“Oh, I’m still here.” Conal’s distant gaze had fallen on the troll’s bloody corpse.
Despite herself, Helena winced a little, looking at the ruin of Olwydd’s throat and blinded eyes. She really had lost her shit.
Conal’s mouth curled into an icy smile. “You did a very thorough job on him, didn’t you? Though I was rather looking forward to having a word with him.” The smile that curved his handsome mouth sent a spear of ice through her. His gaze slid to Siobhan. “One night when I refused her, the bitch gave me to him.”
Essus made a cracked sound as Helena froze. Oh, Conal…
He nodded at the courtiers, who shifted, eyes going wide with expressions of growing terror. “They watched. She told me if I didn’t submit to my punishment, he’d take one of the twins instead. The girls were four.” On the last word, the ice in his voice cracked like a glacier calving into the sea. “Olwydd deserved whatever you did to him, Helena. All of them have it coming.” His Antarctic gaze focused on Siobhan. “And you deserve worse.”
Siobhan’s chin kicked up in defiance. “What did you expect? You lied to me! You claimed you loved me!”
“No one loves you!” His roar made everyone in the room jump, even Siobhan. He flicked a finger at her men. “They sure as hell don’t, no matter what they say. Why should they? You’re a sadistic, narcissistic, vicious little bitch so jealous of your own mother, you torture everyone around you to get back at her. God knows for what!”
Siobhan stared at him, looking stunned. As if nobody had ever had the guts to talk to her that way. They probably hadn’t. “For loving those fucking animals more than she ever loved me!”
“They love her back. You never loved anyone but yourself.”
Darkbane burst into violet flames as he leaped forward, swinging. Siobhan barely got her own weapon up in time to block it. The explosion of light as the blades clashed forced Helena to look away. She’d seen Sidhe swordfights before -- the inhuman grace, speed and power, the liquid skill born of centuries of practice. She’d fought Sidhe warriors with Liam’s help, though it was only the strength and speed of her werewolf form that gave her a prayer against them.
This fight, though… Siobhan and Conal moved with such speed, bounding in impossible leaps, swords blazing light as they clashed, parried, dove apart, surged together. Each time they met, the magic they expended pounded her senses and filled the air with the smell of lightning. And blood. Their armor was streaked with it now, the gleaming metal sliced jagged in places, edges blackened.
When they spun apart again, Siobhan shot a contemptuous glance at her courtiers. “Do you think he’ll spare you if I die? You heard him! He’ll kill you and drink your lives. But if I live and you fight for me, I swear by my power I’ll release you from my service! Kill that wolf!”
Eyes swung to Helena and narrowed. Seemed the idea of being free of the psychotic bitch was seriously tempting. Yeah, I want a piece of you assholes too, Helena thought, sick and furious at Conal’s revelation. That fucking troll had threatened her with horrors while she’d been locked in with him, and he’d reinforced the threat by grinding his erection against her. The damn thing was the length and width of her fucking forearm. How in the hell had Conal even survived? She’d known she wouldn’t, not without shifting. And these fuckers had stood by and watched him suffer that? “I want a piece of those bastards.”
“It’s all that’s left,” Essus agreed grimly. “Good hunting.” He launched from her shoulder, shooting toward the Sidhe, his fire igniting with a roar.
As the Sidhe broke into a charge, Helena swung her sword up and howled, bounding twenty feet across the room. Landing among the Sidhe like a cat among pigeons, she started swinging the great sword in frenzied, blazing arcs that forced the warriors back. But as she fought, fear hissed in her mind. Siobhan’s right. Conal’s dead. Liam killed him and I helped him do it.
He’d said he was still there, but what if the thing that had been Liam was lying? The thought plunged her into such fury and self-hate, all she wanted to do was kill just to burn the agony off. And if one of them gets me, just as well.
She lunged and spun, hacked and stabbed, ignoring magical blasts that would have fried an ordinary human. At first the Sidhe tried to maintain their shields, but they soon realized she shrugged off magical attacks. They had to get in close with blades. One warrior conjured a bow and arrow, but Essus torched him before he got off more than a couple of shots. Nobody tried that again.
Conal’s dead. Liam killed him and I helped him do it. I killed him.
* * *
Siobhan might be a psychotic bitch, but she had centuries more experience than Conal, and the raw power to supplement her strength. Yet somehow his body seemed to know exactly what to do with the blazing power that filled him. He felt more like a nuclear reactor then anything from the Mageverse. It was intoxicating. Almost as intoxicating as the fear in Siobhan’s eyes.
What’s more, every time Helena killed one of Siobhan’s court, he felt another cool burst of power slide into him, feeding him, powering his muscles, so he grew stronger even as he fought. His hunger for revenge intensified, fed by the need to sear Siobhan’s black nightmare from his brain.
He ached to replace it with the memory of her death, the power he could feel burning beneath her white skin, seductive in a way her pussy never had been. Conal had known her too fucking well for real desire. At the end, Siobhan had been forced to use magic to make his body respond at all. But the whirling cool power in her -- that he wanted. I’d never be weak again. I could protect Helena, the twins, my people. No one would dare threaten anything mine. All I have to do is spill her blood, take her head…
What the fuck have I become? They slammed together, blade grinding on blade, sparks flying on the furious wind of their clashing power. Siobhan’s gaze met his in growing terror, and he realized she’d read his thoughts. Or maybe just his eyes.
“Monster!” She leaped back, disengaging to aim her blade into his face. Fired a thundering salvo of energy that splashed harmlessly off his instinctive shield.
He gave her a toothy, vicious smile, relishing her fear as she’d once relished his. “Yes,” he purred. “Yes, I am. Because you made me one.”
She screeched and brought her sword down in a hacking stroke, but he deflected it with an easy twist of his blade. He was no stranger to fighting Siobhan, and he knew her rhythms. She’d frequently taken on her entire court in “combat practice.” They’d all known her real purpose had been to demonstrate that none of them had a chance against her. Siobhan was far stronger than any ordinary Sidhe, male or female.
Which meant she wasn’t used to fighting anyone in her own weight class, with the possible exception of her mother. Who’d had a lot less reason to kill her than Conal. He rained blows and blasts on her, anticipating when she’d drop her shield to strike at him, then landing blows that staggered her. He could feel her burning through her reserves, even as his were renewed every time Helena killed a courtier.
“You’re not going to be able to beat me,” he told Siobhan, cool and vicious. “It took your mother and the dragon god to contain me the last time, and they only succeeded because I allowed it.” He bared his teeth. “Not this time. You’ve taught me what happens when I can’t protect my own.”