Redeeming Vows (33 page)

****

Liz couldn’t control her horse. She reared and tossed her to the ground. She scrambled out of the way of hooves and sprang to her feet.

Men pressed forward, swords once again crashed against each other and fire flew in the air.

She ducked an arrow and found Tara huddled next to Amber.

“We need to get behind the fortress so Grainna can’t escape,” Amber told them.

“Is that her plan?”

Amber shook her head. “Aye, that and to kill us all.” Liz noticed one of their men struggling with an enemy and assisted him with a little magic. Myra scrambled toward them and pushed another man from his horse with a wave of her hand.

“What’s the plan?”

“Over there.” Liz noticed a break in the men and a clear path beyond Grainna’s hiding space.

They started toward the entrance.

Wait for me.

The voice belonged to Simon, but when she looked down, he had already taken the form of a wolf. Before she could protest, he bounded forward and led the way.

Grainna wasn’t expecting any approach from the seaside. Simon picked his way along the side of her fortress, Liz and the others followed. Once they reached what looked like an entrance they realized the door was only an illusion, most likely magical.

Liz beat her fist on the solid brick. “Dammit.”

“What now?”

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“We can’t move to the front, she’ll see us.”

“Maybe we should retreat.”

Lora gasped and pointed above their heads.

Liz stifled a scream. Above them was a vision in white. Familiar, but not the Ancient who’d visited them before.

“It’s Tatiana,” Amber cried.

“Ghosts? Oh, Christ.” Liz shivered.

A floating cloud surrounding her sprit pointed farther beyond the cliffs and beckoned them to come.

“What should we do?” Amber asked.

Simon lunged forward and shifted from wolf to falcon in one leap.

His wings caught the air and flew beyond the ghost.

There’s a window over here,
he told his mother.

How are we all going to get up there?

Duh! Fly. Hold everyone’s hands.

Liz shrugged. She’d manage to hover during the rat attack, keeping four of them elevated.

Is the path clear?

Simon flew out of sight for a few seconds before telling her yes.

“Looks like we’re going for a ride.” She placed her hands out, palms up.

“Then what?” Myra asked. “We fly up there, find Grainna? Then what?”

Liz met her frightened eyes, her jaw set. “We kick some serious ass.”

Myra started to comment again.

“No. No doubt. This is it, Myra. We’ve all felt it.

Today this is over.”

Tara nodded and said, “I can’t go my entire life looking over my shoulder, worrying for my son’s life.”

Liz sent her sister a wry smile and accepted her hand in hers.

One by one, each of them nodded before grasping hands.

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“Don’t let go.”

Liz concentrated until all of them hovered above the sea cliff and found their feet planted inside Grainna’s keep.

The noise of the battle outside ran through all of them.

Liz knew from experience that neither Lora nor Tara would ask their husbands how the fight fared.

Any distraction from them could prove deadly.

Instead, their small party followed the ghost of Tatiana as she led the way through the maze of soggy passages to their ultimate enemy.

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Chapter Thirty-One

Fin pulled his sword from the warrior who’d fought him. Like the others, victory only came when it wasn’t your hide bleeding in the dirt and on the brush. These men didn’t die for the greater good of their liege or clan. They had died in vain.

Drawing up beside him, Cian followed Duncan.

The majority of men fell, some still fought, but the enemy’s strength dwindled.

Fin’s eyes shot to where they’d left the women.

Some still stood, fire shooting from their hands and others appeared to be wielding some other gift.

Peering closer, he realized that none of the women resembled Liz. He looked closer. His mother wasn’t among them either.

“Where are
our
women?”

Duncan pointed to small gathering of ladies.

“Look again, brother.”

Alarm filled Duncan’s face, his eyes shot toward the keep.

Fin didn’t wait for an explanation. He knew his brother spoke with his wife inside his head. Kicking his horse, Fin raced to the walls of the keep.

****

Following the ghost of Tatiana through the dark chambers and long halls of the forgotten fortress prickled Liz’s spine.

