of power. He had more than he should—who knew what bargain he’d made with some devil to increase his power.
“We’re wasting time. Give me your hand,” she ordered.
“Busy here.”
“Your hand!”
She reached back, gripped it. Light sparked from the joining, power meeting, merging. With it, she threw what she had at the dark angel, felt Duncan loose his own.
That power cut through them like glass. They didn’t shriek. They made no sound at all as they fell.
“Are you hurt?”
“No. You are.”
She didn’t feel the pain until he pressed a hand to her hip to heal the slice and burn.
“Easy,” she snapped. “Go slow. Laoch is burned—left hind leg. I need to get him down, tend to him.”
Duncan shifted, looked down and back. “It doesn’t look too bad.”
“He’s hurting.”
She took him down slowly, started to search for the safest spot so she could see to him. “Duncan.”
“Yeah, I see. Down’s a good place to be. We’ve got what’s left of them trapped, just the way we lined it up.”
She landed softly, slid off.
“I’ve got him,” Duncan told her. “I’ll fix him up. You finish this.”
“All right.” She stroked a hand over Laoch, then moved through the thick circle of her troops.
There couldn’t have been more than a hundred left inside that circle. So many more lay dead, dying, or wounded on the ground. A coven of witches ringed the circle, forming a shield against any dark magicks the vanquished might attempt.
Fallon stepped through them as well. She lifted her sword with one hand, her shield with the other.
She pulled power, more power, from the streaks of sun that burned through the haze.
“Feel the light entwine you. Know the light will bind you. Your powers I here block and on them close the lock.”
She waited a beat, and the coven added their voices to hers.
“The net around you, one and all, holds tight. Restrained, rebuked dark powers by the light. For you have chosen this destiny. As we will, so mote it be.”
She turned to Troy. “You’re unharmed.”
“Yes. And you?”
“Close enough. You know where to take them.”
“We do. The evil in them remains even if their powers are locked.” Almost casually, Troy flipped back her long spill of hair. “They’ll likely kill each other before they’re done.”
“Their choice. The island we chose can sustain them, or be their graveyard. It’s all a choice.”
She turned away to check on Laoch. Mick fell into step beside her.
“We could both use a dip in the faerie pool about now.”
She looked at him, herself, both coated with mud, streaked with blood, smeared with soot. “The faeries will have our asses if we washed this much away in their pond.”
“That’s a point. You had me worried up there.”
She rubbed a hand on his cheek, smearing more mud. “I’m down here now.”
He smeared mud back, grinned at her. “I didn’t know you could do that. You know, lock up the dark magicks.”
“We couldn’t have if you hadn’t cut down their numbers, gotten them cornered. And if we didn’t have a full coven ready with the incantation.”
She closed her eyes, breathed. “We took back New York, Mick.”
“Sure as hell did. I’m going to go find my dad. Gonna clean up, drink a bunch of faerie wine.”
“I’m right there with you.”
He did a backflip, a series of tumbles that made her laugh.
And on the final spring, the bolt struck him. In the back, and through to the heart. He fell like a stone on the boggy ground of battle.
“No, no, no!” Whipping out both sword and shield, she leaped to him, raised the shield over him to protect him from the next bolt.
The black dragon glided overhead. On his back rode Petra.
She heaved fire, scattering troops, but her eyes, those mad eyes, never left Fallon’s. Her hair, her wings flowed, black on one side, white on the other.
“You think this is over, cousin!” She shouted it, let her laugh ring out. “You think this matters? But he mattered, didn’t he, you weak, stupid bitch. He mattered to you. Oops, gone now.”
Fallon gathered her grief, let it wind with her power. Flung it into the sky.
“And me, too. Poof.”
Both Petra and the dragon vanished an instant before Fallon’s power blasted the sky, boomed across it like a comet.
“Mick. Mick.” She lifted his head into her lap. “I’ll fix it. Please. Let me fix it.” Pressing her cheek to his, she rocked.