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  As they began the ritual, the hair on the back of my neck lifted on end. The power was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Even when Ava demonstrated her abilities to me a few days ago, it hadn’t felt like this.

  It was overwhelming. Not dark but not light. It merely existed. As I watched, I realized that it lived within Ava. When she revealed her true nature to me, it hadn’t even been a glimpse into her capabilities.

  I felt the first protection spell fall and knew it was only a matter of time before Rhiannon and the creature made it past the next two.

  “I’m going to help the others,” I called, waiting just long enough to see Ava nod before I traced out of the house and out to the edge of my property.

  What greeted me was a vision of darkness. The sun was still in the sky, but the darkness spread out along the edge of the second protection ward. Within its confines, I could see Rhiannon standing tall and still, the winds created by her power whipping through her long hair and ripping at her ankle-length dress. The creature stood next to her, hurling his power at the spell.

  The scent of electricity hung in the air and I could hear the sizzle of it as it struck the invisible barrier created by the wards.

  Finn stood behind Kerry, his hands clasped on her shoulders as though he were physically propping her up. I realized that he was funneling his power to her, adding his strength to hers so that the spells would continue to hold.

  Comprehension dawned, horrible and cold. Rhiannon was stronger. So was her creature. They had both been feeding their powers, taking them from others so that they would be stronger. I wondered how many people they had killed to achieve this level of power.

  I reached out to Ava with my mind. Ava.

  There was no answer, but I could feel the power surge in the house behind me and it was nearly enough to bring me to my knees. My worries that Ava wouldn’t be strong enough were fading. Slightly.

  But a new fear replaced it. That much power could rip my mate apart. It would burn her up from the inside out.

  AVA.

  This time she answered my mental call and my unspoken questions. I will be fine. I swear it to you, Ewan. The Goddess’ blood runs in my veins. Her magic lives within my soul.

  That wasn’t necessarily comforting.

  It runs through Rhiannon’s veins as well.

  Ava was silent for a long moment and I wondered if she’d decided not to answer me. Finally, I heard her voice in my mind.

  The Goddess has given me what I need to imprison her, Ewan. I can stop her and I will. I will be protected and we will all be safe.

  As she finished her sentence, the second protection spell collapsed.

  So did Kerry.

  Without hesitating, Finn lifted her into his arms. “Move back!” he roared.

  The third protection spell was mere feet from where we stood. Close enough that I could see the triumphant expression on Rhiannon’s face as she and her creature attacked the shield with gusto.

  Everyone backed away, heading for the house.

  Except for me.

  I stepped closer until the thin, invisible barrier was mere inches from my face. She mirrored my motions, but there was a smug smile playing on her lips. It ruined the beauty of her features. Most of her expressions did.

  “You chose the wrong side, Macgrath,” she stated. Her head tilted to the side. “Or should I call you Alaunus,” she taunted.

  Rage filled me now that I was faced with her. I wanted to slam my fist through the barrier and into her chest. I wanted to dig through tissue and bone until I held her heart in my hand. Then I would rip it from her body. Just as she had ripped the heart from mine.

  Her smile only widened. “Did you think I wouldn’t feel it when you and the witch broke my curse?” She inched closer until I could see the cold fires in her dark eyes. “Oh, the rage you’re feeling. The hatred. My creature could have used that before we came here. There’s enough there to make him twice as powerful as Rhys.” She shuddered in obvious delight. “It’s delicious, you know. All that anger.”

  I understood then why she was stronger. She was using the creature exactly as she had planned to use Rhys months ago—to feed her own power. He would suck the emotions, the very soul from people, and in turn, she would feed from him until she was glutted with magic.

  “You will not win,” I whispered.

  She laughed. “Of course I will. I will win because you’re weak. All of you. You aren’t willing to do what is necessary to take your place above these puny humans.”

  It was my turn to smile, but I knew my eyes remained cold even as they glowed brighter with my anger. “It is you who is weak, Rhiannon. You’re like a child, destroying everything in your path because you could not have what you truly wanted.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a hip to the side. “Please enlighten me. What did I want?”

  My eyes moved over her face and I knew that I was right in my calculations.

  “Acceptance. Unconditional love. You assume that power will gain you those things, just as a child does. But it won’t. It will only breed more hate, more rage, and more unhappiness. It isn’t I who chose the wrong side, Rhiannon. It was you.”

  She laughed, a harsh, grating sound, but her power faltered for a split second and I knew my words had pierced her.

  “I will enjoy killing you,” she stated.

  Her magic returned to full force against the ward. I could feel the spell cracking. It would only take her a few more moments to break through.

  “I could say the same to you,” I growled at her. “I guess we’ll see who’s the strongest after all.”

  Before she could reply, I traced away and back into the house. Nothing irritated Rhiannon more than someone else having the last word.

  As soon as I was within the walls again, the power inside nearly brought me to my knees. I could feel the wind battering the windows and the doors. Ava’s power created the storm and it was building.

  “She’ll be here soon,” I called over the howling wind.

  Just as I spoke, the final ward crashed and there was a low boom from where I’d been standing moments before.

