Disclaimer: First of all, thank you to everyone for so many reviews! … Especially MIDNIGHT-PIXIE, who decided to take a leaf out of Raynornlimegreen's book and review about 20 times :D I love it when people do that! Lol, please read and review this chapter when you're done! Oh, and BTW, I'm trying to write this while watching The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and listening to the Counting Crows, so if I seem a little distracted … lol, really, though, I'm good. The song is Bell X1's "Eve, the Apple of my Eye". Also, one of Bree's lines comes from the last episode of BtVS. I just think it's a really good line :) Anywho, questions, comments, flames, praise … all are welcome in reviews! So … um … REVIEW!

MIDNIGHT-PIXIE: Thanks for your numerous reviews! Lol, I'm so glad that you like my story :D It does an author good to have people respond so enthusiastically (especially if that author is me!). You're so lucky that you're 25 Irish … I'm 75 German and 25 Swiss, but there's not much I wouldn't give to be from somewhere in the British Isles :P But, ick … I'd cry if my parents sent me to a Catholic school. Feel better soon so you can laugh without hurting yourself!

Raynornlimegreen: What would I do without your constant reviews? I love them all! Thank you sooo much :D About "The Past is Never Far" … I don't know … it's hard to give advice about what should happen next when I don't know exactly what direction you want to take the story in. I would finish out the battles/war with the dark witches, see how long that takes, and then decide if you want to deal with the aftermath or end it hopefully with a victory (please?).

Taintedpromises: Thanx for the compliments :D Have I mentioned how much I love your new pen name? I don't think I have, so here goes: I love your new pen name! I'm really, truly sorry about the cliffhangers (insert embarrassed silence) but they just keep coming to me … lol, I've actually had the story up until the ending planned out since pretty much Part 3, so the chapters just have to stop where I think it fits best … I'll send you a dozen coupons for genuine Texas-style Blue Bell ice cream to cheer you up, though! My dad has a whole shoebox of them! It's hard to believe I live in Texas, isn't it? Believe me, it's not willingly. I'm getting out of here as soon as I graduate high school.

LS: Thank you so much for your review! I love getting feedback from new people, so keep it coming! I use many different songs in the chapters—just whatever I think goes well with the chapter—and normally I give the artist credit in the disclaimer. I usually use songs that I have on random CDs or that I've heard on the radio or on TV (shows like The OC, Charmed, and Buffy have awesome soundtracks) but here's a list of the songs I've used since I started putting them in:

Part 7 – "My Last Breath" – Evanescence
Part 8 – "That Kind of Love" – Alison Krauss
Part 9 – "The Reason" – Hoobastank (don't you love saying that word?)
Part 11 – "Maybe I'm Amazed" – Jem
Part 12 – "Calling the Moon" – Dar Williams
Part 13 – "Story of a Girl" – 9 Days
Part 14 – "Fallen Angels" – Aerosmith
Part 16 – "It's Only Love" – Heather Nova
Part 17 – "Displaced" – Azure Ray
Part 18 – "Missing" – Evanescence
Part 19 – "Early One Morning" – Nana Mouskouri
Part 20 – "Beautiful Disaster" – Kelly Clarkson
Part 21 – "Don't Leave Home" – Dido
Part 22 – "Simple and Clean" – Utada Hikaru
Part 23 – "Fear" – Sarah McLachlan
Part 24 – "Staring at the Sun" – Offspring
Part 25 – "Reason Why" – Rachael Yamagata
Part 26 – "Eve, the Apple of my Eye" – Bell X1

Anyway, enough stalling on my part! On with the story!

Part XXVI: Facade

Morgan

"Is this all really necessary?" I asked rhetorically, holding up my bound wrists, which were chained to the wall of the mausoleum. The cemetery had turned into one of the most wretched places that I had ever been in my entire life … although they were not nearly as bad as Hell's Kitchen in New York City, I had to admit. I felt a little shiver arise and die before it made it past my skin as something scurried in the shadows of the tomb and winced when a shoe stepped on it with a loud crunch.

"Do not speak," the demon said.

"You're not the one in charge," I said. "Your leader said that I could be as much fuss as I wanted."

The demon with which I was conversing—a strange notion, to be sure, but what else is there to do when you're locked in a mausoleum and chained to the wall?—was one that I had never seen before. It was a woman.

