Page 22 of Dragon's Assassin
“It’s unfair,” Amy murmured, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Reaching out and laying her hand on Alex’s, Amy asked in earnest, “What can I do to help?”
Explaining what they needed but didn’t already have, Amy was ready to perform the ritual by the time Alex got to the end of her explanation. Standing behind Creed, with a thin, black taper candle in her hand and a gold framed mirror on a matching stand to her left, the younger MacAskill Fairy was more than prepared.
Opening her mouth to ask where hers were, Alex laughed out loud, despite all they were going through, when Amy gave a single nod and duplicates appeared on her side of the circle. “What are you, Sabrina the Teenage Witch?”
“Excuse me, sister dear,” Amy made a show of clearing her throat. “I prefer Samantha fromBewitched, or Jeannie fromI Dream of Jeanniethank you very much. I am, after all, about a hundred-and-twenty-seven.”
“Boy, how time flies.”
“And now you sound old.” Waving her free hand in the air, Amy prodded, “And we need to get this show on the road before it’s all for naught.”
“Right you are.”
Inhaling and exhaling, Alex looked right at Creed. Wondering what she’d ever done right to get such a handsome Mate with a heart and soul as pure as his, she offered a quick prayer that after all the fighting was over and they were okay, he might find his way to accept her as his Mate.
Looking up to find Amy staring at her, Alex shrugged, at the same time her sister whispered, “He’s gonna love you.” Speaking louder, she added, “If you hurry up and keep us all from being turned to ash.”
“Okay, okay, I’m hurrying. Excuse me for being distracted. It’s not every day I meet my Mate, am ordered to kill my Mate, then go against everything I ever believed in to save my Mate.”
“Yeah, well, shit got real. Now, you get realer.”
“Realer? Is that even a word?”
“Alex!”
Focusing all her energy on removing the Spell and nothing else, Alex snapped her fingers and lit the candles she and Amy were holding. Turning off the overhead, fluorescent lights with a thought, she let her eyes slide shut and pushed her spirit into Creed’s body.
Finding the inky, black tentacles of the cursed Magic was easy - it was everywhere and multiplying with every beat of his heart. Without a second to lose, Alex started to sing in Gaelic,“Bidh an Draoidheachd air mo Mhat air a ghlacadh an oidhche seo. Eadar na sgàthanan sin chan fhaic solas a-riamh.”
Amy joined in and together they repeated the counter spell in English, “The Magic upon my Mate be trapped this night. Between these mirrors never see light.”
Over and over, they repeated the words they been taught by the Goddess Danu at the time of their Becoming. Beautiful, pure white Magic filled the air. Wrapping around Creed like clouds from a sunny sky, Alex watched as the black tendrils were utterly obliterated and his body was restored from the inside out.
The longer they sang, the stronger her Dragon became. Hope filled Alex’s heart and soul. He would live. He would be good as new. He would…
And that was as far as she got as the huge, electrified, and warded metal sliding door protecting one of her many safe houses from intruders was blown off the hinges. Powerful, dark Sorcery filled the room. The acrid stench of sulfur invaded her senses. Black clouds of ash and brimstone sought to entrap Amy and Creed and also Alex.
Spinning on her toes and backing up until she felt her Mate’s knees touching the backs of her own, Alex pulled her crossbow from the ether, loaded the silver tipped arrow dipped in her own tincture of Water Hemlock, Deadly Nightshade, and White Snakeroot and aimed it in the vicinity of the door.
“Come on out! Nobody here’s afraid of your parlor tricks. My name is Alex MacAskill, and I am the Morrígan’s Assassin.”
Stepping from the smoke with fire in his eyes and theAodh, the Celtic God of the Underworld, in his hand, the Crow stalked forward. Looking even more smug than usual, he announced, “My name is Death and I’ve come to claim what is mine.”
Pointing the tip of his sword at her chest, he added, “You Dragon lives, but only if you come with me. I was promised that you would live out eternity by my side, and that is a promise that shall be fulfilled.”