Siobhan’s eyes widened as she took a jolting step back. Her armor and her defensive shields flared as she pumped magic into them. Conal flicked his fingers, opening a gate to Maeve’s palace. Recognizing Liam’s magic, the Mother’s protective spells allowed it. The doorway that formed showed the garden by moonlight, the white serenity of the palace shimmering through the trees. Conal looked up at Essus. Go with her.
Conal…
Now.
The bird shivered and dropped down to land on Helena’s shoulder, though Conal could feel his friend’s lingering anger at her. “Go,” Conal told her gently.
Helena looked at him, uncertainty in her eyes, as if wondering if it was really him. “It’s all right, I’ll catch up when I’m done.”
No, Conal, please, Essus begged. You can’t. Siobhan’s got too much power.
Conal’s lips pulled off his teeth. “I don’t care.” The air reverberated as he spoke, though his voice was quiet. “I will have justice. Siobhan owes me blood.”
* * *
Helena stared at Conal in sick fear. He looked exactly like the man she had fallen in love with -- the same square jaw, powerful shoulders, sensual mouth, elegantly pointed ears. But the humanity was gone from that handsome face, leaving it icy and remote. Liam had transformed him as thoroughly as the Bite had changed her.
His Sidhe armor was worked with ancient sigils she couldn’t read despite her training, and strands of his black hair was woven in braids bound with gold cords, much as Maeve wore in her green mane. But the truly terrifying thing was the way his power beat at her consciousness and blazed in those cold violet eyes.
Helena knew power -- she worked for Maeve. But the power that blazed around Conal was more intense even than the Mother’s. It was like being in the presence of a nuclear reactor in the midst of melting down. Every instinct she had howled Run!
Even Darkbane had changed. It had been a two-handed sword before, a good-sized blade. But now it was even longer, wider, and it spilled sparks every time he moved, as if bleeding off the excess power he fed it.
She wasn’t the only one thoroughly unnerved either. Siobhan looked downright terrified as she spun toward her courtiers. “As I am your lady, defend me!” Her harem looked at her as they hugged the throne room’s walls as far away from Conal and his thundering aura as they could get. Not one of them moved. “I said now!” Siobhan shrieked, throwing out an arm in a gesture like a backhand slap. Magic boiled from her swinging hand. One of the courtiers burst into flames and vanished in a whirl of light. She pointed a shaking finger at Helena. “Kill that bitch!”
“Only if you want to die,” Conal said, his tone conversational, though the air reverberated.
“Do it or die!” Siobhan screeched.
The two nearest warriors shot each other a single panicked glance and moved slowly toward Helena. Conal half-turned, lifting a hand, and Siobhan hit him with a spell that flung him across the room and plowed him through the wall.
Conal! No! Helena sprinted toward the hole, the courtiers chasing her with lifted swords.
A huge violet fireball thundered toward her, passing inches from her right ear. The first warrior burst into flames. As she broke step to stare back over her shoulder at them, she saw Essus dive at the Sidhe, blazing brighter than she’d ever seen him. “You will pay for what you have done to my boy, you bastards!”
She faced front just as the remnants of the wall exploded in violet fire. Conal. There was no time to scream as her vision went blinding white, then black as a dark cloud boiled out from where the wall had stood. Sheer spinal reflex drove her to the floor as she threw both furry arms over her head. The room went dark and the air filled with earsplitting cracks, crunches and male screams. Essus cursed in some language she didn’t know, voice ringing over Siobhan’s screaming fury. Until at last silence fell, broken only by ragged moans and a man sobbing in pain and terror.
Her own desperate pants filled her ears. “Conal?” Helena croaked, opening eyes she didn’t remember closing. Dust hung in the air, shimmering in the sullen violet light of the shield that curved over her like a glowing dome. It had saved her life. Conal must have erected it.
Cautiously, she uncurled, and her gaze fell on a sword, glowing near her hand like a torch. She didn’t recognize it, but she grabbed it anyway and rose to her feet, staring around at the throne room in the light of her shield. Chunks of masonry and debris lay in a circle around her, as if repelled by the barrier.
Where was Essus? There was no sign of brilliant feathers or his blazing glow. “Essus?” she called. “Conal?”
No answer.
A sudden wind swept through the room, blowing away the hanging dust. Several Sidhe warriors rose from the ground, unhurt. They must have shielded in time when Conal blew the wall. Other bodies lay half-buried in rubble, though it was impossible to tell if they were alive or dead.
Siobhan picked herself up off the floor, none the worse for wear, damn it, though her hands shook with either rage or terror. The Sidhe sigils of Conal’s tatt appeared in the darkness beyond the ruins of the wall. He stepped into the light, looking bigger in his armor than he had moments before, though surely that was an illusion. Unhurt, thank God. She sagged in relief.
“Do you remember what you did to me?” Conal asked Siobhan in that soft, deadly voice that made Helena swallow, glad he wasn’t asking her that question. Light flooded the room with illumination so bright, it stabbed into her sensitive eyes.
Siobhan’s gaze found Helena’s face and narrowed in fury, eyes blazing green as her lips twisted in a snarl. “I’m going to make a coat of you,” she hissed, then pointed at Helena and yelled at her men, “I said bring me that cunt’s head!”
The Sidhe courtiers stirred, those still on their feet exchanging uneasy glances. Conal’s violet eyes narrowed and he started forward Siobhan, the icy inhumanity cracking. “Watch your foul mouth.”
“She’s trying to distract you, Conal!” Helena snapped, hoping he was really in there. That Liam hadn’t destroyed him. Damn, she wished she could form a psychic link. If she could only touch his consciousness, know what the hell was going on in his head. Reach him somehow…
He looked at her and blinked, and ice rolled over him again. She wasn’t sure which terrified her more. Helena licked dry lips. Conal was just over a century old, a teenager by Sidhe standards. Liam had swamped him with thousands of years of a death god’s memories. Had she killed him trying to save him? Goddamn it, Helena. She needed the phoenix. He’d know. “Essus!” she bellowed with all the strength of dire wolf lungs.
Fire blazed as rocks flew. “Here!” The phoenix eagle exploded into the air, trailing fire like a comet. He shot toward her. The shield around her vanished for a heartbeat, letting him through. His flame died the moment before he struck her shoulder. His obvious desperation must have put him off his game; the impact rocked her. She felt the heat of his feathers even through her fur.
“Is he…” She almost couldn’t get the words out. “Is Conal gone?” Given their psychic bond, the eagle would know if anyone did.
Essus shot her a fierce yellow stare. “I don’t know. I feel him, but they’ve fused. He’s not…” The bird broke off as if unable to finish.