Or, at least, I thought it was. I hadn't taken AP Anatomy like a couple of juniors had last year, so I wouldn't know for sure. Its … or is it her? Her hair was long, black, and sort of dirty-looking, but that, plus her voice, more feminine but still deep and croaky like I realized all of the Diobhail's must be, had me convinced that maybe I was among the fairer sex.

She was glaring at me, her face eerily illuminated by the candle she was holding. It was dark in the mausoleum; a couple of candles and torches were burning in the sconces on the walls, but the door was shut tight and no light was leaking in from the outside. I vaguely wondered what time it was; was it dark already?

"Mortal flesh," she whispered, staring with a sort of disgusted yet engrossed look on her face. "It is disgusting. It crawls." She looked at the torch in the wall to my left with a kind of longing that seriously worried me. "It burns so easily."

"Don't you dare," I whispered through gritted teeth.

She snapped her head around to glare at me. "Why do you speak to me? Do you think yourself fit to speak to me, human scum?" I cried out in sudden pain as a cold hand slapped my face hard; I quickly bit my tongue to keep from whimpering. My cheek stung painfully.

"Do you think yourself fit to bargain with us?" she continued. "Bargain with the Diobhail when you yourself are nothing but scum?" The ancient name of her clan sounded foreign to me, even though it was the only thing that had been resonating in my head for the past few days. I just smiled sweetly at her. Maybe it was the adrenaline rushing through me in fear, but I felt cocky.

"Well, sure, humans might not be the greatest species of them all, but still …" I shrugged. "It's better than anything you could ever hope to be."

I knew that I had hit a prideful nerve. The Diobhail midwife gave an unearthly growl, somewhere between nails on a chalkboard and a dog barking, and lunged at me. I closed my eyes reflexively and pulled my knees to my chest, but her attack never came. Opening my eyes, I saw that two other nursemaids were restraining her.

"Do not, Mistress Bhanaltra!" one of them cried desperately.

"She is not worth it," the other one said, a harder edge to her voice. "The human scum is not worthy of our time. Lord Muireadhach wishes her to be unharmed when he performs the ritual."

Bhanaltra gave a gruesome smile that terrified me to the core. "Ah, yes … the ritual … the ritual of which our young friend is so unaware."

I narrowed my eyes. I knew how a ritual to strip people of their powers went. Unfortunately, that was some knowledge I could claim. "What do you mean?" I asked cautiously.

Bhanaltra chuckled slightly. "Oh, come now. Did you ever for one moment believe that our Lord Muireadhach would spare your life?" A cold feeling was beginning to spread through me. "No. You will die tonight." As a second thought, she added, "Hopefully along with the rest of your filthy race."

I stared. "But Muireadhach said he would just –"

I cried out again as Bhanaltra's fist came slamming down on my face. My wrists shot with pain as the force of her blow sent me to the ground and the chains holding me up rattled and pulled against my skin. Tears swam before my eyes with the sting of the blow.

"Do you think yourself worthy to speak his name?" Bhanaltra demanded. When I didn't answer, she raised her voice to a yell. "Do you?"

"Mistress …" one of the other midwives whispered in a reminding sort of tone, as if Bhanaltra were a little kid misbehaving in church. She gave a forced sigh of calm and a tight grin that made my skin crawl.

"Do not fear, human scum." Her eyes were suddenly alight with a kind of distorted triumph. "You will soon see the true power of the Diobhail, and then you will understand." Her voice lowered to an almost unbearable level. It rumbled in my ears and only reinforced my constant, banging headache. "I hope that I will see you die. I will take great pleasure in desecrating your corpse."

She turned away, and my heart pounded with fear. I looked around me desperately, a kind of primal terror coursing through me.

Hunter? I whispered in my mind. Hunter, where are you?

Bhanaltra looked back at me over her shoulder, a derisive, ghastly grin on her face.

"Do not try to message your fellow rubbish. Your weak powers cannot penetrate the magick of this establishment."

I glared at her. "I am not weak," I whispered.

A furious expression crossed Bhanaltra's disfigured face. She strode forward, something akin to hate in her dark eyes.

"We shall see about that."

She raised her arm, and I screamed as a bolt of magick collided with me. A moment of sheer, excruciating pain was all that I knew before my body collapsed against the wall. Before the blackness engulfed me, though, I felt something picking me up, lifting me off the ground. I faded into unconsciousness, whispering "What …"

If I had you here
I'd clip your wings
Snap you up and leave you sprawling on my pin
This plan of mine is oh so very lame
Can't you see the grass is greener where it rains?

