Tiernan didn’t wait for the rest of the D’Danann to cross from the transference point. Once he and Hawk were in the meadow, he immediately strode around the rock outcropping to the Drow door. With Riona still on his shoulder he stomped on the damned door five times.
“I will guide the others,” Riona said before she fluttered off Tiernan’s shoulder to the place the other D’Danann warriors would be appearing.
Tiernan and Hawk remained silent. Birds chirping and insect hums were drowned out as the Drow door opened with an annoying grating sound.
As Tiernan stepped down the Drow stairs, his eyes easily adjusted to the darkness, which was one of the abilities of the Tuatha D’Danann.
He did not expect the torches to flicker to life, and in that he was not disappointed. His boots made no sounds as he progressed. Hawk and soon the other D’Danann followed him just as silently. He communicated briefly with them in mind-speak then didn’t need to say anything further.
When he reached the enormous round chamber, he expected to see guards, but found none awaiting them. He strode across the great room to Garran’s chamber, and again found nothing but darkness.
“Where is Copper?” Tiernan’s gut tightened as he rested his hand on his sword and stepped back into the huge hall.
Hawk made a low growling noise. His features constantly twisted into an expression of fury and of fear for his mate. “By the gods, we must find her and Silver.”
By then all the D’Danann warriors had gathered around them. Thirteen had made the trip to this part of Otherworld, counting Tiernan, Hawk, Keir, and Urien.
Remember the battle with the giant, floated through Tiernan’s mind in the Great Guardian’s voice.
“This way,” Tiernan commanded as he drew his sword and headed toward the passageway that led to the mine where he and the Drow had battled the giant.
In the short tunnel, with his night vision, he examined the dirt floor for signs of Copper. He easily spotted a pair of prints made from shoes such as Copper wore, on top of boot prints made by the Dark Elves.
Satisfied he now headed in the right direction, Tiernan continued until he made his way out of the tunnel and onto the pathway that led deep into the pit mine of the Drow. With his keen scouting abilities, he noticed where Copper had skidded and then continued on down the path.
“As I suspected, she has gone after the Drow—fool witch.” Tiernan moved away from Hawk and the other D’Danann and began to shift. He unfurled his great wings and he flapped them once before leaping from the ledge and soaring down into the pit.
The mine’s cool air swept his hair from his shoulders and slid over his wings. He easily reached the center of the pit and the enormous hole, clearly the location where the giant had torn through the ground to reach the Dark Elves.
Next to a rock were Copper’s backpack and her jacket. His heart stuttered at the sight. Why had she left her belongings? Had she fallen into the hole?
After sheathing his sword, Tiernan looked into the black depths. It was deep. So deep he could barely make out the bottom.
If Copper had fallen…
He raised his head, and scanned the dirt and rock surrounding the hole. His heart began to pound harder as he saw Copper’s shoe prints where her feet had met dirt, and handprints where she had clung to handholds. He furrowed his brow as his gaze swept the area that she moved across.
“What was she doing?” he said aloud. And then he saw something that made his blood chill. Beside a boulder her shoe prints slid off the ledge.
Copper had fallen.
“Godsdamn.” Tiernan threw himself into the hole, feathers sleeked back, and arrowed into the darkness. “Wait for my instructions” he called back over his shoulder.
With his night vision, he saw the bottom and that Copper was nowhere in sight. Before he hit, he unfurled his wings, and brought himself to a soft landing.
Tiernan crouched and examined the dirt around him. Copper had landed on her backside, and the deep indentation indicated she had also landed on her wand. And was that the tip imprinted in an awkward position? Had it broken? At the thought of her losing one of her defenses, Tiernan’s blood chilled.
He could make out where she had fallen back and where her head had struck dirt, and even the imprint of her braid. There was a little scuffling, as if she had crossed her legs at the ankles and had sat before getting up and starting down the tunnel.
“Clear,” Tiernan shouted, and moved out of the way so that his brethren could follow.
While the other D’Danann silently flew down the huge tunnel, Tiernan walked along the passageway, following Copper’s prints for a few feet. The tunnel was large enough to fly in. He spread his wings and flew as fast as he could through the darkness.