“Where are we going? Seems we’re moving down and not up to where Grainna is.”

They had been moving down several flights of stairs. Once in a while, they’d travel up one, but the 293

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majority were below the entrance they’d taken.

Tatiana hovered over a large ornate door. She floated thought the wood, disappeared, and then shimmered in front of them again.

“In there? We need to go inside?” Amber asked.

Tatiana nodded and floated beyond the heavy barrier.

Liz grasped the handle of the chamber and pushed. Nothing happened.

She pressed her shoulder against it again.

Nothing.

“What’s Grainna hiding in there?”

“Must be important.”

Myra stepped forward. “Move back.”

Liz obeyed.

Myra forced both of her hands over her head, springing the door off its hinge and across the room.

“Bitchin’,” Liz cried, not able to contain her lift in her heart with the display of Myra’s powers.

They entered what must have been Grainna’s lair. No other way could describe her private chambers.

Layers upon layers of fabric ran the length of the walls, a massive bed sat in the middle of the room, but the mattress held no dip. Liz wondered if the woman ever slept. A fireplace filled one wall, another held shelves with flasks and containers holding untold things.

Tatiana waved a ghostly hand over a chessboard. There her wispy trails of smoke merged with a magical fog layered over the players.

Liz stared down at the game, eyes creased. She lifted her gaze to Tatiana. “What? What is this?”

Tatiana bent to the board, brought her hands to her mouth, and tried to blow. Without breath, nothing came from her lips. She repeated the action twice and then tried to wave a hand over the pieces.

The fog still settled. Never lifting, never moving.

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“Blow?” Liz asked.

Tatiana tilted her head to the side and nodded.

Bending down, Liz opened her mouth and drew in a big breath. She spread the air across the board like a child blowing out candles on a cake.

The fog lifted but tried to come back.

“Do it again,” Tara cried.

Liz blew a second time.

Lora called out, “The enemy is retreating.”

“What?”

“Out there. Ian says their enemy is fleeing.”

“Grainna is controlling the men with this. The game, the fog.”

Tatiana nodded, and then her smile faded. Her head shot to the ceiling. Soon her spirit sprinted up and out of the room.

“What the hell,” Tara yelled.

“Grainna knows we’re here,” Amber told them, her empathic ability never in question.

“We need to get out of here,” Tara cried.

They ran toward the door.

****

Fin noticed Grainna spring from her perch and knew she went to intercept the women. When the men in the courtyard and beyond turned their horses or simply ran on foot, he knew Grainna’s hold on them was broken.

Duncan, Cian, Todd and Ian met him on the main stairs of the fortress.

“Where are they?”

Ian led the way, following the stairs to the west and down into the lower chambers. “Down there.”

They ran, tripping over stones and debris until they heard a woman’s scream. Fin hated that he couldn’t tell whose.

Duncan ducked as something flew by his head.

Amber’s voice yelled from behind them.

Fin swiveled.

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“Hurry,” he cried, pointing toward the sound of the scream.

Bounding down the stairs, Fin burst into the room to find Grainna holding her hand above her head. Liz and the others hovered above the ground, their frames encapsulated in an iridescent bubble.

Duncan shot fire toward the witch, breaking her concentration and forcing the women to the floor with a solid thud.

Todd shot off three rounds, catching Grainna in the chest before landing on the ground, unaffected.

Her hand pushed the gun from his hand making it fall to the floor before Todd’s body slammed against the wall.

Myra countered. Where the bullets had no effect, her force spun Grainna in circles, leaving her against the posts of the bed.

Grainna laughed, lifted her arms over her head, and disappeared in a cloud of gray smoke.

****

“Where the hell did she go?” Liz screamed.

From the doorway, Tatiana appeared.

Cian’s gasp brought all eyes to him. “’Tis you.”

She nodded and pointed above her head before moving from the room.

“Wait,” Cian yelled as he followed her spirit.

Simon, in the form of the wolf, reached the top of the stairs first.

Hurry,
Simon yelled.
She’s trying to escape.

