It wouldn’t stop her. She knew what needed to be done, and she understood this girl didn’t need to die. The texts said a female of the clan should be sacrificed on her twenty-fifth birthday. The girl on the slab was not a member of the Claughdid. Siobhan doubted she was even twenty-five. A virgin, possibly, but what did that matter? If the texts were to be followed to the letter, one item out of three wasn’t going to cut it. Especially not when Siobhan herself still met more of the criteria and had been deemed unworthy.
Two days ago she’d believed the Claughdid clan did what was hard but what was right. Now—because of her own selfish desire to live—she could see the absurdity of the clan’s ways more clearly. They protected people, that was undeniable, but did that justify killing innocents when they thought it bettered their cause?
Siobhan’s fingers twitched.
She didn’t know what to believe, but she knew she couldn’t blindly believe in the gospel of the druids anymore.
The protective field shimmered, wavering between something of substance and no longer existing. Siobhan’s grip tightened, and the shake vanished from her fingers. Whether or not the man in her sights was her father, she would shoot him if she needed to.
She hoped she wouldn’t need to.
The barrier came down with a whoosh of misty air like a wave breaking against a pier. Next to her, the nearly forgotten Shane staggered back two steps and gasped in a hard breath like he’d been sucker-punched. He held his gun as though he wanted to shoot something, but at least for the moment there was nothing to shoot.
Siobhan took a step forward, and her father raised a hand without looking up to see her move.
“Don’t,” he warned.
“The gate has been sated. Move so I can save the girl.”
Eion laughed gruffly and got to his feet, his balance shaky from the effort of the spell he’d just completed. “My ritual is not done.”
Behind him, the red horse-monster grabbed one of the remaining druids, sinking clawed fingers deep into the man’s ribs. Screams echoed across the circle, followed by the meaty sound of flesh being rended from bone. The creature stuffed dripping handfuls of the druid’s fatty tissues into its gaping, fanged mouth.
So far it hadn’t noticed Eion, Shane and herself. But they were running out of red shirts, and soon enough the beast would come for them.
“What are you trying to prove?” Siobhan seethed. Her fingers were twitching now for another reason. Now she sort of wanted to shoot her father.
“You’ve disobeyed us. Proven you are but weak mortal flesh, like all women.”
“Dude,” Shane said, shaking his head while shifting his attention momentarily away from the monster. “Weak mortal flesh? Seriously? This woman will kick. Your. Ass.”
Bolstered by Shane’s assessment of her, Siobhan gave Eion a smile loaded with a threat.
“I fathered a disappointment,” Eion replied, sucking all the wind back out of her sails.
“Hey, Dad?” Siobhan jerked her chin up to make sure Eion’s glare moved from Shane back to her. “About that warrior job you seem to think I’m unfit for?”
Her father grunted, puffing up his chest to make himself appear larger, looking like he was bracing for a fight.
She released the arrow she’d been holding for what felt like an eternity, and it flew free with a twang. The air seemed to part around the projectile, and for Siobhan it all happened in slow motion. The feathered tail end of the arrow twisted as it moved, and a moment before it struck home she watched her father’s eyes widen with shock.
“I quit,” she said, as the arrow lodged itself into his all-too-human flesh.
Chapter Thirteen
If there were more time, Shane would have taken a second to marvel at the woman standing next to him. The chick had just shot her own father with an arrow, and she made it look easy. Anyone who thought women weren’t twice as badass as men clearly weren’t spending time with the same caliber of ladies Shane was.
The problem was—in spite of Siobhan’s stellar aim—she’d shot to wound instead of kill, hitting Eion in his shoulder. In doing so she’d failed to consider that her father wasn’t the kind of man who was going to lie down and let them finish what they’d come to do. Eion had regained his footing, and the look he’d fixed on his daughter said she was in for way more trouble than being grounded.
They had bigger problems, though.
Literally.
The already mammoth-sized horse-monster had grown at least a foot in height since eating the druids, and Shane didn’t want to wait to find out if it would keep growing the more it ate.
“Hey, Red?”
Siobhan was busy reloading her bow but gave a small grunt of acknowledgment.