Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,92

for a fight. What say you, Belenus? Last chance to let us go?"

"When Tartarus freezes over."

"It was pretty cold there. I'm just saying," I said to Nana and Mother.

"It was. Kind of surprising actually. You'd think it would be hot with all that fire and redness? Really kind of strange." Nana shrugged.

"I was thinking about a nice summer home right by the fire springs," Mother answered Nana.

Belenus fumed and the angels attacked, command unspoken.

"Wall of fire," Nana said calmly as the three of us focused our power and canted the words together. A wall of fire the likes of which even the goddess had never seen sprang up behind Belenus, separating her from her choir.

Belenus snarled in fury and attacked Aodh, curved flaming swords appearing in both hands as she tried to separate his head from his body. Tendrils of earth sprang from the ground beneath her feet as my coven casted spells with the sole intention of helping my father. Ice cracked off her arms as she swung her blades, severing vines, and clashing against the matte black blades of my father. The sky shuddered with each strike.

"Help Aodh, Daughter," Nana said calmly. "Dorothea and I will keep the angels at bay."

The wall of flame diminished for a moment as Mother let go and strode behind Aodh, casting slowing spells, binding spells, and everything and anything she could to aid his battle.

The first angel skirted the crest of the wall of flames and attacked Nana and me from above. It was almost upon us when Candace's scream of fury stopped it in its path, dropping it to the ground and leaving it staring at her in bewilderment.

"You have a child of light," Belenus sputtered.

"My future daughter in law," Aodh answered proudly.

"Child! Quell your song. I command it!" There was a momentary rumble of thunder and Candace shrieked, falling to the ground. Letting go of Nana, I almost beat Josie to Candace's side.

"Are you okay?" She opened her mouth to speak but nothing emerged. The goddess Belenus had silenced her. By letting go of Nana, the power fueling the fire wall diminished, and it continued to shrink. Archangels started to pour over and around it. Calling the shadows, I nearly cried in frustration. Just as in Tartarus, there were no shadows to be found. Light illuminated everything above and below, leaving no room for darkness. Not in the realm of Belenus.

If we were going to win, we needed the night.

Turning, I ran back to Nana. I needed her power. Putting both hands on her shoulders, I whispered into her ear, "Forget the fire, we need to blot out this damnable day."

"Huh?"

"I need shade!"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Darkness??

"Dorchadas," we canted together.

It started slow, a mere sphere before us. Reaching over Nana, I plunged my hand into the heart of it, feeling its coolness against my skin, reveling in its familiarity. Turning his head, my father blinked in surprise and took a blade across the bicep. Ignoring the pain, he reached behind him and added his power to our own.

It swelled to double its size, but it wasn't nearly enough. Until Yuki, Ellis, Dar, and Shea put their hands upon me as I had mine on Nana. The night swirled through me, darkness caressing every inch of me like a familiar lover teasing all my most tender of places. I took all of that, all they had offered me, and forced it through my grandmother and into our budding bubble of night.

It groaned as it fought against the day, swelling and enlarging until it covered us. Stars twinkled above as the grass beneath our feet turned blue under the nighttime sky.

"No!" Belenus did a double strike against my father but two splotches of red blossomed across her chest as Chief fired twice. Candace shrieked once more and drove the host of angels to the ground. With almost practiced ease, Aodh batted her blades away as Belenus dropped to her knees, stopping herself from collapsing face first into the ground. It was over.

My father turned and raised his hand toward me, a smile as brilliant as the sun on his face. Time stopped. Belenus lifted her head, a wicked smile on her face as she called a spear of light to her hand and drove it up under my father's ribs and into his heart.

Screaming his name, I reached out and tore through the fabric of her realm, just as I had done in the lands of Faerie, with a clawed fist.