A black bolt spilled out of the sky and scorched the rock at her feet. She inched back and saw the triumph gleam in those red eyes.
"I'm not done," she said coolly, and hurled a stream of fire at him. It was what Sam saw when he tore out of the trees. Mia standing on the edge of the cliff, her white robe shining like silver, her hair flying in the wind, while the monstrous black form rose over her. Fire burst around them, and smoke spewed thick. Out of the turbulent sky, spears of light fell like flaming rain. His cry was more of fury than fear as, with his sword sizzling like lightning, he charged the cliffs. Now! she thought, and whirled on the rocks as if she stood in a ballroom. "On this night I rejoice and make my choice. He chooses me, and I choose him. " She flung out her arms, baring her heart. "This light no force has power to dim. My heart is his, and his for me. And this is our joined destiny. My death I'd give for theirs to spare," she shouted, her voice like thunder as the others spilled out of the woods. "For those I love all would I dare. Three hundred years to end this strife, by these words: I choose love. " She clamped her hand over Sam's as he leaped up beside her. "I choose life. "
The wolf form shuddered into a man. The faces of him, legion, shifted and melted into each other. Her mark scored them all. "You save this place, but not yourself. " His breath spewed out, rotted and foul.
"You'll go with me. "
It leaped, and Sam's sword, bright as water, swung out. "Her mark. And my mark. " As it cleaved, the form spilled into a mist that slithered over the rocks like snakes.
"Bullies never play fair," Mia said as the mist hissed and spit and crawled toward her feet. Power, a
steady stream of white, burned in her. "It's for me to finish. "
"Then finish it," Sam told her.
She tossed aside all shields, opened all locks. The power that had pulsed inside her burst free so that she stood aflame under the ravaged sky. "By all I am, by all I'll be, I hurl the darkness back at thee. With courage, justice, hand, and heart I finish what my blood did start. Now you taste the fear most dire, as you face my righteous fire. "
She stretched out her arm, and in her cupped fingers a ball of flame formed. "Your fate is wrought by the sisters three. As we will, so mote it be. "
For Lulu, she thought. And for all the other innocents.
She hurled the ball into the mists. They burned, writhing. Burned as they spilled over the edge of the cliffs and fell howling into the sea.
"Drown in hell. " Sam's voice echoed. "Die in the dark. Burn eternally with my woman's mark. Your force is crushed by this vast sea. "
"As we will," Mia said, turning to him.
"So mote it be. " He stepped back, drew her with him. "Come away from the edge, Mia. "
"But it's a lovely view. " She laughed, a full-throated, joyous sound and lifted her face to the sky, where stars burst out of the clouds. The moon sailed, a white ship on a calm sea. "God, what a feeling. You'll have questions," she said. "I need a minute first, with Nell and Ripley. "
"Go ahead. "
She walked down the cliffs and into the arms of her sisters.
Later, she left the others in her kitchen and went out into the garden with Sam. "It may be hard for you to understand why I didn't share everything I intended with you, with all of you. It wasn't arrogance, it was - "
The words clogged in her throat when he spun her into his arms, held her crushed against him.
"Necessary," she managed.
"Just don't talk for a minute. Just - Mia. " He buried his face in her hair, rocking, chanting soft words, wild words in Gaelic. Then just as abruptly, he yanked her away, gave her one hard shake. "Necessary, my ass. Necessary to rip the heart out of my chest? Do you know what it was like to see you standing on the edge of that cliff, with that thing coming at you?"
"Yes. " She framed his face in her hands. "Yes. It was the only way, Sam. The only way I knew to be sure. To end it without harm to anyone. "
"Answer me one question. Look straight at me when you answer it. Would you have sacrificed yourself?"
