Disclaimer: Good God, how long have I been on my computer this weekend? Far too long, that's for certain. Yup … I'm addicted. I admit it. I should probably look into getting some help for that … but then they'd lock me up in some computer rehab place where there aren't any computers! And then I couldn't update any of my stories or read any fanfiction or play any games! Aah! (runs off screaming) Okay, I'm better now, but seriously … I am addicted to my computer. There's my rant. I don't own anything. And, um, in case the opening seems a little weird, just remember that Morgan's in shock. How would you react if you saw your brother murdered in front of you (provided that you have a brother, that is)? But, really … this story is almost done :gasp: I don't know how many chapters are left exactly, but we're definitely in the home stretch … Hang in there!
Raynornlimegreen: Puppy dog eyes! Lol, I love doing those :D They seem to annoy people for some mysterious reason. Hmm … Anyhoo, if I ever publish a book—doubtful—I'll let you know! You'll probably see me on CNN or something ("Please buy my book so I get a lot of money so I can buy more Sweep books!") :P
Taintedpromises: You know what song I'm listening to right now? "Transylvanian Concubine" by Rasputina … it's the song that plays during Drusilla's party in "Surprise." Why am I listening to this, I ask you? It's a weird song. Anyhoo, I have no idea why I just told you that. Thanks for your constant reviews! Keep 'em coming!
MIDNIGHT-PIXIE: Your reviews are so long! Lol, I could never write that much in a review, so I really appreciate it! I'm trying to take less time in updating, but I've had more homework than usual lately :sigh: I'm working, I promise! This story is almost done, but I have plans for another one when this one is done, so never fear! I won't abandon Sweep! I could never abandon it even if I wanted to … it's like an addiction ;)
Part XXIX: Castles Falling
Of all the things I believed in
I just want to get it over with
Tears from behind my eyes
But I do not cry
Counting the days that past me by
I've been searching deep down in my soul
Words that I'm hearing are starting to get old
Looks like I'm starting all over again
The last three years were just pretend and I said
It seemed like time really had stopped moving. For what felt like an eternity, the only things in the world were Mike, Muireadhach, and I. Mike's body on the ground wasn't moving, and the deep wound from his athame was spilling deep red blood onto the ground, soaking the grass, which was already damp with dew. I couldn't take my eyes off the knife; what was it doing there? It wasn't supposed to be there. Mike wasn't … dead, was he?
I dismissed that possibility. It was nonsense. He couldn't be dead. He had been standing there talking to me just seconds ago. He was just surprised that he had a mortal wound in his back. He'd be fine after we could get him to a hospital.
"It'll be okay, Mike," I whispered, patting his arm gently. His skin felt warm. See? In all the books I've ever read, dead people's skin feels cold. "I'll get you to a hospital and they'll patch that right up. Do you want me to message Hunter? I'm sure he has his cell phone with him. He could get the EMS out here really fast … if they have an Irish EMS, I suppose."
He didn't answer me.
I looked at him strangely. His eyes were closed, and I couldn't see any signs of circulation. This was worse than I thought. "Mike? I asked if you want me to message Hunter! Do you?"
Still no response.
I felt cold. "Mike," I said firmly, punching his shoulder lightly. He still didn't move. "Mike … M-Mike, get up. It's not that deep a wound. Get up!"
Was I still seeing him in front of me? He could have been standing up, saying, "Don't worry, Morgan, I'm fine." Why was he still lying on the ground? Couldn't he tell that this wasn't funny anymore?
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to
"Mike!" I cried angrily. I stopped, surprised. Why were there tears on my cheeks? "Mike, get up! What are you doing? Come on! We have to get out of here!" It was getting harder to breathe. My throat felt constricted; a huge lump was forming in it, and my eyes stung with tears. "Mike! Why aren't you listening to me?" Muireadhach was watching me while his soldiers still beat at the protective shield around us. There was something in his eyes, something human … sympathy?
It made me angrier. I didn't need sympathy. Mike was fine. He was just being melodramatic about something or other. "Mike … Mike, come on …" My voice grew weaker, and it was a struggle to keep shaking him gently. "M-Mike …" I was whispering, murmuring, not even speaking anymore. Something inside me felt like it was breaking.
