2 Witch and Famous (22 page)

I dodged, but she followed me, undaunted by the after-images of me that still had the goblins turning in confused circles. The fake versions of me weren’t fooling her one bit.

I survived those first few seconds solely because Victoria didn’t know how to fight. I guessed that she’d never needed to learn, because she’d always had people around her she could enchant, intimidate, and persuade to fight for her. People she could manipulate and use. She’d always been the one sitting in the background, watching as people fought over her. As people died for her.

 Yet, with all that power in her, she was strong. Impossibly strong. Impossibly fast. She had the kind of strength that said just how ancient she was. Just how powerful centuries of feeding had made her.

I barely parried those first blows, struggling to jam her arms and get enough of an angle to survive. Briefly, barely, I saw an opening. Even as I threw a punch though, I realized I had made a mistake. Victoria’s blow caught me even as mine struck her, and while mine snapped her head back, hers sent me stumbling.

“I was a fool to think you could be useful to me,” she snapped, hitting me again and driving me to my knees. “You are a child, playing at being an enchantress. Too afraid of her own power to ever really use it. You could have killed me with the chair. I wouldn’t have hesitated.”

She gestured to the humans on the dais, then kicked me onto my back. I thought I felt something break as her foot struck my ribs. I heard it as well as felt it, the snap of the bone coming along with my own small sound of pain.

“You still love them too much. You still think that they’re real, these lesser creatures. Their entire lives take place in the blink of an eye. How can that be real?” Victoria leaned down, lifting a hand for a blow that would probably smash my skull. “You still think they matter. You are still far, far too human.”

“No, you aren’t human enough,” I said, as I saw a flash of movement behind her. “And they do matter. They
always
matter.”

Siobhan snarled like an animal as she leapt onto Victoria’s back, clawing and scratching, biting and twisting. Freed from Victoria’s control when the enchantress pulled in her power to fight me, there was nothing stopping her now from unleashing everything she felt over Dougie’s death. Victoria screamed and reared up as Siobhan ripped at her throat with claw-sharp fingernails, trying to reach back, trying to stop the sudden blur of teeth, claws, and fury.

It didn’t last long. Victoria was simply too strong. A second later, and she threw Siobhan off, standing tall as the goblin girl went tumbling through the air to rest at the base of the dais.

That just meant that Victoria made a better target when I hit her with all the magical force I could muster. The power hit her in the center of the chest, sending her flying back into the middle of the crowd of goblins. A rapidly thinning crowd of goblins. Some had stayed, obviously agreeing with Victoria and her plans to re-take the surface, but others had fled with her influence gone.
Good.
It meant I knew who my enemies were.

Victoria struggled to her feet. She somehow managed to look beautiful even with her dress torn to shreds by the power of the magic I’d thrown at her. Even with bloody scrapes on her arms where the opera gloves had peeled away. She stood, and I could feel her reaching out with her power, reasserting her control over the goblins around her.

“Oh dear, Elle, is that really all you have? All these lives at stake, and that’s the best you can do?”

I gritted my teeth against the pain in my ribs as I pulled myself to my feet. I didn’t know if I looked half as good as Victoria did as I stood there on the edge of the dais, but I wanted to stand for this.

“No,” I said, once I was sure I had Victoria’s full attention. “This is.”

I reached out and grabbed the emotions of the goblins. I took their fear, their anger, their blood lust, and their hatred. I took the part of them that wanted to see the surface no matter the cost. I took the part of them that wanted to hurt me. I bundled all those feelings up, I poured in the power Niall had given me, and I shaped it with the magic I had.

I threw the whole bundle at the ceiling.

It smashed home on the great chandelier with a sound like two trains colliding. The metal of the chandelier screeched as it twisted, its chains snapping. All that weight hung by a thread for a moment, and then fell in a crash of twisting metal and tinkling, smashing, crashing crystals.

Goblins screamed as they scrambled to get out of the way. Some ran for the walls and pressed themselves into the rock crevices. Some made it. Some didn’t.

In the middle of it all, Victoria stared up at the huge lump of metal approaching the spot where she stood. She raised an arm as though that could protect her from the crushing weight. Then she disappeared, dust and metal taking her as the chandelier slammed down.

Above me, the rock the chandelier had been embedded in rumbled as it shifted, a few stones falling down. For now, just for now, everything was still, poised on the edge.

“Siobhan.” The goblin girl was down on the floor not far from me. I shook her shoulder hard. “Siobhan.”

She looked up at me, apparently barely recognizing me. “Dougie. She killed Dougie.”

“I know. I’m so sorry.”

“She promised she wouldn’t! She gave her word that if I did what she wanted that Dougie would be all right.” Her voice sounded so defeated that my heart broke a little for her, even though Dougie had been a rotten boyfriend and a thief, too. That didn’t matter, because it was Siobhan who was hurting now.