"No. " When his eyes narrowed, she kept hers level. "Risking one's life is different from sacrificing it. Did I risk it, yes, I did. Clearheadedly, because I'm a practical woman with a healthy appreciation for life. I risked it for the only real mother I've ever known. For this place and the people on it. For them," she said, gesturing toward the house. "For the children to come from them. For you. For us. But I intended to live, and as you can see, I did. "
"You planned to leave the circle that way. You planned to take it to the cliffs. Alone. "
"It was meant to end there. I'd prepared in every way I knew how, considered every possibility. And still I missed one that you didn't. When I looked down from the cliffs and saw that circle of light. . . . Sam. " Swamped with love, she leaned into him. "When I felt that strength, that love and faith sweeping up and into me, it was the greatest gift. Who knows what would have happened without it? You did that. By asking for help when I didn't think of it. "
"Islanders stick together. Spread the word to a few people - "
"And word spreads to a few more," she finished. "And they gathered around the cottage and in the woods tonight. All those hearts and minds turned toward me. "
She pressed her hands between her breasts where that song still sang. "Strong magic. You have to understand," she continued, easing back, "I couldn't tell you, any of you. I couldn't allow myself to open even that much, take the chance that what was in my own mind and heart would be read by what we were going to fight. I had to wait until everything was in place. "
"I'm working on that, Mia, but this wasn't your fight. It was ours. "
"I wasn't sure of that. I wanted to be, but I wasn't sure until you stepped out of the circle in front of me. And what you felt for me . . . telling me you love me paled with feeling it burst out of you in that one moment. I knew you'd come after me. I knew then, without question, that we had to finish it together. I need to tell you . . . "
She shook her head, stepped away from him until she was
sure the words would be there. "I loved you once, so much. But my love was twined around my own needs and wants and wishes. A girl's love, that has borders. When you were gone, I made myself lock that love away. I couldn't survive with it alive inside me. Then you came back. "
She turned to him. "It hurt to look at you. As I said, I'm a practical woman, and I dislike pain. I dealt with that. I wanted you, but I didn't have to unlock that love to have you. So I thought. " She brushed his hair from his forehead. "So I wished. But the lock wouldn't hold, and that love spilled out. It was different than it had been, but I didn't see, didn't want to see. Because looking hurt again. Every time you told me you loved me, it was a knife in my heart. "
"Mia - "
"No. I'll finish. The night we sat out here in the garden, with the butterfly? Before you came I'd been trying to settle my mind, once and for all. To reason it all out, to prepare myself. You sat, and you smiled at me, and everything inside me shifted. As if it had only been waiting for that one moment, that one look. When you told me you loved me, it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. Do you know how it made me feel?"
"No. " He skimmed his knuckles over her cheek. "Tell me. "
"Happy. Down-in-the-gut happy. Sam. " She ran her hands down his arms, couldn't stop touching him.
"What I felt for you then, and now, and always will isn't a girl's love. It bloomed out of that, but it's new. It doesn't need fantasies or wishes. If you go - "
"I'm not - "
"If you go again, what I feel for you won't change or be locked away. I had to know that, without a shadow of doubt. I'll cherish it, and what we made together. I know you love me, and that's enough. "
"Do you think I'd leave you now?"
"That's not the point. " Flying on her own heart, she stepped back, turned in a circle. "The point is, I love you enough to let you go. That I won't wonder or worry, or look at you with that shadow on my heart. I love you enough to be with you. To live with you. With no regrets, no conditions. "
"Come here, will you? Right here," he said pointing in front of him. She nodded and walked to him. "Close enough?"
"Do you see these?" He lifted the chain so that the rings were in her line of vision.
"What are they? They're beautiful. " She reached out to touch, and her breath caught at the warmth and the light that pulsed from them. "Their rings," she whispered. "Hers and his. "
"I found his in that cave I told you about, in Ireland. And hers just a matter of days ago, here. In our cave. Can you see what's carved on them, and inside them?"
She traced her finger over the Celtic symbols and read, as her heart began to thud, the Gaelic inside the circles.
He slid the chain over his head, took the smaller ring off. "This is yours. "
All the power that still surged inside her seemed to pause. As if a million breaths were held. "Why are you giving it to me?"
"Because he couldn't keep the promise. But I will. I want to make it to you. I want you to make it to me. Now, and again when you marry me. And every day after that. I want to say it to you every time one of our children is born. "
Her gaze flew up to his. "Children. "
"I had a vision," he began, and brushed the first tear away with his fingertip as it spilled down her cheek.
"You were working in the garden in the very early spring. The leaves were just a green haze, and the sun was soft and yellow. When I came out to you, you stood up. You were so beautiful, Mia. More beautiful than I've ever seen you. You were full with our child. I put my hand on you, over it, and felt it move. Felt that life we'd made just . . . surge. So impatient to be born. I had no idea. "
He took her face in his hands. "No idea what that would mean. No idea that I could want, so much, everything I saw and felt in that one slice of time. Make a life with me, Mia. Our life, and what comes from it. "
"I thought the magic was done for the night. Yes. " She pressed her lips to his cheek. "Yes. " And to the other. "To everything," she said, laughing now as her lips found his. He circled her once, then took her right hand. "That's the wrong finger," she told him.
"You can't wear it on the left until we're married. Let's be a little traditional. And since we are, though I think people who've been in love all their lives should have a very short engagement . . . "
He opened his hand, and where her tear had lain was a slice of light. Grinning at her, he tossed it high, and stars fountained from it, raining down like little sparks of flame.
"A symbol," he said, plucking one of the lights from the air. "A promise. I'll give you the stars, Mia. "
Turning his hand over, he offered her a circle ringed with diamonds clear as water, bright as fire.
"I'll take them. And you. Oh, and you, Sam. " She held out her hand, absorbing the thrill as he slipped the pledge onto her finger. And there it glittered. "What magic we'll make!"
"Let's start now. "
Laughing with her, he lifted her off her feet and danced her around a garden bursting with flowers. And their stars shimmered brilliant against the dark.