Shadow's Edge (22 page)

In the center of the circle that my sisters and I formed, tiny white orbs began to appear, circling like headlights on the horizon. A moment later, black mosquito dots began to circle next to the lights, first creating their own swirls before intermingling with the light dots. The black and white spheres circled together as though in a dance.

“Get back!” I said to my sisters, tugging Rhea up by her arm. My sisters scrambled across the dirt, crawling back to where Brooke sat on the ground clutching a bleeding, bald patch of her scalp.

Melissa was moving backward, making room for a purple cloud taking shape in front of her. Amidst the dirt and gravel of the construction site, the physical margins of ancient, mystical beings formed. We faced each other.

A flash of lightning separated the sky, illuminating the machinery around us.

And in that instant—in that spark—They were in our realm.

In front of us, Light and Dark Créatúir formed a battle line. The Noves monster bared his rows of teeth, his purple wings extended, as Queen Anya stood at attention, her leopard spots slick with anticipation. A siabra, white hair flowing down his back, looked briefly at the unicorn next to him, while an olive green ogre with yellow eyes held a wooden club to his chest, ready to battle.

They stood next to one another, a jumble of deep purple, ethereal white, glowing orange, and inky black fur. The Light and the Dark, together.

It was beautiful.

“Oohhh,” I heard Gia sigh as she looked at the Créatúir. “They're so beautiful!” My sisters seemed stunned by the beauty and exquisite wonder in front of us. I can imagine it was like discovering that ice cream is made in flavors other than vanilla.

Through the crowd of Créatúir in front of us, in between the black-clad shoulder of a baobhan sith and the green head of a leaf dragon, I saw the Fomoriians. Despite all of the nightmares, all of the macabre horrors, that I'd seen on Inis Mor, nothing could have prepared me to see the Fomoriians.

Putrid black and green scales covered their bodies like concrete exoskeletons. They stood six feet tall, with thick waists surrounded by rusty chain-metal armor. Parasitic worms erupted from their skulls, as if feeding off of their brains. The worms' slimy bodies trailed down the Fomoriians' thick shoulders like dreadlocks. Their chunky fingers were enclosed around various iron weapons of torture—a glowing hot poker to brand Créatúir, a long silver sword with shingled spikes for maximum damage to delicate Créatúir wings and horns. They stood, silent, like decaying tree trunks. At the end of their battle line was an enormous stone bowl and rod; a mortar and pestle for grinding up any ethereal soldier caught in battle.

“They don't stand a chance,” I whispered to myself.

“Can't we say the incantations now?” Gia tugged on my sleeve.

“We can try,” I said, and nodded to my sisters. We gathered our relics and placed them on the ground before us.
“Sword, Spear, Stone, Cauldron, let thy power come to me. Gaaladriel orcas infitium nambh.”
I whispered the incantation with my eyes closed. I waited for a surge of power, for the elements to appear, for the earth to open up. For
something
to happen.

But I opened my eyes and all I saw were the dejected faces of my sisters, the elemental relics quietly sitting in front of us.

“It must not work after they're already here,” Morgana said, her eyes wide in terror.

“Faire Ó!” one of the ogres called out as they began to charge toward the Fomoriians. The two groups collided in a mess of sparkling colors and swinging weapons. The sky opened up as soon as the first contact occurred, raining down water in thick sheets that soaked the ground and turned the site into a giant mud puddle.

“Get back!” I shrieked to my sisters and Brooke as a hoggle's body came sailing toward us, landing at our feet. We scrambled behind a mound of gravel at the edge of the site.

In front of us, a Fomoriian came up behind Myrddin, who was forming energy balls in his palms and thrusting them at the warriors. The Fomoriian swung a metal spiked club at him and roared as the dark elf crumpled to the ground, centuries of life lost in an instant.

Gia screamed as the Fomoriian tossed Myrddin's body into the mortar and pestle, grinding him up with a sickening crunch. Alerted by her scream, the Fomoriian fixed his black eyes upon my sister, huddled behind a rock.