“Siobhan, we have to get out of here. This whole place feels like it’s going to come down, I’ve got to carry Niall, there are the humans to get out of here, and I don’t know the way out. I know it’s hard. I know it hurts, but I need you right now.”

Siobhan looked round, blinking.

“Get the humans.” I pushed her emotions, just slightly, hating myself for doing it. “Get them and lead us out of here, Siobhan. You’re the only one who knows the way. It’s a maze up there, and if we take the wrong turn…” I didn’t say the rest, but I thought about some of the things I’d seen in the dark on the way down. I didn’t want to run into them on the way out.

“Save us, Siobhan,” I whispered. “Save us all.”

She nodded, and went to round up Victoria’s witch and warlock captives. The goblins who weren’t dead had run, leaving us behind in the throne room. I knew that Siobhan needed this. She needed to save
someone
today. I didn’t count.

I looked up as the rock ceiling groaned. The blast I had put into it had torn out a large section around the chandelier, and now I could hear the rocks as they shifted, grinding and rumbling, slowly working their way to the edge of collapse.

A few more small rocks began to fall. Although these things are relative. They were probably still the size of an average coffee table. They were only small in comparison to the ones around them. The witches Victoria had stripped of their strength and reduced to pets still weren’t moving.

I had less of a problem with pushing them to do what I needed them to do, partly because they were still connected with the coven, but mostly because a couple of stalactites chose that moment to dislodge themselves from the ceiling above. They plunged down, embedding themselves in the checkerboard floor like spears.

“Run!” I screamed.

 I quickly lifted Niall. He still looked like he was sleeping. It felt so strange for me to be doing something like this with him. I was used to him carrying me upstairs to his bedroom, holding me in his arms. But if I needed to carry him, I would. I would carry him as far as I needed to go to find a way to help him.

“We need to go,” I said as we headed toward the exit, and Siobhan nodded, herding Victoria’s prisoners out of there as more stones started to fall from the ceiling above. “This whole place is coming down!”

We ran, and as we did, Siobhan let out shrieks and hoots that were utterly inhuman. They sounded like some sort of warning to the other goblins. A warning to keep out of our way. A warning about the rock fall. A warning about what would happen if they tried to stop me now. I wasn’t sure.

Siobhan led the way, while I brought up the rear, making sure that we didn’t leave anyone behind. I felt as much as saw presences gathering in the dark. Goblins on the edge of what I could feel, their anger mixed in with fear and curiosity. I radiated fear to any I could feel, keeping them back, warning them to keep clear if they wanted to live. I used my power to push them out while we collectively ran for the surface, stumbling and helping each other along, but never stopping.

Never looking back, either. Some part of me told me that if we looked back, the goblins might have fallen on us in a great, baying mob, and even I might not have been able to stop them. Yes, Victoria had controlled some of them, but I was an enchantress, and I knew that some things weren’t possible. She couldn’t control an entire people just through force of will. They had believed in her. They had believed, and I had just robbed them of their best chance of coming out from the tunnels. That thought was enough to make me run a little faster.

By the time we came up into the air around Arthur’s Seat, it was dark. Dark enough that I could barely see the people around me. Dark enough that the stars overhead shone like beacons. I was glad of that, because at least it would keep attention from us, but it also made me wonder about the goblins. Was this what it looked like to them every time they came to the surface? No wonder they wanted it back.

I looked around at all the people Victoria had hurt. They might have been witches and warlocks, but mostly, they were just people. People who looked around blankly in the dark, as though waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Presumably, they had homes and families, places they needed to be. I would have to call Rebecca and get her to help with them. With any luck, them all having the same story would convince her that Niall hadn’t been responsible for any deaths in the city.

Niall.
He was so still. So drained of energy. Energy that I had used up fighting Victoria. Energy that I had thrown with everything else I had at the ceiling. Energy that I didn’t even have to heal myself. Even now, I could feel the edges of hunger creeping back in. I couldn’t give him back the gift he’d given me. Not without ending up like him, or worse. So what? Did I simply have to wait for Niall to recover?
Would
he recover without my help? I needed energy to bring Niall back to himself. A lot of energy.

I knew what I had to do to save him. It wouldn’t be easy. But it was the only thing I could think of.

Practically glowing with power, I stepped out of the club. I stared up at the night sky, and for once, I didn’t feel the rush of a hundred people’s emotions fading as I left. This power wasn’t that kind. It was sustenance, not just a taste. I headed back toward the car that would take me to Niall’s home. Niall’s driver, David, was waiting for me as I got in.

“Did everything go okay, Miss Chambers?”

I thought of all of the lips that had touched mine that night. I thought of all of the hands that had brushed over my skin. I thought of all of the people I had moved so close to, taking a brush of energy here, a brush of energy there. I’d stood in the middle of the same club Victoria had tried to get me to lose control in, and I’d called them to me.