Chapter 159: The Wild Hunt
I could feel the wards shake around me, crumbling as the family moaned with the effort to keep them active. The Sidhe magic hummed against me, bouncing sounds and emotions from the coven and back to me.
I ignored it all, even when I heard Mom call my name, even while someone gripped my hand so hard I knew I'd be bruised.
None of it mattered. Nothing beyond the power inside me had any meaning whatsoever.
My demon feared being lost, forgotten. She couldn't have been farther from the truth. She was as much me as I was now, perfectly blended inside me, so much I wept from the simplistic beauty of it. My power wasn't just from her magic, but came from the strength of who she was, linked with who I had become. Together we were unstoppable.
I finally lifted my head, unable to keep the smile of joy from my face even as the wind slammed into the wards one last time, sending them, and most of the coven, crashing to the earth. I stepped forward, looking up at the looming clouds descending toward us. I could see movement inside the blackness falling on us, felt the shudder of the impact as the clouds encountered the last resistance. Whoever held my hand let go with a sigh. I glanced to my right, saw Gram falling slowly to her knees.
This wasn't the way it should go. I knew that now. I reached out with my energy and opened the last shield of magic and let the Wild in.
"Syd, what are you doing?" Mom grabbed for me, but I just smiled at her, sent her a thread of trust. This was my job to do and she couldn't help me. I didn't want her to. And while all of the pieces hadn't yet connected in my mind, I knew the part of me that Gram's power kept asleep, the Sidhe part of me, was waking fully with the arrival of the riders and integrating with me just as my demon had.
It was hard not to laugh from the sheer power of it. This was how it was supposed to be. A steady and profound calm settled around me, drawing me in, holding me close.
I would have time to ponder what I'd become later. Right now, I had the Wild Hunt to defeat.
A mind touched mine, tentative and soft, but I knew it. I met Quaid's eyes as thunder broke over the house and the winds buffeted us. Pain still struggled in his arms, but now her face was full of fear as she watched the storm draw near. I reached for him, but he flinched from me as though afraid of what I had become. I didn't have time to try again.
The Wild Hunt was here.
Everything fell still as the swirling cloud of power settled on the grass in my back yard, the eye of the storm muffling the whistling roar of the growing magic circling Wilding Springs.
"Your destiny," Gram whispered to me. "Human, demon, Sidhe. Not stolen like your mother's power. Born to it. Only you can save us."
I knew it was true. Embraced it. My mind was so clear I could see and feel everything, knew everything. I heard crying, whispers of comfort as the coven struggled to support and protect each other, but I couldn't be distracted by them. Not when he emerged to greet me.
Clouds billowed around him, a giant black horse beneath him, its glowing red eyes full of fire. The mist thinned, showing the ranks of his riders, transparent yet as they waited to emerge into the world to wreak their destruction on it. Their destiny, the last ride, to destroy all that had been created, to lay waste so new life could begin.
Giant black dogs, their coats shaggy and thick, growled and snarled beneath his horse's belly, insubstantial too, all but one. I raised one hand to Galleytrot, saw his eyes widen, felt his power touch mine and, humbled, watched him dip his head to me.
Where was my fear? I didn't need it anymore. I felt the girl I'd been in a previous life, the Sidhe maiden I'd dreamed about, joining me, fearless as she faced the man she loved. Even clothed in his smoking black armor, his face twisted with hate and sorrow, she knew him still.
"Gwynn ap Nudd, lord of the Underworld." Mom bowed her head to him. "Welcome."
He struck without warning, lashing at her with his power, ferocious and boundless as nature itself. I felt Mom's shield's surge around the family, repel him.
He snarled at her, struck again. I raised one arm, ready to add my power to hers when Gram grabbed me.
"Not yet," she hissed.
Gwynn struck Mom again, and again her power held. But I could feel the cracks in it, the shaking of her control and knew she would not survive much longer.
The third time he lashed at her, he sent all the power of the storm with it, driving Mom to her knees, Dad with her. Even Gram collapsed next to me.
Her blue eyes caught mine, held them, not full of fear as I expected, but a fierce and overwhelming pride.
"Now is your time," she whispered.
I looked up as Gwynn approached my mother, drawing a sword of pure lightning. It popped and snapped its deadly power over her as he raised it to strike her dead. I put myself between them, using a thin skin of Sidhe green magic to protect me from the charge.
He glared at me, flaming eyes full of rage, scarred face twisted to a mask of hate. Those scars he'd inflicted himself, out of grief and despair, after he'd killed his one true love. But the Sidhe girl inside me remembered who he was, what he used to look like, feel like. And she put all of that love and memory into our eyes and showed it to him.
The fire in his gaze dimmed as he stared. The Wild fell still, the storm suddenly quiet around us. Nature held her breath as Gwynn ap Nudd understood.
His sword arm fell, the lightning sheathing it going dark. A dark hound howled in mourning as a single crystal tear filled Gwynn's clear green eye and tracked down the scars on his flawed left cheek.
"Shaylee," he whispered to her, to me. "My love."
We leaned forward, our hands clasping his beloved face, our lips pressing to his.
"My lord," we said. "Well met."
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