“Gia!” I called out as I tried to stand up to pull her away from the Fomoriian. But the Fomoriian got to her first, picking her up by one ear as she struggled and thrashed about, screaming for help. Her blond hair tangled around the Fomoriian's thick fingers as he brought her head to him, baring his teeth, ready to sink his knifelike jaws into her scalp.

My sisters were frozen. But I wasn't.

I didn't think as I stood up and ran through the mud, the brown muck, flying across my body, nearly blinding me. I threw my body at the Fomoriian, my bones crunching against him with a sick thud, like running into a concrete wall. The Fomoriian roared again as he threw Gia to the ground, her body splashing into a mud puddle. He reached down and grabbed my neck and squeezed. Instant blackness fell over my eyes, as if everything was happening in slow motion. I could hear the screams of the Créatúir as they were slaughtered; heard the sound of their magic falling to the earth.

And once again, I wondered if I was going to die.

Until, suddenly, the squeezing around my neck stopped and I was dropped to the ground. As I gasped for breath, I looked up, the rain falling into my eyes, and saw Slade plunging a sword into the Fomoriian. The monster's eyes turned to stone and his body cracked into a million pieces, vanishing into the wet air like black sand.

“Yeah, Slade!” I heard Rhea cheer from across the battlefield.

Slade bent down and offered me his hand. He pulled me to a standing position as I surveyed the battle around us.

On the muddy ground of the construction site, the bodies of
Créatúir
, both Light and Dark, lay motionless, awaiting their fate in the mortar and pestle as a Fomoriian went around collecting the dead.

Next to me lay a dead Fomoriian, his sword still sheathed. The sounds of battle and pain were all around us, but the drumming rain was all that screeched in
my ears.

I turned back to my sisters, who watched me as I stood in the center of the battlefield. I bent down and pulled the Fomoriian's sword from his belt and held it in the air.

“Grab their weapons! The
Créatúir
can't fight with iron, but we can! Grab whatever you can, and let's end this. It's the only way!” I thrust my sword higher in the air as I felt my adrenaline surge through me.

“I don't think so, Shaman,” a voice behind me said. I whirled around and saw Melissa. She bent down, ready to grab a thick metal chain from the ground, ready to swing it at me.

A tiara flashed behind Melissa as Brooke said, “We're not done yet!” Brooke jumped into the air and kicked Melissa in the back before she could turn around. It was a high kick, like the kind I'd seen the cheerleaders do in their halftime routine. With Melissa on the ground, Brooke kicked her again and punched her in the stomach. “I bet you don't think cheerleading is a sport!”

With Melissa occupied by Brooke, I turned back to my sisters, who were approaching me with swords, chains, and daggers in their hands.

“You okay?” I asked Gia. She nodded. “Protect her,” I commanded Slade, who answered affirmatively.

“Time to send these demons back to hell, Spencer-sister style!” I shouted. We charged toward the battle, iron weapons drawn. I clashed against a Fomoriian, rain puddles splashing up against me as he knocked me to the ground and threw himself on top of me. His spiked sword was inches from my neck, ready to decapitate me.

You are all my treasures
,
my mother's voice said in
my head.

“Sword, Spear, Stone, Cauldron, let thy power come to me!”
I shouted into the air as the Fomoriian's sword nearly made contact with my jugular. Suddenly, it was as though a white light filled my soul. Tingling energy burst through my fingertips as I effortlessly thrust the Fomoriian off of me with a quick shove and drove my sword into his torso. He sputtered, and a green mist came out from between his knife-teeth before he lay back in the mud, his body turned to stone.

“The incantations! Say the incantations!” I shouted to my sisters. “They give us the extra power to battle them!” I ran to another Fomoriian nearby. The tingling power still surging through my veins, I dispatched my sword horizontally across him before he had time to turn around. The satyr he was ready to snap over his knee gently tumbled to the ground as the Fomoriian fell to the ground in two pieces.

I looked over at Rhea, who was whipping a Fomoriian with a metal chain. “How you do like it, you disgusting beast?” she shrieked as she dragged the chain against the monster's rocky scales. Morgana had a Fomoriian raised over her head. She threw his flailing body into the mortar and pestle, grinding him up as he growled and bellowed. Gia was thrusting a dagger at a smaller Fomoriian, Slade watching her carefully, ready to step in should she be in any danger.

