Pulses of this energy hit me and the boys in waves, literally pushing us back in powerful ripples. Dub was screaming in a desperate cry of both physical agony, and crippling horror. He knew what was happening. He writhed and contorted, struggling to reach behind, to pull the deadly Bone Knife out of his back. It was like watching someone trying to scratch a terrible itch that was just impossible to reach.
“Sweet,” I said, enjoying the sight. The gush of blinding light began to slow and dim, as the last of his immortality left Dub forever.
“Keira,” Brann reminded me, “That’s just the first blow! He’s mortal now, but you need to stab him again to kill him!”
“Gladly,” I growled. I stepped up and grabbed the handle, giving the blade just a little twist. Or two. And pulling it out. “Get ready to say hello to mama, you miserable pussy,” I hissed. But as I raised the blade to stab again, my legs gave. I tried to slash at Dub as I fell to my knees – it would take only a paper cut slice to finish the bastard off now. But I wiffed. Swing and a miss.
It was all the time Dub needed.
He took off running. I tried to get up. I had to catch him, but my legs felt like lead, and after a few steps, I knew I couldn’t catch up.
And I noticed something else. The darkness was giving way to the gray, dim first light of dawn.
“Keira!” shouted Katie. “We have to go! Now!”
I squeezed the Bone Knife’s hilt. “Goddess. Give me strength.”
I took a couple more steps after Dub, but he was thirty yards ahead now. I tried to speed up. Tripped. Fell on my face.
Someone reached down, lifting me to my feet. “One victory at a time, Morrigan,” the Donn intoned. “Dawn is upon us. Come. Now.”
I couldn’t resist as he lead me toward out boat. As we climbed aboard, I saw Dub look back. He saw we weren’t chasing him anymore. We were scrambling to weigh anchor, to leave the island. He stopped running. I couldn’t see his face, but I had no doubt what he was feeling, as he saw the light growing on the horizon. Day was breaking, and the first rays of sunrise were just moments away.
He was trapped. And he knew it. He knew his fate.
So he thought. So we thought.
That’s when we all heard the howls. The savage, bone chilling call of wolves on the scent. Dub must have known they were coming for him, because now he was running the other way, back in our direction, galloping in abject terror, as two monstrous, slathering, blood-thirsty, fucking beautiful werewolves, one white, one black, tore out of the woods, and sped along the beach in pursuit.
“Orin!” I screamed. “Weylyn! Come!”
But their wolf hearts were consumed in blood lust, too ravenous to listen to my commands. Orin hit Dub first, bringing him down by snapping his jaws on the Achilles tendon, ripping through. Weylyn was on him now, fangs ripping into the belly. They would have finished him in moments.
But no, the fun was just getting started.
Two orbs of eerie light shimmered into existence near the savaging wolves. Dian, and Dothur. Violence and Evil materialized on the beach now.
“Shit,” I barked. “They’re here to rescue little pissant brother.”
Keegan was at the helm, slowly backing the boat in the still shallow water. Brann swiveled his head from the ever brightening sun on the horizon, back to the apparition of the two foul brothers. “I don’t think that’s why they’re here.”
And proving him right, dark, swirling tendrils of smoke poured forth from them, swift and pulsing, slithering across the beach, over the water, headed straight for the boat. The tendrils were thick and powerful, and began to wrap around the hull like fat, black anacondas. Then we felt the boat being pulled back toward the shore.
“Keegan! Get us out of here. Full steam ahead!”
“I’m going as fast as I can, Captain. These engines are overtaxed already!”
“You did not fucking say that,” Katie muttered.
From the shore, we could hear Dub’s final imploring screams. “Brothers! Save me!”
“Quiet, mortal,” Dothur thundered. “You sealed your own fate.” The brothers began to pull harder against out ship. Keegan had the throttle full, the engine racing against the force of their pull, but the boat was slowly losing ground. At this rate, we would soon be drawn back to the beach.
Then, a terrible shattering sound came from below the water line. Kattie ducked her head into the cabin. She could see water rising.
“The ward!” she screamed. “They’ve broken the ward.”
The patch in our hull was breached. It was enough to keep out the ocean, but not strong enough to hold out the Evil Brothers. We were taking on water fast now.
I looked back toward Dub. The only sounds were now the savage growls of Orin and Weylyn, their wolf souls still in total control, humanity abandoned. As much hatred as I still had for Dub, it sickened me to watch my dears, as they continued to disembowel the mangled mortal corpse of Dub.
Now it came.
A single bright ray of sunshine burst forth on the horizon. The very air around us began to waffle, like rising waves of heat. Reality itself was shifting, shimmering... The island was in a trembling flux as it’s tether to reality frayed.
Suddenly, the tendrils of smoke dragging us toward the beach began to dissolve. Dothur gave up first. Time was up. His coils of smoke vanished. So did he. Dian turned, saw his brother had fled. The first beam of sunlight was moving like a wave along the beach. The air was growing brighter fast now. The sun was halfway up
