Forever Doon (29 page)

C
lick. Boom!

The explosion launched me through the air. I slammed into the ground, gasping for breath as debris rained down around me. My ears rang and I could barely hear the chaos in the camp. Rolling to my side, I pushed myself into a sitting position.

The bomb had created a car-sized crater where Calum Haldane had stood seconds before. Scanning the carnage around the blast, I saw Oliver face-down in the grass. Whether he was alive, I couldn't say—but there was no sign of the storyteller. Something wet landed on my cheek. I swiped at it and my finger came away with a hunk of bloody flesh, confirming my suspicions that the man was gone.

For a brief moment, I felt nothing . . . . The next thing I knew, I was on my feet, screaming at the top of my lungs. Duncan charged through the mass of downed people at full speed. When he reached me I tried to bury myself against his chest, but held me firmly at arm's length.

“Where are ye hurt worst?” he demanded. His alarmed eyes darted from my face to my abdomen and back.

The terror in his eyes made me wonder if I was missing something vital, like an arm. But my limbs felt connected. “I'm okay,” I gasped loudly.

I followed his gaze as it moved downward to my stomach. My tattered shirt revealed a pulpy mess of mangled flesh and blood. Although I could see the injury, I still couldn't feel anything.

Duncan let go of my shoulders. His trembling hands reached for my wound. As he touched me, hunks of flesh fell away. Startled, he jumped backward as I realized the terrible truth. I was covered from head to toe in blood and gore, but none of it was mine.

“It's Calum.” My stomach roiled and I choked back a gag. “I got Calum on me!”

I hunched over and spewed my meager breakfast. My ears were ringing ferociously, but my hearing was coming back. Shouts and cries of distress came from all around the camp.

Bent over, trying to collect myself, I noticed the debris around my feet—bones mixed with the remnants of Addie's witch bombs, sizzling with the acidic remnants of violet magic. I watched the skellie remains and magic dissolve, leaving an oozy black bog in their wake.

Straightening up, I met Duncan's concerned gaze. “The residue from the bomb is mixing with the skellies.”

Pointing to the spot where the ooze had sprung from the magic, we watched as a small patch of black petunias sprouted in the aftermath.
Zombie fungus!

“Duncan—”

“Aye. I see it.” He did a quick scan of the surround area. “It's coming up all over.”

“So I smell.” I crinkled my nose as the smell of decay permeated the air.

“Incoming!” Analisa's shrill warning cut through what was left of the camp. I spun around to see her running from the field toward the camp. As she looked up at Addie's projectile, she stumbled and fell. Getting to her hands and knees, she started to scramble forward but it was too late. The explosion landed directly in her path, engulfing everything around it in purple fire.

The force of this explosion knocked me backward. Just as my feet came out from under me, Duncan grabbed me in a bear hug and we crashed into the ground.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I scrambled off of him and onto my stomach.

“Aye,” he replied as he turned over. “But the others?”

We military-crawled toward the battlefield, avoiding the glowing bones and oozing flowers. Doing the same thing, Vee and Jamie made their way over to a log that provided cover as long as they remained flat. We scuttled up next to them just in time to witness the ensuing chaos.

Shouting Ana's name, Giani Rosetti ran toward the blast. He struggled forward until the heat singed his hair and his sleeve burst into flames. His father and second-oldest brother fought to pull him away—his brother beating at his smoking clothes as they forced him back. At a safe distance, Giani dropped to the ground. Mario and Matteo knelt beside him.

The other Rosettis—Sharron, Sofia, Gabby, and the other brothers—were crouched in a tightly knit group at the edge of the clearing to avoid the heat. Next to them, Lachlan crouched over Blaz, soothing the terrorized pup.

“They're too exposed,” Jamie murmured, nodding in the direction of the Rosetti clan.

“Aye,” Duncan confirmed. “An' the witch knows it.”

Jamie turned his face toward Veronica. “Duncan and I will fetch them. You lasses stay here.”

At the far end of the field, Addie, seated atop her decomposing steed and looking even more like something from
The Magical Walking Dead
, began to form another bomb between her hands. That's when an arrow lodged into her horse's eye socket.

Without warning the horse turned in an agitated arc causing Addie's magic to untether. The girl responsible for the shot, the Olympic archer from China, continued to sink one arrow after another into the unholy beast from a nearly impossible distance.

