Rise of the Magi (34 page)

What if it was true? What if they were alive? I hugged myself harder and didn’t stop Gallagher when he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

“Show me,” I said.

31

A sense of vertigo rolled over me as the white field transformed into the valley during the day that seemed so long ago. We were running toward me. No, Liam was, and I watched myself through his eyes as I burst into a ball of energy. Only the edges of my body showed within.

“I can’t feel him,” I said to Gallagher, huddling closer to his warmth. “I want to feel his anger.”

Gallagher sighed and nodded in my peripheral vision. “Very well, but his anger is not for you, no matter how much you might try to convince yourself it is.”

Black rage and a stranglehold of fear took my knees out from under me.

“Lila!” The vision of Liam bellowed before being slammed to the ground. He twisted his body and came to his feet with the skill and speed of an acrobat, grabbing a Magi by her wooden whip and cracking his knuckles across her gray face. When his gaze sought me out again, I’d risen far above the canopy. My arms stretched wide as my body turned slowly—a star about to be born.

The world trembled as I gathered power, and Liam fought his way through some of the lesser Magi. His laser stare remained set on Alseides—on the far side of the valley in her human form—as she faced me with a smile of deep satisfaction. Sluagh darkened the sky, rocketing downward in attack.

Liam joined with Gallagher, Andrew and Cas, and ripped their way through savages dressed in filthy loin cloths. A group of witches formed a circle, the prickle of their growing magic barbs in Liam’s feet, but still he carried on, to save me. To save us.

“He was too late,” I said, not realizing it had been out loud until Gallagher said, “No, not too late, but he was helpless to change our fate. Only you could do that, and when Liam finally accepted that it was true, it nearly broke his soul.”

In the vision before me, my voice, terrible and booming like the first warning crack of a deadly storm, flattened everyone to the ground. Liam, drowning in my power, lifted his head in time to see Parthalan reach my Light form, but speed away.

“What is she doing?” Liam shouted at Gallagher who’d gone down beside him.

“A contingency she’s trying to cancel. Oh, Goddess, she would have the humans destroy her and the child to end this, and it may be too late to stop!”

Red with rage, Liam rushed Alseides again while shouting, “Over my goddamned dead body, she is. Parthalan!”

Willa and Quinn tumbled into the fray. My dearest friend held a club while her mate preferred his fists. I winced and gasped as they moved like programmed beasts designed to fight. A scream pooled in my throat as the last remaining Magi in dryad form, tall and terrifying, came from behind and flayed them both with one strike of her whips.

I jerked at the pain that seared me, at the knowledge that they were gone.

When Liam diverted to them, the Magi turned on him. He faced her, riding a wave of fury. “Come on, you bitch! Give me all you’ve got!”

She complied much faster than he’d anticipated. Before he could duck out of the way, Nix piled him to the ground, taking the blow in his place. “Forgive me. I understand now,” Nix said, before the light faded from his eyes. Somehow, Laerni had known he would redeem himself in the end.

Overwhelmed with emotion, I reached out to Gallagher, sobbing for Willa, for Nix’s lost life and Liam’s pain as more fae from the Black City joined them. Humans rushed out of the trees in droves. The ground boiled with fists and blood and war. Healthy men and women, some of whom hated me with passion, fought, giving their lives just to give me a few more minutes to figure it out. My heart split at the seams.

A sound drew all eyes to the sky, the sonic boom of a jet launching its death blow. Parthalan streaked into the sky followed by dozens of his people, just as I’d seen him do. Liam and Gallagher watched as the world held its breath.

The sky turned red. Lightning left my fingertips, streaking toward the ground. The blast knocked Liam on his back, his heart breaking at the sight of me, his wife, his son, believing he’d lose us to the Magi, knowing that would be the final glimpse of me he’d get. Tears spilled from his eyes, and he wailed my name. Feathers erupted on his body, and a few flaps of his wings carried him to my fireball. “Stop, Lila,” he tried to cry, but it came out only as owl shrieks. A flare seared his face, blasted him back, and he plummeted to the ground. He awoke moments later beside Gallagher with a crushing headache.

He’s alive!

