“And the witch? Why would she agree to this?”
“A mother will do anything for her child. It is a woman’s greatest weakness.”
Or strength. But Ari remained silent and let Andreas do the talking. She was already running through the initial spell invocations in her head. She added a prayer of her own.
Please, Goddess, let our magic be enough, but if it’s not, protect Rayne for us.
“Someone should check on Bastian.”
The new speaker’s voice sent a sliver of foreboding down her arms. Ari turned her head to look at him. His skin was paler than the others, his gaunt face framed by long ebony hair. Coal black eyes stared back at her, glinting with malice.
Luc. Volucris. The winged creature. She’d come a long way to find this killer.
He glanced at the guards. “Find Bastian and the infant girl. Take whatever forces you need, but bring them here immediately.” He stood, and his dark gaze raked over Ari and Andreas. “I sense that something is wrong.”
“Busted.” Ari sent the single word over her telepathic link to Andreas and silently raced through the second repetition of the spell. She felt Andreas tense for action, but they hadn’t heard the signal. What was taking so long?
Wah-ooo. The clarion notes of Grogan’s mountain horn sounded, its deep challenge ringing across the valley. Not once, but twice, then three times. The ancient call to battle.
At the first note, Andreas’s fingers drew a simple spell sign, and Ari’s chains clattered to the floor. She unleashed the fire spirits and pointed them toward the elders. The ancient salamanders of fire spread across the room in a winding snake pattern, eyes glowing, tails lashing. Amid shouts of alarm and the scraping of chairs, Andreas lunged forward planting both feet against Porbius’s chest, knocking the elder back toward the stage. Andreas recovered and raised the Valvano ring, throwing a protective barrier of white light to block Porbius and the rest of the council from reaching him or Arianna.
She lifted her voice and extended her arms toward the towers above, pouring her magic into the third repetition of her summons to the four elements.
“Come to me, Wind of time; come to me, Water divine;
Hear my cry, Mother Earth; Father Fire, show your worth.
Goddess Moon, hear my plea; so mote it be.”
The air around them sizzled with energy, and a strong gust of wind blew out the torches, plunging the room into a darkness broken only by flashes of magical energy. She called out again and began to slowly spin, invoking the main stanzas of the spell that would win or lose the day.
“Mother Earth, Father Fire, bring down the castle, spire by spire;
Wind and Water heed my calls; from clay and stone, destroy these walls.
Goddess of the moon and night, give us strength to make this fight.
Condemn the evil with this spell to the eternal fires of hell.”
As she spoke she spun more swiftly, her hair swirling outward. She seemed to grow in stature with each spoken word. Magic filled the chambers, but it wasn’t enough. A few of the elders had combined their own magic to hold the elements at bay…just outside her reach.
She did the only thing that came to mind. She spread her arms wide in a final appeal. Come to me, Calin witches out of the past, join your voice and your fate to mine. Your daughter needs you. Let the wicked ones feel our power.
Ari’s heart pounded, her blood thrumming. The air grew thick with a white translucent mist, vague shapes formed within it. Muted voices spoke to her, demanding to know why they’d been called. She told them of her need. Her skin glowed, and her power grew a thousandfold as her ancestors answered the call. She channeled the energy into the spell.
The resistance shattered.
The power of the elements erupted.
Castle Doom shook. Crackling and popping. Panicked shouts and screams filled the chambers as the walls started to peel, and the vampires scrambled, seeking a means of escape. Ari focused on controlling the power given to her. Large chunks of stone fell. The floor heaved and deep crevices ran across it, except where she and Andreas stood. A section of floor caved in, exposing a deep, black hole. Water poured from everywhere, sweeping the fortress’s contents and inhabitants toward that fissure.
Ari gasped, her words faltering, at the sight of Porbius plunging headlong into the abyss. Another dark-robed figure followed him. She picked up the chant again, keeping an eye on the changing, chaotic scene. Vampires clung to broken pieces of wall or ceiling. A few were trapped against a back wall by the fire spirits. Others attacked Andreas’s shield and then pulled back, looking for safety as the structure continued to disintegrate.
