Althea grabbed my hand. “No, this is my death.”
She said it in a quiet, calm voice and I watched the magical explosions that were filling the air above us reflected in her eyes.
I barely noticed the turquoise, sage green, grape and bronze shield that Viv and Su generated over us.
“Matty, sweetheart, we have to go,” Ash said quietly, gently but urgently.
I ignored him and spoke to Althea. “Althea, I can get you down with a levitation spell then we’ll get you to the hospital.”
She weakly shook her head against the grass. “I’ve seen enough in my visions, girl, to know my own death. Follow your man.”
“Althea.”
“Go, child. It was always my destiny. The Chosen One would give me back my most precious gift so I could die with dignity. Then I would help her with her work. Destiny.”
“Destiny, shmestiny,” I said.
She laughed an icky, shuttering cackle and blood trickled out of her mouth.
Oh goddess!
“Althea!” I exclaimed.
She clutched my hand. “It was an honor to die for you, girl.” She looked at Ash then whispered to me, “Choose well, sweet child, and remember to be true only to you.”
And that was it.
Then she died.
She didn’t close her eyes serenely but the light went out of them all the same.
My stomach clutched and my throat closed.
“We have to go.” Ash was firmly but gently trying to pull me up.
“I can’t leave her here!” I cried, struggling against his efforts.
“You won’t,” Ash whispered.
And I didn’t.
All Obi-Wan Kenobi (save with a shitload of lime green and robin’s egg blue sparks, flashes and pixie dust), Althea disappeared, her beautiful sparks, flashes and pixie dust scattering to the stars, the earth and the wind.
Until nothing remained of her but a soft blue twinkle that seemed to wink at me before it flashed out.
In the midst of battle, it was a beautiful thing to behold.
“Now!” Ash yelled, pulling me up and we were gone.
* * * * *
The fight was in full swing on top of The Tor, down its sides and in the skies above it.
Witches were zapping witches.
Vampire bats swooping down and transforming into men, flipping their capes and flashing their teeth.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Lucy kick a baddie in the crotch then link her hands together and nail him one in the face as he bent forward in pain.
“You go girl!” I shouted.
I saw Prunella, the Hag, blaze one of the witches who escorted me to the bathroom.
I saw Mavis and Endora in what looked like a battle to the death, wands slicing through the air, pixie dust shooting out like lasers, shields erecting then exploding.
Ash led, running swiftly, leaping with agility over holes or mounds or prone supernatural beings all the while holding my hand.
I followed, tripping and skipping, zinging and flaring with my wand here and there to protect Ash and I and to help any of our allies that I could see.
BecBec zoomed in, trailing us, zipping away in a flash to trip up a baddie or deflect a spell.
Chaos.
* * * * *
The whole thing was pretty mind-blowing if you got right down to it.
And kinda all my fault.
It appeared that Ash and I were running away from the action rather than participating in it which didn’t sit well with me.
It wasn’t lost on me that a whole lotta people went out of their way to keep me safe and alive.
And two of them had just put themselves in front of a bullet for me.
I was The Chosen One, SuperWitch and Glamour Girl.
And I wasn’t just gonna run away.
* * * * *
I skidded to a halt and pulled free of Ash.
“What the fuck are you doing!” he snapped, urgency in his voice.
I put my wand to my lips and winked.
He raised his face to the heavens and said, “Oh for fuck’s sake.”
(Not sure which deity would appreciate that prayer.)
Then I took three deep breaths.
I turned around three times and stopped at North.
I said out loud to my tree, “Okay, tree. Here goes nothing!”
And I… let… fly.
A soft pink laser of pixie dust shot out of my wand, winding swiftly and fully around The Tor looking like the strawberry swirl on a lollipop.
I saw an offshoot of the pink beam strike out, wrap itself around Endora’s ankle and knock her off balance so that she dropped her wand and Mavis leapt forward to grab it.
I saw another beam shoot around the waist of the bathroom witch so she was tugged backward, whatever spell she’d thrown going off its mark and missing Prunella.
I saw up above a vampire sliding down the beam like he was surfing a wave, leaping off in a double somersault and landing behind a troll who was about to bring his hammer onto the horn of a unicorn. The vampire kicked the troll in the back of the knee. The troll went down. The unicorn leapt forward, magic surging from its still healthy horn. The vampire transformed into a bat and flew away.
(Don’t be too impressed, vampires are known to be show-offs.)
Everywhere my beam touched you could hear screams, cries or cheers.
It was just my little bit.
I put my hand out to Ash and he was watching me with what looked like pride gleaming in his eye (Yes! Pride!).
My fingers closed around his then I declared, “Okay, now we can go.”
* * * * *
We made it to the bottom of the hill though I didn’t see it as I was looking behind me to watch my twirly spell. I kept on going after Ash stopped and ran smack into something solid.
I took a good look at the something solid.
Aidan.
Ohmygoddess!
Yay!
Yay!
Yay!
