Bones Of Contention: The McKinnon Legends - The American Men Book 3 (37 page)

They kept their hoods up and their faces shrouded in secrecy. He could only see their eyes.

“You will tell me what I want to know, old crones.”

“And what exactly would that be?” they all asked in unison.

“Josh, careful,” Gage warned. “We answer to them.”

“Bullshit!” he exploded. “We answer to God, to our fellow man, and to ourselves. We are Protectors, and we do what we do because it is right and it is just, not because some creature of unknown origin tells us to do it. We are still human beings with the right to choose and do not worship or answer to a creature who had pity on the human race twenty thousand years ago.”

“Difficult. I told you so,” the younger one said in a sing-song voice again, this time under her breath and accompanied by an ironical laugh. “We knew we could not control him then and we cannot control him now.”

“It is called freewill, Sisters,” the oldest one responded.

Josh whipped back around to face them. “I believe something you feared the Fae would take from us, probably something you are now sorry you did not let them have.” Josh was growing impatient. Jamie’s trail was getting colder by the moment. “Did you know of the child?” he demanded.

“Yes,” they answered in unison.

“Is she coming back?”

“No.”

“Do you have anything to do with her leaving?”

“Yes.”

“How? And why?”

“We asked her to. She was too much of a distraction for you. She would have gotten you and her father killed if she had stayed,” the older one spoke. She seemed to the official spokesman.

“Did you show her this possible future?” Josh instinctively knew how to phrase the question to prevent vague answers.

“Yes,” all three answered in unison.

“Did you force her?”

“No.”

“She left all on her own without a bribe or a bargain struck?” He knew that would never be like her.

“She bargained well.”

“And what exactly did she get in the bargain for agreeing to leave?”

“What every Fae craves. Power,” the last they spoke in unison.

So, Josh thought, that explained the newfound gifts and magic she was now sporting. However, it was not in her nature to ask for such things which could only mean one thing. She was going to try to kill VanDarious on her own to prevent any unnecessary bloodshed. Now that, he thought, would be just exactly like her.

“She is leaving with a child she has no intention of telling me about. Shame on all of you for letting her go into battle carrying an innocent unborn. What if the child is hurt, or what if she is hurt and loses my baby? Will they be all right?”

“Your son will be fine. His future we see clearly. And she is not leaving with him. She did not bargain him away. You will raise him.”

“Your gift to me?” he asked sarcastically.

“It was her stipulation,” they again spoke as one.

“And yours? What was your stipulation for giving her blood payment and forcing her to give up my child?”

“She will leave and take her rightful place as the next queen of the Fae.”

“Is that where you saw her future?” Could he let her go if the wizards said yes?

He saw them looking at each other, hesitating to answer.

It was the younger one who waved him down to her level and whispered in his ear. “No. We cannot see you or her, either one. It happens sometimes, but don’t tell anyone.” She winked conspiratorially.

“So you meddled where you should not have. The future where Jamie and I are concerned is not set, and if I am correct anything we are involved in together is not set, because for once you do not know what the future holds.”

“Told you, this one is a hand full,” the younger one, Josh saw, just had a way of needling her older siblings.

“Silence!” the older one boomed the order.

The hush that fell over the army was deafening.

“This day we see decisive victory for the Brotherhood. The treaty will be upheld this day. The Protectors and our warriors will do us proud,” the oracle addressed the men and women standing ready to defend the human race.

Then turning to Josh it was the middle more quiet one who spoke. “Go, but know we cannot give you council.”

“Oh, phooey, Sister. Just tell the boy to go follow his heart.” The younger one turned to him and placed that aged hand on his arm. “Remember, what I told you? It doesn’t matter what happens between the day you met and the day you make her your wife. She is your destiny. I may not be able to see it, but I feel it all the same. Now go. We will take care of this army. We may be old and we may be chicks, but we can hold our own.” She winked.

Josh smiled and on impulse leaned down and gave the old crone a kiss.

“Thank you,” he said as he took off after Jamie.