"You still don't understand, do you?" Muireadhach whispered. "You think you're ever going to be a real witch? You think you can stop yourself from giving in to your dark side? With those emotions running rampant through you? You can't be." I wasn't listening to him. "Your feelings make you feeble. Your powers are great … devastating … but it's what you fear most. You fear that, beneath it all, you're just a pitiful human on the inside."
I only heard one sentence from what he was telling me. "You're weak."
Suddenly everything that had been building inside of me for the past few weeks burst over. It was going to England and meeting Shelagh and Beck and trying to stop Cràdh Fisher and making it to Ireland and my dreams and helping Alexis and being chased by the Diobhail over the countryside and escaping and meeting the brother that I never knew I had and it was all too much. It spilled out, and as I looked at Muireadhach for the first time since the initial shock at seeing him invade our shield, I saw fear in his eyes.
"I am not weak."
It was the most exhilarating, horrifying, incredible, and shocking feeling I had ever experienced in my entire life. Magick was exploding out of me, exploding out of the rage and frustration and pain and sorrow that had been building up for years. I felt it coursing out of me like a tidal wave, and I fueled it with more anger; Muireadhach had killed my brother. The realization had hit me a moment before. Muireadhach had killed my brother and he was standing there talking to me like nothing had happened. I saw a future that would have been amazing, years of getting to know each other and reminiscing about that first night that we met, snuffed out in a second. Muireadhach had destroyed that chance in a second. He had to pay.
I saw fires erupting all around me. Muireadhach's soldiers were screaming as the magick gushing from me engulfed them and destroyed them; it incinerated them from the inside out. Magick flew from me, from my rage, and I let it do just what I wanted it to do. Kill the monsters who had killed my brother.
I still get lost in your eyes
And it seems like I can't live a day without you
Closing my eyes
Until you chase my thoughts away
To a place where I am blinded by the light
But it's not right
"Come on, Dad," I whispered in my head, pulling for that connection that I had felt with Ciaran's bloodline from the first moment I met him. "We're Woodbanes. We're not weak."
The power came from my blood, and I welcomed it, pushing it out of me so it could connect and bring the demons' punishment. They couldn't live after what they did to me. I wouldn't let them.
As the rush faded, suddenly everything seemed more aware. I couldn't think straight. My mind felt tired, faded, and I couldn't hold onto a thought. They were whizzing through my head. Mike dead. Muireadhach. Diobhail. Hunter and Sky. Killian. I gasped with the sudden wrench in my stomach. Oh, Goddess. This was all too much. It was just too much. I couldn't … I was gasping for breath, something in me was surely dying … was it possible for one person to hurt this much so quickly?
I looked over the cemetery. It was deserted. The grass was charred and burnt, dead on the ground like flames had just destroyed it. The Diobhail were gone, and I knew what had happened to them. They were gone. Killed … forever. Just like …
I looked at the demon in front of me, and it struck me that, of course. Muireadhach was still alive. Why wouldn't he be? He had proven over and over that he was so much stronger than the other members of his clan. Of course he had survived the blast. Barely, though. He didn't look too well. He had been thrown of his feet, was gasping for air. There were wounds crisscrossing his face, small cuts and bruises forming. I looked between him and Mike's body, which hadn't moved. The blast hadn't touched him. I was panting with exertion, my body buzzing, and I could feel fury swelling in me even as I looked at my brother's killer.
Muireadhach was looking at me, and there was loathing in his eyes. But it wasn't directed towards me. It was towards himself.
"See now what we were trying to prevent?"
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to
I saw red, and I was attacking him with fists, magick, anything that I could summon. I was attacking him, and he wasn't fighting back. He couldn't. I could see myself in his eyes. The blood pumping through my veins was rich with dark magick; my father's lineage was showing itself at last. It was flowing through me, and I wasn't making an effort to stop it. I could see myself when I stared at him, and I couldn't take it anymore.
"You think you've won, but you haven't! You haven't won! You lost! I beat you! I beat your whole freaking army –" –only I didn't say 'freaking' – "and you think you've won? I beat you because I'm better than you! You're just a demon! You didn't win, you demon! I beat you!"
