time sniffing about where you’re not welcome.”
“But you see I’ve been rewarded, as here are the two blooms of the three. You think to wed a mortal,” he said to Iona. “To waste your power on one who can never return it. I have so much more for you.”
“You have nothing for me, and you’re so much less than him.”
“He builds you a house of stone and stick when I would give you a palace.” He spread his arms, and over the cold, dark water of the river swam a palace shining with silver and gold. “A true home for such as you, who has never had her own. Always craved her own. This I would give you.”
Iona dug deep, turned the image to black. “Keep it.”
“I will take your power, then you will live in the ashes of what might have been. And you.” He turned to Branna. “You lay with my son.”
“He isn’t your son.”
“His blood is my blood, and this you can never deny. Take him, be taken, it only weakens you. You will bear my seed one way or the other. Choose me, choose now, while I still grant you a choice. Or when I come for you, I will give you pain not pleasure. Choose him, and his blood, the blood of all you profess to love, will be on your hands.”
She leaned forward in the saddle. “I choose myself. I choose my gift and my birthright. I choose the light, whatever the price. Where Sorcha failed, we will not. You’ll burn, Cabhan.”
Now she swept an arm out, and over that cold, dark river a tower of fire rose, and through the flame and smoke the image of Cabhan screamed.
“That is my gift to you.”
He rose a foot off the ground, and still Iona held the horses steady. “I will take the greatest pleasure in you. I will have you watch while I gut your brother, while I rip your cousin’s man in quarters. You’ll watch me slit the throat of the one you think of as sister, watch while I rape your cousin. And only then when their blood soaks the ground will I end you.”
“I am the Dark Witch of Mayo,” she said simply. “And I am your doom.”
“Watch for me,” he warned her. “But you will not see.”
He vanished with the fog.
“Those kind of threats—” Iona broke off, gestured toward the flaming towers, the screams. “Would you mind?”
“Hmm. I rather like it, but . . .” Branna whisked it away. “They’re not threats, not in his mind, but promises. We’ll see he breaks them. I’d hoped he’d take wolf form, at least for a few moments. I want the name of what made him.”
“Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub?”
Branna smiled a little. “I think not. A lesser demon, and one who needs Cabhan as Cabhan needs it. The pair of them left a stink in the air. Let’s have that gallop now, and go by and see your house.”
“The sticks and stones?”
“Are solid and strong. And real.”
Iona nodded. “Branna, what if . . . if while you’re with Fin you got pregnant?”
“I won’t. I’ve taken precautions.” With that she urged Aine into a gallop.
• • •
SHE GAVE AINE A CARROT AND A RUBDOWN, SO WHEN FIN came into the stables he found both her and Iona.
“I’m told you went for a ride.”
“We did, and it reminded me how I enjoy it.” She leaned her cheek to Aine’s. “You did say she and I should get acquainted.”
“I didn’t have in mind you going off alone.”
“I wasn’t alone. I was with Iona and she with me, with Aine and Alastar and the dogs altogether. Oh, don’t try to slither out because he’s glowering,” she said to Iona. “You’re tougher than that. We had a conversation with Cabhan—no more really than a volley of harsh words all around. We’ll tell you and the others the whole of it.”
“Bloody right you will.” He started to grab Branna’s arm, and Aine butted him in the shoulder with her head.
“Taking her side now?”
“She’s mine, after all. And knows as well as I do we had no trouble, and took no more risks than any of us do when taking a step out of the house. I suppose you’ll want a meal with the telling.”
“I could eat,” Iona said.
“We’ll have it all here,” Fin told them.
“With what?”
He took Branna’s arm now, but casually. “You’ve given me lists every time I turn around. There’s enough in the kitchen to put together a week