Sky

I had never traveled directly through a glamour spell before, and I knew that Hunter never had, either. Killian seemed the most comfortable among the four blood witches walking down the Irish country road. At least, sometimes it was a road. Sometimes it was a path or a field with no path at all or sometimes we found ourselves somewhere completely random. Once we had even appeared suddenly in a forest and Robbie had walked directly into a tree.

"What is this?" Bree asked as the scenery around us shifted blinkingly fast from a calm, quiet, green forest to a rolling, grassy hill with no trees to speak of.

"It's their glamour spell," Hunter said bitterly. "The Diobhail's, I mean. It's very elaborate. Their magick must be more powerful than we thought for them to have concocted this."

"Yes, it's truly amazing," I said with a sigh.

"Does that mean," Robbie said, rubbing his head where a bump had appeared from his unpleasant encounter with an oak, "that we never really made it all of those miles when we left the lodge that we thought we did?"

"Probably," I said sourly, feeling quite angry at the world. "I'm surprised we didn't realize it before. Of course …" I paused as the landscape around us suddenly transformed into a beach inlet. I looked behind me. My feet were leaving footprints in the sand. "It's very well-done. I suppose that now they're letting their illusion slip."

"Yes," Killian said sourly. "Now that they've got Morgan, why would they be concerned about us coming after her? They must think that us coming to rescue her is suicide."

Robbie gave a snort. "Yeah, well, they obviously think we're a lot more intelligent than we really are."

Bree glared at him. "I thought you said you wanted to do this."

"I do," Robbie said firmly. "I just can't shake this feeling that we're walking into something we might not come out of."

"You're not helping," I said breezily as I picked a small white flower from the patch of greenery that had appeared on the sand. It disappeared almost instantly. "For now, let's focus on breaking through these glamours and getting to Morgan."

After a long moment, Raven spoke up. "Um, this might not be the best time to ask, but … do we have a plan?"

I exchanged glances with Hunter and Killian. The three of us had been sending witch messages back and forth to each other for about twenty minutes, at first drafting ideas for a rescue and then fine-tuning the ones we had managed to come up with. Some of them had been pretty lucrative at first; hearing us trying to come up with a plan while contemplating the fact that we might all be approaching our deaths would probably have freaked the others out.

"We've, um … managed to cook something up, yes," Killian said briskly.

I looked down the beach. Mike was walking a bit in front of us, his head down, deep in thought. I looked at him curiously for a moment before picking up my pace a little bit so I was next to him.

"Hey, are you all right?"

He looked at me, surprised, but shook his head. "I'll be all right when Morgan is all right."

I smiled slightly, touched by his devotion to his sister. "You really care about her, don't you?" I asked. He nodded, and I sent barely perceptible waves of comfort and calming to him. His inner turmoil was practically tangible in the air around him.

"She's something else," he whispered. "Killian's great and all, but … there's still so much he doesn't understand."

"Like how it is to wake up one morning and find out you're not as normal as you thought you were?" I ventured. He nodded again. "It makes sense," I said thoughtfully. "Morgan knows what you've been through more than anyone ever could … and vice versa."

"I just don't want to have to face it," he said. "The possibility that I might lose her, I mean. So soon after I first found her, you know?"

"I know."

You left
I died
You came, I think
But I never really know
I've watched you climb
The wrong incline
But what do I know?

Bree

After about another hour of fighting our way through the multi-layers of glamour spells leftover from the Diobhail's chase, Hunter and Sky stopped us in the road, which had been starting to look oddly familiar.

"We're very close now," Hunter said as we all stood in a circle and looked at each other. "I can feel their presences. The cemetery must be just up the road."

"So you asked if we had a plan," Sky said, sounding a little nervous. "Well, here's what we came up with …"

Now this applies equally to you and I
The only thing we share
Is the same sky
These empty metaphors
They're all in vain
Like can't you see the grass is
Greener where it rains?

Killian produced three black taper candles from the pocket of his jacket. Upon closer inspection as he handed them to Robbie and I, I noticed that they were inscribed with hundreds of tiny runes and sigils, too small and fine to have been carved with a knife.

"How did you do that?" I asked, staring at the candle. "And how did you have them with you?"

"I didn't," he said honestly. "They're some little specialty glamours of my own. Except these?" He tapped the one I was holding. "Rock solid."

He glanced over at Sky and Raven, who were just out of earshot of us. "What are they doing?"