Andreas stood in the center of it all and held their piece of the world in place.
A raptor’s piercing shriek of rage came from the rear entrance. Andreas turned to confront it, and the protective shield wobbled. Before he could reinstate it, a werebear charged through.
With enemies now inside their shielded area, Ari broke off her third invocation and shot two streams of crimson fire at the bear. His fur erupted in flames. For a few steps, he continued to lumber toward her. As the flames grew, the bear halted to paw and growl at the searing blaze. Then he dropped to all fours and raced for the rear exit as if trying to outrun the burning pain. He collided with the raptor and was tossed aside.
Andreas stabilized the shield and charged the raptor, halting at the last moment to vault over the creature’s head. He fired into the base of its skull with a series of lightning bolts. The beast shrieked, shook its head, and turned, slashing out with razor-sharp talons. Andreas flung himself over a widening crack in the floor and returned to take a defensive stand at Ari’s side. The prehistoric beast clawed the air, screaming its fury. It crouched to leap and follow.
Ari rushed to finish the spell. As she neared the end of the recitation, the water suddenly receded, replaced by the ominous hiss of fire. Sparks and smoke billowed out of the hole. The surrounding room continued to cave. The castle slowly imploded, bringing with it much of the mountain. Undeterred, the raptor launched toward them; the floor in front of him collapsed. He caught the edge with his claws, struggled to find a solid hold, and fell into the fiery chasm.
Ari closed her eyes, said the fateful words for the last time—“to the eternal fires of hell”—and shouted Andreas’s name. He grabbed her hand, dropped the protective shield, and invoked the teleportation spell.
The air warped around them. Ari felt the first tingle, and they began to fade. A sharp pain sliced across her back from the beak of an enormous, diving crow. She lost her hold on Andreas’s hand…and he vanished without her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Andreas materialized on the mountain overlook, shouting Arianna’s name. He sprang to his feet. “Sophistrina, where are you?”
“I’m here.” The German witch raced to his side.
“Lucris has Arianna. I need the coven’s magic to send me back. Now.”
Maybe it was the wild look he knew was on his face, but she didn’t argue. “Sisters, to me,” she ordered. The words of the spell poured out as quickly as she could recite them.
Andreas closed his eyes at the first stirring of power, felt it surge, and locked onto the coven’s darker magic.
“It’s the end,” someone shouted.
His eyes popped open. The mountain seemed to echo the words as it heaved upward among thunderous claps of lightning and threw the castle’s remaining towers toward the fiery pit.
Daron grabbed his arm. “It’s too late. She’s gone.”
“No.” Andreas shook him off, and the magic spiraled him toward that distant spark of essence that was uniquely Arianna. Still a chance.
* * *
Ari kicked at the creature whose talons held the back of her neck. Enough magic still surrounded her that her small piece of stone floor was intact, but not for long. When it vanished, she’d fall into the fiery crater, and the crow would fly away. Ari didn’t stop to dwell on her fate. But Rayne’s fu
ture depended on Volucris’s death.
She dropped onto her back, using her weight to break the grip of his talons. She rolled away and caught herself, teetering on the edge. A chunk of stone crashed inches away and broke off another portion of the floor.
Volucris morphed into vampire form and his claw-like fingers reached for her throat. Ari grabbed the dagger from her wrist sheath and sprang upward, burying the blade in the elder’s heart.
He staggered backward, recovered, and straightened. His fangs flashed. “I’m not so easy to kill.”
Volucris pulled the knife from his chest, flung it away. It clanged across the stone. Ari dove after it. Volucris started to follow, but the stone crumbled under him. He saved himself by taking to the air as a crow again. Ari grabbed the dagger and flipped on her back to face him. He dove at her face. She wielded the dagger like a sword and sliced off a large section of one wing. The crow flapped awkwardly and dropped to the stone surface. Ari kicked out with both feet, striking his chest and knocking him back into the air.
