifted and the ground shook.

"What is that?" Dafydd growled.

"You know what it is." Duncan left the sword in the ground and nodded at Lachlan. "See if you can get through."

Lachlan nodded at his brother and pressed his shoulder against the shimmering barrier, which flexed and wobbled for a moment before he pushed through and stumbled to the other side.

"I'm in." Lachlan looked at Dafydd and Cadell. "Come on."

Cadell stepped forward, pushing through the shimmering barrier before he turned and helped Carys through, then Dafydd.

Duncan pushed through the barrier, his hand on the sword's hilt, then he pulled it from the ground behind him and the earth shook again, but Lachlan and Cadell were already running.

I will kill her, Cadell said into Carys's mind. I will kill her, Nêrys.

She'd never heard Cadell's voice so cold.

"Come on!"

Duncan ran past a copse of hawthorn trees and stopped. "Mags?"

The body of a small creature lay on the ground. It was dressed a brown dress and a green cap. Its ears were pointed, and it was barely over two feet tall .

"Mags!" Duncan knelt and touched his fingers to the small body. "What has that bitch done?"

The body moved a little bit but not much.

"She was protecting the cottage," Cadell said. "The bwbach have old power. That this Regan could hurt your brownie means she is more than a human mage."

Duncan stood and looked at Carys. "Angus. He'll be in danger."

"We need to get to the house." She looked at the tiny body. "Cadell?"

"She's alive," Cadell said. "The best thing we can do is kill the mage so Mags can heal from her familiar energy."

"I'm sorry, old girl." Duncan placed her gently under the hawthorn trees and they kept moving. "I'll be back."

The ground angled up even though the cottage sat on no hill or rise in the earth. Nevertheless, the way forward meant they were climbing over rocks and thorny ground as they approached the cottage.

"How did she do this?"

Dafydd answered. "She's using fae magic, but I don't know how."

"The fae can make a mountain out of flat land?"

Lachlan panted. "How do you think they built their forts?"

Carys slipped and fell as the sky opened up and they were pelted with icy rain. The soft grey clouds turned black as they approached the cottage, which was now perched on top of a mound. The air cracked with lightning, and Mared roared in the distance, covering the sky with fire and black smoke.

"Dragon fire cannot banish this magic," Cadell said. "She's channeling fae sorcery."

"But how?" Lachlan wiped the rain from his face. "She's human!"

"Is she?" Dafydd's mouth was set in a firm line. "Orla's consort is fae."

Duncan and Lachlan looked at each other.

"What does that mean?" Carys blinked back the rain, trying to shield her face from the weather as driving rain turned to sleet .

Cadell stepped between Carys and the rain. "Nothing is born in the Shadowlands save by magic."

"You're saying that Regan isn't a Shadowkin?"

"Children can be born here," Lachlan shouted. "Fae and human can have children."

"We would have known," Dafydd said. "If the queen of éire bore a fae child, the entirety of Briton would?—"

"It doesn't matter right now. Whatever Regan is, she's powerful and she's dangerous," Carys said. "And we have to stop her."

Duncan lifted his dragon-steel sword. "If she's part fae, this will kill her."

"We need to keep going." Lachlan pressed forward.

They climbed the hill to the top and stumbled over the edge where a strange calm enveloped the cottage that Duncan called home. There was light grey smoke curling from the chimney, coming in rapid puffs.

"She's burning the journals." Carys bolted for the cottage door.

Duncan and Lachlan shouted behind her. "Carys, no!"

The door swung open, Carys tumbled through, and the door slammed shut.

Regan was sitting by the fire, paging through Seren's journals and casually tossing them into the flames. "It took you long enough."

Carys wiped the rain from her face as Cadell pounded on the door. "You can't hurt me."

"I might." Regan looked up, closed the journal she was reading, and tossed it into the fire.

"No!" Carys lunged for the fireplace, but Regan lifted a hand, and she froze.

"What did you see?" Regan narrowed her eyes. "I opened these books and saw nothing. Blank page after blank page. What magic are you playing with, Brightkin?"

Carys blinked. "What? "

"See? You're not lying." Regan stood and leaned against the table, picking through the crate of journals. "Which irritates me. I hate not knowing magics. Some spell has been put over these books, but I can't discover their magic. It's not fae. It's not human. I should be able to read them, and I cannot." She wrinkled her nose. "This smells of the old gods."

More pounding at the door, and then glass shattered and Cadell reached a massive arm into the cottage before Regan lifted an arm and shoved him back.

