Your light dims against it.” She swiped at Fallon again. “You destroyed the father of my child, you gave her pain. Now watch the bitch who whelped you burn.”
She used all she had to draw up a torrent of flame. She sneered down at Lana, drove that torrent toward the ground.
“No!” With power pumped by fear, Fallon pulled the storm of flame back. And threw up her shield to deflect it, felt the storm of heat lash out as it engulfed Allegra.
One shriek, sliced off short, then there was nothing. Just nothing.
On the ground, Arlys gripped a trembling hand on Chuck’s arm. “Tell me you got that.”
“Yeah.” Though it shook a little, he kept his scavenged and rebuilt video camera on Fallon as she landed softly, folded in those silver wings. “I got it. I need a really big drink.”
“We’ll both have one when we check the footage.” She stepped forward to stand with Lana. “Did you know she could do that? You know, fly?”
“No. I knew she had all magicks in her, but … We’ll have to talk. Eric, now Allegra.” Lana reached for Simon’s hand. He’d stood beside her even as the fire spewed down. “Both here, where they killed Max.”
“It’s justice.”
“Yeah.” Steady and sure, Lana brought his hand to her lips. “It’s justice.”
People wanted to stay and talk, to Fallon, to each other. Apparently, she noted, Duncan wasn’t one of them.
She embraced her family.
“So, wings,” Colin commented. “They’re the bop.”
“The what?”
“It’s an expression I’m trying out. It’s going to catch on.”
“No,” Travis corrected.
“Wait and see. Let’s round up the troops, get them back to the barracks. I’m due in Arlington tomorrow.” With set teeth, focused effort, he lifted his arm, closed his leathered hand into a fist, and tapped Fallon’s shoulder. “Nice work.”
“I need to help with the horses.” But Ethan came in for another hug first. “She was lost, and couldn’t be saved.”
“I know.”
“She tried to call for Petra, but she couldn’t pull enough power. If she’d stopped trying to kill you, kill Mom, she could have. But she couldn’t stop. Glad you’re back,” he added, and moved off.
“Think about Petra another time,” Simon advised. “If and when she comes, we’ll be ready. I’m going to help Will with the prisoners.”
“And I’ll help with the injured.” Lana brushed a hand on Fallon’s cheek. “There’s chicken left from dinner at home if you’re hungry.”
“I’ll get to it.”
Then Lana laid her cheek to Fallon’s, whispered, “Go find him.”
“I will.” But she turned to Mallick first.
“You put the last weeks to good use.”
“I traveled, and studied, and grieved. I needed to. I went to Wales because I wanted to see where you were born. That’s where I found my wings.”
“I didn’t mean the wings. They were never lost, only waiting. You would have spared her life. Even when she left you without a choice, you didn’t take her life in vengeance. You put your time away to good use.”
He frowned at some dried blood on his sleeve, brushed it away like lint. “The boy, however, spent most of his brooding. I’m for a glass of wine and my bed.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow. There’s still work to be done.”
Since she couldn’t find Duncan, she searched out Tonia.
“Excellent wings. Want a beer?”
“Not yet, thanks. I—”
“He went to help with the prisoners. Too many of them for the usual, so he suggested using Howstein’s barn, putting a lockdown spell on it, doing a sleep trance on the DUs until we can start transporting them tomorrow.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“He has a few.” Tonia’s MacLeod blue eyes softened. “He missed the hell out of you, Fallon. Go a little easy on him.”
“I’m more hoping he goes a little easy on me.”
She decided it was only fair to talk to him, if he was willing to talk, on his turf. So after the town bedded down for the night, she sat on the curb outside of his house to wait. He’d come back eventually.
It occurred to her she’d never done this, just sat in the quiet of New Hope. The fact that it could and did settle in again after a night of attacks, bloodshed, violence, illustrated its resilience.
It served, to her mind, as an illustration of the resilience of the spirit, of the unity forged by community.
Illuminated now by only moon and starlight, it slept. Parents had checked on their children, soothed them into dreams. Lovers shared beds. In the clinic, medicals watched over the sick or wounded.