I sighed, suddenly feeling a great urge to cry. They both looked close to tears. "Probably something along the lines of, 'No matter what happens, I'll always be with you and I'll always love you.' Just … in case something goes wrong."

Robbie looked at me when Killian went over to talk to Hunter, and I held up a hand as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Don't," I whispered. "Anything you say is going to sound like goodbye. And I refuse to let it become that."

Sky, Raven, Hunter, Mike, Robbie, Killian, and I met on top of a hill just overlooking the cemetery grounds. I could barely make out the shapes of figures moving about. It was getting very dark.

"And you all remember the plan, right?" Sky asked nervously, searching all of our faces. "We can't let this go wrong. Just remember … we're here for Morgan. We get her, and we get out."

Nods all around. She looked at Robbie, Raven, and I.

"The spell that you need is on the candle, imprinted in the essence of the glamour. If you ever can't remember the chant or the rhythm, just focus on it. It'll come to you." She smiled weakly at our apprehensive looks. "Just believe in yourselves." Her smile disappeared; she looked serious. "We believe in you."

"And …" Killian said, "don't worry about the flame ever going out."

"What now?" Raven asked, confused.

Killian waved his hand over the candles the three of us held. Their wicks twitched slightly before all sparking and lighting as a flame appeared, waving slightly with the evening air.

I had to say it. "That was cool."

Killian shrugged modestly. "Just trying to be of service."

Even Hunter looked a little nervous now. "All right, Killian. Now let's see if your glamour skills are up to par."

They looked expectantly at him and he nodded slightly. "Yes." He looked at Mike. "Care to lend a helping hand?"

He nodded as Robbie, Raven, and I exchanged confused looks.

"What are you guys –"

But Killian and Mike were already walking in a circle around Hunter and Sky, who looked nervously at them, all chanting in an ancient-sounding whisper. I vaguely recognized it as a form of Gaelic, but my mind wasn't exactly focusing on that as tendrils of multi-colored magick began to encircle Hunter and Sky to the point where we couldn't see them anymore. Killian and Mike stopped walking and stood on either side of both of them, both continuing the chant, speaking louder. Robbie, Raven, and I stared, mesmerized, until the magick began to fade slightly. We could barely see Hunter and Sky, or what we thought were Hunter and Sky. When the magick disappeared fully, the three of us gasped and all took a few steps back.

"What the hell –" Robbie began.

Killian grinned proudly. "Perhaps my finest work." He looked at the two Diobhail standing beside him. "Wouldn't you say?"

Hunter and Sky looked at each other in their newly demonized forms.

"Impressive," Hunter said. His voice was deeper, raspier, much more like a Diobhail's. Almost indiscernible in difference, actually.

"Whoa …" Robbie said in awe.

That was pretty much the only thing on my mind, too. Killian had really outdone himself. Hunter and Sky looked exactly like two members of Muireadhach's clan. Their hair, of course, wasn't as dark as the few Diobhail's that we had seen had been, but that was to be expected. It had changed from fair, pale blonde to a dirty blonde/brownish color. Sky touched her hair, which was braided down her back, with a look of disgust.

"See, this is why I never dyed my hair. I always rather liked my natural color."

"Can I just ask why you did that?" Raven demanded. "Why did he put a glamour spell on you guys?"

"So we can sneak into their camp past their barrier spells," Hunter said simply.

Raven's mouth dropped open. "What?" she cried. "Excuse me, what? That was never discussed in the plan!"

"It was sort of unspoken," Sky admitted. "It's the only way, guys, really. We have to get in there somehow to get to Morgan. This way, we look just like anyone in their clan. They won't suspect us."

"If the glamour holds up!" Robbie said, sounding concerned.

"Oh, it'll hold up," Killian said seriously. "Now we really have to hurry, you lot. The three of you get to your positions around the cemetery and begin the protection spell. Mike, you and I have to get to the north end. Athar and Giomanach –"

"East end, waiting for your signal," Sky said. "Yes, we know."

"So …" Hunter gave a nervous grimace. "Is everyone ready?"

In the garden, snake was a'charming
And Eve said let's give it a try
Now lead us not into temptation
But no matter how I try
When in the garden
And snake is a'charming
And Eve says let's give it a try
Eve is the apple of my eye

"Let's do this."

And I lie behind you
And cradle you in the palm of me
And I pat your hair down


I think, will we sink or swim?
Because we could do either or none