25. Twenty-Six Corbin

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

TWENTY-SIX: CORBIN

I raced up the hill after Arthur, blood pounding in my ears. As we pounded across the garden, voices drifted up from the meadow. Angry voices shouting at the top of their lungs. I caught snatches of the words; "...witches…necromancers…cast out the devils…"

We've been so busy worrying about the fae, it never occurred to us that we'd have to fight other humans.

But it should have. History has shown us this exact situation time and time again. I should have predicted this the moment we started talking about belief magic.

Yet another way I'd failed the coven.

Arthur was the fittest, so he reached the kitchen garden first, slamming the gate back against the stone wall so hard I heard it splinter. He held it open for me. I skidded into the heavy kitchen door and flung it open.

"Come on!" I yelled, holding the door back as the others raced across the garden. "We've got to get inside!"

Flynn was next, slowing his speed as he came through the gate so he could give a Ministry of Silly Walks performance on the way to the kitchen door.

"Get in," I growled, shoving him through so Rowan could slip in behind him. This was no time for Flynn's nonsense.

Blake dragged Maeve along by the arm. Even in the gloom of night, I could see how they both staggered with exhaustion, their eyes ringed with red from the huge amount of magic they exerted to pull Daigh and his fae cronies into the dream.

I flicked my eyes toward the meadow. The tall hedge and kitchen garden wall hid it from view, but I could make out the flicker of the torches through the leaves. Loud, angry voices met my ears, still too far away to understand more than a few words, but I could gather the gist of it. No one brought pitchforks along to a peaceful sit-in.

They're not hurting my coven. I'll die before I let them into this castle.

Maeve and Blake staggered through the kitchen gate. Arthur moved to bolt it when another voice cried, "Wait, don't shut the door!"

I turned back to the garden. A figure in white raced from the orchard. Aline. Her skirts flapped around her and her face was drawn with fright. She crashed through the open doors and we slammed and locked them behind her.

"Right," I hissed, leaning my bulk against the door, and faced the room. "We have a problem."

"Mary Mother of God, never in my life did I think I'd see a lynch mob," Flynn whistled, gripping the edge of the counter. "What are the chances they're here just for you protestant infidels?"

"Not the time, Flynn," I yelled. My mind reeled, compiling all the things we'd need to do to secure the castle. The protective charms we set out earlier today will hold them back for a while, but not even they will stop a fire, and we can't use our magic against them until they're inside the walls, which means we've got no way out ? —

"Why weren't you in the house?" Maeve yelled at Aline. "You were supposed to watch for something like this and warn us."

"I'm sorry!" Aline sobbed, throwing herself against the island. "I wanted to see Daigh again. I wanted to help."

"And because of you trying to help , they got a jump on us. If we hadn't seen them when we did, we might not've made it back in time." Aline shrunk away from Maeve's anger.

"This isn't important right now," I growled, pulling myself off the door and racing into the hall. We couldn't just sit here and argue while the villagers approached.

"Corbin, where are you going?" Maeve called after me.

"Rowan, bolt the kitchen gate," I called back, as I hit the hallway and kept on running. Behind me, wood scraped against wood as Rowan slid the heavy bolts into place.

"Corbin, hold up, mate." Arthur grabbed my shoulder, yanking me back so hard he wrenched my arm and we bumped against a heavy medieval dresser.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"You can't just run off like that. Remember, you're not the leader any more."

"Our enemy approaches. We've got to prepare ourselves for a siege – bar the gates and strengthen our defences."

Arthur looked confused.

I clench my fists with exasperation. "Come on, Aragorn, you know this stuff. Unless they've brought equipment for scaling the walls, the only two ways into the inner courtyard and the keep is through the main portcullis and Rowan's kitchen garden."

Understanding dawned on Arthur's face. "Right. I'll help you."

The portcullis was operated from a locked gatehouse near the gift shop. I grabbed the key from the rack beside the door and raced across the courtyard, Arthur at my heels. Inside the gatehouse was an old-fashioned crank, installed during the Victorian period to replace the medieval one that had finally given up the ghost. We'd often talked about getting something modern we could operate from a switch in the house, but we lowered the portcullis so infrequently it wasn't worth the expense.

Arthur and I leaned on the enormous winch, and after a bit of grunting and sweating, we managed to unlock it and lower the portcullis. We shut the wooden inner doors and slid the bolts true.

Once we were back inside, I slid the heavy bolts over the keep doors. "They can't get in that way."

"They've got flaming torches," Maeve whimpered, knocking her knuckles against the wooden door.

"And we've got a human power hose who can work magic as soon as they're inside the grounds," I grinned, jabbing my finger at Flynn, who took a deep bow. Maeve didn't look convinced.

"Don't forget, the majority of the castle is made of stone. It's not as easy to burn," Arthur added.

"If I had to be trapped in a medieval castle with anyone, I'm glad it's you guys," Maeve smiled.

I clapped my hands, and six heads turned toward me. "Okay, next line of defence. If they manage to break through to the inner courtyard, we're vulnerable because of the windows that face inward. But the windows on the first floor all have the security bars over them, so we're good there. Our big problems are the kitchen windows and that huge glass panel in the drawing room that could be broken. We need to bar the doors to those rooms."

"I'm on it," Arthur said. "I'll shift those heavy dressers in the hall in front of the doors. I'd like to see them shift those."