Josh now remembered the three sisters he sat by on the plane to Miami.

Jamie heard the battle cry go out, and screams of death and terror filled her senses. She could hear the clash of ancient weapons across the field as VanDarious continued to drag her. He had left his army to fight the battle as he cowardly dragged her along.

She would make a stand, but just not here. It was still too close to the battlefield. She had no idea what would happen when she unleashed her full powers on him.

She had no idea what would happen to her either once she let it all loose.

Until she could make her stand, she prayed the lessons Josh had given her coupled with the newly acquired powers she had mastered in so short a time would be enough. This creature was very strong, his magic old and rigid against her skin.

He jerked her up short, and he took her hand slicing a thin line from wrist to elbow. Her blood ran red on the cold steel blade of the knife in the process.

“The key! Give me the key,” he screeched. They were only yards now from the portal.

She pulled it off from around her neck and threw it as Josh had instructed, back toward the battlefield. In doing so, his concentration lapsed momentarily, just enough for her to make a small run for it, but not enough to make it to the portal. Just a small distance was all she would need to setup her force field. That power she had mastered, but she felt her blood draining. Was she too human to survive the wound? She had never prayed more in her life to be Sidhe.

Josh heard her scream as he tore across the field slicing and dicing anything in his path. He saw VanDarious cut her and he saw her break and run.

VanDarious was furious and let all the glamour drop. He was horrific, alien, and deformed. What Jamie saw was sickening. She had never before seen the Fae without glamour to shield their true form.

VanDarious did not care if she saw. He was about to be king. He no longer cared if others saw what he looked like. The world would soon know the vengeance of his power. They would soon know the greatness of the Fae and the glory of his leadership. With Jamie’s blood to anoint him, his powers would be tenfold, but he had to get the portal open first.

He scrambled for the medallion that had hung around her neck for over a three millennia. He scrambled along the ground and reached for it just as Josh put his foot on it. Covering boney fingers and grinding them painfully into the rocky surface of the ground, VanDarious cried out in pain. Josh pressed the sword point to the base of his neck. One move and VanDarious’ head would be severed.

“What was that you said about glory and greatness?” Josh ground out through clinched teeth. It was taking all his newfound concentration to control the urge to kill this creature of vile origins and deeds. “You know nothing of what makes a person great, you greedy, sniveling lowlife bastard.” Josh struck him once for good measure when he tried to get up.

He could feel VanDarious try to thrust his power on him to no avail. Josh shielded himself sending it ricocheting back against the Fae causing him to writhe in pain. Unfortunately, Jamie was also the recipient of that ricochet sending her to her knees. Josh lessened the power.

“You are one of them?” VanDarious questioned in shock. He had no idea the Protectors were even still alive. “No! This cannot be. The Protectors are extinct, gone, vanished, sucked into the sea.”

“We are raised up when we are needed. We are unleashed when mankind is at risk. I am here because of you, VanDarious. How does it feel to know you are the very reason the wizards' Protectors have been raised from the dead? I should kill you here where you lay for the desecration of the treaty. I am judge, jury, and executioner. I hereby sentence you to death for violation of the Treaty of the Sidhe Fae. You have shown magic and practiced magic and have presented yourself in another likeness.”

“So has your precious Princess Jamie. I demand you judge her, too.”

Josh had already been faced with this dilemma, and he was relieved to know his lady was as shrewd as she was beautiful.

“No, she asked, as a human, and was granted immunity by the wizards. Otherwise, I would have no choice. However, you did not ask for immunity, and I grant you no mercy, no clemency. You have maimed and murdered innocents, but more than that, you dared to touch my family.” He struck him again with the butt of his sword as VanDarious again tried to get to his feet. “That was from me, the father. This is from me, the Protector.” He unleashed only an infinitesimal part of his ever-growing power sending VanDarious flat to the ground. Blood oozed from his lips and ears. “Be glad I do not unleash the full reign of my powers upon you.”

