Too many.
“How did they get here?”she said into Cian’s mind but suspected she already knew.
Through their shared dream.
Because ithadbeen shared. He had been there every bit as much as her. Only now she understood why he didn’t respond.
“Because I was caught betwixt lives,”he growled.“Caught betwixt memories.”
“And they took advantage,”she realized.“Someone with druidess magic, to be specific.”
“Siobhán.”
“Without doubt.”
“So she knows of our other life? Raghnall knows?”
“Not necessarily.”She felt out the residual magic left behind in a portal pouring out endless enemy warriors.“I think she locked on to our dream and connection with this castle rather than tapping into what we shared in another life.”
“How do we close the portal this time?”
“I wish I knew.”She slashed her sword on their left and took down a warrior rushing them while Cian punched one coming at them from the right.“All I know is I won’t be able to figure it out on Tadhg. You’ve got to let me down.”
She felt his hesitation. His fear at having her anywhere but with him.
“You have to,”she insisted.
“Here, then,”he said, clearly unhappy about it. “Beyond the gates.”
“No.”She refused to be on the outside looking in like she always was in her dream. “I need to get inside.”Whether she did or didn’t, she would not be that far from Cian. Plus, she sensed something else.“There are two portals this time. They infiltrated the inside as well.”
Two portals because they had dreamt at once. That meant two minds. Two points of entrance.
Cian cursed under his breath but agreed.“I’ll let you down once we’re over the drawbridge.”He spoke to Aisling and Oran, who flickered alongside them.“You two keep a close eye on her. That goes for you as well, Aisling. Madison’s life is far more important than mine.”
“I would say yer lives are equal,”she grumbled.
Cian didn’t respond but spurred Tadhg on, and they rode into the fray. Battle roars echoed around them. Enemy warriors came from every direction. The fighting was endless. Brutal. The air smelled of blood and burnt flesh. Excrement and death.
“God, no,” she gasped when they made it into the courtyard, and she saw the carnage. Too many of Cian’s men lay dying while others fought for all they were worth.
Even worse? Whatever agreement enemy Irish wizards might have had no longer stood because there was at least one magic-wielding bastard among the bad guys. So said the magical fireballs crashing into the walls. The cloying smoke filling her nostrils.
Cian swung down and pulled her after him. He met her eyes grimly and nodded once, the warrior in him at the forefront. “Fight well,mo dhraoi.”
She knew he was terrified for her, but he buried it deep. Did what he had to for his people. Before she had a chance to respond, he spun and crossed blades with a man. Seconds later, sensing it coming, she ducked when a tiny fireball sailed over her head. She homed in on the direction from which it came and spied a dark yet beautiful woman glaring down at her from a wall walk.
Siobhán.
She knew it with every ounce of her being. More than that, she knew stopping her was the only way to stop this. To keep more men from coming through her portals.
So she flew into an arched hallway that led to a set of stairs on the side rather than try to dodge Siobhán’s magic all the way up the main stairs. She made it all of five steps before she came across the lifeless bodies of the little girl she’d saved before and her mother.
She bit back tears, murmured a prayer over them she barely understood, and pressed on. Now wasn’t the time for emotion but action. Because she was all that stood between the survival and utter annihilation of Cian’s kingdom and people.
“Wait for me, Madison,”Cian said into her mind, but she ignored him.“’Tis far too dangerous to face her alone.”
Be that as it may, she had no choice because he needed to keep fighting alongside his men. How to take on what she faced, though? How to fight someone like Siobhán, who was undoubtedly a druidess, without the aid of nature? Without the trees? She climbed past more bodies. One of the cooks who had baked such delicious treats for her before she left. The stable boy who had been so kind to her.