When they reached a massive chamber he came to a light landing at its opening and heard his brethren touch down behind him. By the markings on the walls, the enormous prints on the dirt floor, and the huge shield and club, this place belonged to the giants.
“How did such creatures make it into Otherworld?” Hawk asked, obviously noting what Tiernan had.
“I have no doubt the Dark Elves have been delving too far below the surface,” Tiernan said.
Congealed and drying blood lay thick and heavy on the floor of the chamber, and arrows littered the dirt. He saw Copper’s shoe prints cross the great room, and then they appeared smudged, as if she had run. A pair of giant footprints followed hers, sometimes stomping them out entirely.
Tiernan flapped his wings and darted across the chamber, following Copper’s shoe prints to another large tunnel, and then he resumed flying. Most often the giant’s prints obliterated Copper’s, but at times he saw hers.
Long before he reached it, he caught the smell of rotting garbage. He hurried even faster until he reached the giant that lay sprawled on the dirt floor of the passageway—motionless, stiff. Dead.
Tiernan landed, folded back his wings, and held his hand up to indicate to his comrades that they should halt. “Wait here.”
The tunnel was still large enough for him to fly, and his wings carried him from the feet to the head of the giant. He touched down just inches from its matted, mosslike hair.
Its eyes were open, its expression frozen into one of excruciating pain. Its face had swollen so that its head looked three times larger than that of the giant he and the Drow had slain.
That was when he noticed the red marks all over the giant’s face. “Bee stings,” he said aloud. “It had to have been Zephyr.” The giant had likely been allergic to bee stings and had died from them.
“Clear.” Tiernan motioned for the other warriors to follow and continued down the passageway.
He hadn’t gone far when he heard a distressed buzzing. Puzzled, he halted and listened. He followed the sound until he came to a large spiderweb.
The buzzing was louder now, and as his gaze raked the web, he saw a honeybee caught in its strands. There was no reason for a honeybee to be down below the surface. It had to be Zephyr.
“Halt.” Tiernan held up his hand again to indicate the others were to wait for his orders.
“Hello, old man,” Tiernan murmured, turning his attention to the bee. “How did you get yourself into this mess?”
Zephyr gave an angry yet urgent buzz. A movement just to the side caught Tiernan’s attention and he saw a very large, very wicked-looking spider headed toward the bee.
It was one of the most poisonous spiders known to Otherworld, a spider that even wasps and bees feared.
With a quick movement of his hand and a flick of his wrist, Tiernan had the spider pinned to the wall with his dagger. The creature waggled its legs against its own web as poisonous green fluid drained from its body. After a few moments the creature went still.
Not one to take a chance that the fluid might burn through his scabbard, Tiernan plucked the blade free of the spider, knelt, and wiped each side of the metal on the dirt floor, making sure the poison had been cleared from the blade. When he finished, he rose, wiped the blade on his leather breeches, and sheathed it again.
Zephyr gave a buzzing sound like a sigh and Tiernan almost smiled before he realized that Copper was without her familiar and he was certain her wand had broken.
Trusting the bee wouldn’t sting him, he lifted his fingers to the web and worked to free Zephyr. The sticky web stuck to his hands, and even as his urgency increased to help the familiar, that urgency also rose at the thought that this was holding him back from reaching Copper.
Finally the bee was separated from the web. Bits still clung to his tiny body, but he was able to climb onto Tiernan’s hand and then fly to his shoulder. He moved slowly, as if exhausted, giving a tired buzz when he landed.
“You will be fine once you catch your breath.” Tiernan turned back toward the direction that Copper had gone and motioned for the other warriors to follow. “Now we have to find that fool witch.”
In the darkness he could see Copper had still been running, probably to put as much distance as possible between her and the giant. He followed at a jog and saw by the look of her footprints that she had come to a stop, and then begun a slow walk.
His gut lurched when he saw something that Copper obviously hadn’t—a hole in the middle of the tunnel’s floor. “Damnation!” With the warriors behind him, he hurried to the hole. Her footprints disappeared, only the heel of one shoe catching the edge.
Tiernan knelt beside the hole, judging its width and its depth. He could see the bottom—a far drop—but no sign of Copper. It hopefully meant she was still alive and moving.
“Too narrow to fly.” Hawk knelt beside Tiernan.
He nodded and looked at his comrade. “We can jump.”
