Moira’s vision wavered, and the voices that spoke to her seemed to blur as well, as if the world were suddenly underwater.
When she came back to herself she was on her knees. Glenna was gripping her shoulders and saying her name.
“I’m all right. I’m all right. It was just…it was so much. Just need my breath back.”
“Take your time. It was a powerful spell, only more so because we used blood.”
Moira looked down at the slice on her hand. “Everything’s a weapon,” she stated. “As Blair says. Whatever it takes, as long as it works.”
“I’d say it has,” Hoyt said quietly.
Following his direction, Moira saw Cian standing outside the circle. Though the cloak protected him from the last rays of the sun, she could see his eyes, and the fury in them.
“Well then. We’ll leave the men to finish setting up camp.”
“Lean on me,” Glenna told her. “You’re white as a sheet.”
“No, it won’t do.” Though her knees were still like pudding. “The men can’t see me drooping now. I’m just a bit off in the stomach is all.”
As she crossed the field, Cian turned on his heel and strode back to the house.
He was waiting inside, and something of his mood must have translated as he was alone.
“Are you trying to lay her out before Lilith gets the chance?” he demanded. “What are you thinking, dragging her into magicks like that, strong enough to brew up your own personal hurricane.”
“We needed her,” Hoyt said simply. “It isn’t an easy matter to throw a net over an area so large that holds so many. And as it stopped you on the edge, the spell holds.”
It hadn’t just stopped him, but had shot jolts of electricity through him. He was surprised his hair wasn’t standing on end. “She’s not strong enough to—”
“Don’t tell me what I’m not strong enough to do. I’ve done what was needed. And isn’t that the same you’d say to me if I dared question your reckless journey to the valley? Both are done now, and we’re able to stand here and argue about it, so I’d say both are well done. I’m told I have a chamber upstairs. Does anyone know where it might be?”
“First door, left,” Cian snapped.
When she walked, haughtily, he thought, up the stairs, he cursed. Then followed her.
She sat in the chair by the fire that had yet to be lit, with her head between her knees.
“My head’s light, and it doesn’t need you bringing a scold down on it. I’ll be myself again in a moment.”
“You seem yourself to me.” He poured water into a cup, held it down so she could see it. “Drink this. You’re white as a corpse. I’ve made corpses with more color than you.”
“A lovely thing to say.”
“Truth is rarely pretty.”
She sat back in the chair, studying him as she drank the water. “You’re angry, and that’s just fine and good, as I’m angry right with you. You knew I was here, but you didn’t come down.”
“No, I didn’t come down.”
“You’re a great fool, is what you are. Thinking you’d ease back from me, that I’d let you. We’ve only days left before we end this thing, so you go ahead and take steps back from me. I’ll just take them toward you until your back’s in the corner. I’ve not only learned to fight, I’ve learned not to fight clean.”
She gave a little shiver. “It’s cold. I’ve nothing left after that spell to get the fire lit.”
He moved toward the hearth, and before he bent down for the tinderbox, she took his hand. And she pressed it against her cheek.
It broke him, a snap like glass. He lifted her out of the chair, holding her off the floor while his mouth plundered hers. She simply wrapped herself around him, wantonly, arms and legs.
“Aye, that’s better,” she said breathlessly. “Much warmer now. The hours seemed endless since I watched you go. So little time, so little, for eternity.”