her tug, chunks of stone and branches battered our heads. A small twig became a projectile that pierced my brow. I could sense the blood from the wound it created streaming into the corner of my eye.
When we were about twenty feet away from the witch, the force of her magic began to lift us off our feet. As we flew toward her, the vortex began to crackle like a speaker with a short. Losing its fury, the black hole began to dissipate. All around us, things caught in its pull began to drop to the ground. We were no exception.
Hitting the ground with a smack, I felt Vee as she crashed into my hip; heard Duncan and Jamie groan in what I could only assume was a collision of princes. Scrambling toward the others, I grabbed on to Vee as Duncan and Jamie reached for us. Huddling together, the four of us watched Addie drop her arms. Outraged, she stared at her hands in disbelief.
Then, murmuring an incantation, the witch lifted her hands and focused. Purple magic flickered in her palms but failed to manifest into anything more. With a scream, she tried again. This time, she couldn’t even cause a spark. As she howled in outrage, the ground began to come apart. Little vein-like fissures crisscrossed through the garden.
Suddenly Addie and the earth stilled. Her eyes, which always contained a bit of craziness in them, gleamed with a new level of insanity—one that chilled me to the core of my being. “More souls,” she muttered to herself, ignoring us as if we no longer existed. “I need more souls.” In a dramatic poof of purple smoke, the witch disappeared.
For several seconds, Vee, Jamie, Duncan, and I lay in a heap, unable to process what had occurred. Finding my voice, I asked, “What just happened?”
“Hopefully, a way to kill Adelaide Blackmore Cadell,” Jamie replied.
“Or,” Duncan countered, “the death o’ us all.”
“Either way,” Vee said as she struggled to sit up, “we need to get back to camp and prepare for the next wave of attack.”
As if they agreed with Vee, the Rings of Aontacht sparked to life in their red and green brilliance.
CHAPTER 38
Duncan
Rabbie was dead—but my grief would have to wait. Our camp was in trouble. If we didn’t act quickly, I would be mourning many more lives than that of my apprentice.
The sounds of panic, intermingled with the cries of the wounded, wove their way through the trees to meet us long before we reached camp. Such fearsome sounds superseded the golden dome of protection that with Kenna’s hand in mine, I saw as clear as day. If not for the noise, I would’ve marveled that I could now see the world as Mackenna did. But there wasn’t time for that either.
Instead, I began to run. We all did.
Chaos reigned in our makeshift headquarters. Wounded Destined and Doonians lay just inside the protection, the least wounded tending to those with more severe injuries. I singled out Fergus supporting Alasdair as they limped their way into the weapons tent.
With a burst of speed, Jamie sprinted past me. I followed my brother into the tent, Mackenna and the queen close on my heels. Jamie took Alasdair’s other arm and with Fergus, gently lowered the auld man to a log serving as a bench.
Once our kinsman was settled, Jamie demanded, “What happened?”
“We were ambushed, m’Laird.” Fergus sank onto the log next to Alasdair. Other than a bleeding bite mark on his bicep, my dear friend seemed physically none too worse for wear. But I couldn’t help noticing the subtle tremor in his hand.
“Where’s Fiona?” Mackenna asked as she and Queen Veronica settled across from the two injured men.
Fergus blinked at her as if she were speaking another language. In the awkward silence that followed, Alasdair croaked, “She’s tendin’ to the wounded.”
“Aye,” Fergus agreed. He shook his head as if to clear it of cobwebs. “She’s fine.”
“But others are not?” Veronica probed. Her shrewd eyes narrowed in comprehension even before the words were spoken.
“Nay, Your Highness.” Fergus offered the queen an account of what had transpired. In the darkness of the tent, shadows accentuated the angles of his face like the teller of a creepy story at a sleepover. “We were escorting the Destined back to camp when skellies attacked. There were too many of them and they were surrounded by evil magic, so’s that we couldna touch them. I sounded the alarm and our troops rushed to aid us. Even