Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Niamh braced.
Astra appeared right in front of her.
Magic tingled at Niamh’s fingertips and the weight of the weapon filled her palm. Lethargy washed over her, but Niamh fought through it. She couldn’t kill Astra like other faes. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t weaken her with iron. The iron blade had a thick leather handle to protect Niamh’s skin.
She slashed the blade across Astra’s face before Astra could nick her with her own weapon. The redheaded fae cried out in disbelief, clutching her bleeding cheek. Betrayal lit her aqua eyes. In her madness, she still somehow thought she and Niamh were meant to be. Two halves of the same coin.
“I am nothing like you,” Niamh hissed and rammed the iron blade into Astra’s heart. “It might not kill you, but it fucking hurts.” She twisted the knife.
Astra gaped, falling to her knees with a choking sound. With one last wide-eyed look she slashed out with her dagger, catching Niamh’s forearm. Then she disappeared.
Dismay thickened Niamh’s throat. But she’d known this could happen.
That it most likely would happen this way.
Even as Niamh ran toward the standing stones, crying out for her fae brethren to follow her, Astra reappeared in the middle of them. With a shriek of pure fury, she held out the blood-tipped dagger and slammed it into the earth beneath her feet.
Fionn dove at her, rolling her out of the circle.
Yet Niamh knew it was too late.
A crack. Like the loudest thunder she’d ever heard.
It boomed across Arthur’s Seat, shaking the rock beneath them. The fighting supernaturals cried out and all turned to watch as their dimension split open. A ball of fiery golden-red light appeared in the center of the stones.
Then like bolts of lightning, the golden-red light splintered, a streak attaching to each of the standing stones.
Slowly, the ball dissipated as their reality split apart and the gate to another world appeared before them.
Instead of sky and the city of Edinburgh, an otherworldly forest of blues and greens the shades of which Niamh had never witnessed except within her dreams came into being.
Faerie.
Astra had opened the gate to Faerie.
That definitely had to be dealt with.
But first …
Niamh was a blur of color as she wound through the bodies of her comrades and enemies to find Fionn holding a weakened Astra against the back of one of the standing stones with a spell.
Astra murmured under her breath, trying to break the casting with her own.
Fionn looked at Niamh and gave her a small nod before he stepped aside.
The corner of Astra’s lips curled. “Have you come to kill me, sister? It’s too late, you know. Even if you kill me, it’s too late.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I know how to close the gate.”
Astra narrowed her eyes.
“You’re lying.”
She studied her fae sibling, feeling nothing, knowing the very darkness of Astra’s soul better than anyone. She was a plague upon this world. A plague upon Niamh’s world.
“I guess you’ll never know for sure.”
Niamh ran at her, watched with satisfaction as Astra’s eyes widened with shock even as she fought to free herself from Fionn’s spell. She would have, eventually. But with a dagger in her heart, she was weakened.
Weak enough that with the right velocity, Niamh’s palm hit the edge of the dagger’s handle like a Mack Truck. The entire weapon shot through Astra’s chest and heart. And just in case it wasn’t enough, Niamh punched her fist into Astra’s chest cavity and wrapped her hand around what was left of the heart muscle.
She tore it free.
Not in the least surprised to see her heart had blackened with evil.
The mad light died in Astra’s eyes. Her body slumped to the grass.
Niamh concentrated on Astra’s heart until it burst into flames. She dropped it on the earth and watched it turn to ash.
A gentle hand settled on her shoulder.
Fionn. She looked up at him. It wasn’t over. “We need to close the gate,” she said. “You make sure Astra can never come back.”
The hulking Celtic fae nodded. He had a strong stomach. He could do what needed to be done. Split Astra into pieces and scatter those pieces to the ends of the world before turning them to ash.
Nothing else would do.
Whirling around, Niamh could see the battle was ending. Only a few Blackwoods remained now, and the high council members were dealing with them. The packs were already beginning to collect their wounded and mourn their dead.
There would be time for her and her friends to do the same later.
Sending her thoughts into Rose’s, Thea’s, and Elijah’s minds, Niamh spoke to them: I need you at the standing stones. Only we can close the gate before it’s too late.
37
Niamh’s voice jolted through Elijah’s head as he picked his way through the fallen. Echo was safe and alive.
However, he’d heard his mother’s grief-stricken sobs and almost taken a magical knife to his chest with the distraction. Seeing her up on the hill, cradling his father’s body in her arms as Odette sobbed at their side … Elijah’s legs almost buckled.