The earth shook, then rose up, a mountain carrying him and Esha toward the sky. The Chairman yowled from below, where he’d been left on solid ground. Ana slid on nimble feet down the far side toward the patio, shooting arrows as she went. He jumped away as the ground split between them.
Esha fought a small horde of the ghostly pale former revelers, unaware of the three approaching from behind. Warren leapt across the chasm in the dirt, reaching them in time to take the head off one and fell the other two with swipes across the abdomen.
“The dagger, Warren!” Esha screamed. “I’ll aetherwalk.”
He nodded, and knowing that she’d get to safety away from the rising earth, he turned to Aurora and flung the dagger at her chest. She disappeared and it flew through. When it thudded into the wall behind her, Warren was sucked through space to join it.
He arrived with his fist gripping the hilt and pulled it free. From within the house, the damage was illuminated. It was a mess. The walls wavered like the apparition they were, great holes to the real world blasted into them. His gaze raced around the destroyed living room, hunting Aurora.
Nowhere to be seen. He sprinted out onto the back patio, just in time to see Aurora shoot a jet of the pool water at Esha. Thousands of gallons bowled her over, and he roared, charging Aurora.
A crash of thunder and a flash of light, and the world went black. He stumbled, then righted himself as the light of the true moon illuminated the scene before him. Aurora’s world had melted, leaving behind a destroyed mansion and a dried-out pool. Esha was rising from the giant puddle on the beach, and Ana was running to her, no doubt to ensure that Esha benefited from the power of her soul rather than Aurora. Both soulceresses would need a power boost after what had just gone down.
Aurora stood on the destroyed patio and shrieked, her hands clutched in her hair. Her wild black eyes flickered over the mansion. The monstrous revelers had disappeared. Her familiar sat at her heels, hissing at her as if it knew something was terribly wrong. She whirled on Warren. “You destroyed it!”
She raised her hand to throw some kind of magic at him and instinct had him hurling the dagger at a tree to her left just to get out of its way. He appeared, hand on the hilt, as a bolt of lightning incinerated the spot where he’d been standing.
Shite, that was close.
“From behind!” Ana’s scream dragged his gaze to the left in time for him to see some kind of sea monsters crawling from the waves on the beach, weeds and barnacles clinging to their misshapen forms. Celtic fomori, famed for razor teeth and vicious appetites. Christ, had she called them all the way from the Celtic Sea?
Focus on Aurora. He jerked his attention to her as she was hurled to the ground by a great rush of wind thrown by Esha. She leapt to her feet a second later, her black eyes crazed and her hair whipping unnaturally about her head. She thrust out her arm, and an enormous wave rose from the sea behind Esha. In less than a second, Aurora’s eyes flashed from black to gold. Shock and regret streaked across her face. She waved her arm again and the wave crashed down too soon, spraying Esha but not drowning her.
Aurora was flashing in and out of sanity. And she didn’t want to kill Esha. No sooner had the realization struck him than Aurora spun from Esha and caught sight of him. Her eyes blackened again, and she threw a blast of fire at him that was too big to escape.
He threw the knife, knowing it was futile, as Esha sent a jet of water from the sea. Steam rose up at the collision of fire and water and the tail end of the flames seared his flesh as he was transported to the knife, his hand grasping the hilt where it stuck out of a palm tree. He yanked it out with a burned and blackened hand, knowing that if he hadn’t been under the influence of the pain-relieving potion from the witches, he probably wouldn’t have gotten it out of the tree.
Esha threw another gust of wind at Aurora, hoping to give Warren enough time to reach her. Gods, she needed Ana’s help with Aurora, but the sea monsters kept coming. Their growling and the clicking of fangs was an eerie accompaniment to Aurora’s screams and the blasts of power that rent the night.
Warren halted and flung the dagger, avoiding Aurora’s strike of lightning. He popped in and out of existence as he made his way closer to Aurora, who could dodge his knife like a pro, while Esha tried to hold Aurora off. Water to stop her fire, wind to knock her down. If only she could throw a killing blow, this would all be over, but she didn’t want to kill her only family, no matter how crazed she was now.
But gods, she was running out of power. She’d been siphoning it off Ana, who was now likely as weak as herself. Thankfully Ana had her skills as an archer to fall back on. Esha had nothing without her power except a mean right hook, and that wouldn’t be of much use against Aurora.
But Aurora was slowing too. No longer bolstered by her magical world, she didn’t have infinite power. She’d burn through it and have to wait for the souls to regenerate.
Please, gods, let her run out before me.
“Warren!” Esha screamed when he appeared near some fallen fomori who had just started to rise.
He was quick with the dagger and one was on the ground seconds later. Aurora shot a bolt of fire at him while he was killing the second, but Esha deflected most of it with another jet of seawater. Thank gods his healing was so fast, and he didn’t feel pain, else he’d never have made it this far. Aurora was obsessed with taking him down, even though she couldn’t kill him. Rage had clouded her mind.
Aurora stood with her back to a copse of palms and shot another stream of fire at Warren. He’d already taken aim and heaved the dagger. It sailed past her and into the tree at her back. He disappeared as the fire hit the spot where he’d been standing and reappeared behind Aurora before she had a chance to register the maneuver. He yanked the dagger from the tree, spun, and plunged it into her back.
Her shriek rent the night air, an unholy howl that was joined by the wailing of the souls that flew free from her body. They streaked into the sky, shadows rising toward freedom and their former owners. Warren’s soul flew straight back into him and he fell to his knees.
“Ana! Chairman!” Esha screamed. “Home! Now!”
The fomori had begun to slink back into the ocean, Aurora’s spell broken. Ana sprinted to Aurora and Warren. Esha met her there, desperate to get the hell off this miserable island.
Esha wrapped her arms around Warren, who’d just surged to his feet, while Ana did the same with a collapsed Aurora. The Chairman pressed himself against Esha’s legs.
“Wait! Her familiar!” They couldn’t aetherwalk without Aurora’s companion. Just then, a sleek black blur streaked from the trees near the beach and curled up against Aurora’s prone form. No doubt the cat had fled when Aurora had lost her mind. “Let’s go!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Esha appeared in the foyer of the house with her arms wrapped around Warren. Ana arrived next to her, collapsed on the floor with Aurora’s crumpled body in her arms.
“You’re good?” she asked Warren.