I shouted for joy and jumped on him, flinging my arms and legs around him and kissing him all over his face.
He gave me a tight squeeze then gently lowered me to the ground, kissing me on the tip of my nose.
It was his turn to hold my hand.
“You ready?” he said to Ash.
“Yes, let’s go,” Ash replied, not looking at me but behind us, still holding his gun.
“If I could have just one moment.”
Jeremy Bligh and Scary Faerie appeared from nowhere out of the night and was Bligh who was talking.
They had to have had a glamour to shield them because none of us had seen them.
Fucking Agatha.
Bligh was holding a gun pointed at me.
Ash raised his gun and pointed it at Bligh.
Aidan raised his (!) gun and pointed it at the Scary Faerie.
I raised my wand and pointed it generally in the direction of the baddies.
But the Faerie was holding an orb o’ magic that was much like my orb o’ magic but I think all of us standing there knew the difference.
Which meant that BecBec was forced to build an orb of her own.
Holy Mutually-Assured Destruction, Batman!
Yikes!
* * * * *
By the way, faeries may be small but they’d been here far longer than humans, their magic was far older and far, far more powerful.
So much so, they were not allowed to use their magic near to its full potential in the human realm (only in the faerie realm). If they did, there could be pretty fucking serious consequences when they answered to their higher powers.
One zing from Scary Faerie and we were all toast (and so was half of Glastonbury).
A reciprocal zing from BecBec, even as a young faerie, and there was a good possibility The Tor and most of Somerset would explode.
Fuck.
* * * * *
Just then, there was a strange but definite rumble in the ground.
>
What now?
* * * * *
Bligh was too intent on aiming to notice the rumble and I felt it best, for once, to keep my mouth shut.
I noticed both Aidan and Ash were steady but Bligh was shaking and looked nervous.
Cocky but nervous.
I didn’t like nervous. In moments like that, nervous was not good.
And cocky didn’t go well with nervous. In fact, cocky and nervous were a recipe for disaster.
Another rumble came just as Bligh spoke.
“Don’t worry, Miss Honeycutt, this won’t be like one of your movies where we give you a chance to figure out some ingenious plan to get away. No, instead, I think we’ll just kill you.”
And then, without further ado, he shot at me just as Scary Faerie threw his orb.
* * * * *
The orb should have killed us.
But, you forget.
I am The Chosen One.
And we were standing at the base of The Tor.
Which also happened to be the Gate to the Underworld.
* * * * *
Not to mention, Ash was from magical stock.
So before Bligh’s finger squeezed the trigger, Ash stepped in front of me.
Faster than a speeding bullet?
Not exactly but almost.
And very, very unfortunately.
* * * * *
At the same moment I used everything I had left to wave a sheet of protective magic up in front of us and it shot forward, toward Bligh and Scary.
* * * * *
Simultaneously, with a final rumble and an awful hiss and screech, the Gate opened and out flew a twinkling of multi-colored light which separated instantaneously and formed into a two women.
One was Althea.
The other one, I did not know.
And together, the ghostly spirits absorbed, and my shield deflected, the ancient, powerful orb of faerie magic then shot it straight back at Bligh and Scary Faerie, pinpointing them with deadly accuracy.
The blistering burst of mingled otherworldly and SuperWitch power blew them off their feet and backwards to pin them hideously against the side of The Tor. It scorched off their eyebrows and most of their hair and clothes and, icky though it was, quite of bit of their skin as well as a huge spray of the earth around them.
* * * * *
I stared in horror at this result and then, without hesitation, Althea and the woman zoomed back into the Gate as if their borrowed time was more than up.
The Gate closed with a resounding whoosh the instant they passed through it and the ground rumbled its last warning.
And in the distance I could just hear the echoing:
“This will be the last time I’m going to tell you, quit calling me Elly or no more help from me!”
* * * * *
My spell mixed with the power of the Underworld was extraordinary, unheard of magic.
Beautiful and astonishing.
This fusion of natural and Underworld power would someday fill pages and pages in history books.
The problem was, magic could repel magic.
But faerie, witch, Chosen One or Underworld magic…
None of it…
Could stop bullets.
And Bligh’s bullet hit Ash.
Right in the belly.
* * * * *
“Don’t worry, baby,” I whispered to Ash, whose head was in my lap as he lay across the backseat of Aidan’s Mercedes while Aidan drove like his usual madman to the nearest hospital and BecBec zoomed beside the car, lost in a rocket of color.
We’d jumped into the car, amid dressed and pajama’ed townies staring up at the noise and mayhem of the enormous pink lollipop of The Tor. Staring at what they probably thought was a “silly” and annoying Druid ritual or an amateur (but spectacular) fireworks display.
Things such as this were what humans thought, for centuries, to protect their fragile psyches from the likes of the evil and beauty that were just then pouring down from The Tor.
But deep in their bones, they knew.
And although they watched, they made no move to go up, to intervene, to understand.
Their time would come.
