The magic snapped across his hands once more, and Nora responded, closing her eyes briefly before turning her own fingers a bright amethyst with power. Gripping the magestone in her right hand, she called up a purple cloud that split into two, advanced on the Binder’s streams of lightning, then swallowed them up. Nora uttered words I couldn’t hear, then the clouds returned to her in a rush to gather at her feet. Suddenly she was rising, her hair streaming behind her and her face uplifted to the stars and moon. The lightning-lit clouds of mage power churned beneath her and around her like a chariot out of some crazy dream.
“Do you see her power?” the Binder shouted. “Do not doubt she is strong!”
Nora had told us herself she wasn’t very powerful, but the Binder sure was convincing.
Sweat slicked my palms as I tried to get a visual and emotional lock on everyone before the Binder ripped open the Yew Bow boundary. If I didn’t have everyone securely in my heart and head, I’d injure them in the portalling like I had with Hekla or lose hold on them entirely and leave them here.
Lucus stood beside his brothers, his long, black tunic making his body nearly invisible in the night. Aurelio was talking to him, his lips moving quickly. Baccio whirled around to get in their faces about something. They were definitely arguing. Had Lucus told them what we were about to do?
Hekla was hiding with Oliver, but I had no trouble holding the essence of who Hekla was. Oliver would be more difficult. I imagined his small, round face and the way he’d stared up at Kaippa like the vampire was a kind, old nanny. I imagined Kaippa trying to entertain a child. A hysterical laugh almost bubbled out of me.
A boom of thunder and a flash of light turned me toward the Binder. Lightning crossed his body like a net of sparks and amethyst fire. He glanced at me, eyes as purple as his power, then he shouted into the night sky.
“Break!”
The sky flashed pure white. Thunder smacked my ears. A jagged circle of amethyst appeared above the clearing—the opening in the Yew Bow boundary.
Shouting erupted as the fae rushed in their attempt to reach the Binder, who had begun lifting himself, heading toward Nora. Corliss and Arleigh shouted from a spot directly beneath him.
Hekla, Kaippa, and Oliver stood at the very back of the fray, peering from the shadows, obviously unable to stand not knowing what was going on.
The Yew Bow began to buzz like a giant, maniacal bee. I tuned it out as I visualized the whole crew and the castle back home. Energy zoomed from the ley lines through my feet, joined with the power inside me, then shot out my palms.
A purple film covered the world; I was seeing through the haze of my spell.
I was going to do it! This portal was going to work! I could feel it in my magic’s song.
But then the sky flashed white again, and the opening disappeared.
Baccio stood beside the Binder, whose body was wrapped in vines.
Shit. Shit. Shit. I let go of my spell. No one had seemed to notice me working it. They’d all been focused on attacking the Binder.
“Traitor!” Aurelio called out, his eyes shining with rage and the veins in his face standing out. Then I realized Aurelio was talking to Baccio, not the Binder. Aurelio was still on our side, on Lucus’s side.
Baccio looked from Lucus to Aurelio. “You are fools. Both of you! This is our home now. You are the traitors, not me.” He waved a hand, and the vines threw the Binder to the ground, where he lay unconscious.
Lucus glanced at me, then at the Yew Bow.
He wanted me to try to break the barrier at the source of the power.
I would probably die trying, but we were going to be put to death in a second anyway.
Hells.
Stepping around my oaken chair and table, I tried not to garner any attention. Though the barrier was whole again, the Yew Bow still seemed ticked off with all that buzzing. I wasn’t going to waste any time worrying about this being the smart step or not. We were so screwed right now. This was the only step.
I increased my energy, expanding my aura and pulling power from the ley lines’ flowing heat far below. In my mind’s eye, I saw the golden hue of my aura pooling around me, shimmering and strong. I reached for the Yew Bow and gripped it hard.
My hand, the one once coated in dark unicorn blood, pulsed once, painfully. A tingling I recognized as Lucus’s fae magic sparked under my skin.
“Break!” I shouted, mimicking the Binder.
The world went quiet. I looked around, my hand on the Bow, to see everyone moving in slow motion. The tingling feel of Lucus’s magic filtered through my fingers and into the Yew Bow until I didn’t feel his power anymore. The amount I’d taken from him was used up. The fae’s angry voices and the sound of the Bow was muffled, as if I were underwater, then a strange fatigue swept over me, taking my breath. I dropped to my knees and tried to let go of the Bow, but my hand was stuck with some invisible bond I didn’t have the first clue how to break. My magic crackled across my back, powerful and unrelenting. At least I still had that. I leaned back to look up, to see if I had broken through the barrier, but the sky was whole, unmarked by any amethyst circle.
A voice echoed through my mind—one of my ancestors—I knew it in my gut. “The Yew Queen must have her fae’s magic. You must take it from him.”
Lucus. I needed more magic from Lucus.
I shouted his name, my voice muddied by whatever horrible shit this thing was doing to me. I wanted to lie down and