The witch's mount faltered beneath her, going down on its forelegs. Addie lurched forward and the magic ball flew out of her hands, detonating a few yards away. The blast threw her off her undead horse and the thing collapsed, convulsions racking its enormous body.

“The witch is down,” Veronica hissed. “Go now!”

“And avoid the zombie fungus,” I insisted.

“Zombie fungus?” Vee glanced over the log and for the first time noticed the little patch of black flowers popping up all around us. As we watched, the flowers expelled a puff of purple mist.

“Oh, snap,” she moaned. Only she didn't say
snap
.

“We'll be fine. Stay put.” Duncan shot me a pointed glance that meant
Listen for once in yer life, woman
and then scrambled away.

The MacCrae brothers crawled along the edge of the camp like G.I. Joes on fast forward. Avoiding the patches of black flowers, they got as close as they could to the Rosettis while still keeping cover.

Jamie whistled in a short series of bursts. Lachlan turned
toward the noise. Using gestures, the prince indicated that the group needed to get out of the open.

I watched the comprehension dawn on Lachlan's face. He whispered something to the youngest Rosetti boy, who in turn murmured something to his mom and siblings. In unison their heads swiveled toward Giani and the others.

Sharron Rosetti cupped her hands around her mouth and then whispered, “Andiamo!” Mario and Matteo hoisted Giani to his feet and ran just as the other group dashed for the cover of the camp rubble, scattering as they went.

Hunkered down behind the log we had no vantage point on the witch but her shriek of triumph reached us as clear as Lady Day. Unable to help myself, I peeked over the log toward the archer's last position. There was a minimart-sized crater where the Olympian had been.

When I looked back at the witch, I could see the grin stretching across her ravaged face with homicidal intent as she zeroed in on our not-so-secret hiding place. The violet energy gathering in her hands began to solidify, this time in a bomb intended for us. There was nowhere to go. We'd never make it out of the blast zone before impact. Duncan and Jamie were too far away—there was no time to say good-byes, except to my bestie.

Reaching for Vee's hands, I said, “I love you!”

“Wait.” She shook her head, refusing to deny the inevitable. We were about to die. Tears coursed down my cheeks as I tried to get out all that I needed to say.

“I'm not sorry for any of it. Doon was the best thing to ever happen to me. I'm not afraid.”

Please,
I prayed, shutting my eyes. Peace washed over me as I clung to Vee.
Don't erase us from the narrative. Let Doon survive to tell our story . . .

I
love you too, but this isn't over. Look.”

The moment our hands had joined, the black ooze of the zombie fungus rising around us had prompted our rings to form a bubble of protection.

Kenna blinked at the shimmering light surrounding the two of us like a cocoon. Just as her shoulders relaxed, we took a direct hit. The magic bomb Addie had cooked up especially for us hit with the force of a thousand sledge hammers. On impact, we fell into a heap of tangled limbs on the ground, just managing to keep our hands clasped.

A groan nearby drew my attention to Alasdair's prone figure. The old man struggled to sit up as fresh petunias sprouted all around him, their toxic mist permeating the air. He began to choke and gag.

“We have to save him! Crawl to the right.” We hobbled to our knees and scooched toward Alasdair. He spotted us just as we reached for him with our free hands. The moment his fingers linked with ours, he became encased in safety.

Another bomb hit close by, knocking us into one another like bowling pins. After we'd regained our balance, I glanced around at the chaos of camp; people on fire running, crying, others tending to the wounded. Calum, Ana, Oliver . . . I'd seen all of them go down. My heart throbbed, pushing against my lungs until I couldn't breathe. Were they all gone? How many others? I hadn't seen Eòran or Fergus in ages.

I sucked hard to draw in air, my head like a balloon floating above my shoulders.

“Vee!” Kenna pushed her face into mine, so close our noses brushed. “Pull it together. I can't do this without you!”

I blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. My heart slammed into my throat as my vision started to dim and I wobbled on my knees.

“Come on, use your yoga breathing. Deep breath in.” Kenna pulled air into her lungs, her spine straightening. I followed suit. “Slow breath out.” We both exhaled, our shoulders slumping.

And I could think again. “I'm good. I'm good.”

A bomb smashed into a nearby tree and it burst into violet flames. The same tree where . . . “Lachlan! The twins!”

“I saw the twins wi' their family,” Alasdair reassured. “And the other boy was wi' yer dog, Blaz. They're safe—” His voice fell off and he didn't have to say the rest.
For now.

