* * *
“I tried to tell you,” Scott bellowed. “Your magick isn’t strong enough to defeat me and never will be. I’ve tolerated you annoying little brats all these years and I’m done. Tonight it all ends and I finally get what should have been mine.”
“That’s one thing you’re right about,” snarled Cash.
Scott lashed out with a streak of red-hot magick aimed at Cash, the most belligerent of all his nephews. Unfortunately he ducked and had just enough of his own power left to push the magick’s path away from him. Damn air witch!
Jessie lay on the ground motionless, just like he’d expected. His lips turned up in a wicked grin. The more they fought him the more her condition would worsen, until the clock struck twelve and he would finally receive his birthright from the bastard sons.
With only a few minutes left he turned to the coven. “It’s time. Begin the ceremony. Our celebration begins now.” The witches stepped backwards, fear etched in their faces. Severina, too. A sudden black chill swept through him as he turned to see the twins scrambling, gearing up for a last ditch effort to save a demon.
Give me a break.
* * *
“Oh hell, Graelen, help me over here. I’m not sure Jessie is still—” Rena cried.
“Don’t say it. Words have far too much power.” Denn ordered her.
Noah pushed at the pain, pulling on any shred of reserve he could find just to roll on his side. He spied Jessie lying on the ground fifteen feet away with Denn and Rena hunched over her. She wasn’t—she couldn’t be—he could see the glow of the magick in her arm. Darkness slipped through his veins like oil, threatening to drown him in it. He watched Denn check on Jessie as Cash and Graelen stood guard in front of them.
Why the hell had he let them even half convince him there was a solution in that fucking prophecy? He’d said from the beginning it wasn’t possible and no one had listened. Now look at him. He and the woman he—Jessie—were about to die here in his beloved swamp. Not a bad place to die, but damn it he wasn’t ready.
An idea whispered in his head, unbidden. Shit.
He fought for words. “Bring her to me.”
Denn turned and looked at him “What?” He’d heard exactly what Noah had said and he knew it. He unfurled his hand and reached for her. Noah’s stomach clenched tight as he waited for Denn to respond. Finally Denn scooped her into his arms and brought her over. “If you touch her, she could die.”
“Trust me, brother.”
Denn laid Jessie on the grassy ground next to his body. Her face shone pale in the moonlight, looking fragile and weak. His heart lurched. Her chestnut hair, that he could almost feel tight in his grasp when he took her, fell across her forehead and shrouded half of her delicate cheek.
“Noah, you can’t sacrifice her just because she’s a half demon. She’s an innocent.”
“Demons are never innocent.”
With the last ounce of his strength he grasped her hand tightly in his larger, rougher one and closed his eyes to focus on the instant and electric connection sizzling between himself and Jessie. This has to work. His darkness within moved, crept through him away from his lungs and heart, lightened. He tested his legs and arms, already feeling the difference.
“Noah,” Denn whispered urgently. “You have to stop, she’s crashing.”
In what sounded like the distance around them, Noah thought he heard thunder crashing and sure enough, water drops pelted his face. He opened his mouth and took in as much of the needed water as he could.
The second enough of his strength returned he jumped from the ground, releasing Jessie’s hand, hating himself for leaving her like that. But, he knew what he had to do.
“What the fuck is going on?” Jake had appeared at Jessie’s side and anger roiled from him in dark, angry waves.
“Her magick is the problem, it’s why we can’t touch the bastard hiding behind it.”
“So you’re just going to sacrifice her to save yourself.”
Noah had to fight the impulse to pound Jake into the ground. His plan wasn’t perfect but they were out of options. This is what he did, adapt and overcome. He turned his back to Jake and spoke to his twin.
“We need a spell, Denn, an elemental one that will call on each one of us, and we need it damn fast. It’s almost twelve o’clock.” Denn shook his head and Noah felt confidant that his brother was catching on to what he was attempting to do.
“Oh, and Denn,” Noah paused, “if I don’t get a chance to tell you later…happy birthday, old man.”
Denn smirked. “One minute earlier does not an old man make, jerk.”
“Cash, can you and Raven keep holding him off for a while? I need Graelen’s help in casting a quick circle around Jessie.”
“Yeah, yeah, the bastards just dicking around with us, killing time I think.”
Noah grabbed a stick and hastily traced a circle around where Jessie lay on the ground before he found four large rocks for the cardinal points. North, South, East and West, and Earth, Fire, Air and Water. Not having a pentacle on him, he again drew one at the point of North. The circle complete, he called his brothers to their elements. Each took their place and looked to Denn for the spell.
Like the fire, sizzle and burn;
Like the river, twist and turn;
Like the wind, strong and sure;
Like the earth, long survive;
Break the connection, we shall prevail.
Noah watched the earth rumble underneath Denn, the air funnel and blow around Cash, the rain came down harder on Graelen and fire sprang up at his own feet.
“Again.”
They all continued to chant the spell over and over. Energy rose and crackled the air around them, every element blending together for an unstoppable force. An unfamiliar piercing pain erupted in Noah’s chest, taking his breath away. The fire and energy continued to burn around him, but the sensation was that of being stabbed over and over again. He fought against it, continuing the chant when he looked at