"How did you get so strong?" Carys was still frozen, but she didn't fear Regan, not with the smell of the Crow Mother on her. "My uncle thinks you're half-fae."

"Does he?" The corner of Regan's mouth turned up. "That would be quite the scandal , wouldn't it? The daughter of Queen Orla a halfling mutt?" Regan's mouth twisted in a bitter smile. "Unwelcome in human courts or fae. What kind of abomination would she be?"

"You are." It was clear as day. "Nothing is born in the Shadowlands save by magic."

"And dark magic at that," Regan hissed in her face. "A hybrid creature that belongs nowhere. Sound familiar, Carys Morgan?"

"I'm not fae," she said. "Nothing about me is fae."

"But you're not entirely Brightkin either, are you?" Regan stared at her, lifting her chin and gazing into Carys's eyes. "She was such a plain girl, your sister. But she had a scar on her neck." Regan ran a finger down Carys's throat. "Did you know that? A battle scar. The scar made her interesting at least. You have nothing."

"Yep. Super ordinary." She tried to move her feet and couldn't. "You should leave me and take off."

"I should—" Regan blinked. "What is that?" She stepped back, and her shoulders curled inward. "What is that?" She screamed as her eyes locked on the door.

There was a thunk, then another one.

Thunk.

Regan gasped and threw a hand out .

Thunk.

Craaaaack!

"Who did this?" Regan screamed. "Who brought iron into this place?"

"Not iron." Carys felt her feet loosen as Duncan's sword broke through Regan's wards. "Steel."

"No!" She waved a dismissive hand in Carys's direction, flinging her into a wall.

Carys flew through the air and hit the stone wall, crumpling to the floor.

It hurt. Every part of her body was screaming, but she scrambled to her feet, moving through the pain. She lunged toward the fireplace and the other journals sitting precariously near the flames. She grabbed them as the door cracked open and the walls of the cottage shook.

The ground thrust up beneath her and she fell, cracking her forehead on the slate hearth, but she managed to grab Seren's journals and hide them under her body even as coals rolled out of the fire and singed her skin.

She cried out, and Cadell roared from the window, breaking through the warded glass with a massive fist.

"Carys!" He pushed inside, shoving the stones around the window to widen the space as the cottage door fell inward.

Carys rolled away from the fire, the journals clutched to her chest as she scrambled under the table and all hell broke loose.

Duncan broke through the doorway with the dragon-steel sword, taking a knee and bending low as Lachlan leaped over his back with his bronze sword drawn.

"Brother!" Duncan flung the steel sword toward Lachlan, who dropped the bronze, grabbed the steel, and charged Regan.

The sorceress pulled down a heavy wooden rafter, knocking Lachlan away before he could strike.

The roof of the cottage tilted precariously as the foundation shifted and the rafters rained down. Thatch, dust, and wood fell around Carys.

"Stay under the table," Cadell shouted .

Duncan stood and lifted his arms, holding up a falling rafter with his massive strength to keep the cottage from collapsing in. "Cadell!" He roared. "Get her out of here!"

"Regan!" Dafydd shouted from the doorway. "You murderous hag!"

"And?" She bared her teeth as Lachlan climbed over the rubble to get to her.

"You're dead." Lachlan's face was pale with fury. He swung the iron toward Regan, who had nothing but magic to defend herself.

And fae magic didn't break steel.

She screamed as the sword slashed down, cutting across her body with a burning slice. Acrid smoke filled the air, and shimmering red blood sprang from the wound across her chest. Regan fell back, collapsing into the rubble of the rapidly disintegrating cottage.

"Cadell!" Duncan shouted, his chest heaving as he held up the ceiling. "Get. Carys. Out!"

"I have her, boy!" Dafydd ran over and grabbed for Carys's arm as Cadell covered her body with his own. "Run!"

Regan threw out a hand, and blood spurted from Lachlan's mouth and eyes, but he didn't yield. He slashed again, cutting Regan across the legs and sweeping with an upward angle, slicing her belly with a killing cut.

Regan grunted and fell to her knees, silver and scarlet blood mingling as her belly burst open and her entrails fell to the rubble-strewn ground.

Lachlan didn't stop but stepped over a fallen timber, and just as Cadell and Dafydd hustled Carys from the room, she saw cold determination on his face as he raised the dragon steel one last time, swung downward, and cut Regan's head from her body.

A pulse of magic burst from the halfling's broken corpse, shattering the wards that had held up the cottage as the roof of the building collapsed and everything before Carys's eyes went dark.