"Go," Maeve nodded. Arthur ran off.

"What about the secret passage in the kitchen?" Blake asked.

"We'll block the top of it, but I think we leave the bottom alone. It might be a useful escape route for us. We just have to hope like hell none of them notice the door in the back of the pantry."

"What about the Great Hall windows?" Maeve asked. "The ones overlooking the gardens could also be broken."

"The ditch is right underneath them. To get at those windows they'd have to either be giants or have access to some seriously sturdy ladders." I thought of the garden shed down by the orchard, and all Flynn's tools in the stable buildings. They might find a ladder in there. "Just to be safe, we'll seal off the Great Hall, too. But we should get all these weapons off the walls. If they manage to get in here, I don't want to give them access to an arsenal."

"Should we move the tapestries?" Maeve asked. "Dora said they were valuable."

"Not as valuable as our lives. We don't have time."

Maeve and I started tearing the swords off the walls and piling them on the ground. After ten minutes of grunting and scraping in the hall, Arthur came into the Great Hall with a handful of blades and swords. "Ah, you've had the same idea." He dumped his haul on top of our pile.

"I don't think we did," Maeve said. But Arthur had already made his way to the bottom of the stairs.

"Everyone, come choose your weapon," he bellowed.

Before I could protest, footsteps clattered through the house as the boys and Aline converged on our weapon horde. "I want this one," Flynn declared, grabbing for an enormous curved scimitar.

I clamped my hand over his wrist. "No weapons. We're not fighting the fae this time – these are people . They bleed red, just like us. They're only outside because we frightened them, and they think it's the only way. Having blood on our hands isn't going to help us win the war with the fae."

"I agree with you, mate, really I do," Flynn said, swinging the scimitar around like he was in a video game. I winced as he sliced off a corner of the tapestry. "But what if one of those bastards out there tries to kill me? I'm too virile and handsome to die tonight."

"You've got your magic," I pointed out.

"Only once they're too close for comfort, thanks to those charms. Besides, I don't think fighting them with magic is going to help dissolve this situation," Maeve added, taking a sword and scabbard from Arthur and belting it around her hips.

"Fine," I growled, picking up a small blade and shoving it down the side of my boot. "But these weapons are only for self-defence, got it? We don't want any more innocent lives on our conscience."

Everyone nodded vigorously as they swept over the pile, strapping swords to their hips and across their backs and shoving daggers down the sides of their shoes. Aline held up a beautiful narrow blade, while Flynn stuck a mace into his trousers. Arthur hefted a large pike between his meaty fists, testing the weight. I shook my head. He tossed it into the hall and shot me a disappointed stare.

"What do we do now?" Maeve asked, her big eyes staring up at me. She'd completely given over command to me. All other eyes in the room faced mine.

This is all on me now. Keep everyone safe.

"We need to hole up somewhere we can see what's going on," I said. "We don't know how long the charms will hold them back."

"Maeve's bedroom?" Flynn raised an eyebrow.

"Perfect." The tower room was the highest point in the castle. We'd be able to see right down over the meadow. It would give us our first clue if our defences had failed. "Let's go."

We clattered up the stairs. Arthur lifted Maeve and carried her in his arms, the way he'd done when she first arrived at the castle. Aline trailed along behind us, looking like she didn't know if she was invited or not.

"Rowan, can you go and grab the mattress off your bed for Aline?" Maeve asked. Rowan darted off and Aline's shoulders relaxed a little bit. Maeve didn't know how to act around her mother, but when it came to the crunch she wouldn't make her fend for herself.

I stood in front of the arched window. From here, I could see over the briar hedge at the bottom of the garden and into the meadow beyond. A crowd of fifty or so people had gathered around the entrance to the right-of-way. As I watched, two of them ran at the gate but bounced back into the grass as if they'd hit a trampoline.

The charms are holding for now.

But how long that would last? More torches moved along the road, heading for the front gates to Briarwood. Eight figures broke off from the main group and started down the boundary, heading toward the sidhe to try and get through the back of our property. My breath caught in my throat – what would they have done to us if they'd caught Maeve and Blake there earlier when they were in the dream world and powerless to stop them?

Beside me, Aline whimpered. I wondered if she was thinking the same thing. I tried not to feel anger toward her. We'd made it back in time, that was what mattered. Now we had to focus on what came next.

"I'll take the first watch," I said. No way was I going to get any rest tonight. "The rest of you try and sleep. We need to be strong and rested."

"Okay, but you need to actually wake us up, " Arthur growled. "No being the martyr and staying up all night so we can sleep. We need you to rest, too."

"Deal." I had no intention of waking them up, but Arthur didn't need to know that. We shook hands. He crushed my fingers under his grip.

Rowan collapsed on the bed, his eyes boring into mine. An unspoken message passed between us. He was afraid – for Maeve, and for me. I was afraid, too. Aline collected blankets from the box at the end of Maeve's bed and made up the mattress for herself, while Arthur, Flynn, and Blake lay down beside Rowan.

"Corbin, I'm scared." Maeve wrapped her arms around me, her deep hazel eyes watching the scene outside the window.

Me too. I squeezed her shoulders, wishing on all the gods that I had the power to protect them all. Briarwood had seen too much pain and death. I was all that stood in the way of ruin, and I wouldn't turn my back on my loved ones.

Me too.