Page 64 of Duncan

Derdrui jerked her around to face her. “You think your puny relic can challenge me? I rule all Therion, and my royal blood is pure, as is my power.”

“Your dominion is back in Elphyne, along with your kingdom, and you’ve already used up a lot of your power.” Nicole reminded her. “Eilonwy was a princess, too, and she had dominion over woodlands.” A branch shot out and pierced the enchantress’s taloned hand, making her shriek with fury. “All woodlands.”

The dark Fae woman screamed as she writhed and yanked at her impaled hand.

Nicole sensed the power of the pendant enveloping her. Merrivane had never told her how long it would last, but she only needed to keep the enchantress confined until the clan joined them. It was time to use her newfound gift.

She took in a fearful breath. She had never asked for this; she suspected she wasn’t strong enough to survive what she needed to do. She didn’t want to do it, either, but if she waited for the others, Derdrui might free herself and kill her anyway.

For Duncan, then, and his brothers, and all the people they love.

“I am sorry for what the Prince did to you,” Nicole said, eyeing the ash, which rammed two more branches through the enchantress’s torso. “I understand why your rage has kept burning for thousands of years. But I never harmed you, and neither did my aunt Eilonwy, or the MacMar Clan. You can’t punish us for what happened between you and the prince thousands of years in the past.”

Julianne appeared a moment later with Duncan and a half-dozen shifters, including Dearg, who was still in chains. The lifeguard made an OK signal with her fingers before she vanished again. In the distance Nicole saw more MacMar charging toward the Stone Forest, the ground behind them seemingly turning to undulating glass.

Seeing her lover made Nicole wish he had stayed behind so he wouldn’t have to watch this. “Duncan, it’s just like I said. I can’t stay. I’m sorry.”

“Never worry, love.” He looked into her eyes, the love in his becoming for a moment her universe. “When you leave, I’ll follow.”

“I shall skin and spit you both alive, and keep you breathing for eternity while your raw flesh roasts,” Derdrui promised, bringing her attention back to her impaled body. “You may burn together forever over an unquenchable fire.”

Nicole regarded the enchantress, who could barely move now.

Her emotional pain is her weapon, but I can disarm her.

“No, we won’t burn forever.” Nicole approached her, coming close enough to see herself burning in the enchantress’s eyes. “And neither will you.”

She pressed her hand against Derdrui’s cheek, and the healing power inside her opened her soul. A flood of evil gushed into her, as agonizing and inescapable as if someone had poured a vat of lava over her head. Countless centuries of hatred and sadistic pleasure swamped her, along with rage over betrayal and the icy rebound of unwanted love. The enchantress’s memories came with that, shoving millennia of sadistic pleasures into Nicole.

I won’t survive this.

She clung to that surety, relieved that death would release her from existing with the knowledge and remembrance of Derdrui’s evil. Dimly she saw Duncan moving toward her and gasped out, “Don’t touch me.”

“Ever shall we share our joys, our pains, and our hearts, my love.” As he bent his head and kissed her the silver-blue streaks in his hair glittered, and the deep gouges Derdrui’s claws had made in his face began to shrink. Then he took hold of her hand. Blue and green lights sparkled in Duncan’s dark eyes, and then appeared all around them. Between their palms her pendant throbbed like a tiny heart.

Everything around them dimmed for a moment as a transparent vine of golden ivy wound around Nicole. At the same time ghostly rain poured over Duncan.

Mar.

Eilonwy.

The MacMar Clan suddenly burst into the Stone Forest, accompanied by a flood of dark water. On the surface bobbed hundreds of spheres that began to glow. The scent of the sea and the men surrounded the frozen enchantress, their swords ready.

“Och, Healer, here you and your lass came,” Brochan said. “I reckoned as much when we saw that great bat flying here.” He winked at Nicole. “Save a dance at your wedding for me, my lady.”

The cook slogged through the water, heading for the far end of the forest, and the sea followed, leaving the glowing orbs behind, which sank into the ground. Then a streak of inky black poured into the forest from the direction of the castle, and solidified into Shaw.

“I didnae ken why the beast chose me until tonight,” the chieftain said to her, and put his tattooed hand over hers and her lover’s. “But it sends me now. ’Tis time we end all suffering, Healers.”

Nicole wondered if Shaw’s beast would kill her and Duncan, but all she experienced was a wave of cool darkness that came over her, swallowing up the terrible emotions she had absorbed from the enchantress. As they thinned and faded, the pendant shifted between her and Duncan’s hands. The stone dissolved into sparkling sand, which poured out from their fingers onto the ground.

“No.” Cracks began to appear on Derdrui’s darkly beautiful face as she fought to free herself without success. “It cannot end this way. I must have my revenge. That is all I have lived for since he betrayed me.”

All around them the Stone Forest took on a subtle silver-blue glow.

“If we may attend our màthair?” Speal politely asked Duncan, who with Nicole and Shaw stepped out of their way.

Dearg stared at her, aghast. “No. ’Tisnae truth.” Fangs stretched out of her cherub’s mouth. “They made you lie.” She crouched down if front of the enchantress as if to spring at the other shifters, and then uttered a liquid gurgle and looked down at the sword thrust into her chest.