I had to think of something. These people were my responsibility—and I knew there was no way we could win.
Unless . . .

I gripped Alasdair's hand with all my strength, tugging him closer. “Back at the field where we first saw the skellies, you said there was a way to beat Addie. A last resort.”

“Aye, but ye aren't goin' ta like it.” His watery blue eyes met mine, their intensity making them as brilliant as the sky. “Ye have ta break the Covenant.”

I raised my brows and waited for the punch line. No way was that the secret he'd been keeping. But instead of laughing it off and giving me the real, more plausible way to defeat the witch, he said, “Ye have ta breach the borders.”

Something inside of me snapped. “Are you insane? There is no way we're giving up and committing mass suicide!”

Eyeing the old man, Kenna asked, “What are you saying exactly?”

“If ye break the Covenant, the witch becomes mortal. The fact tha' she canna restore her appearance while usin' her magic to attack tells me ye weakened her. I believe that Saint Sebastian's Elixir is continuing to weaken her and will strip Adelaide of any remaining magic as the Covenant breaks. Ye see, it's harder to hang on ta magic in the modern world than it is in Doon. Once she's mortal, ye will be able to kill her. It's the only way.”

“If we do this”—I cringed as another magic bomb crashed into the camp—“can you guarantee it won't kill us all and end Doon forever?”

“Nay, but I have faith. I believe the Protector knows our intentions and would never abandon us.”

Addie hurtled a seemingly endless supply of magic explosives at our camp and the zombie fungus grew larger by the second; soon it would begin to swallow our people and eat their flesh. When I looked at it from that perspective, we had little to lose from Alasdair's last resort. If we did nothing, we were dead anyway.

“Even if I believed you, and I'm not saying that I do, there's no possible way we'd make it to the border before Addie blew us all to kingdom come.”

“Aye,” Alasdair agreed. “It would take a miracle.”

As the old man and I stared at each other, the air between
us began to stir. I watched in disbelief as a small funnel formed. It swirled away from us, devouring the zombie fungus and ripping the petunias from the ground. Three more funnels were sweeping through the paddock, sucking up skellie bones before they could create more fungus.

“Verranica!” Jamie's face appeared just outside our bubble. Relief smacked into me and my knees buckled.

He clasped my shoulder, keeping me on my feet. “Ye're no' going to believe this!”

Duncan ran up beside him and we joined hands with them, looping them into our shielded circle. “A cyclone just smacked the witch back into the treeline! She's too busy fightin' it to throw any bombs.”

“Miracle enough for ye, Yer Highness?” Alasdair asked with a chuckle. “I'd say tha's a sign.”

Nodding in agreement, Duncan said, “The weather has always played a role in Doon's protection.”

Jamie squeezed my hand. “We need ta get the people to shelter while she's occupied.”

“Alasdair has given us another option.” Quickly, I explained his theory about breaking the Covenant. It didn't sound any more plausible coming from my mouth.

“I'm willin' to try it.” Duncan's gaze locked on Kenna. “What do ye say?”

My best friend nodded, but I could read her like a book and she was two seconds away from changing her mind.

I turned questioning eyes to Jamie. “I believe it's our best option. But it's your choice. We await your instruction, my queen.” He raised our joined hands and kissed my knuckles.

Alasdair was right. When stepping out in faith, there could be no guarantee. But faith had brought me to Doon in the first place; had made me its queen when I would have gladly given
my life. If we were to do this, we needed to act as one—step out in faith as a kingdom united.

Withdrawing my hands from the group, the bubble disappeared and wind tore at my hair and clothes as the mini tornados spun around the camp, ridding it of all traces of zombie fungus. Jumping up on a stump, I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled as I'd seen Jamie do.

Everyone within hearing distance gathered around. I couldn't allow myself to search their weary faces for those who could be missing. They were too many to name, and if I had any hope of saving the rest of us, I had to stay focused on rallying the Doonians to our next impossible mission.

Raising my voice over the wind, I spoke the words I knew would plant further fear in their hearts. “Spread the word for every able-bodied Doonian and Destined to rally at the Brig o' Doon. And for those too weak or injured to make the journey to gather at the auld Kirk and join us in spirit and in prayer.”

I took a deep breath and made sure my next words were sure and confident. “Tell the people we are going to break the Covenant and unite our kingdom with the modern world in order to make the witch mortal. We need to believe that breaching the borders will not kill us, but save us. For Doon!”