Chapter 25
Pain erupted through Thanatos. Scathane screamed and cried out as he tried to pull free of Thanatos’ body, but he was rooted in his bones, while something else rooted him to the earth. He pried his eyes open and found strange, gnarly vines wrapped around him and driven through his body like railroad spikes.
Chanting rose up over him, several voices. He looked around.
Two of the cursed women he wanted to kill, one powerful enough to make him whole.
No, make that three.
And instead of cowering when he finally did find them, they were fighting. Whatever spell they worked in unison felt as if it would tear him apart.
He struggled to get free but couldn’t. And then he caught who the spell was aimed at.
Scathane.
They weren’t afraid of Thanatos. They were afraid of the entity who had taken over his destiny.
Thanatos saw a new path. Scathane taught him how to take magic and fuse it into his bones, strengthening him. If he could tear the magic from the three women, he could make himself more powerful than anyone or anything else.
He started the spell to unwind Scathane’s essence from himself, making it easier to separate the two. Hopefully, they would take that as him begging for his life and they would be merciful.
* * * *
Everything was going too easy. Jacinda worried things were about to blow up in their faces and leave them in a world of hurt. She chanted the spell with Brent and Savon. Clara wove protection around each of the people there. None of them could touch each other because they were each surrounded by a magical bubble.
She wasn’t sure if that comforted her or not.
As Scathane was pulled from Thanatos, Robert and Chatan cast a shield around him. Thanatos rolled to his hands and knees, panting as he tried to push himself to a stand.
Jacinda focused on the shadowy blob that had started to take the shape of a man. No wings, no solid form, just shadows winding around itself in the shape of a body.
“Yes, bind me to this world and I’ll drink your power down, starting with the fool who summoned me to begin with.” Scathane swept down and the shadowy form exploded on the shield before gathering ten feet above the glittering dome to take shape again.
He hissed. “Fine, then I’ll take Thanatos’ only chance at immortality.”
He flew at Jacinda, dissolving the bubble as he surrounded her with his essence.
Pain flowed from every pore as she cast the spell her father sang to her since before she could remember. Light exploded, and she felt two sets of hands on her. Her mother’s and father’s voices joined in on the spell.
* * * *
Ceridwen had wanted to stay away, but she knew she couldn’t. Luca had not banished Myrddin, and she knew it, but he was the only one who could have stopped Myrddin from locking himself away.
Time to forgive the yeti for what he couldn’t control. And to save the girl who would take on Dove’s knowledge, and the young man who would take on Hawk’s.
She appeared on the slope and watched the mayhem unfold. Was she too late?
Jacinda was surrounded by the shadow mystic. Scathane had no form. He seemed to be trying to insert himself into the girl, but she was singing the song Tyrell taught her, the one he taught her to protect his daughter from the entity trying to destroy her line.
At the time, she hadn’t realized Scathane was behind Thanatos. If she had, she would have hunted down the bastard so much sooner.
Everything changed as Jacinda’s voice rose. Then her parents’ voices joined in. Scathane had become something far worse than merely a shadow mystic. He survived on the souls of those he killed.
* * * *
The second the shadowy form went for Jacinda, Chatan burst into motion. He slammed his hand against Clara’s shield and changed into a hawk to fly the distance. He didn’t know how Jacinda managed to wind up so far away, but he flew through the shadow as power erupted from Jacinda.
He burst through the darkness, knocking Jacinda to the ground as he shifted back, shielding her from Scathane.
Hawk and Dove burst from the necklace, flying around Jacinda and Chatan, lifting them off their feet. Jacinda’s eyes locked on his. Fire danced in their green depths. She let out a cry as Dove grew to an enormous size and wrapped her in its wings.
Hawk engulfed Chatan the same way and warmth flooded his entire body, demolishing the chill. Magic rushed through him, power that had always been there unleashed, and images flashed through his head. He knew how to use the power.
Jacinda floated to her feet, power flowing from her, reaching for him. They joined hands as they moved toward the shadowy figure reforming on its knees before them.
“Whatever your goal, it’s over. You can no longer have Thanatos, and you sure as hell can’t have this world.” Jacinda held her free hand out, weaving a spell.
Chatan joined her. The fear had evaporated when Hawk flew into him. He didn’t feel Hawk’s presence but had his memories, just as Ceridwen had explained.
Later, he could figure out what that meant. For the moment, he was more concerned with Jacinda, who had been surrounded by Scathane’s essence. And now she seemed completely fine. But would that last?
He hoped whatever Hawk and Dove did, she would be.
Thanatos snarled, his lip curled as he pushed himself to a stand and stumbled forward. Light leaked from his chest as the tip of a sword burst through his sternum.
Ceridwen wove a spell he couldn’t begin to understand.
But then Brent and Savon were chanting something that sounded like a song he’d heard at the reservation. Something that would banish a demon from this world. Or maybe just an entity in general.
Scathane screamed, his hand going to his chest as silver blood dribbled down his shadowy body. He solidified as he crashed to his knees.
Jacinda moved closer and placed her hands on his cheeks, her thumbs on his eyes, as she sang the spell he’d heard her sing several times before.
He joined her, hoping he was doing it right, but he felt her magic as sure as his own and knew he could at least offer his power.
Scathane reached for her throat, but Chatan moved faster than he could imagine, catching his wrists that turned to black stone.
