Page 109 of Beauty

ChapterThirty-Five

Lachlan

I feel the moment the eddy wind covers the air aboveme. There’s a split second before there are soldiers on the ground.

And my sword is back at camp. Gods, I walked off without mysword.

Immediately I reach out to try to find the dead and callthem to aid me, but my power is so much weaker now.

Why can’t I call it?

“Lach?” Bron’s voice calls through the trees as the soldierssurround me.

How many? Too many. And I’m not sure where Bron is. I strikeout, my fists my only weapon. There are dead around, but only animals, andsmall ones at that. I’m in a forest, far from the cemeteries and crypts thatwould bring me an army.

A burning sensation scorches my side.

I throw my elbow behind me and catch a soldier in the face.Where is Bron?

And then a shout comes up and the sound of metal on metal.There’s a clanging and a roar.

Duffy wields his axe, cutting soldiers off at the legs. Theyfall to their knees, large hacking wounds making it impossible for them towalk. A soldier brings his sword down on Duffy’s head, but Duffy simply keepsfighting.

“Get Bronwyn!” Duffy shouts. “Get her and my Gilly out ofhere. This is my job, brother. This is my fight.”

I look down at my little brother, so much pain in my heart,but Duffy is right. It’s his time, no matter what I want. No matter how I’vetried to pretend it didn’t happen.

I fight my way out of the throng as the first sonic boomhits. Roan found his way to us and he and his vampires are battling thesoldiers. So are the men from Aoibhneas. Nate and Zane are fighting, knives intheir hands.

Bron. I have to find Bron.

And then I see her. She stands at the clearing, facing theriver. She’s dressed in nothing but Shim’s battered shirt, her sweetly curvedlegs bare and her naked feet in the grass. She looks so young and fragile.

And the hag holds her by the neck.

The hag, with her midnight-black hair and even darker eyes,smiles and holds up her hand, and in a wink of an eye is gone, her body pulledup by the eddy wind she rode.

My sweet Bron vanishes.

Shim comes running, but the battle is done. He looks up intothe air, lifting his hands. I can sense what he’s going to do and run to tacklehim. I hit Shim full force and hold his hands down.

“You can’t use your power. You don’t know what that willdo.”

“My power can’t hurt Bron,” Shim insists. “Fire can’t hurther. She was in the middle of that fire for minutes when we found her the firsttime. It knows who its master is.”

“And air? How about that, Shim? If you burn away the eddycloud and she falls a hundred or two hundred feet, how will you save her thistime?” I’m going to be sick.

And then I feel her. A calm presence. Bronwyn’s voice fillsmy head.

Bring the war to me. Bring them all to me. She won’tkill me. You have time and I have power. I love you. I love you both. Trust inme. Believe in me.

I sit back, her words hitting me like a hammer. I know whatshe intends to do.

“We have to go after her,” Shim says, standing up. “They’lltake her to the palace.”

It would be the sensible thing to do. I can rally whatevertroops are left and we could search for her. I could save her and carry heraway and give the fight back to her brothers. I can still have what I want.

But it isn’t what Bron wants. What Bron wants is a chance toend the war. She doesn’t want the crown and she no longer wants revenge. Thattruth was found deep in her soul. She wants to end the war, to bring back thekingdom of her youth and to give her people their freedom.