“They’re a distraction.” Despite the cold, sweat ran down his face. “A damn good one, but a distraction. They want to drive us into the pit? We drive them.”

She nodded, reached back to grip his hand. “Push!”

It poured out in a kind of rage, hot, savage, strong.

In the screams that followed, the howl of shifters, the flaming blur of elves, they battered them back, back. But worse, the sounds that came, no longer human, as they fell, tumbled, spilled into the pit, tore through the shrieking wind.

A handful broke off, ran.

“If they reach the village,” Fallon began.

“I’ve got this.” Astride Laoch, Tonia circled. “Go, go. I’ll take care of this and be right behind you.”

“She can handle it.” Duncan looked at Fallon. “Ready?”

Together, they charged into the dead woods.

Shadows loomed, shifted. Some breathed, and that breath held death. They felt it, that beat, beat, beat of the dark heart. The pulse of the source.

The light, called by the spell, lay thin and winding.

“It knew it would come to this night.” With sword and shield, Fallon followed the light. “It’s always known. Maybe all of it, all the blood, the battles, the death and misery, was another distraction. Because this is what it’s waited for.”

You’re what it’s waited for, Duncan thought, and stayed close.

The ice-slicked, skeletal trees seemed to slink over the ground as if to block the path. Jagged fingers of branches jabbed out. Duncan sliced one aside with his sword, heard a quick, high-pitched shriek as the severed limb bled black.

“That’s fucking creepy.”

“Enough. Enough.” Sheathing her sword, Fallon used her hands to slice the air. “Clear.”

Those ice-coated trees went still, leaving the path open.

“Distractions,” she repeated.

“Yeah. It’s leading to where we found the girl, the altar.”

“It wants us there. It thinks it wins. It wants us there. Can you feel it? Can you hear it?”

She gripped his hand. “Now I can,” he answered as that pull, that tug nipped inside him like sharp fingers, as the voice echoed softly inside his head.

A woman’s voice, a lover’s. Promising, promising.

They moved on. The pulse beat, faster, louder, a voice of its own that shook inside the belly, that rumbled underfoot. The path widened, then spread to another circle of stones, and the smooth slab of rock resting on them.

On it, the inverted pentagram pulsed red.

“A new dance, a new slab. Petra’s work,” Duncan noted. But not only hers, he said in Fallon’s mind.

Not only hers, she answered. But she’s here. She’s close.

Now, Fallon thought, and once again reached for her sword. At the roar, she looked up, saw the wave of fire, heard the wild laugh.

“And here she is now.” The elation that spurted through Duncan died on sudden, sickening alarm. “Oh, Christ, Tonia.”

She fell from the sky already bleeding, the arm of her jacket smoldering. She struck the side of the altar, tumbled bonelessly off to land at his feet.

“No, goddamn it. No.” Dropping down, Duncan swiped a hand over the jacket to stop the burning, then ran them over his sister to find the wounds.

Fallon leaped forward, threw her shield over them to block a stream of fire.

“There’s too much. I can’t find it all. We need to get her back to New Hope.”

“No.” Tonia found his hand, struggled to close hers over it. “It has to be the three of us. Help me up.”

“You’ve got internal injuries. There’s so much broken. Fallon, help me.”

“Let me see. Let me try.” Her arm trembled holding the shield against the steady barrage of fire, but she closed her hand over Duncan’s, over Tonia’s, searched.

Blinding pain, unspeakable pain, and a light dimming.

“Help me.” Her voice weak, her face pale as the smothered moon, Tonia closed her eyes. “We have to finish this.”

* * *

In New Hope, the tower of light shivered, seemed to shrink. In the circle with her mother, Hannah fell to her knees. Around her neck the pendant symbolizing her power glowed.

“Baby.” Katie dropped down beside her. “What—”

“Tonia. She needs me. They need me.” She pushed up, grabbed the medical bag she’d set on the ground for the return. “Tonia. She’s hurt. I can feel…” She closed her hand around the pendant. “I have to go. Lana, take me.”

“You’re not prepared. I’ll go, bring her back.”

“I have to go.” Hannah held out the glowing pendant, then took Lana’s hand. “She’s my sister. I was chosen, too.” She looked at her mother. “I was chosen, too,” she repeated. “Hurry. She’s hurt.”

When Lana took her hand, Simon stepped forward.