Tears were pouring down my face, and I made no attempt to stop them. It hurt too much to think right now.
"You haven't won," I yelled, choking on a sob that threatened to erupt in my throat. I could feel the life slowly slipping out of the body in front of me. As I pounded the flesh, screamed and kicked, I knew that it wouldn't help. Mike's body would still be there when Muireadhach was dead; killing him wouldn't bring back my brother. Somehow, though, I couldn't be bothered to stop.
"Leave me alone!" I sobbed. "Just leave me alone and stop …"
The ground shook suddenly and violently, and I was jolted off-balance and landed in a heap a few feet away from Muireadhach. I could see cracks appearing in the ground, like thin ice splitting when someone walked upon it. The hills and trees themselves were shaking and rumbling, and I gasped, understanding what was happening. I had heard Muireadhach talking to one of his soldiers before he had handed me over to Bhanaltra. The plan had never been to strip me of my powers; it was to send me to Muireadhach's realm itself. I was fairly certain that the reception would have involved eternal torture of some kind. Now, I was seeing the way into Muireadhach's world. It was opening in front of my very eyes.
"No!" I screamed, making a mad lunge forward towards Muireadhach and grabbing for him. But I was too late. His body had already disappeared into the gaping chasm that appeared in the earth before me. It was spreading, earth and dirt falling away into a deep hole that I couldn't see the bottom of. I fought to get back to my feet and ran, stumbling, back to Mike's body as the chasm threatened to swallow the whole cemetery. I had just reached him when the shaking, the rumbling, suddenly stopped. I looked around me wildly. The abyss was gone.
In that moment something inside me broke. The tears were falling free, and I couldn't stop them. I took Mike's cold hand in my own and collapsed next to him in a heap, sobbing uncontrollably. For a brief instant, a thought crossed my mind. Maybe this was just a dream. Maybe I would wake up back in Widow's Vale and this whole trip to Europe would have been a dream. Hunter would be there, smiling at me and he'd kiss me good morning, and then we'd go and hang out with Bree, Robbie, Sky, Raven, Alisa, Jenna, Sharon, Ethan, and Simon all day. Just friends having fun. Then I was jolted back to reality. Harsh, ruthless, bitingly cold reality.
This hurt too much to be a dream.
It hurts to want everything
And nothing at the same time
I want what's yours and I want what's mine
I want you
But I'm not giving in this time
"Morgan?"
I didn't turn around. I had sensed Bree, Robbie, and Raven approaching behind me a few moments ago.
"Morgan, what happened?" Bree whispered, a tired urgency in her voice. She sounded exhausted. I looked over my shoulder at her. Robbie and Raven were both supporting one of her arms. Her ankle looked like it had been twisted.
"Is he –" Robbie began, staring at Mike's body. His voice constricted, and he couldn't finish his sentence.
When I didn't answer either of their questions, Bree raised her voice, still staring at me with a kind of severe intensity. "Morgan, what happened?"
"I beat the bad guy," I said calmly. I held my hand over my eyes and whispered, "Clear my tears." My eyes instantly felt drier, and I sincerely hoped the glamour would cover up any redness. Why couldn't I have inherited any of Killian's skills from Ciaran?
"How'd you do it?" Raven asked.
I stood up, my legs steady and unwavering. Bree, Robbie, and Raven stared at me. Ignoring the question, I said, "We should get to the hospital."
Bree looked confused, disoriented, and altogether lost. "Why?"
"Hunter and Sky," I said simply. "They crashed into the mausoleum wall." I paused. "We should make sure they're okay."
When I walked away, what choice did they have but to follow me? Bree was crying; maybe it was seeing Mike … like that. Lying there. I shook my head. Bree could shut down her emotions at the drop of a hat. If she was dying inside, she would have a thousand-watt smile on her face. Her ankle must have just hurting her really badly.
"I can't feel anything," I heard Robbie whispering. "Pain, relief, anything …"
I should have been frightened by how much I agreed with him, but I stopped myself from thinking about it; it wouldn't do any good now.
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to
The one thing that I tried to hold on to
And when the stars fall
I will lie awake
You're my shooting star