Gallagher’s hand on his arm brought his attention back to the ground. Screaming. Alseides and her remaining sister, who was still sentient and standing, along with all of their offspring, shrieked in a piteous crescendo. Their legs had grown roots into the ground, their skin hardening to bark. Hair twisted up to form branches, each sprouting a different shape of leaf.

“She’s stealing their power,” Gallagher whispered, as if afraid it wasn’t a good thing. “Lila is returning them to their true forms. No, not Lila, Garret. I can feel him guiding her without words, like … well, I have no description for the bond between them. Perhaps all is not lost.”

My form in the sky grew nuclear in glow, and all on the ground were forced to throw hands over their eyes. I rose higher and higher, my fireball ever expanding until a flare burned over the land in a scorching wave. Not flame but pure power.

The Magi stared, sightless, into the sky, their eyes nothing more than glossed-over wood.

“There is no consciousness left,” Gallagher said. “No madness. No fury. Only peace.”

I broke out of his grasp in my white nowhere, unable to draw in enough air. Too much divided my emotions. “I can’t see any more. I lose my son next.”

Staring once again at the white field, Gallagher rubbed his heart as if his hurt as much as mine. “There is one last thing you need to see. Liam remained in the valley for weeks after you came apart and blazed in the sky. For months, the world had two suns, one of which never left the sky above the Magi’s prison. You, Lila. Thousands came, from all corners of the world, from every race in existence, to kneel here and bask in your warmth. Some prayed. Some gave thanks. None will forget. I could not sense your mind, as if it had shattered along with your body, but my heart told me you would return. Eventually, I coaxed Liam back to Iress to wait, where he grieved in near silence.”

The Court garden appeared around us as if we’d actually transported there instead of watching his memory. Liam, or a hollowed out shadow of himself, spoke quietly to Andrew and Neve in the center. Cas and Brígh held one another, swaying. I wanted to laugh at the sight of them all alive and well, but it wouldn’t come.

“Why are you showing me this?” I asked.
Can it really be true?

“Patience, Lila.”

“I’m not good at patience. I’ve never been, and will never be good at patience.” I opened my mouth to demand he tell me when the spirits parted in the sky, leaving a dark hole in their center. Andrew shoved Liam and Neve halfway up the aisle before they all turned.

A golden flash preceded a globe of Light, one I recognized as being me without any knowledge of why. As I descended toward the platform at the heart of the city, another, smaller sphere broke away from me.

After wrenching his arm free of Andrew’s hold, Liam raced forward, his eyes streaming tears. Holding his hands up, he waited as the little one descended into them. When the brightness faded, a small, naked child lay in Liam’s arms. He brought Garret to his chest with tender care, sobbing his name, watching as my form made contact with the ground behind our twin thrones.

“Lila!” Neve shrieked, turning to Andrew. “Get Gallagher.”

Instead of running to me, she held her arms out for our son, taking him as Liam raced to me, choking on my name.

“And that’s where you lie still,” Gallagher said, taking the vision from me while I strained to see. “The entire city feeds you energy so you won’t fade from us, shares in your grief, their hopes and happiness. Brígh reads to you every day, saying the culture will do your brain some good once you wake the hell up. Arianne brings her toys to show and share with you, while she and Garret play near your resting place. Cas and Andrew scarcely leave your side, a duo we all have to battle with just to approach you. Their protectiveness and loyalty have gone into hyper drive. Liam bathes you, telling you stories of his own childhood while he brushes your hair out and adorns it with flowers, knowing you’d hate it and hoping you’ll wake up to throttle him.”

I laughed, the sound rusty since I hadn’t done it in so long, but it didn’t last. “Nix lost his life, his whole life, because of them. Under all of his shortcomings, he was a proud man. He knew in the end what he did, didn’t he? And that’s the worst of all. He’ll spend eternity knowing he almost helped Alseides destroy everything.”

“That is between him and the Goddess, and I’m certain she will help him find happiness in the next life.”

“What about Parthalan? He died because I didn’t have enough faith.”

“You saved me.”

His voice from beside me rattled through my bones. I turned to find him looking his once dapper self with dark curls and wearing his favorite charcoal gray, thousand dollar suit. “How am I seeing you? You died. I saw you take off like a rocket and do something, so whatever James and Richard sent to kill me went away.”

“He is speaking to you through me from the realm of the spirits, the image is your own making,” Gallagher said.

