Нора Робертс - Blood Magick

With the air of anticipation hanging, they set the table, brewed tea, made the coffee, sliced the bread.

When all were settled at the table, all eyes turned to Fin.

“It’s a strange tale, though some of it we know from the books. I found myself riding Baru at a hard gallop on a dirt road still hard from winter.”

He wound his way through it, doing his best to leave out no details.

“Wait now.” Boyle held up a hand. “How can you be so sure Cabhan didn’t reel you into this? The wolf attacked you, went for your throat, and our Branna couldn’t get through to help you, or to bring you back. It sounds like Cabhan’s doing.”

“I took him by surprise, I can swear to that. The wolf came at me only because I was there, and might interfere with the murder. If Cabhan had wanted to do me harm, why not lie in wait, and come at me? No, his aim was Daithi, and my coming into it something unexpected.

“I couldn’t save him, and thinking over it all, was never meant to save him.”

“He was a sacrifice,” Iona said quietly. “His death, like Sorcha’s, gave birth to the three.”

“He had eyes like yours, bright and blue. I could see, when I could see, how brave and fierce he fought. But no matter that, no matter what I could bring to help, nothing could change what was done. Cabhan’s power was great, more than he has now. Sorcha dimmed that power, though he healed. I think now some of the hunger that drives him is to gain it all back again. And to gain it, he must take it from the three.”

“He never will,” Branna said. “Tell them the rest. I only know a little of it.”

“Daithi fell. I thought I could heal his wound, but it was too late for that. He drew his last breath almost as soon as I put my hands on him. And then she came. Sorcha.”

“Sorcha?” Meara set down the coffee she’d started to drink. “She was there with you?”

“We spoke. It seemed a long time there on the bloody road, but I think it wasn’t.”

He went over it, word by word, her grief, her remorse, her strength. And then the words that changed so much inside him.

“Daithi? You come from him, your blood is mixed with his and Cabhan’s?” Shaken, Branna got slowly to her feet. “How could I have not known? How could none of us have known? It’s him you carry, it’s him and what’s in you that beats back Cabhan at every turn. But I didn’t see it. Or wouldn’t. Because I saw the mark.”

“How could you see what I myself couldn’t see in me? I saw the mark and let that weigh as heavy as you did. Heavier, I think. She knew, as she said, she knew, but didn’t believe or trust. So I think she brought me there, to see what I would do. That last test of what burned strongest in me.”

He reached in his pocket. “And in the end, she gave me this.” He opened his hand, showed the brooch. “What she made for him, she gave to me.”

“Daithi’s brooch. Some have searched for it.” Branna sat again, studied the copper brooch. “We thought it lost.”

“The three guides as one.” When Connor held out his hand, Fin gave him the brooch. “As you’re the only among us who can speak with all three. It was always yours. Waiting for you, for her to give it to you.”

“She sees Daithi die every night, she told me. Her punishment for the curse. I think the gods are harsh indeed to so condemn a grieving woman. Blood and death, she said, as you did, Branna. Blood and death follow, and so she gives us—all of us here, and her children—her faith. We must end him, but not for revenge, and I confess revenge rode high in me before this. We must end him for the light, for love, and all who will come from us. She said love had powers beyond all magicks, then sent me back. She said, ‘Go back to her,’ and I woke with you weeping over me.”

Saying nothing, Branna held out a hand to Connor, then studied the brooch. “She made this for love, as she did what the three wear. It’s strong magick here. And as we do, you must never be without it now that it’s given to you.”

“We can make him a chain for it,” Iona suggested, “like ours.”

“Yes, we’ll do that. That’s a fine idea. This all tells me why I’ve always needed so much of your blood to make a poison. It’s never had enough of Cabhan in it.”

With a half laugh, Fin decided to eat the eggs that had gone cold on his plate. “Ever practical.”

“You’re one of us,” Iona realized. “I mean, you’re a cousin. A really, really distant one, but you’re a cousin.”

“Welcome to the family then.” Connor lifted his tea, toasted. “So it may be written, at some point, that the Cousins O’Dwyer, and their friends and lovers, sent Cabhan the black to hell.”

“I’ll raise a glass to that.”

As Fin did, Boyle gave Iona’s hand a squeeze. “I say we all raise them tonight, at the pub, and the new cousin stands the first round.”

“I’m fine with that, and the second’s on you.” Fin lifted his own glass, then drank the coffee that had gone cold as his eggs.

And still he felt a warmth in him.

19

FIN WORE THE BROOCH ON A CHAIN, FELT THE WEIGHT of it. But when he looked in the mirror, he saw the same man. He was what he ever was.

And while the brooch lay near his heart, the mark still rode on his shoulder. Knowing his blood held both dark and light didn’t change that, didn’t change him.

It wouldn’t change what would be in only a few weeks’ time.

He ran his businesses, worked the stables, the school, spent time in his own workshop trying to perfect spells that could be useful to his circle.

He walked or rode with Branna, along with the dogs, hoping to lure out Cabhan, hoping they would find the way to dig out that last piece.

But the demon’s name eluded them as February waned and March bloomed.

“Going back to the cave may be the only way left.” Fin said it casually as he and Connor watched a pair of young hawks circle above a field.

“There’s time yet.”

“Time’s passing, and he waits as we wait.”

“And you’re weary of the waiting, that’s clear enough. But going back’s not the answer, and you can’t know you’ll learn the name if you did.”

Connor drew the white stone out of his pocket, the one Eamon of the first three had given him. “We all wait, Fin. Three and three and three, for I can’t find Eamon in dreams now. I can’t find him, and still I know he’s there. Waiting as we are.”

Fin could admire Connor’s equanimity—and curse it. “Without the name, what do we wait for?”

“For what comes, and that’s always been an easier matter for me than you. Tell me this, when it’s done, when we finish it, and I believe we will, what then for you?”

“There are places in the world I haven’t been.”

Temper flashed, and Connor was a man slow to temper. “Your place is here, with Branna, with us.”

“My home is here, and I can’t deny it. But Branna and I can’t have the life we wished for, so we take what we can while we can. We can’t have the life you’ll have with Meara, or Boyle with Iona. It’s not meant.”

“Ah, bollocks. She thinks too much for her own good, and you blame yourself for things beyond your doing. The past may be written, but the future isn’t, and two such clever people should be able to suss out how to make one together.”

“Having Daithi’s blood in me doesn’t change having Cabhan’s, or bearing his mark. If we win this, and destroy him, the demon, his lair, what’s to say I won’t be pulled as he was, a year from now, or ten? I know just how dark and sweet that pull can be, and Branna knows it’s in me. We could never have children who would carry that same burden.”

“If, can’t, doesn’t.” Connor dismissed all with a wave of his hand. “More bollocks. The pair of you stare into the hard side of things.”