* * * * *
“You’re gonna be okay,” I said to Ash as Aidan pulled to a jarring stop outside a hospital.
Ash opened his mouth to speak.
“If you say you’re honored to die for me, I’m gonna hurt you,” I told him.
He closed his mouth and grinned.
Then I watched as the light went out of his eyes.
* * * * *
Pain shot through me, excruciating and sharp. Fire burned a searing path from my chest to my throat and my eyes instantly filled with tears.
There would be no beautiful sparkles and flashes from his human death.
Just that extinguished light noting the passing of a magnificent man.
I closed my eyes, the wetness there slid down my cheeks as I bent forward, kissed his forehead and whispered, “I love you, Sebastian.”
Aidan yanked the door open (woefully, hideously too late) and BecBec zoomed into the car and halted in a glittery dazzle, tears falling from her eyes. I tore my gaze away from Ash and watched as the gossamer from BecBec’s wings detached, it’s ethereal beauty filling the interior of the car, shrouding us, Ash and me, in its glittery light.
She opened her mouth and I watched, silent tears sliding down my cheeks and I understood, for the first time, the exquisite Elfin words as she sang the timeless Lament of the Elf.
Chapter Fourteen
The Month of November
15 November
Baker Historic District
Denver, Colorado
A.K.A. Mathilda’s Version of Heaven and Hell
* * * * *
Su found a huge, six bedroom Victorian mansion built during Denver’s silver boom.
It was built on a rise so it had, from its top story, a view over the other houses to the famous purple mountains majesty.
It had a circular turret that rose two stories further than the rest of the house on the front western corner.
It had a massive, high, wrought iron fence surrounding the property.
The veranda floor was tiled in Italian marble.
There was a two bedroom carriage house on the side and a one bedroom mother-in-law house at the back.
It had a ballroom.
It was painted butter yellow with turquoise, pink and grape accents.
It was fan-fucking-tastic.
It was my childhood home.
* * * * *
Su’s coven was night and day to the Honeycutt Coven.
Everyone was under fifty and nearly everyone was a hippy or Earth Mother.
And all of them dressed very well, for hippies and Earth Mothers, that is.
* * * * *
Lucy and Fay were due to arrive in a couple of weeks.
Before she left England, Lucy had to train Antonia, Nerissa, Pandora, Octavia, etcetera in her and my recipes, how to run The Dozen and how to treat Big Red with respect.
* * * * *
Mavis was on the hunt for Endora, who got away from what is now known as the Battle of The Tor.
Which, by the way, the Modernists won, forcing the Traditionalists to retreat. We also now control The Tor, which was a damn good thing, strategically, thank the goddess.
Yee ha!
* * * * *
Gran was on the hunt for Agatha, who also got away.
* * * * *
Scary Faerie and Bligh were both reported missing.
I can’t imagine Bligh survived but Scary Faerie was immortal.
Immortal and pissed off, no doubt.
Not good.
* * * * *
The “Real” World couldn’t even ignore what happened on The Tor.
Of course, most folks can’t see magic. Though, magic has been around a long time. There are lots of bloodlines, “normal folk” that have a latent magical history, a great, great gra
ndma who was a witch, a great, great, great granddad who was a sorcerer, that kind of thing. Those are normally the folk who “see things” (and don’t believe their own eyes) and when they talk about those things, most people think they’re crazy (they’re not).
Then there are those with open minds, the ones who believe in magic and celebrate (and protect) the earth. They can see magic too (though it doesn’t happen often).
But that night, the magical flow tore through the veil. Even those without latent magical blood or those who don’t even believe in magic saw something.
Lots of discussion and suggestion worldwide about the “phenomena” witnessed by dozens on Hallowe’en night.
“Experts” came forward.
Some of them knew what they were talking about.
Others did not.
One “scholar” was (somewhat hilariously) ripped to shreds by Jeremy Paxman on News Night.
Churches issued statements.
Crazies took credit.
After a few days, most dismissed it.
But if you were even a little in touch with nature, you could feel it.
That night, the veil was torn away between the real and magical worlds.
And people were scared.
* * * * *
When Aidan and I arrived in Denver, Daphne in tow, Josie, Rory and Cosmo were already at the house, otherwise known as The Acre.
Gabriel was with them.
As was Windspear Jones.
(Oo la la… more like a Native American Indiana Jones. Hoochie mama he was cute.)
As was Douglas Addison and my mother.
* * * * *
I’m sure you’ve already guessed by now that Douglas Addison is my Dad.
Deep cover, indeed.
And Gabriel is my older brother.
I don’t credit it, considering that Gabriel is a super-lean, vampire machine and Viv, Su and I all carry our fair share of curves and not a single blood-sucking tendency but there you go.
Genetics.
Who understands them?
Mom was in Seven Kinds of Heaven to have “all my babies” for the first time in all our lives under one roof.
Not to mention “Dad” being there (which meant, even though all her babies were under one roof, Mom and Dad spent lots of time in her bedroom – ACK!)
* * * * *