Forever Doon (26 page)

P
urple orbs of magic began to gather in the center of Addie's outstretched hands, writhing like agitated serpents in small glass bowls. “I always thought that Frank L. Baum was a ninny for creating a world where his witch could be killed with something as basic and necessary as water.”

Kenna
, Vee's voice buzzed inside my head.
Addie gets sloppy when she's antagonized.

Got it!
Squaring my shoulders, I leveled my gaze at Addie and projected that I found her pathetic. “Do you have a point you're eventually going to make? Or are you trying to soliloquize us to death?”

My bestie stepped into me and grasped my hand, covering up the movement with a chuckle. “Good one, Ken.”

I watched the rage move across Addie's face. “Acid. That's my point, dearie. Acid is a much more effective way to melt someone.” The slithering balls in her hands began to secrete liquid. A single drop fell from her hand. With a sickening hiss, the spot blackened as the grass turned to zombie fungus. “Not
me, of course. But I'm thinking it will do the trick on the two of you nicely.”

Without a second to spare, Kenna and I raised our hands, using our rings to put up a shield as two purple balls flew through the air. The orbs expanded into a gelatinous web that coated our protective bubble. As it oozed to the ground around us, the earth decayed and blackened.

My head began to buzz as Jamie's voice ordered,
Take cover now!

I looked to Vee who clarified,
Bomb!

A moment later, a metal ball rolled past, coming to a stop against Addie's boot. The witch glanced down and her eyes flew wide. In unspoken agreement, Vee and I expanded our protective bubble to include the MacCraes right before the garden exploded.

Duncan wrapped me in his massive arms as a wave of heat pushed us back several steps. Thanks to my boyfriend's ogre-like stature, we managed to stay upright. But just barely. Vee and Jamie weren't so lucky.

The moment Duncan loosened his grip, we rushed over to where Vee and Jamie lay in a tangled heap. As Duncan reached for his brother, I knelt next to my best friend. Both of them were alive, but dazed.

Jamie impatiently pushed Duncan's hands away. “I'm fine. Tend ta the queen.”

“I'm fine too,” Vee insisted in sloppy speech. She looked about her without focusing on anything specific. “The protective bubble?”

“Gone.” I stuck my hand under her nose. Uncle Cameron's ring no longer emanated any light; neither did its counterpart on Vee's hand.

“An' the witch?” she slurred.

Holy Hammerstein! With the explosion, I'd forgotten all about Addie. I stood and swiveled around, fighting against the sensation of vertigo as I looked toward where I'd last seen the Witch of Doon.

The miniature bridge had been blown to bits. Stone fragments littered the garden in all directions. In the middle of the rubble, Adelaide struggled to sit up. The skin on the right side of her face, from cheek to jawline, hung down from her skull in a loose flap. The gross combination of tendons, arteries, and bone that it exposed lent a nightmarish quality to the scene as the witch shakily stood up.

“Is that the best ye've got, love?” She directed the taunt to Jamie, the loose side of her face undulating as she spoke. “I dinna mind a quarrel now and then. Not when the prospect of making up is so sweet.”

Vee, who'd gotten to her feet and was being held back by Jamie, growled, “You're delusional, witch.”

Addie just chuckled. “Where were we? Oh, yes . . . acid. For all but my sweet prince.”

Magic began to ball in her palms as I reached for Vee's hand. Unfortunately, the rings didn't respond.

We're defenseless!
Vee's voice buzzed through my brain followed by Jamie's.
Make a run for it. Duncan and I will hold Adelaide off while the two o' you get away.

I'm not leaving you. We're stronger together
, Vee and I responded, our replies overlapping as we refused to cooperate.

The gathering magic in Addie's hands began to sizzle. “Time's up,” she sneered. The ground shook as she arced her arms up over her head. The magic in her palms became a supercharged, violet black hole. Debris from the bridge began to fly through the air as it got sucked into her magical void.

The wind caused by the witch's vortex snatched my hair
and clothes and pulled me painfully forward. Unable to resist, I searched for anything I could use to anchor myself, but the scorched, spongy earth offered no help. Vee, Duncan, and Jamie fought their own futile battles against the witch's power.

Link arms!
I commanded as I reached for Vee. She, in turn, grabbed hold of Jamie, who clung to Duncan. Step by unwilling step, the witch dragged us closer. As we struggled to resist her tug, chunks of stone and branches battered our heads. A small twig became a projectile that pierced my brow. I could sense the blood from the wound it created streaming into the corner of my eye.