Thank the gods, the D’Danann had the ability to jump great distances without injury. Tiernan boosted himself into the hole and dropped. When he reached the floor of the small tunnel he landed in a crouch, bracing himself with one hand in the dirt.
He quickly scanned the ground and saw Copper had been injured. By the way she moved through the tunnel, he could see she traveled with a limp while favoring one leg.
“Damnation.” It was bad enough she was down here alone, without her familiar, and her wand was probably damaged. But now she was injured, as well.
Zephyr gave an angry buzz and shot down the passageway ahead of Tiernan.
Copper blinked, unable to focus for a few long seconds. Stalactites glowing like red rubies came into view. Confusion slipped through her mind for only a fraction of a moment before she remembered all that had happened.
How long had she been unconscious?
Her ankle screamed with pain, making the aches in her body feel like nothing in comparison. To no surprise she was spread-eagle on the stone floor as her sister had been.
She tugged her arms even though she knew she’d be bound. She tried her good leg and it had been secured, as well. She didn’t dare test her bad ankle.
She felt weak, beyond the pain. Light-headed. As if her life force were being drained from her.
She glanced at first one wrist, then the other. Both had small slits in them, and her blood dribbled into the runes as Silver’s had. From what she could see by slightly raising her head the blood was moving along more freely now, filling the interlocked runes.
Her vision went hazy again. She blinked. Then blinked once more. Her face was turned so that she saw her sister sprawled where she’d been left before Copper had passed out. But hadn’t she been lying in a different position? Could she have moved on her own?
Grimacing from the pain, Copper turned her head to the other side, looked toward the door, and squinted. The red light grew even brighter. The door had opened a fraction more. She couldn’t have been unconscious for long.
To the side of the door stood Darkwolf, with Balor’s glowing eye around his neck.
Sara had her hands on her hips and her back to Copper as she stared at the door.
On Darkwolf’s other side squatted the large blue beast that Copper knew to be Junga in her demon form. Apparently she had shifted while Copper was out cold. Junga also had her back to Copper.
Copper kept her eyes shuttered, not wanting them to know she was awake if they looked at her. Not that it mattered. How was she going to get out of this mess?
“Slice her wrists more so that blood spills from her body faster,” came Junga’s rough demon voice. She cut her gaze to Copper who went completely still. “We need the Balor-damned door open, now.”
“I don’t like repeating myself.” Darkwolf scowled at her before they both turned their attention back to the door. “Balor insists this must be done slowly, or we will fail.”
Hopelessness flooded Copper, a feeling she didn’t like at all. She turned her head in the other direction and saw Silver still lying on her side—only her position had changed again. A low moan came from her sister. Copper’s heart rate picked up. Silver was waking.
A scraping sound brought Copper’s attention back to the door. Blessed goddess. It was opening wider.
Not wide enough to let anything through, but now growls and snorts came through the crack along with a rank stench like rotting meat.
Then barking and growling—as if the hounds of Underworld snarled at the door.
Could it be? The hounds? She prayed not.
Blood continued to trickle from the cuts at her wrists. Copper fought to keep tension from her body. Tensing up would only cause the blood to flow faster. She took a deep breath, tried to focus, tried to come up with a plan.
She almost laughed. Sure, a plan. Spread-eagle in the middle of a sacrificial circle, bound, blood being squeezed from her body. Where was the cavalry when she needed it?
If only her Coven had been able to join her. If only the D’Danann hadn’t been blocked from traveling to Otherworld, as well. If only the Paranormal Special Forces could travel worlds and be effective against Underworld beings.
The scrape of stone grated her ears as the door opened another fraction. The pounding of her heart doubled.
She looked to her wrists and raised her head as best she could to see the flow of blood remained steady as it filled the runes, blood snaking from one line to the next
“Soon,” Darkwolf said in a voice unlike his own, a voice so deep and evil that it resonated through the room. It was as if the voice were being channeled through him, as if Balor himself spoke through the warlock.
“Soon I will bring together all my children and rule them once more.”
Yes, Balor.
The god spoke through Darkwolf and it and a new rush of fear shot through her.
Copper rested her head back against the stone and willed her heart to slow its beating. She had never been allowed by the D’Anu to donate blood to blood banks because of her witch heritage, so she didn’t have that experience.
