your father, your brothers, Mallick, and some good friends, we refined it.”
“Please tell me I don’t have to make a speech.”
“Not necessary.”
No cheers rang out, but people moved back so she could ride through to where Duncan and Tonia waited.
When she dismounted, Lana embraced her one last time. “Your light changed me. All I have goes with you tonight.”
When she stepped back to stand with Mallick, Simon hugged her. “Come back to me, baby. Fight strong, kick ass, and come home.”
Before she could speak, Mallick and her mother stepped forward. They lifted their hands, and she felt their power pulse and merge. From it, a flame rose, straight as a spear.
“This fire burns until the children of the Tuatha de Danann return. When their battle is won, this flame will be cast in stone, a flame eternal to symbolize the light.”
People formed circles, the New Hope Originals innermost, those familiar faces illuminated by the fire’s light, others spiraling out behind them, ring after ring.
“This is New Hope,” Fallon decreed. “This is the center. This is why we can do this. Why we will.”
Circle after circle, she thought. Unity and faith.
With Taibhse settling on Laoch’s saddle, Faol Ban by her side, she joined hands with Duncan and Tonia.
Another circle, forged in blood, in trust, in purpose.
She felt the clock ticking toward midnight, closed her eyes. And when that moment struck, opened them.
As one they flashed from New Hope, and straight into the storm.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Lightning cracked, red and black, pounding the ground with hammer strikes, splitting the already blazing fields with fissures that belched smoke. The smoke rode whirling cyclones skyward to smother the moon and stars so the night drowned in black.
Crows streamed and screamed through it.
Duncan shoved a ball of light against the dark, then another, illuminating the stones and its undulating center.
“Looks like they’re expecting us.”
“Cast the circle!” Fallon shouted and, pointing her sword north, called the gods.
They set candle and cauldron, lit the flame, rang the bell, said the words. Defiant, releasing her anger, Fallon deflected bolts of lightning, power against power.
“On this hour of my birth, we challenge the evil that walks the earth. I am The One, born of power and light, destined by blood and choice to lead this fight.”
“We,” Duncan continued, “sister and brother who shared a womb, join with The One to build your tomb. With blood and power the gods foretell, we send dark’s creatures back to hell.”
“We, children of the Tuatha de Danann, are the three,” Tonia shouted. “And here and now accept our destiny. This place, this time, this night, we pledge all we are to the light.”
“Blood joins blood,” they said together as Fallon scored their palms. “Light joins light. Power joins power.”
As they joined hands, the shock of merging snapped light from their palms. As the surge rocked them, swept through them, they gripped tighter.
“Hold on!” Duncan pitched his voice above the gale. “It’s working.”
The force of the wind nearly buckled Fallon’s knees. She watched it snatch the band from Tonia’s hair like angry fingers so the wild curls flew free.
And the undulating earth in the circle of stones began to open, to reveal the maw beneath.
“Finish it!” With the storm raging around them, Fallon drew in her breath.
“Now rise magicks, rise, rise, and strike the creature of death, of lies. Show us the path to find him, and into the pit we drive him and forever our blood will bind him. Here is the vow of the three. As we will, so mote it be.”
The leading edge of the wind died, but what remained blew raw as winter. Inside the stones, the ground held still, and open.
“Is it enough?” Tonia wondered.
“It’ll have to be.” Fallon gestured to a thin stream of light leading into the woods. “We have the path.”
“And we’ve got company,” Tonia added, breaking the connection to nock an arrow.
Duncan enflamed his sword as dozens of Dark Uncanny surged from the woods. “We’re going to need a bigger circle.”
Energized, even eager, Tonia laughed. “Points for you,” she said and let the first arrow fly.
“Keep clear of the pit.” Fallon punched out power, took out three with one swipe. “They waited until we opened it. They want to push us back, into it.”
She leaped on Laoch, shot up to attack from the air.
“I’ll take the left flank,” Duncan told Tonia. “You get the right.”
“Deal.” She dropped and rolled under a fireball, shot a light-soaked arrow.
With a sweep of his sword, Duncan swatted bolts back into the