“I can’t. I can’t take both of you, two unprepared non-magickals.”

He nodded, forced himself to step back again. “Bring our girl home. Bring them all home.”

“I love you.” She looked at Katie, her heart in her eyes. “All I have to protect yours. I swear it. All I have.”

Gathering Hannah close, she flashed.

“My babies.” Katie pressed her hands to her mouth, all but fell into Arlys’s arms. “My babies.”

“You have light,” Mallick called out. “You have a mother’s light and love. Send it!” He drove his own light into the fire. “All here, you have light, you have faith, you have love. Send it.”

Tears still falling, Katie straightened, reached for Jonah’s hand, for Rachel’s. “You helped me bring them, all three of them, into the world. Help me bring them home.”

Jonah held Katie’s hand, but didn’t meet her eyes. He hadn’t been able to see life, or death. He hadn’t seen anything but dark.

Then Fred took his other hand, murmured close to his ear, “They brought you back into the world, too. Believe in them.”

* * *

Hannah nearly slid out of Lana’s arms when they flashed to the altar. Though her vision grayed, she shook it clear.

Duncan might have cursed at seeing his other sister on the battlefield but he was too busy working with Fallon to heal Tonia’s most dangerous injuries.

“Stay back! I’ll draw her off,” he said to Fallon. “Help them with Tonia. Get her back to New Hope.”

“You can’t take it all on alone.”

“I’m not losing you or my sisters.” His gaze locked with hers, one last time. “Take care of them.”

When he ran, shouting Petra’s name, drawing the flame, she did curse.

“Men,” Tonia managed weakly. “What can you do? Hannah, you shouldn’t be here.”

“You needed me. There’s magickal tools in here, too,” she told Lana briskly as she took out a bottle and syringe. “Fully equipped.”

“No sedative.” Tonia waved it away. “I’ve still got work to do. Tail caught me, freaking dragon. I missed my shot. Laoch tried to catch me, but it was too fast. He’s burned. I don’t know how bad.”

Fallon rose. Fire streaked the sky. Lightning red as Tonia’s blood rained from it. And in the woods that heart beat with deep, dark joy.

“Get her out of here.”

“I’m not—”

“Clear of the woods,” Fallon continued. “Follow the path of light, and get her clear. We’re not losing you, Tonia. Hannah and my mother will make sure of it, but the three of you can’t be in here for this.”

“You need to hang on for another flash. It’s not going to be a picnic for either of you, but it’ll be fast.” Lana looked up at Fallon, her child, her love. She’d promised that child she would never lose faith in her again. She would keep that promise.

“I believe in you.”

Alone, with her mother’s words still on the air, Fallon turned to the altar. “So now you have what you’ve wanted. Me alone. No more distractions.”

She closed her eyes, let the dark crawl in.

She felt its spider legs walk along her skin, its sinuous fingers snake around her ankles. It brushed its lips over hers, breathed its cold breath over her eyes. And surrounding her, covering her, squeezing, gently, gently squeezing, it murmured in her ear.

They are not worthy of us. They are beneath us, these mortals, these weaklings, these pale magicks. Lie on my altar, child of the bright gods, and know the dark. Know the pleasure I offer only to you.

“There have been others before me.”

Only to prepare for you. Lie with me, chosen one, and drink my dark, so rich, so sweet. I will drink your light, so bold, so bright. With our merging, we will be The One.

“I am The One.”

The dark compressed, choking off her breath. Do you wish pain when I offer so much? I will only feed on it. Take the pleasure, feel the pain, give me your light or I will take it. Give me your light, and I will spare the mother.

She took an agonizing step toward the altar, laid a trembling hand on it, felt its iced surface, its alluring promise as the dark smothered her.

Through the curtain she heard Petra’s mad laugh, saw the red glow of the fire scorching the sky. In her mind she saw sickness, death, war, murder, the plague of black magicks. So much loss, so much brutality.

It has always been so, and so it will always be. Brother killing brother over a patch of grass or a whoring woman. Children starving while others grow fat on fists of candy. The world burning for greed and ambition. These are who would hunt you, burn you, destroy you for what you are to save themselves. For your power. Come to me, lie with me. They are but toys to be played with, broken, and cast aside. We are forever.

“Can you hear them?” She took another step, another as the excitement of what wrapped her so close hummed over her skin, beat like moth wings. “Can you?”

Their screams? Their lamentations?