She couldn’t imagine that more than a pint had been drained from her so far in this circle. No doubt it wouldn’t be long until she’d be too weak to do anything. Already she felt as if she’d had the crap beaten out of her—which she more or less had.
Another scrape of stone against stone had Copper’s teeth grinding and her focus moving toward the door.
The red glow grew brighter yet. Claws crept around the stone, and snouts of what were sure to be hideous beasts—Fomorii.
More growls, snorts, and roars met her ears. The stench coming from the door mingled with the smell of blood, dirt, and stone from the cavern.
Copper felt sudden warmth at her right arm and she cut her gaze to it.
Silver was on her knees, her hands held over Copper’s wrist.
Copper’s heart leaped to see her sister awake. She looked beyond exhausted, dark circles under her eyes, but she was alive.
Silver’s blue magic poured from her fingertips, healing the cut in Copper’s wrist almost instantly. Copper started to open her mouth, but she snapped it shut when her sister held one finger to her lips.
Silver looked even more bleary-eyed and as if she might faint again, but she crawled over to Copper’s other wrist.
Before she could do anything, the door scraped a fraction more and this time bodies squirmed in the opening. More Fomorii! They were trying to get out, but the opening wasn’t big enough for them, yet.
“We’ll get out of this,” Silver whispered. Again, her blue glow eased from her fingertips and the slice in Copper’s wrist closed and healed.
Silver’s strength gave out and she crumpled to the stone floor, her eyes closed.
Wounds healed, Copper found the strength to struggle against her bonds. Even though no more blood dripped from her veins, what had already left her body still moved slowly through the etchings.
The door scraped open a tad more. The stench of rotten fish mingled with a burnt-sugar smell.
A shadow fell across Copper’s face. Her heart leapt in terror as she saw someone dark and foreboding above her, wielding a long, thick blade.
It was Garran, King of the Drow.
“No. Garran, please,” Copper whispered. Disbelief coursed through her veins like ice water. It wasn’t possible. He wouldn’t kill her.
He clenched his jaw, swung the blade down, and Copper closed her eyes, prepared for the death blow.
She heard a scrape against the rope, a sharp tug at her wrist, and the binding was suddenly free. Her eyelids sprang open. He had sliced the tie from one of her wrists.
Shocked, she watched him free her broken ankle and she bit her bottom lip until she tasted blood as she tried not to scream from the pain. In quick movements and even quicker strokes, Garran cut the bonds from her other ankle and wrist.
When he finished, he carefully brought her to her feet. She couldn’t help but want to cry out before she had a chance to put all her weight on her left ankle. For a moment she sagged against Garran, unable to stand on her own, and he gently held her. His earthy scent was almost comforting—if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a traitor.
She separated herself from Garran’s arms and glanced at where Darkwolf, Junga, and Sara stood, and was relieved that they were solely focused on the door.
“The blood.” Copper kept her voice low as she looked down at the fluid still moving through the etchings. “We have to stop it”
“I am not here to hinder the opening of the chamber.” Garran sheathed his dagger, his silvery eyes reflecting the red light seeping from the door. “Balor has promised all the Dark Elves may again tolerate light and live aboveground in your world when his body is freed. Once the door is open that promise will be fulfilled.”
He gripped her arm tighter, his eyes meeting hers. “I wish only for you to live.” He glanced at the floor. “You have bled enough.”
Open-mouthed, Copper balanced on one foot in the center of the circle. “You don’t understand. To allow these creatures out would devastate my world.”
He placed his callused palm against her cheek and his earth-and-moss scent flowed over her again. “Come with me, Copper. I have wanted you since you came to Otherworld. I have waited only for you to come to me willingly.”
She would have backed up if she could have. “You’re a traitor, Garran. You could have let us all out of the bubble prison long ago, but you didn’t.”
“In order to free my people from darkness, I could not.” He glanced up at the door that was a fraction wider. When he looked back at her she saw regret, yet caring for his people in his eyes. “Come with me now. I will protect you.”
She shook her head. “No.”
For a moment he looked like he was going to take her against her will. His muscles flexed and his jaw tensed. He glanced at the doorway and back to Copper.
“Come!” he commanded in a low voice filled with urgency and passion.