When we were about twenty feet away from the witch, the force of her magic began to lift us off our feet. As we flew toward her, the vortex began to crackle like a speaker with a short. Losing its fury, the black hole began to dissipate. All around us, things caught in its pull began to drop to the ground. We were no exception.

Hitting the ground with a smack, I felt Vee as she crashed into my hip; heard Duncan and Jamie groan in what I could only assume was a collision of princes. Scrambling toward the others, I grabbed on to Vee as Duncan and Jamie reached for us. Huddling together, the four of us watched Addie drop her arms. Outraged, she stared at her hands in disbelief.

Then, murmuring an incantation, the witch lifted her hands and focused. Purple magic flickered in her palms but failed to manifest into anything more. With a scream, she tried again. This time, she couldn't even cause a spark. As she howled in outrage, the ground began to come apart. Little vein-like fissures crisscrossed through the garden.

Suddenly Addie and the earth stilled. Her eyes, which always contained a bit of craziness in them, gleamed with a new level of insanity—one that chilled me to the core of my
being. “More souls,” she muttered to herself, ignoring us as if we no longer existed. “I need more souls.” In a dramatic poof of purple smoke, the witch disappeared.

For several seconds, Vee, Jamie, Duncan, and I lay in a heap, unable to process what had occurred. Finding my voice, I asked, “What just happened?”

“Hopefully, a way to kill Adelaide Blackmore Cadell,” Jamie replied.

“Or,” Duncan countered, “the death o' us all.”

“Either way,” Vee said as she struggled to sit up, “we need to get back to camp and prepare for the next wave of attack.”

As if they agreed with Vee, the Rings of Aontacht sparked to life in their red and green brilliance.

R
abbie was dead—but my grief would have to wait. Our camp was in trouble. If we didn't act quickly, I would be mourning many more lives than that of my apprentice.

The sounds of panic, intermingled with the cries of the wounded, wove their way through the trees to meet us long before we reached camp. Such fearsome sounds superseded the golden dome of protection that with Kenna's hand in mine, I saw as clear as day. If not for the noise, I would've marveled that I could now see the world as Mackenna did. But there wasn't time for that either.

Instead, I began to run. We all did.

Chaos reigned in our makeshift headquarters. Wounded Destined and Doonians lay just inside the protection, the least wounded tending to those with more severe injuries. I singled out Fergus supporting Alasdair as they limped their way into the weapons tent.

With a burst of speed, Jamie sprinted past me. I followed my brother into the tent, Mackenna and the queen close on my
heels. Jamie took Alasdair's other arm and with Fergus, gently lowered the auld man to a log serving as a bench.

Once our kinsman was settled, Jamie demanded, “What happened?”

“We were ambushed, m'Laird.” Fergus sank onto the log next to Alasdair. Other than a bleeding bite mark on his bicep, my dear friend seemed physically none too worse for wear. But I couldn't help noticing the subtle tremor in his hand.

“Where's Fiona?” Mackenna asked as she and Queen Veronica settled across from the two injured men.

Fergus blinked at her as if she were speaking another language. In the awkward silence that followed, Alasdair croaked, “She's tendin' to the wounded.”

“Aye,” Fergus agreed. He shook his head as if to clear it of cobwebs. “She's fine.”

“But others are not?” Veronica probed. Her shrewd eyes narrowed in comprehension even before the words were spoken.

“Nay, Your Highness.” Fergus offered the queen an account of what had transpired. In the darkness of the tent, shadows accentuated the angles of his face like the teller of a creepy story at a sleepover. “We were escorting the Destined back to camp when skellies attacked. There were too many of them and they were surrounded by evil magic, so's that we couldna touch them. I sounded the alarm and our troops rushed to aid us. Even with the advantage of numbers, the skellies were unstoppable.”

He rested his head in his hand and took a deep breath. “Then, quite unexpectedly, the magic around them failed. Suddenly, our broadswords could knock them inta pieces.”

The queen's startled eyes met mine before seeking Jamie's. “I wonder if that's when I threw the elixir on Addie?”

Alasdair nodded gravely. “Mayhap, Yer Highness.”

Veronica turned her attention back to our friend. “Then what happened, Fergus?”

“We were having some impact against the skellies, our troops were taking over the fight so we could get the Destined out of the thick of things. Tha's when the earth began to shake. All of a sudden, the skellies dropped their weapons and each took hold of a person.” Fergus trailed off, looking as if he were going to be sick. “Then they just disappeared.”

Jamie's alarmed eyes briefly met mine. He refused to comprehend what Fergus was trying to say. I felt the same way. There was a short pause as each of us struggled with our own desire to remain ignorant of the awful truth.