“See if you can survive that.”
He screeched and caught her sleeve with one talon as he went over the edge. Ari stumbled, nearly regained her balance; a solid piece of swirling debris struck her head. Her vision dimmed. She threw out her hands. Nothing was there except emptiness.
Andreas materialized in midair and grabbed for Arianna’s limp figure. He cradled her against him and looked for a solid place to land, to push off, to give him a second to reverse the spell. There was nothing left—only the raging furnace below. Lava flowed and bubbled beneath them; steam and sparks rose as they fell, plunging deeper, closer to the devouring flames.
A flash of fear, even panic. Then he looked at the woman in his arms and thought of the child who awaited them. He flung the last of his magic in a desperate Hail Mary to reach Sophie’s coven. He looked down, just a last few seconds…
Then he felt a hard tug. He seized the magical lifeline and held on.
* * *
“Arianna, cara mia, you cannot leave me now.”
Ari opened her eyes. She was lying on the ground—or more accurately—in Andreas’s lap, and he was sitting on the ground. Her lips curved at his demanding tone. “Never. I promise.”
He buried his face in her hair. “You scared me nearly to death.” After a moment, he whispered, “It is over. Castle Doom is gone. See for yourself.” Not loosening his hold, he shifted them both until she saw the black, billowing smoke with an occasional tongue of fire licking at the sky. Around the huge belching hole were jumbled piles of stone, the last remnants of the stronghold.
Relief washed over her, and she wound her arms around his neck and held on while the truth sunk in. Andreas was safe. Their child was safe.
And by some miracle performed by her husband, she was still alive.
“I can’t believe you risked everything to come back for me. We’d already won. The elders were gone. You and Rayne would have been safe, and she would at least have had one parent.” She pulled back to look at him and caressed his cheek with her hand. “It was foolish.”
“It was meaningless without you.”
She clung to him, unable to speak. When the distant sounds of fighting finally registered, she lifted her head to look around and squirmed to sit up on her own. A sharp twinge of pain brought her hand to the back of her head. A sizable lump was already forming.
He held up one hand. “How many fingers?”
“Two, and I don’t have a concussion. You should know I’m more hardheaded than that. Can we get up now? It sounds like there’s still work to do.”
He stood and set her on her feet. “Most of it’s over.”
“Casualties?”
“Too early. I haven’t seen most of our friends from home. Stay here. Now that I know you’re all right, I’ll see what I can find out.” He strode toward a path in the forest and disappeared.
Ari’s gaze flickered over the battle scene. For the first time, she noted how bright it was and turned her face up to the sky. The wizards had indeed illuminated the scene, their intersecting beams forming a dome of bright light. She turned her attention back to the valley below. Even from here she spotted bodies, including the charred remains of two raptors and a multitude of scorched trees. There would be casualties on both sides.
She ran to the rental van they’d left just out of sight, collected her Walthers from under the backseat, and climbed down the mountain. She followed the sounds of fighting to the remnants of the castle’s front gates and joined three shifters attempting to take down a raptor. The beast was tenacious, but between the flamethrowers and her Walthers, it eventually went down.
It was another hour before the battle was over. Ari returned to the mountain pass, growing concerned when she couldn’t find Andreas. To her relief, he, Daron, Gabriel, and Bastian appeared together climbing the ridge. They looked a little worse for wear, their clothes torn and disarranged, but it was Bastian who made her stop and stare. The usually impeccable elder was as disheveled and dirty as the others. Apparently he’d not only taken the opportunity to escape the castle but also had joined in the fight.
“I didn’t expect to see you again.” She eyed Bastian as the four men walked up.
“Nice to know I haven’t become too predictable,” he said dryly, dusting off his pants and tucking in his shirt. “Rather a refreshing night. I had forgotten how satisfying a physical fight could be. I would love to stay and chat, but I have a journey to make before dawn.”