“I can’t.” Copper looked to her sister who was still on the cavern floor but stirring again. “I have to help my sister and I have to stop that door from opening.”
Garran brushed his knuckles across her cheek and pressed his lips to her forehead. “May the gods and goddesses be with you, Copper.” He gave one last look at her, released her arm, and slipped away into the darkness.
Shock filled Copper over her exchange with the Drow king, but she couldn’t think about Garran.
Her heart pounded as she glanced down at her sister, and Copper thanked the goddess Silver was moving, pushing herself up from the floor.
The red glow from the opening door cast a crimson sheen across her sister’s hair. Silver shoved her hair out of her face and over her shoulder, then braced both hands on the floor and took a deep breath. She didn’t seem to have the strength to get to her feet.
Copper’s gaze shot back to the door. Now it was open just enough that bodies were closer to squeezing through. Growls, snorts, and cries were so loud Copper wanted to clap her hands over her ears. Now she could smell something like really bad dog breath mixed with the other horrible smells.
Junga’s, Sara’s, and Darkwolf’s attentions were focused solely on that door. The way Copper now stood, she could better make out the side of the warlock’s face.
A triumphant smile curved the corner of his mouth. The demon Junga gave a growl of approval, and Sara made a sound of delight
Copper felt her useless wand in her back pocket and ground her teeth. She would do this using hand magic. She had to do it.
Keeping her weight off her right leg, while trying to ignore the screaming pain, she mentally prepared herself for the spell. She raised her hands, palms facing the door, and began to chant the spell she’d practiced all day when she’d jogged the length of the three-mile-long park and back.
“Goddess, hear our words, our plea.
In this time out of time,
In this place out of place.
Goddess, we raise our hands to thee.
In this dark beyond darkness.
In this world beyond worlds.
We await your grace.
We await your power.
We stand at the threshold.
Goddess, please protect your children.
And banish evil to the Underworld realm.”
A faint golden glow emanated from her palms, but that was it.
Copper’s whole body tensed. She focused. Repeated the spell louder this time, certain she wouldn’t be heard above the sounds the beasts were making.
Only a brighter glow came from her fingertips and no more.
She ground her teeth harder.
This time she took all the pain in her body, all the rage, all the frustration, and poured it into her gray witchcraft.
Dark gray magic filled her so powerfully that her vision turned almost black. She could feel the darkness of sorcery calling to her…calling to her. Her body shook and her mind filled with black thoughts.
She could control all the beings that would escape through the door. She could rule. She could make everyone who had hurt her family, killed her mother, pay. She would use dark sorcery for good, and all that was evil would answer to her.
Intense pain filled Copper as shock slammed into her like ice water.
No. No. No! How could she even be thinking this way?
With everything she had, she jerked herself away from the dark.
How could I have taken gray magic so lightly? I risked my soul, my life—risked everyone’s life so arrogantly, like it would never cost me and those I love.
It came to her, in that flash of time, that no matter what, she wouldn’t have been able to save her childhood friend, Trista. And at such a young age, she might have lost herself to the dark.
Copper shoved away the gray and chanted the spell louder yet, using only white magic. Safe, pure white magic was all she needed to close that door.
Just a second before she finished the chant, the door opened another crack and beasts began to pour through the opening.
Copper could hardly breathe and could barely continue the chant.
Sara broke away from Junga and Darkwolf to stand in front of them, just a few feet from the doorway.
She spread her arms wide.
A brilliant red glow suffused her body, followed by what looked like black fog.
Shock registered on Darkwolf’s face as his gaze swung to Junga, and Junga roared.
Copper’s terror magnified the spell as she yelled the last lines of the chant.
Brilliant golden light poured from her body.
Shot across the room.
Rammed into the door.
Slammed it shut.
The crunch of stone crashing against stone rose above the snarls and shrieks of the Fomorii, Basilisks, and Hounds of Underworld that had escaped. Screams cut the air from two Fomorii smashed between the great stone door and doorway as they tried to squirm free.
“No!” Darkwolf shouted and whirled to face Copper. The red light in the cavern had dimmed, but she could see rage twisting the warlock’s features. The red of his gaze matched the unholy red of the eye at his chest.
But Copper’s gaze was torn from him to Sara.
