Chapter Twenty-Three

I startled, backing away and readying myself to travel out of there and back to the battlefield. Everything I had imagined had come to pass. The cries of the wounded and dying caught the whipping breeze like a dirge, and I scanned the frontlines for Finn, for Una, but smoke clouded my vision. My palms itched, and tears pressed against my eyelids as I weighed the choice.

The dust and debris settled, and I let out a long exhale as I spotted Finn, M16 ready, sword at his hip, with Una and Regina beside him. The Druids were already assembling to break through the ramparts of Teamhair, the dragans circling out of range but ready to attack. I ran my hands through my hair, my body shaking.

Focus, Elizabeth.

How was I supposed to concentrate when so many people were down there risking everything for me? No. Not for me. For Tír na nÓg. For the fabric of the universe. I’d led them here, and I needed to trust them to fight.

Turning away from the battle, I closed my eyes and sought out Thornton—sought him out as I should have from the beginning. No more cat and mouse. No more hiding. No more second-guessing. The Fir Bolgs had enslaved Thornton to open a portal into the Tree of Life, to do the dark magic they couldn’t do, messing with things they didn’t understand. What did it mean to break the world, sever the universe into another, tear off a branch of our dimension? Walls, branches, and worlds. I wanted a new future beyond these boundaries.

Thornton’s energy was faint and corrupted, like a thin shadow in the evening. When I opened my eyes, I startled backward, sucking in a breath. I no longer stood in Tír na nÓg, but back at Finn’s castle ruins in Connemara, the sound of the wind and the ocean drowning out my cries of disbelief. As my eyes focused, I realized the scene was off somehow, the colors a bit too vivid, the ruins a bit too exaggerated. Thornton had created this strange world, and I was somehow in the broken corners of his mind.

“Elizabeth!” a small voice cried.

Grainne lay on the ground bound in glowing ropes, her face bruised, but otherwise alive. This was why I couldn’t reach her. Thornton had hidden her away in whatever weird dimension he had created. I rushed toward her, drawing out my spear to cut her bonds.

“Are you all right?” The words had barely left my lips when a great wind rushed up and pushed me back.

A figure stepped out of the woods. Thornton. He appeared even more emaciated than before, his waxy skin molded to the bones of his face.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, his long fingers lacing together as he approached me.

I pointed to Grainne. “Let her go. I know it’s me you want.”

Thornton nodded, his fingers playing with something small and shiny.

The device.

“Do the Fir Bolgs know you have that?” I demanded, standing my ground.

“Those pathetic rodents? It was easy to create a decoy for them.” He let out a low laugh, and the sound of it made me shiver. He circled me, a smile spreading across his horrible face. “They may have taken me prisoner, but they gave me magic beyond my wildest dreams. They want to sever ties with the Tree of Life, and I want to wield it. Our paths have converged, but our goals are quite different.”

From his stained robes, he brought the device to his ear. “Tick tock, tick tock. Time is running out for you, my dear.”

“Let Grainne go, and I’ll do whatever you say.” My mind ratcheted down my next move. Stop time, grab the device, destroy it. But I had to make sure Grainne was free first.

He raised the device in the air. “You’ll do exactly as I say,” he snarled.

“I swear,” I said with a long exhale.

He waved at Grainne, and her bonds dissolved. She staggered to standing, rubbing her wrists. She raced to my side, calling out the spell to make her sword appear.

Thornton staggered back, as if someone had dragged him. “My master calls,” he said with a sneer.

When I blinked again, Grainne and I stood in a dark tower in Teamhair, a great pentagram carved into the floor. Candles flickered all across the wall, and in the shadows stood a group of Fir Bolgs. Thornton stood in a corner, his body a skeleton and his dirty robes hanging from him. He looked even worse than in the strange world I had found him.

Balen, the Fir Bolg leader, stepped forward, his blond hair shimmering against the length of his jaw. “What I wouldn’t give to kill you right now, Elizabeth Tanner.”

I raised my chin. “So why don’t you?”

“Because it’s become clear to me you are the only one who can open the portal into Mag Mell.”

A Fir Bolg yanked on a rope, and a curtain fluttered to the floor, revealing a tall mirror, but instead of my reflection, there swirled a faint gray and lavender mist.

“That’s the way into Mag Mell?” I asked. “That’s what you’ve been working on all this time?”

Thornton stumbled forward, his breath wheezing and rattling in his lungs. “Creating a portal is one thing. Stepping through it is quite another.”

Balen walked over to the mirror and ran his palm against the gleaming frame. “No one can simply enter Mag Mell. One must either be dead or invited by the gods. But you…” He turned to me, his black eyes penetrating my boiled armor. “You can go anywhere as an Aisling. You need no invitation. This is a back door to that dimension.”

The logic seemed a bit thin. “How can you be sure?”

“We’re not.” Balen shrugged. “But we’re willing to take that chance if it means shrugging off your filthy human world forever.”

“Why do you want that so badly?” I demanded, trying to stall.

Balen snarled. “Our world has been invaded time and time again. We have been enslaved. Persecuted. Our way of life and traditions nearly destroyed.”

“We can change all that.” I tapped the butt of my spear against the floor, eyeing Grainne. “We can create a constitution. A pact—”

He cut me off with a sharp wave of his hands. “As if we Fir Bolgs would ever desire to form bonds with the Tuatha Dé Danann. With humans.” He spat the last word out like poison.

“No. Once we break free of this dimension, we will create a new world where the Fir Bolgs reign supreme and all will worship us as the one true race of pure-blood Fae.”

“This pure-blood Fae is bullshit,” I said. “There’s no such thing and you know it.”

“Silence!” His face turned a furious shade of purple. “The time is now. We cannot wait any longer.” He turned to Thornton. “Are you ready, wizard?”

Balen marched toward the mirror, his hand clutched onto his hip. He ran his hand over the gilded edge, a twisted smile spreading across his face.

I glanced at Grainne from the side of my eye, and she squeezed the pommel of her sword. Balen nodded toward a guard, and the sound of a bolt sliding into a crossbow echoed through the chamber. He aimed an arrow straight at Grainne’s head.

“Come, Elizabeth,” Balen said, the device in his hands. “Join hands with the wizard and me. Take us to the other side. Fuse your power with his, or your friend dies.”

I let out a long exhale and nodded, walking forward. I took two steps and with a rush of energy, stopped time, slowing down the very air in the room. I charged Balen, drawing my spear, and thrust it into his gut before he had time to take another breath. Time in the room sped up again, and an arrow whizzed by Grainne’s ear. She sliced through it, sending her sword whirling in a great arc before landing in the guard’s side with a sickening, fleshy sound. Another guard barreled into her, knocking her down. With a grunt of rage, she recovered quickly, rolling and pouncing back to her feet and thrusting her sword into the back of the guard. The Fir Bolg screamed then shook with a hideous death rattle.

A rush of guards ran toward us, and I lifted my hand, flinging them against the wall, their armor clanging against the hard stone. I glanced back toward Thornton and raced toward him, my sword aimed straight for his chest. He held the device in one hand, his other hand pressed against the strange lavender light in the mirror, his fingertips lighting up the smoke like a flame. I pierced his flesh with a mortal wound, but he merely smiled, the device lighting up in his palm. With his other hand, he grasped my wrist, his fingers like a vise against my skin. I wrestled to break free, but he pulled me backward. I tried to draw my spear, but before I could blink, Thornton let out an animalistic growl and yanked me forward. We plunged into the portal and into the darkness beyond.