was his fault. The staff was already set to destroy the Cairn. He shouldn't have been touching it when I—" he stopped and seemed to rethink what he was about to say. "He shouldn't have touched it."
"When you what?" Dharma said as she came from my left. I glanced at her. She glowed a brilliant blue and white in the darkness. The Cleric was fully charged and broadcasting her identity. If he didn't know she was a Cleric before, he knew it now. And I assumed from the look on his face when he spotted her, he didn't know this before. "When you triggered the spell? You knew he was holding the staff, an innocent Dianic, and you acted anyway?"
But then he regained his composure and narrowed his eyes. "As a Cleric, isn't it your duty to report the infected to Parliament?"
Dharma didn't back down. "You murdered a Dianic Witch."
"And you are aiding and harboring an Arcane wielding Elemental, young lady. Exactly whom do you think your Parliament will side with? Me. Because to them, the life of a Dianic isn't worth its magic. I saw an opportunity to destroy this Cairn and I took it. No magical court in this country would ever convict me of murder."
"I don't need a judge and jury," I said as I felt myself slip into the warm, glittering blanket of Arcane. It fed my need for revenge, it fed my need to destroy, and it fed my need for retribution. "We're in the swamp. There is no Hive here. No laws to bend and break."
"And you will do well to listen to me, Samantha Hawthorne. I have a recording of you using that forbidden power. And all I have to do is give it to Cromwell and no one will ever see you again."
I took a step toward him. "With today's special effects, I'm pretty sure that recording can be explained away as nothing more than a fake, Mr. Blackwood. So let's settle something right here. Why did you really destroy the Cairn? Is it because you don't want me rescuing Crwys Holliard?"
Blackwood didn't step back. In fact, he looked amused within the deep contoured shadows of his face. "You think you can rescue a Dragon?"
I took another step.
"You will not, Hawthorne. No one will. He was the price of Arden Vervain's deal and he will remain in Alfheim, away from this world and punished by the ones he nearly destroyed a long, long time ago," he took a step toward me and pointed a long finger at my chest. "Now you listen to me, and you do as I say because I own you now. Just as I own Arden. Given another day or so that Witch will be dead and I'll own all of her land and holdings free and clear. You're not going to Alfheim. You're not going to touch a Cairn, or I'll make sure to deliver you personally to Cromwell with my evidence."
I laughed. Or the Arcane laughed. "You really think you're a match for me? That I'll obey you and do your bidding?"
"Yes. I do." He held out both of his hands. I felt a slight pressure in the air, something that drilled slowly through my personal shields until I was on my back with something invisible and strong wrapped tightly around my neck. I grabbed at it but couldn't wrap my fingers around it, and the whole time I was screaming in my mind, trying to figure out how a Ceremonial Magician had broken through my Arcane shields to choke the crap out of me.
I heard voices and snarls and then the shout of Dharma's voice. The thing around my neck disappeared and I gasped for air as I flailed on the crisp, dead ground. Bastien leaned over me and took me into his arms, pulling me up to my feet but holding me close to him. He smelled of grass and all things living.
"Chérie?" his voice was soft and I heard the name in my head as well as with my ears. "Êtes-vous bien?" He leaned down and kissed the top of my head.
"I'm…okay," I said before I turned to see Dharma standing between Blackwood and myself and Bastien. She was lit up like a floodlight and her Undine was beside her, five times its usual size. Dharma was not messing around. I could only imagine the hurt in her heart right now, and though she was a Cleric, I was pretty sure she was