Ceridwen pulled the blade from the statue’s chest, and Tremaine moved forward, opening a glowing green rift.
Chatan shoved Scathane into it and the opening closed with a pop. The main threat was over.
* * * *
All that and she needed answers. Jacinda looked at Ceridwen. “He can’t come back from there?” she asked.
“No. We locked him into his body much like the pillar back in Wanatoga. In fact, stone will grow around him, binding him more fully than anything. The spell you cast will ensure he can never get free.”
“Then we still need to deal with Thanatos. Dove couldn’t do it before because she hadn’t found Hawk. They needed each other to finish the spell. They always did.”
She smiled. “Dove has become your guardian, just like Hawk is Chatan’s.”
Jacinda moved to the shield that contained a man with stringy gray hair, sagging skin over a skeletal frame. “Why do you hate us so much? What was killing us supposed to give you?”
“Immortality. My strength that Scathane had stolen.”
“What?” she asked.
“Luallyn was a mimic. Her power was stronger than anything I’d ever felt, but it pales next to yours. Her essence would have allowed me to learn every kind of magic and spell. I could have been young forever, powerful, a god.”
“A god?”
Ceridwen nodded. “A true mimic can learn any magic. She was, but she wasn’t as strong as you. She could have learned it, but he found her after a hundred years of her life on Earth. You’re merely a child and you’ve obtained magic simply by being near it. She needed contact.”
“How would that make him immortal?” Jacinda demanded.
“He was a Deathlock in life. He fed off the death of casters and magical creatures. But their kind wither and die without absorbing the right kind of magic. Luallyn had that kind of magic. Only you have more. It would have made him something more than a Deathlock. One who wouldn’t have to live off killing Others, but could sustain himself by using pure magic,” Ceridwen explained.
“Now what?” Jacinda asked. “Do we put him out of his misery?”
“You could, or you could wait and let him suffer.” Ceridwen lifted a shoulder. “After what he’s done for all these years, you could even prolong his pain.”
“I don’t see the point. Why endure his suffering for revenge when I could just move on and have a life?” She moved forward. “Goodbye.” She touched the shield and it faded, then she held out her hand and pulled his life force from his body with a spell she’d once seen and cast it out of the world.
“Isn’t that a necromancer spell?” Brent asked.
She nodded. “She said there was nothing I couldn’t cast if I’d seen it. Figured I should try.”
Clara moved to her. “Thank you.” She gripped Jacinda’s shoulders. “With Thanatos gone, we can do anything.”
Brialle wrapped her arms around Clara and Jacinda. “It’s nearly over.” She stepped back. “First, we should send the others on.”
Jacinda dipped her head. She could see glowing outlines of every one of the spirits. They filled the valley. “Show me what to do,” she said. Then she turned back to the two who brought her into the world. “I love you, Mom and Dad. So much.”
Their arms wrapped around her. She felt their warmth but couldn’t hear them. Their love surrounded her, though.
Brialle touched her shoulder and started the spell. Jacinda mimicked her words and the spirits floated up and away.
She stood there a moment and wiped at her eyes.
“We did it,” Brialle said, a smile on her lips, though a tear rolled down her face.
“Thank you,” Jacinda whispered. She didn’t know what else to say. There was so much to look forward to.
Chatan’s voice was urgent. “Wait, just hang on. That thing poisoned my mother years ago. Make sure it didn’t do the same to Jacinda, please.”
Ceridwen stepped forward and shooed the other women off her. “Let me make sure.” She ran her hands parallel to Jacinda’s body, then smiled. “The taint is gone. Dove and Hawk protected both of you. And you’ll find the necklace is no more, but you will discover their mark.”
“And they won’t take over?” he asked.
“No, they moved into the afterlife, to be reborn at a later date. They simply gave you their memories and abilities. I wouldn’t have allowed it to take place if they would do more than that.”
“How did you not know what Thanatos had summoned?” Jacinda asked.
She shook her head. “I had never met him. And Dove did not know who Scathane was. The first of your line banished him to another realm, but something he had done bound him to your bloodline.”
Jacinda dipped her head. “Now what?”
“I can take you wherever you want to go,” Robert offered. “And when you’re ready, we can see if you can translocate the same way. But it can be scary the first few times you try.”
“I’m not ready to try, but soon. Right now, I want somewhere warm.” She turned to Clara and Brialle. “I want to get to know you both. If that can be arranged.”
“Sure can,” Brialle answered. “And you know how to reach me.”
Clara smiled. “Same here. In fact, I’ll contact Jessabelle and let her know the good news. Perhaps it will change how she raises her little girl.”
Jacinda turned to Brent. “We’ll come visit you after my car arrives in Edenton or Seattle. For now, I want to go back to Chatan’s home.”
“Ours,” he said. “Ours, Jace.”
She smiled, turning to him. “Our home.”
Brent closed the distance and gave her a hug. “You have a phone now. Don’t hesitate to call for anything. Especially if you start hearing things you don’t see. Or you just need to talk.”
“You got it.” She squeezed him back, took Chatan’s hand, and reached out to Robert.
Robert chuckled. “You’ve earned a rest.”
Matoskah butted in and hugged them both. “Don’t shut me out, please,” he whispered.
“No more,” Chatan promised. “And we’ll be back up there before long.”
Robert squeezed Jacinda’s shoulder, then took her and Chatan back to Wanatoga in a blink.