  Ava lifted her gaze to mine and the breath left my body. Her eyes were pulsing and sparking as the petals of the flower in her hand did. Her hair flowed and lifted around her like a golden aura, shimmering with magic.

  If I thought she looked like a goddess before, I was wrong. In this moment, she was power personified. The magic cloaked her, drifting in the air all around us. We were cocooned in her warmth, her magic, and her love.

  “I’m ready,” she murmured. “Let’s meet the witch who would replace the Goddess and show her the true meaning of power.”

  Without waiting for us, Ava walked out the front door and into the maelstrom of magic.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Ava

  As soon as my foot touched the porch, the winds screaming around the house expanded around me. The bushes and trees were bent nearly in two by the force of the gale, but to me it was a gentle breeze.

  Rhiannon and her creature appeared nearby. The tempest tore at her clothes and hair for a moment but she closed her eyes and suddenly the wind no longer touched her. Her creature stared at me with malevolent black eyes, his humanity completely lost in the frenzy to feed. He was glutted with energy, electricity snapping and sparking around him.

  “Sister,” she greeted me, her voice a sinister whisper in the roaring wind.

  “Don’t you mean niece?” I retorted. My reply was dry and devoid of emotion.

  Genuine surprise crossed her face. “Mother has told you more than I expected.”

  “She told me everything,” I stated. “And she gave me the means to defeat you.”

  Rhiannon laughed. I’d expected it. “Maybe it would have worked before my pet fed and shared his power with me. But now…” She stopped speaking and lifted her hands.

  Immediately, the power twisting and turning around the house stoppe
d. Without the deafening wind, even the silence seemed too loud. I sensed her triumph as she sucked the power into herself, feeding her own until she was brimming with it. She was full of magic, stronger than she had ever been. Even stronger than me.

  It was exactly what I wanted.

  When I laughed, her smile faltered. I could still feel the glittering well of power within me. I had more than enough for what came next.

  I could feel Arien behind me, her body nearly touching mine. Without looking, I lifted a hand, erected a wall of magic between our bodies and everyone behind us.

  Kerry gasped and I heard Macgrath growl. I knew they wouldn’t understand what I was doing, but it was necessary. I needed space and time for what came next.

  “Ava.” Macgrath’s voice was a low rumble, a warning and a threat.

  I glanced over my shoulder at him. “I need you to trust me, Ewan. And I’m sorry it has to be this way.”

  His face changed then, his eyes growing wide and his fangs elongating. “What are you doing?” He stepped forward but he couldn’t move more than a foot before he hit the shield. “If you think you’re going to sacrifice yourself, you can forget it. I will break down any wall between us before you have a chance.”

  I smiled at him and I wondered if it looked like my grandmother’s smile when we spoke of Rhiannon earlier. I imagined that it did. “There is no need for me to sacrifice myself. But I am giving up something that we both wanted.”

  Confusion stole over his features. “Whatever it is, I don’t care. I only want you to be safe.”

  Dampness welled in my eyes because I knew that wasn’t true. I could see into his heart.

  “Our vengeance,” I murmured. “I gave up our revenge for what Rhiannon did to us and what she did to our daughter.”

  I could see and feel the anger then. “You had no right,” he growled, moving forward again until he bumped into the ward that I’d raised between us.

  “Maybe not,” I agreed, “But it’s done. I promised the Goddess to spare her child, to show mercy where our enemy did not. I will fulfill my vow.”

  I turned away from him then, knowing that he would be too angry to be reasoned with. I only hoped that we could resolve it once this was all over.

  Regardless, I would not regret this. After speaking with the Goddess, I knew that this was the right path. The path to light and freedom.

  Rhiannon watched and waited. Now that I understood her and knew what she truly was to me, I could touch her mind. I could feel her glee and her anticipation at having me at her mercy.

  But beneath that was an ocean of pain. So deep and wide that it was unending. Her time as a mortal hadn’t twisted Rhiannon, it had broken her.

  With each new agony, she’d distanced herself from her emotions. She refused to acknowledge that she needed love and that she hurt for humanity. That she felt empathy for the people she harmed.

  Her denial remained until the chasm between her pain and her heart was so great that she believed she would never bridge it.

  Seeing it and feeling it, I was glad I had listened to my grandmother. After the ritual was complete, she would feel it all, everything that she denied, and it would be a far worse punishment than death. And she would have to live with that pain for century after century, just as I had lived with her curse for two thousand years.

  Arien slipped the flower into my palm. I closed my fingers around the delicate bloom and lifted it in front of me.

  “I have a gift from your mother,” I murmured.

  When Rhiannon saw what was in my palm, she exclaimed, a wordless cry of denial.

  Her creature lunged forward to attack, power gathering around his hands. I could feel the sparks of it along my skin, even from ten feet away. When he loosed his magic, a crackling ball of light and heat, I merely waved a hand.

  Rhiannon’s eyes widened when the ball balanced on my palm before dispersing in a shower of blue and white energy. I absorbed it all.

  “It can’t be,” she whispered.

  “It is,” I replied.