The smirk carving Parthalan’s lips would have made girls swoon for miles, his ice blue eyes sparkling with it. “For my loyalty and sacrifice, the Goddess saw fit to restore my soul.”

“Death is not the end, Lila.” That from Willa, who appeared beside him in a flowing white gown, grinning, her hand intertwined with Quinn’s, who winked at me. “It’s only a new beginnin’.”

I threw my arms around her. My heart shattered all over again as I fully accepted what her presence meant. “Oh, Willa! Goddess, I’m sorry.”

She hugged me back, and twirled before falling into Quinn’s arms in a dancer’s dip. “The only one yeh need be sorry for is yeh when yeh finally wake up and catch hell from yehr boys for makin’ ‘em wait so very long. Yeh’ll always know where to find us. This isn’t goodbye.”

“Alseides was right, you know,” Parthalan said through a sigh, brushing a wayward curl from his brow. “Had she not interfered, I’d have given Liam a run for his money.”

I laughed and drew him into my arms. “I see the king you were meant to be, Parthalan.”

“And may yet be one day, since the Goddess has given me the option of being reborn. I’m sure your daughters will be stunners, so watch out for a dashing young lad to come along in the future and sweep her off her feet.” Leaning down, he brushed his lips lightly against mine. “Liam can’t kill me for that if I’m already dead.”

With that, he faded out as fast as he’d arrived, taking my friends with him, and leaving me utterly stunned. He was happy. Will and Quinn were happy, not one of them showing an ounce of regret. The hole in my center had begun to close ever so slightly.

“They’re really waiting for me?” I asked Gallagher.

He grinned, leaning to my left and my right. “They really are, and it seems I will have good company with which to escort you to them.”

Without looking, I knew who he meant. Their energies swirled around me in perfect harmony. “You’ve made it, Lilabear,” my mother said with her lips against my temple. “You’ve come so far. Let us take you the rest of the way home.”

I looked up into the angelic face that had tucked me into bed so many nights, had guided me through the beginning of my life with such wisdom and grace. Her satin hair, a touch lighter gold than mine, curled down her back. Eyes like shining sapphires glittered with pride.

Donovan stood to my left and slipped my fingers between his, squeezing tight.

“Take me home, Daddy.”

His expression of fatherly adoration made me cry and ache to curl up in his arms. “We will never leave you.”

I nodded and laughed through my tears. “You’d better not, or I’ll never stop being mad at you for taking off on me in the first place.”

“I guess you meant what you said.” I tugged my mother closer and set my head against her shoulder. “You said you’d take me home, and you will.”

“I told you no such thing, Lilabear. I could not reach you in the Magi’s realm.”

Eyes wide, I stared at her. “Then … who?”

Her knowing smile faded as our ascent began.

32

After a seemingly endless drift, cool air lifted the hairs along my arms, followed by warmth traveling up and down—from a hand’s gentle caress, I thought. The sweet, floral scent of the garden filled my nose.
Home.
I’d made it home at last. I lay still, my hands clasped over my empty stomach. Garret’s spirit no longer burned like the fire in my hearth.

Sounds of children playing nearby reached me first. Closer, a steady heartbeat. Farther, voices, some female and some male, speaking quietly to one another.

“Come back to me,” Liam whispered. His warm, sweet breath slid over my lips. It was his heartbeat that lulled me into calm, chasing away any lingering fears that I’d wake to find myself alone. “I know you’re still in there somewhere. If you don’t come back soon I’m going to strip you naked and tattoo obscene pictures all over your body.”

“Do that and you’re dead,” I croaked with a voice too long from use. I peeled my lids up to find his eyes close and piercing, his lids spreading in surprise. “I’d better not have flowers in my hair, or you’re in big trouble, buster.”

Sputtering with laughter and tears, Liam yanked me up and into his arms. My rear landed in his lap where he sat in the grass. His kisses landed everywhere, his too-long scruff roughing over my cheeks, my temples, nose, and throat. Grunts and contained sobs spilled from his lips.

I pulled back enough to look at him, to really see him. His hair had grown even longer, falling in a mop of loose curls. A few weeks’ growth marked a swath across his strong chin, giving him that rugged edge I loved so much. “Is this real? Are you real?”