Liz started yelling before she reached the landing where her son stood. “What’s the matter, Grainna? Is the wicked witch afraid?” Maybe taunting her wasn’t the brightest idea, but it seemed a better idea than letting her run away.

****

Outside, Grainna turned at Lizzy’s call, her words stepping on her last nerves. Why should she run? This was her world, her reign. These people 296

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were nothing.

Lightning split above her head, she batted it away with a wave of her hand. “I expected more of you, Ian.” She tossed him off his feet.

The wind caught beneath her legs, she stumbled but didn’t fall.

She drew a line of fire in front of the family and pulled in a deep breath. As she blew, the fire whipped and struck out at them.

Rain splattered down from above, stopping the flames as quickly as she could conjure them.

The women started grasping on to each other’s hands.

“In this day and in this hour,” Liz started the chant and the others followed. Ian grasped hold of his wife, his son, the others.

“We call upon the Ancient powers.”

The air around Grainna thinned. She had to flee. She’d not be sent forward in time again.

Grainna lifted her hands and started to shift.

“Bring upon this witch every soul that she has taken or she has stolen.”

Tatiana’s ghost swam toward her, hands extended. Grainna forgot to shift and ducked the girl’s dead fury. Another black ghost flew her way, and another.

Their weeping, cries, and sorrow followed rage and violence.

“Souls!” Liz yelled. “Take back your powers, every soul. Leave her empty, leave her cold.”

The family advanced, united. Each one adding a chant, adding another layer of her demise. She batted away the ghosts. Slivers of spiny fingers racked her face and arms. Her skin started to tear.

Her body started to weaken.

“No more immortality, this is our curse from us to thee.”

Grainna heaved a wail from her lungs. Lungs 297

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that breathed for five hundred years now sputtered dust. Her hands started to shrivel, her eyes fought to see. As her body crumbled to the ground, Duncan lifted his hands, flames shot to her body, caught, and the pain of every death slammed into her black heart and took back what was theirs.

****

When the flames cleared and silence replaced the screams, Liz’s gaze settled on the pile of dust where Grainna had once stood. Tilting her head to the left, she saw Todd holding Myra’s hand. To them linked Lora and Ian. Amber gripped a hold of Cian and Simon. On the right, Tara slumped against Duncan. Fin broke away from his place and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her.

They’d done it.

They’d all survived.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cian step forward, his hand reached out.

Tatiana was the only soul left in the room. She hovered close to Cian, her eyes filled with sorrow.

They hadn’t all survived after all.

Cian’s hand brushed around her image, caressing her.

“Mom,” Simon whispered as he pointed above their heads.

“Elise.”

An iridescent cloud of silver brought the stunning Ancient to them. “You have done well, clan MacCoinnich.” Her voice, like that of an angelic choir, flowed like a river. She hovered over Grainna’s ashes, and swept her hand above them causing them to disappear into a thousand pearls of golden light.

Elise settled her feet on the ground, walked out of her iridescent light, and materialized in front of them. Her flawless face was porcelain smooth, and her radiant smile was like a gift when she turned it 298

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on Liz. Simply looking at her gave Liz a glimpse of what heaven must be.

“Each of you fought with courage and valor. You brought together the future and the past in the only combination that could end Grainna’s evil. We are all eternally grateful to you.”

“We exposed ourselves to the others. Will we be safe?” Liz asked.

“Fear not, Elizabeth. We have filtered many images from the minds of those we feel would call you out or see your family harmed because of who and what you are. Others, like you, will remember.”

“What of the stones? We have only the three.”

Elise swept her gaze over to Tatiana who hovered above Cian. “Show them, m’dear.”

Tatiana nodded and extended her hand to a chest sitting against the wall. Cian opened the latch and found the three missing sacred stones.

“They are entrusted to you, your family. As each of you go your separate ways, take one stone each.”

“Separate ways? What are you saying? Are we going to be divided?”

Elise laid a hand to Lora’s arm. “Only if you choose to do so, m’lady.”