Mackenna wrapped her arm around the queen's shoulders. She looked around the room and then asked Fergus in a small voice, “The skellies just disappeared?”

“Aye,” he replied. “With the people they were holdin'.”

“How about the rest of the Destined?” Vee asked. Her eyes were riveted on him, willing herself to not fall apart.

“Alive.” Fergus shook his arm, flinging little drops of blood across the floor. “Several are injured. They're frightened but they'll live.”

“And our people?”

Something closed behind Fergus's eyes, a shutter blocking out his feelings like any veteran soldier would do when delivering horrific news. “Several casualties,” he replied matter-of-factly. “But considering that we're fighting a war . . . we got off easy, Your Highness.”

The flaps to the tent rustled, and I swung 'round with my sword at the ready. Fiona's startled face saw the tip of my sword and she paused. “I'm lookin' for Fergus,” she stated.

Lowering my weapon, I nodded and she flew across the tent and onto her husband's lap. Fergus and Fiona kissed as I
averted my eyes and moved to stand behind Mackenna, resting a hand upon her shoulder. In light of what had transpired, I needed to feel her close to me.

Jamie came to stand next to me, behind the queen. “How many people did they take?” he asked.

Fiona swiveled in Fergus's lap, but made no move to get up. “A hundred and forty-seven Destined. Thirty-one Doonians.”

The image of Adelaide Blackmore Cadell as she'd looked with half her face in ruin and her magic faltering came back to haunt me. “She said she needed more souls.”

The queen's face turned to look up at my brother, horror and remorse emanating from her blue eyes. “We did this,” she whispered. “We provoked Addie and she took our people.”

Jamie knelt and embraced her from behind. “This is war, love. There will be casualties.”

Beneath my touch, I could feel Mackenna bristling. I reached down to take her hand, but she evaded my grasp. “We led them across the bridge like cows to a hamburger factory. They had no idea what they were facing.” Springing to her feet, she paced away.

I followed, attempting to be the voice of reason. “They were called ta Doon same as you and Veronica. They knew there were risks.”

“How can you say that?” The pain in her eyes rent me in two. She raised a fist and struck my chest. Followed by a second strike. I offered no resistance, letting her pummel me back across the tent. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes as her blows grew in force. She broke with a sob, and I gathered her into my arms.

“I don't get it,” she wailed. “I don't get why the Protector doesn't
protect
us. Why sometimes the Rings of Aontacht work and sometimes they don't. If the Protector wanted, Vee and I
could use the rings to turn the skellies into dust. This could all be over.”

“It's my fault,” Veronica added in a haunted voice. “I keep doubting that we—that
I
can really do this. My lack of belief is causing the rings not to work.”

Alasdair cleared his throat. “Nay, lass. I mean, Your Highness. Some things need goin' through. Tha's simply the way life works.” Holding Mackenna, my face buried in her strawberry-scented hair, I couldn't see Alasdair as he spoke, but his voice held an authority I'd never noticed before. “If I've learned anything from my millennia on earth, it's that the human race gains nothin' from takin' the easy way out.

“The Rings of Aontacht were created for unity across the portal. They were forged to protect the bearers, not as offensive weapons. They're no' like your culture's mythical lightsabers.”

I lifted my head and watched as Jamie helped the auld man to his feet. “You all are so young. And ye've lived so little o' life. I canna explain to ye why things dinna always happen the way we want, or the easy way. But I kin attest that the Protector's plan is a far better one than we could ever devise, and that, when this is all said and done, ye'll be able ta look back and see the purpose in all o' it.”

Mackenna buried her face in my shirt. “If I don't believe there's a reason for all of this, I'm going to go crazy.” Then she straightened up. “So you better be right, Alasdair.”

The auld man laid a gnarled hand on her arm. “I kin assure ye lass, I am.”

Veronica, Jamie, Fiona, and Fergus all stepped in, surrounding us in something that was half hug, half rugby scrum. It was then, in the midst of this breakthrough, that I heard it.
Click-clack. Click-clack. Click-clack.

Like thousands—nay, millions of crickets. The sounds of
the undead army swarmed the tent. Queen Veronica let out an exhausted sigh. “Sounds like the skellies are back.”

Mackenna scrubbed at the tear tracks on her ruddy cheeks. Her face, leaner since she began training, bore the traits of a fierce warrior, unafraid and uncompromising. “Duncan, if there's even a chance our people are still alive, someone has to go after them. Before Addie breaks them and strips them of their souls.”