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I forced my head up. Saw a blur of light. Unnatural light. Light that burned with the force of the sun.
Rogan, running for the gate.
I thrust up and threw myself at him in a last-ditch effort to trip him up and stop him entering the gate.
I failed.
He simply leapt over the top of me and plunged into the blackness. I thrust to my feet but didn’t move. I simply stood there, weaving like a drunkard, bound to the spot by the morbid desire to see what happened next.
For several minutes, nothing did. Then an invisible fist of power hit me, lifting me up and casting me backward. I had a brief glimpse of shredded black flags, of an impossibly airy tunnel, the bloody remains of a woman, and finally a ball of fierce white light in the middle of which stood a man. A skeletal man who wore a glowing crown and who gripped a black sword lodged deep into the earth and who screamed, endlessly screamed, while a golden serpent with glowing green eyes flowed around him, consuming the burning figures that threw themselves at the united Claws in a desperate attempt to smother and stop...
I hit the ground and rolled down the hill, deep into the forest, deep into the new growth. Heard the songs of the trees and felt soft layers of leaves and limbs wrap around me, cocooning me, protecting me.
I was safe.
I could let go.
Unconsciousness swamped me, and I knew no more.
Epilogue
I woke to a soft,rhythmic beating. I listened for a very long time, comforted by its presence and the fact that I still had a heart and pulse to beat.
That I hadn’t ended up as nothing more than bits of chewed-up meat in some Annwfyn’s stomach was a miracle in itself... Then the memories of those last few desperate minutes rose, along with one inescapable fact.
I’d failed.
Rogan hadn’t.
He’d taken the Claws into Annwfyn and unleashed their power. I had no idea if it would indeed stop them or even destroy them... was it even possible to destroy a world that was a shadow of our own without affecting our own?
Only time—and maybe the gods themselves—could answer that question.
I opened my eyes. Lugh was asleep in a chair next to the hospital bed, his big feet propped on the end, his arms crossed and head tilted back. I had no idea how he could sleep soundly enough to snore in that sort of position, but as he’d no doubt say, he’d probably slept in worse.
If he’d been injured in the rollover, there was no sign of it. But given I was in hospital, it was more than likely that even if he had been battered and bruised, he would have been healed by now.
But he wasn’t the only one in the room. Darby stood on the other side, checking and recording my vital signs.
“Hey,” I said softly.
“Hey,” she replied. “Glad to see you’re finally awake.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How long have I been out?”
“A couple of days. We fixed all the breaks easy enough, but it’s taken longer to replenish fluids and nutrients. Whatever you did up there basically caused your body to waste away.”
“I used the lightning.”
“Didn’t Beira warn you against that?”
“Yep. But it was either that or become an Annwfyn’s lunch. How did I get here?”
“How do you think?” Darby motioned toward Lugh with her chin. “That big lug found you and brought you here.”
“The big lug resents being called a big lug,” he grumbled. He opened his eyes and studied me. “Well, at least you look less like a skeleton and more like your regular self. You had me worried for a while there.”
I smiled and lightly placed my hand over his. “I’m going to be around to give you hell for centuries yet, I promise you that.”