“Go!” Brooke's voice said from behind me. I whirled around and saw her still battling Melissa. Brooke had a purple gash across her face and Melissa's nose was gushing blood. “Fight!” Brooke's right arm punched Melissa in the jaw, causing her to spin around and splash down in the mud. Melissa lurched up and threw her body at Brooke, the two of them landing on the ground with a thud. “Win!” Brooke shrieked, knocking Melissa's head against the ground, stunning her. Then Brooke jumped to her feet, her bald, raw patch of scalp swollen and tender. Melissa lay on the ground, eyes rolling back in her head, looking dazed.

“V-i-c-t-o-r-y,” Brooke said smugly, as she placed her foot on Melissa's stomach.

I saw a glint of green from behind a rock to my left and cautiously approached, weapon in hand. Huddled next to the rock was Macabee, dark hair falling across her face and wide green eyes blinking with fear. Then she smiled at me and opened her arms wide, waiting. She knew. I drove the sword into her body and she melted into the mud, her remains sinking deep into the underworld where she belonged—the earth providing a barrier between Shamans and her whispers.

And then, it was over.

I looked around, at the stone bodies of Fomoriians littering the construction site like mythological statues carved in limestone. Sparkling Créatúir blood mixed with the mud, like rainbows on oil slicks. My sisters and I slowly walked across the landscape, carefully stepping over Fomoriian and Créatúir bodies. The remaining Créatúir were gazing around, stunned at the damage and the outcome. Nuala, the banshee, wandered around the battlefield crying, bloody trails of tears tracking down her face. I stopped next to Slade at Queen Anya's body, which lay motionless in the rain. I lowered my head for the fallen queen.

The last remaining Fomoriian took his final breath next to me. As soon as he was dead, the bodies of the Fomoriians cracked and shattered at once, the dusty stone pieces melting into the muddy earth. Their evil was silenced once again.

Slowly, the Dark and Light Créatúir formed a large circle around me and my sisters. They bowed slowly to us before disappearing into the night, a shower of light orbs and dark bubbles raining down upon us. The only Créatúir who remained with us was Slade.

As though nothing had happened, the lightning disappeared and the earth returned to normal. The storm clouds stopped their endless stream of water, and breath of wind allowed a small patch of the star-filled sky to peek through.

I put my arms around my sisters and drew them close.

“You guys are the best,” I said to them.

“We know,” Gia said, beaming up at me.

“Don't sweat it—I'm sure you'll have to help us sometime soon,” Morgana said.

As we walked away, we heard a creak and looked back to see the hoist line on a crane snap and fall, destroying piles of asphalt below. A tiny cherub flitted away, yet as I looked farther into the horizon, I could see hordes of Créatúir, both Light and Dark, speeding toward the site, strength regenerated from going back to the Other Realm. They were ready to start their next battle against the construction site and finally take back their
sceach.

“You ruined everything!” I heard Melissa cry out. She picked herself up from the ground and walked backward a few steps, watching construction debris fall all around us.

Behind her, a robed figure appeared. I shivered as I saw the blood droplets dripping into the ground, the red cap goblins skittering from under her skirt.

Kiera.

She silently took a step toward Melissa, fangs bared, ready to feast.

“Kiera, no!” I called out, my palms in the air.

“What?” Melissa said as she turned around. She dropped to her knees, begging for mercy, as she saw the baobhan sith behind her.

“Why are you helping her?” Brooke asked, as she reached up and tenderly touched her bruised face.

“There are other ways to punish her than killing her,” I said. “I really don't want to see her get her blood sucked out, no matter what she's done.”

Kiera's eyes met mine for a long second, and then she bowed her head slightly. She reached down and grabbed Melissa's upper arm, pulling her to her feet. Kiera glanced at me one more time before making a ring of mushrooms sprout up around her captive, trapping her in the center.

“No!” Melissa cried out.

A Glancaugh ring; a Dark Créatúir trap.

A cloud of Dark Créatúir whirled up from the ground like dust weevils. Around and around they spun Melissa, faster and faster, until her image slowly faded from view.

“What the hell just happened to her?” Brooke
whispered.