Cate Tiernan - Night's Child

Ian nodded. He was sitting back in the dirt of the road, looking stunned, sweat only now breaking out on his forehead. "You saved my life," he whispered.

Morgan laughed, brushing Moira's hair off her face, "You saved us," she said, her eyes shining with obvious relief, joy, and pride.

Moira smiled. Then, with no warning, she covered her eyes with one hand and started to weep.

"I see," Morgan murmured into the phone. "Yes, yes, I think that would be best. When? Tomorrow. I think we can do that. It will be late tomorrow, though."

Hanging up, she looked over at the table to see four pairs of eyes watching her inquisitively. Morgan sat down and put her hand on Ian’s arm. "The New Charter has found your mother and eight of her followers at the border between England and Scotland. They wanted to know if I could come up to identify Lilith and file formal charges against her."

Ian looked down at his bowl, a slight flush rising to his cheeks. Sky, Hunter, and Moira waited sympathetically. They'd all been gingerly hunched over bowls of soup for lunch. It had been only two days since the dark wave, and everyone still felt awful. Morgan was drained but had been busy creating teas and herbal concoctions for everyone in the area. She'd also tried to work some magickal healing but found it strained her still-weak powers. Right now they had to let time do its work.

"What are you going to do?" Ian asked quietly.

"I'm going to go identify her," Morgan said gently. "And file formal charges against her."

He nodded, still looking at his bowl. "Can I go with you?"

"Of course."

Only Morgan and Ian went. Sky had wanted to be there to see for herself that Lilith was being punished, but they agreed it was better for her to stay home and watch Hunter while Moira was in school. He was still unsteady on his feet sometimes, weak, and also just absentminded and foggy. He looked slightly more normal, with short hair and no beard, and his bruises and face slashes were healing well. But he couldn't eat very much, and his nightmares would take a long time to work through. He had settled into the guest room at Morgan's house, and Sky had moved down to the couch.

There was no reason for Moira to go. She, too, was still healing both physically and mentally and wouldn't add much to Morgan's testimony. She and Hunter were getting to know each other, and one of the first times he'd smiled was when she had cracked a dry joke. Morgan and Sky had looked blank, and Hunter had been the only one to get it. Morgan smiled, remembering it.

Sky hadn't been in America twenty years ago when they'd battled the last dark wave, and this had been her first experience with one. It had left her as shaken and drained as the others. Morgan envied her these few days alone with Hunter, getting to know each other again, picking up where they had left off. But as soon as her obligation with Lilith was over, she would rush back. Despite having the rest of her life to spend with him, she felt a need to seize every minute.

She looked over at Ian, pretending to read in the train seat next to her. After the wave had gone, the coven had met back at Katrina's store to comfort and help each other. Katrina had come forward and offered to let Ian stay with her, and he had agreed, at least for a while. He knew his mother would probably never come back to share their house again.

"This is going to be hard," Morgan said sympathetically.

Ian nodded, then sighed. "She was all I had," he said. "I've no idea where my dad is. Don't really want to find him, anyway. Mum had been getting worse and worse, and I just didn't want to see it. Our house-" He shrugged. "Maybe in a while I can go back to it."

"Take your time," Morgan said.

For a moment Ian looked as if he wanted to say something, then thought better of it.

"What?" Morgan prompted him.

"You're Ciaran's MacEwan's daughter," Ian said hesitantly. "You… you know. Did you… did you love him?"

Morgan hesitated, understanding Ian’s pain all too well. "I didn't really know Ciaran," Morgan said. "Actually I only saw him a handful of times before he died." Before Iona killed him. "But there's something between a parent and child-you want, or maybe need, to love a parent. I have the best adoptive parents anyone could hope for. Really good, caring people who did their best by me. I never knew Maeve. I knew Ciaran was evil, I knew he would betray me or use me or kill me if I didn't join him. Yet what I felt for him was very much like love, despite everything. Something deep inside me felt good that he was proud of me, proud of my powers, that he wanted me to join him when he didn't want his other children. I almost wanted his approval. It crushed me to have to bind him, to have his powers stripped. It was the worst thing, the worst decision I ever had to make. But he was my father. And he loved me, in his way." She paused. "Does that help?"

"Yes," Ian said softly, looking out the train window. "It does, a bit."

Lilith and her followers were being held at a New Charter building not far from Scotland's southern border. When Morgan and Ian arrived, they were led into the manager's office. Matilda Bracken was tall, gray-haired, and severe-looking but smiled warmly when she saw them. Rising, she came to meet them.

"Morgan Byrne of Belwicket," she said. "How very good to meet you. Well done, down in Ireland."

"Thank you," Morgan said. "It took all of us, including Ian Delaney here."

"Yes, Ian." Matilda took both his hands in hers. "I'm sorry to meet you under these circumstances, my dear."

Ian nodded uncomfortably.

"Morgan, first I need you to identify Lilith Delaney and then to fill out a form about your charges. Then, Ian, you'll have a chance to see your mother."

Lilith was being held in a small room. The doorway was spelled so no one could enter or leave, but Morgan could see Lilith through the open door. She pressed her lips together as she saw that Lilith's face still bore signs of the bruising that Morgan's attack had caused. What a terrible night that had been. "Yes, that's her," Morgan said.

Lilith rose from her narrow bed and literally spit at Morgan through the doorway. "It still isn't over," she said, her eyes glittering. "It will never be over."

The prime emotion Morgan felt was sadness. "No, Lilith," she said. "It is over, Iona is dead. You're here, and unless you're rehabilitated, you'll be in the care of the New Charter for the rest of your life. Your house and workroom are being cleared and purified."

Lilith actually looked surprised. "No."

"Yes." Morgan paused. Certain questions still gnawed at her. "Tell me, why did you agree to work with Iona? What was in it for you?"

"Power," Lilith said, as if this were obvious. "She helped me gain control of Ealltuinn. She sent strong people to work with me. We're going to find the power leys of Ui Laithain and use them to become the most powerful witches this world has ever seen. Once I get out of here, you're just going to be a memory." She smiled at the thought, her eyes taking on a crazed gleam.

Lilith's hold on reality was clearly slipping. She had no comprehension of her situation, what her future held.

"That's why you kept an eye on me and reported on me to Iona?"

"Yes. Little enough, for all she did for me."

"What about all the hexes this past month? Why bother? Iona never mentioned them-they weren't part of her plan, were they?"

"I can think for myself just fine," Lilith retorted, her voice rising. "Those were intended to harm you. To show you you're not welcome." She frowned. "They should have worked better. You or your brat should have had accidents, hurt yourselves."

"I guess you underestimated us-both of us," Morgan said, feeling a spark of pride in her daughter. "You know that it was Moira in the end who defeated your dark wave?" Lilith's frown deepened. "How did you learn to create a dark wave, anyway? It's clearly beyond your strength."