  With the gifts the Goddess had given me, I had become more like her. I could feel it. The magic in the earth, the water, the air, and in the fire, it all responded to me. It existed within me. I was part of it. When and if my mortal body died, I would return to the elements. I would become like the Goddess, able to see and hear everything in every realm.

  But only when I was ready.

  I lifted the flower. “I call the power, Rhiannon. The power you absorbed was not mine, but your mother’s. With her blood vow, I call it back to her.” I took a deep breath. “And I curse you, Rhiannon. Not as you cursed me. I curse you to feel all the pain you deny, to relive all the moments that you have hidden from your mind with magic and time. You will feel, my aunt. You will feel it all. There will be no escaping what you have done, however desperately you want to.”

  Rhiannon lifted her hands, chanting spells and curses, anything and everything she could think of to destroy me.

  But it was useless. The magic she used wasn’t her own, but the Goddess’ and mine. She could not turn our own power against us. Not anymore.

  She threw her head back and shrieked, a guttural sound of pain and defeat.

  I lifted the flower and her form shimmered. As she vanished, I felt her presence within the heart of the delicate petals. The pulsing light brightened until it was nearly blinding and then it faded.

  She was trapped there until her mother released her, forced to relive everything she had done.

  The creature collapsed when her control over him vanished. He fell face down to the ground. I felt pity well within me. He was changed now, possibly forever. Perhaps I could find a way to help him with Gaius’ grimoire. If not, I only hoped that he could be brought back from the insanity that Rhiannon had forced upon him. That the atrocities he’d committed hadn’t twisted his psyche irrevocably.

  The flower in my hand glittered, the edges fading slightly. It pulsed with light once more then slowly dissolved. I could feel the Goddess’ presence and looked up. A good distance away, at the edge of the trees that surrounded the property, she stood in her white gown, her dark hair blowing in the gentle wind.

  Thank you for sparing her. I will not forget.

  I nodded once, lowering my now empty hand to my side. Just as I will not forget all you’ve done for me.

  She lifted a hand and as she disappeared, she whispered to me once more. I have one more gift for you.

  Then I felt her in my mind, the barest touch, and a kaleidoscope of color filled my mind. Suddenly I could see her, my daughter. From birth, her childhood, to adulthood, I saw her life unfold before me. Every beautiful, precious moment of it. It hurt, but it was the exquisite pain of a longing fulfilled. It would never replace what I lost, but it brought me a small measure of comfort.

  “Thank you.”

  I whispered the words aloud, my lips parting in awe with each crystalline moment that filled my mind.

  Then she was gone.

  I released the breath that I’d been holding and let the shield surrounding me fall. Arien laid a comforting hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. I knew she had listened to my conversation with the Goddess.

  It was time to face my mate and my friends. No, my family. Somehow they had become exactly that.

  I turned around and my eyes immediately fell on Macgrath. He was staring at me with glowing green and gold eyes, his anger nearly palpable. I approached him, keeping my shoulders back and my chin lifted. I could not be ashamed about what I had done.

  As I drew closer, I realized that his mind was closed off to me. I couldn’t sense him nor feel his emotions. Sadness stabbed at my heart. Though it hurt, I had expected as much. I had been the first to separate myself. He had a right to his anger and his privacy at the moment.

  “Why didn’t you tell me what you planned?” he asked.

  I could feel the eyes of everyone else upon us and I knew they were wondering the same thing. I could have mentioned it, even
if I knew time would be short.

  “Because I knew you wouldn’t agree,” I replied. “And I made a vow.”

  Macgrath was silent for a long moment, his eyes searching my face. “Maybe not, but I had just as much right to vengeance as you did. You were not the only one Rhiannon hurt and it wasn’t your decision to make alone.”

  “I could not tell the Goddess no when she pleaded with me, Macgrath,” I stated evenly.

  “Why not?” he demanded. “She allowed this to happen to us.”

  I shook my head. “She protected us,” I retorted. “She gave me the power I needed to save you two thousand years ago. She gave us both the power to withstand Rhiannon’s curse.”

  “And what about our daughter?” he asked, his voice little more than a growl as he loomed over me.

  I nearly flinched, but managed to control the urge. “What happened to her was not Rhiannon’s doing. The Goddess shared the truth with me and our daughter—”

  Macgrath snarled and turned away from me, stomping across the porch. “I can’t listen to you say these things right now.” He faced me once again, the distance yawning between us. “You betrayed me.”

  The statement was sharp and flew with incredible accuracy. It pierced my heart, shattering it.

  Without another word, he traced away, putting even more space between us.

  “He’ll come back,” Savannah whispered, stepping up to my side. She wrapped her arms around me. “He’s your mate. There is no way that he won’t return for you.”

  I shook my head. I wasn’t as certain. If anyone could break the mating bond, it would be Macgrath. He was old enough, and with his powers as an Echo, he could sever our connection if he truly desired to.

  And after the way he just looked at me, I wasn’t as sure as Savannah.

  “We’ll see.”

  Kerry and Finn stepped in front of me, their eyes full of concern.

  “The Goddess asked a great deal from you,” Kerry said.

  I blew out a breath, a soft laugh following. “That’s an understatement.” Then my eyes met Finn’s. “Did you already know?” I asked.