Ari’s curiosity prompted her to ask. “Where to?”
“Paris, I think. At least for a while. I have several residences and offices around the world. I haven’t decided which will be my eventual headquarters.”
“So you’re going to continue your business ventures?”
He shrugged. “Why not? Is it not the modern thing to do? It looks like you’ve eliminated my current occupation.” He turned to walked away but glanced back with a slight smile. “Let’s do keep in touch.” That time, he continued down the road.
“He’s leaving, just like that?” Ari stared after him, then at Daron. “Are you going to let him go? Without talking about…you know, about things?”
“We talked,” Daron said shortly. “He is visiting Toronto next month. Perhaps we have more common ground than I thought.”
“I think Bastian is beginning to like you too,” Andreas teased her. “He climbed back up the mountain just to say good-bye.”
“Somehow I don’t think…”
“Hey, guys, is everyone OK?” Lilith ran toward them; a large, golden lion trotted by her side. His left flank was covered with blood, but he appeared to be moving easily.
Ari ran out to them, her hands examining the lion’s wounds. She looked at Lilith. “What happened to him?”
“A raptor, but he’s healing. That’s why he hasn’t shifted back. He’ll heal faster this way. It was a close call, but some of the German wolves reached us in time.”
Ari patted the lion’s head. “I thought you’d gone with Grogan.”
“We were with him for a while, but they had the werebear problem contained, so Russell wanted to go back to the castle. That’s when we ran into the raptor.”
“So where’s Grogan now?”
“We just passed the trolls headed for home,” Lilith said. “Did you need to talk to him?”
“Just to thank them, but I’ll stop by the village before we fly home.”
“They did quite a job on the bears. Boy can those trolls kick! Once they booted and stomped a couple of dozen in the first ten minutes, the rest decided to go back to the forest. It was a complete rout.”
“I don’t know what we’d have done without them. Have you seen Steffan or Jena recently? Or any of our Riverdale people?”
“The weretigers were in back of the castle with some of our vampires, but I haven’t seen the rest.”
More fighting forces trickled in and eventually everyone was accounted for, one way or the other. The hardest hit ha
d been the German wolves with more than three dozen dead. They had taken the front lines and fearlessly faced down the raptors. Steffan and Jena had fought alongside them. Both had suffered significant injuries but were healing.
Seven of Andreas’s vampires died; another dozen were severely wounded. Daron, Andreas, and Gabriel provided infusions of master vampire blood wherever needed.
Miraculously, casualties had been relatively light among the non-combatants who had provided the shielding and lighting. Merlin and the two wizards were unscathed. Only four witches had been lost when a portion of their protective shield failed. The combat forces, including the German wolves, had done a terrific job of driving the enemy out and allowing the breach to be resealed. Sophie had been effusive in thanking the wolf leaders, and that relationship was bound to be better in the future.
While others tended the dead and wounded, Ari thanked everyone she could locate and began moving the operation back to the witches’ camp. Efforts increased as dawn grew close and the vampires needed to be under cover. When the last of their troops and casualties were on their way, Ari, Andreas, and Gabriel paused for a final look at the charred and steamy area where Castle Doom had stood. The smell of sulphur still belched from deep inside the earth and occasional flickers of fire reached out of the abyss.
“Do you think we got them all?” she asked. “I know Porbius got sucked in.”
“I can account for two others, and no one reported any escapes.” Andreas’s arms came around her. “You finished off Volucris. The O-Seven is gone, my love.”
“I reckon the mountain will smolder like that for days or weeks,” Gabriel said.
Ari leaned her head back against Andreas’s reassuring chest. She still struggled to grasp they were free of the O-Seven. Her emotions were mixed: sad for the losses they’d taken and for their families who were waiting, and thankful all of her dearest friends had survived. It was a day none of them would forget.