“Why don’t you, Protector, go on and kill me?” he laughed, he taunted feeling more confident with every second that Josh did not kill him outright. “Big, fierce, warmonger. Here I am defenseless against your superior powers. You would at least give me a fair fight?”

“I probably would, but I don’t think King Kronos will,” Josh shrugged.

“King Kronos is locked away and I hold the key. He will be no help to you or any of your weak human warriors. You may have powers, but you are no match for me and my men as we bind our powers together.” He was grandstanding. “I’m immortal and I will be king, and once I am king I will kill Jamie slowly. I will draw out her pain and make her beg for death. You, Protector, will sit on the sideline and watch.”

“I’m going to stake you to an iron rod for the remainder of your very long life if you do not keep that vile mouth of yours shut.” Josh wanted to kill him and was within his rights to do so. However, he was saving that act for one who was more deserving to wield the final punishment.

For a moment the threat of being strapped to the vile metal caught VanDarious’ attention. It would not kill him. It would only make him wish he were dead. However, he quickly recovered thinking it only a bluff.

“You can do your best, Protector, but the best will never get it done.”

Josh was on the verge of losing control when he felt the soft brush of Jamie’s powers against him, soothing, calming, allowing him to regain his footing.

The Fae kept taunting, never fully understanding that the fountain, the water head and source of Josh's powers was his love for a Sidhe Princess. That was a power of mighty proportions.

“VanDarious, you see the sword? Recognize it?” Josh paused long enough for recognition to dawn that this was no mere mortal’s weapon, but the queen’s sword froth with power and deadly to any Fae. The Singing Sword had finally come home.

VanDarious’s eyes grew wide. He knew he was out matched.

“Yeah, that is just what I thought. Not so tough anymore.” Josh was just a little triumphant.

“I’ll take it from here.” Kronos walked up from behind.

“If you were not afraid before, VanDarious, you should be now.” Josh stepped away.

Fear ran cold through VanDarious’s veins. Fear was an emotion the Fae could understand, and like it or not the king, when challenged, struck fear into any Fae's soul.

The king took that fear and flung it back into the heart and mind of this despicable creature. He screamed in fear for his damned soul.

They had already stuck an alliance with the king by all accounts, and now that VanDarious had stopped a moment, he could no longer hear the battle. The bitch had let the king out and VanDarious’s men had been trapped in a snare, surrounded, and probably captured if the Titan king and wizards' Protectors were involved. Their deaths would be slow and agonizing. They would be held up as examples to all others who might think to disobey the king’s rule. And his seeing the queen just behind her husband meant that his death would not come soon enough. She was cruel and unyielding where violators of the law were concerned. His time on Earth was up.

Kronos leaned down pulling his subject up by his collar or what was left of it. The Fae was tattered and filthy, covered in pockmarks from thousands of years branded and exiled in the wastelands of the East.

“Death now or death later? I’ll give you the option.” King Kronos was feeling magnanimous.

“Death now and I want it by the hands of the wizards' minion. I want the princess to see how ugly life with him will truly be. I want the princess to see him for the killing machine he has become at the hands of those three bitches. Those same hands will eventually kill her, too.”

“I’m thinking, no. Better yet,” said the king with a gleam in his dark eyes, “I think I shall let my wife have the honor. It is because of you she was forced to run and take my lovely daughter with her. I’m thinking there just might be a little pent up aggression there that I really do not want her to bring home. Protector, will you please hold the violator upright?”

“With pleasure.” Josh, using the powers of the wizards, froze VanDarious in place even as he screamed at the touch of the white-hot power.

Brianna asked from behind. “My sword, if you please.” She asked Josh in a language he strangely understood.

“Majesty, your sword.” Josh with courtly manners held the beautiful work of deadly art out on the flat of his hands bowing in the process to the rightful queen of the Fae.

And with practiced precision, she relieved VanDarious of his head in one fatal stroke.

Jamie watched as it tumbled and rolled, and then just as quickly, he completely disintegrated leaving just a pile of ragged clothing.