“This was passed to me, hand to hand, magick to magick, son to daughter, daughter to son.” Bran held up the athame, then slid it into the cauldron. “Your bow, fáidh.”
Sasha held it out to him. In her eyes Riley saw not only the love, the absolute faith, but a great deal of the wonder she felt herself.
When he’d put the bow in the cauldron, he turned to Annika, who wordlessly held out her arms. He took the cuffs, added them.
In full trust, Riley gave Bran her guns, even the knife at her hip. Sawyer did the same, then pulled out his compass.
“You should take this, too.”
“Are you certain?” Bran asked him.
“Yeah. Passed to me, hand to hand.”
Adding it, Bran turned to Doyle, took his bow. “Will you, again, trust me with your sword?”
“You, and all within this circle, as I’ve trusted no others in three hundred years.”
Bran lowered the sword, impossibly, into the cauldron.
“We fight for light, our might for right. All we are in body, in spirit, in mind bound beyond the stars we find. On this night, by this mark, we are clann, and under this symbol united stand.”
The mist above the cauldron stirred and formed the symbol of the coat of arms.
“Do you will this to be?”
Rather than speak, Riley took Sawyer’s hand, then Doyle’s. And all six joined around the circle.
“Then by our wills, so mote it be.”
In the smoke, the replica of the coat of arms burned bright, flashed into flame, then lowered into the cauldron.
And all went still.
“Wow. Can I hear an amen?” Sawyer asked.
Riley blew out a breath. “Amen, brother. You got some major chops, Irish.”
“Well, we do what we can.” Bran drew out Doyle’s sword, held it to the moonlight. Just below the hilt, the coat of arms was etched into the steel.
“It’s ours,” Annika murmured. “Our family.”
Bran lifted out her cuffs, slipped them back on her wrists. She traced her fingers over the new symbols. “They’re only more beautiful now.”
“And potentially more powerful.” Bran handed Riley the guns. “Unity is strength, and I believe that will translate.”
Sawyer took his sidearms, studied the symbol on the grips, like Riley’s. “It’s a good thing.” And took his compass, now bearing the coat of arms. “A real good thing.”
Let her come, Riley thought, and searched the sky. Let her come and test the Clan of the Guardians.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Nerezza didn’t come that night, or the next. She sent no vicious creatures to attack when they dived the cold waters of the Atlantic to search.
Nothing lurked in the forest, hovered in the sky.
Sasha had no visions.
Riley used the time to her advantage. She drilled, she practiced, she worked out until her body began to feel like itself again. She spent hours with books, computers, notes.