When Sara turned, her eyes blazed even redder than Darkwolf’s. Her hair looked like living fire, flickering red, orange, yellow.
She was the fire-haired being from Copper’s dream.
And Sara’s clothing—it was as if the being that possessed her changed everything about her, down to the black leather she now wore.
Sara spread her arms and bent her back. Great wings sprang from her arms, anchored at the middle of her back—like bat wings. She gave a hiss and a cry louder than the roars and snarls in the cavern.
Copper’s attention whipped back to Darkwolf. The warlock raised his hands as Fomorii charged Copper.
Purple light shot across the room from Darkwolf toward Copper as Junga charged. At the same time, the Sara creature took to the air. Terror rode Copper and she tried to throw up a shield.
Her hand-magic didn’t work.
Just before Darkwolf’s spell slammed into her, a blue bubble of protection surrounded Copper. Her gaze cut to her sister who was on her knees, blue light flowing from her hands and forming the shield around them both.
Instead of rebounding Darkwolf’s magic, Silver’s shield absorbed his power, strengthening the protection around them. The bubble shimmered bluish-purple, and Copper knew Silver was using her gray magic to protect them.
In that instant she saw the struggle on her sister’s face, saw the connection between her and Darkwolf.
“No, Silver” Copper shouted. “Use white magic to battle him or he’ll pull you over the edge!”
Copper’s heart beat frantically as she channeled her energy through her hands. To her shock gold magic poured from her palms. Her magic joined with Silver’s blue and the purple, causing it to have an iridescent sparkle. Copper still felt shakiness in the bubble of protection as the Fomorii crashed against it.
With all her might, with all her focus, and with all the love she had for her sister, Copper thrust more energy from her body into the shield.
Golden bubbles began pouring from her body to join with the other magic. Gold bubbles that had appeared the times she and Tiernan had made love.
Love.
That soul-deep connection that she had with her sister, on another level she had with Tiernan.
She’d thought it was sex magic.
It had been love magic.
She shoved the thought from her mind and focused on the warlock and Sara. The now fire-haired being flew around the cavern like some great flaming bat, assessing the situation.
Who was more dangerous at that moment?
What had Sara become? What was she capable of?
Darkwolf’s nose was slightly crooked now from the punch Copper had dealt him earlier. Although it no longer bled, she couldn’t help a bit of satisfaction at the bloodstains left behind on his shirt. It was the perfect reminder. He wasn’t invincible.
Shock registered once again on his face when he glanced to where Sara now perched on a huge stone, her red eyes and hair blazing. She crouched, her feet on the rock, her hands between her knees as she gripped the edge of the boulder. It was surreal—like looking at a kind of comic-book gargoyle.
Even as she took everything in, Copper didn’t let up on her magic. To her surprise it didn’t drain her. If anything it made her feel almost omnipotent.
She no longer felt pain, no longer felt anything but the power of her witchcraft. She no longer had to hold up her hands—her strength radiated from her in waves and in the golden bubbles.
Silver rose to stand beside Copper. A healthy glow had risen in her cheeks, and dark circles no longer marred her eyes.
Copper stared at the countless Fomorii, the snarling red-eyed hounds, and the Basilisks that had slipped out of the door. Some vanished into the darkness, and others attempted to attack the shield surrounding Copper and Silver.
So many beings had escaped.
Vibrations traveled through her every time a demon slammed its body into the shield. Thank the goddess it held.
Junga slowly paced back and forth before the bubble, her eyes focused on Copper. Spittle dripped from the corner of the demon’s mouth, and Copper knew that the Fomorii queen waited for the opportunity to strike. If the shield fell, the demon would go for the kill.
“Now what?” Copper’s voice trembled as she tried to maintain her balance on her uninjured foot. Her gaze darted to the Sara being, still crouched and watching. “Goddess, what has Sara become?”
Silver’s eyes focused on Darkwolf’s as if she couldn’t break the connection.
“I don’t know what to do next,” she said. “There are too many of them for us to fight alone. And our magic—how long can we hold out?”
A tiny dot of anger buzzed past Silver and Copper.
Zephyr!
Battle cries rent the air.
Forms shot past the sisters. Copper caught the flap of wings, the glint of metal.
The D’Danann!