Summary – Hunter arrives in Widows Vale with his mentor Ciaran MacEwan. There he meets his half brother Cal and his girlfriend Morgan, whom he feels strangely drawn to, and is sucked into a cat and mouse game that has played between Ciaran and Selene Belltower for years and on top of it all he is reunited with his cousin Sky who is a Seeker for the International Council of Witches and has been hunting him down for years.
Disclaimer: These are all Cate Tiernans toys. They're just in my playground.
A/N: Thank you guys for your patience, I know I lost a lot of readers because this story has taken so long but I hope that the few of you still reading enjoy and leave me your precious feedback :-) I promise I'm almost finished now but just because I'm so awesome I'm posting not one but two chapters today. Thank you.
After all the witches were secured and ready for collection. Killian slumped to the ground, he was already weakened from the Taibhs and I draining him but the fight with the Amyranth coven had really taken its toll. He couldn't be in this next fight, we all knew it.
Sky instructed him to stay with the witches and keep refreshing the binding sigils to ensure none of them broke free. It would be a disaster for one of them to cut loose and ruin everything we had done so far. We had got lucky with the element of surprise on our side and a tranq gun.
Killian wanted to help but even if he wasn't in such a weakened state, I could tell he wasn't ready for a showdown with his father. As strained as their relationship was he didn't really want to cross that line so I know he was pretty relieved he was asked to stay behind.
Sky and I were all ready to storm the circle room wearing black robes and animal masks, Sky had selected a Panther mask. Weirdly that animal suited her.
"Don't die," Killian said, wishing us luck in his own special way.
I nodded and placed my hand on his shoulder, "Rest up, brother,"
"Be vigilant, make sure no one gets out of here unless escorted by a member of the Witches council." Sky said, "Hopefully they won't be too much longer now, we could use their help,"
We geared up and pulled the hoods over our heads and donned our masks, "Follow my lead," I said and led her towards the circle room.
As we entered, it seemed Ciaran had lost patience with Selene and had started drawing sigils around Morgan, preparing her for the ritual. Selene was in a sulk and Cal was without an animal mask, the clay was still unmolded.
"Ah finally," Ciaran grumbled, upon seeing us, "Bring in the others, we're ready to begin,"
Selene figured it out first, without alerting Ciaran, she had leapt to her feet conjuring a ball of witch fire. She was fast, but luckily for me, Sky was on hand to deflect it.
"I can't let you do that, Ciaran," I cried pulling back the hood and mask.
He turned from Morgan to face us, "Giomanach?" he was surprised, "You broke free of my binds, colour me impressed,"
"Wait until you see what's become of your Coven," Sky smirked
He frowned and then his face changed, he had cast his senses and discovered what had happened to them. Selene started crafting a spell, "I'm going to kill them all!" she screeched
The Taibhs felt threatened by this, it needed to survive this, as did I. Selene was much stronger than I was. I had no choice, I needed to use its power again so I let it take me over. It moved my arms and pushed a black force out towards her, knocking her and Cal back against the wall. "I don't think you will" the Taibhs said using my voice, but it didn't sound like my voice anymore.
Cal was knocked unconscious. Selene was stunned and looked afraid, Ciaran looked amused, "Well look who's come out to play," he muttered, "You want her for yourself?" he asked me/the Taibhs, it nodded my head.
I couldn't take back control of my body, I had let it in and now it was in charge, completely. I felt its hunger for Morgan's power, for Ciaran's power and Selene's, Sky's too as it would be able to tap into the power of the ICOW, it wanted everyone in this room and I was powerless. I pushed against it, fought for control but it pushed back harder. It was waiting for this chance, for me to let my guard down, I thought I could use its power to save Morgan, but it used me to get to her, I was such a fool.
It was like I was watching myself from above, my body stalked towards Morgan on the marble table in the centre of the room. Ciaran and Selene too wary to do anything to stop me, almost as if they were afraid of what the Taibhs might do, who knows, maybe they were. Sky was also unsure what to do, she was afraid of it also.
"Hunter, stop!" I could hear Sky calling, "You're stronger than this, fight back!" I tried hard again but the Taibhs just laughed at my attempts. "Damn it! HUNTER!" she roared
I felt like I was in a glass box, my face was pressed up against the glass and I was banging my fists on it trying to break through, but it was too thick. I couldn't even make a crack.
Helplessly, I watched through my own eyes unable to do anything as the Taibhs carried me over to Morgan, when we were standing over her I saw that she was conscious but heavily drugged. She looked up at me then, "Hunter," she managed to croak, "Your eyes..."
My eyes? They would be black just like that time in the mirror. I must be terrifying her, she thinks I'm her friend, someone who was supposed to help her but looking at me now all she would see is a monster stalking its prey. I could feel my arm move towards her and my hand hovered over her chest, the Taibhs was going to drain her, kill her. No. NOT HER! With all the power I had I fought against it again, my fist collided with the glass box in my mind and suddenly the glass cracked, it was no bigger than a penny but it was enough.
My hand hovered above Morgan, it was barely half an inch above her chest. The hand shook with the internal war going on inside. The Taibhs roared, ferociously fighting back for control. I could feel myself growing tired, it was so strong.
"Ciaran! Morgan's your daughter!" I heard Sky shout, "You need to stop this! You need to save your child!"
"NO!" Selene screeched, "She lies, Ciaran! They're trying to manipulate you,"
"The only one manipulating you here is Selene." Sky was more persistent now, "She is your daughter, yours and Maeve Riordan's, she is a product of your mùirn beatha dàn. Just look at her eyes, she has her father's eyes. Your eyes!"
Next thing I knew I was being tackled onto the ground. I assumed at first by Sky to save Morgan, but it was Selene, she put her hand on my chest and shouted a few harsh words in Gaelic, I cried out involuntarily. I felt a lot of pain, it was like my insides had been ripped out, after a few seconds though, I felt it. Or rather didn't feel it. The Taibhs was gone.
I saw Selene's eyes fill with blackness, she had took it into herself, just to beat Ciaran. Was she so arrogant about her own strength and power that she believed she could control that monster? She was mistaken.
I ignored the pain I was in and climbed to my feet and ran over to Sky, preparing for battle. I looked over to Ciaran to see where we stood with his support, he was suddenly oblivious to the chaos all around him and was staring at Morgan, as if seeing her for the first time, finally he understood now what it was like to have a big bombshell dropped on him, but this was the wrong time to do nothing. Save her! I screamed at him with my mind, he looked at me, his eyes wide, he had heard me, Save your daughter! Still he didn't move, he was completely shell-shocked. Sky and I were alone in this.
I could see Sky crafting a spell out the corner of my eye, so to give her cover and the time she needed to complete it I conjured the strongest balls of witch fire that I could and fired them at Selene, they practically bounced off her she was too powerful, but at least it distracted her and focused her anger towards me.
With a wave of her hand she sent me flying into the wall, it knocked the wind right out of me. I looked up and saw Sky on trying to climb up onto her knees, she too was sent flying.
Selene now had the Taibhs within her. With all the power she had collected in her life and now with the added power of the Taibhs And everything that it had collected through me over the years, I knew now that she was the most powerful being in this room and that was when the realisation hit me, we weren't going to win this, we were going to die.