Page 58 of Gorgeous Nightmare (Ariel Kimber 8)
Magic popped the air like a cannon, the particles making waves like a lapping pool. Energy rushed over my skin, my head twisting to the side.
I was hallucinating. There could be no other explanation.
A fae door cut out of nothing floated near the property line, a figure walking through the opening.
Dzsinn.
My lids narrowed, blinking again, trying to clear my vision. My mind was playing tricks on me. Almost no one could work the fae doors since the barrier fell between the worlds. And you couldn’t show up inside a protected Druid barrier. Fae couldn’t counter a Druid spell.
Yet the battlefield went still, and a gasp rose from Sonya.
“How did they get in? What did you do!” she screeched at Dubthach.
“N-nothing.” Dubthach back from me, in shock. “It’s not possible.”
Sonya shoved her disbelief away, schooling her face, turning to the single man who had broken through.
“Is that your great talent, cousin?” She clasped her hands on the wall, trying to hide her confusion, appearing annoyed. “Popping through fae doors?”
“He should not be able to do it.” Dubthach shook his head in a hiss. “He is fae.”
“Yes, I am fae.” Dzsinn smiled, answering the Druid, but looking at Sonya. “But some of my friends are not.”
Movement came from behind him, the air fluttering like waves. Figures filed out of the door, and I heard Raven gasp through her gag, my own voice getting lost in the sea of poison.
Faces I recognized from a year ago stepped into the gardens—Ember, Eli, Cooper, West, Gabby, Cole, Dax, Dominic and a few more I didn’t recognize.
But when her father, Lorcan, emerged alongside a tiny brunette, looking so much like her daughter, I had to blink again. Her expression was fierce, magic billowing around her, telling me not to take her petite frame for granted.
The Sovereign of the Unified Nations.
Queen Kennedy.
Chapter 24
Raven
?
“Mom!” My garbled cry got caught behind my gag. I wiggled against Iain’s hold. “Dad!”
Seeing my family, my uncles and aunts there, filled my body with warmth and hope. As if actual adults were finally here to handle everything, and I could be the little girl and hide within their protective arms.
But right behind that feeling came fear. Guilt. They were all here for me. I put them in a position to have to protect me. Save me.
Again.
“Stop moving,” Iain snarled in my ear. He yanked out a blade, the sharp sting stilling me when he cut into my neck.
A noise came from beside me, darting my gaze down to Ash. Sweat coated his skin, his eyes shiny and glazed, a lip curled at Iain while he swayed on his knees.
Panic gutted out my lungs. True terror like I had never felt before vibrated my bones. The link between us was hazy, a thread still clutching for dear life. Soon it would be gone.
“Release my daughter.” My mother’s voice came from the garden below. Dressed down in jeans and a sweater, her long dark hair pulled back, she still held the authority of a queen. Torin, my mother’s personal guard, was right behind her like he always was, never leaving her side. She was petite like me, with a youthful face and soft voice, but I knew that tone. The strength and ferocity behind her beauty. So many underestimated her, thought her too delicate to really fight. Some fighters didn’t need muscles and weapons. Her mind, like mine, could tear through flesh and break people’s will to her own.
Standing to her right was Aunt Fionna, King Lars’s mate, dressed in similar attire. Where my mother was a natural obscurer, Aunt Fionna had trained herself in the dark arts and became skilled in black magic, though she wasn’t a strong seer as my mother. It went all to her daughter, Piper.
Six years older, my stunning cousin was one of the most powerful Druid seers in existence. Power like hers was a double-edged sword. It broke her grasp on reality some days, made her flighty and not always present in this world. Adrift in the multiple visions of the future that could unfold, she had trouble understanding what was real and what wasn’t.