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“So, two hundred years later, we finally made it across the veil again to fight the Fomori?” Jace asked.

“Oh”—Danu shook her head— “several versions of yourselves have been born. Each time, I hid you all the best I could so that Bres would not find you. Getting you to the age that you could take back your powers has been difficult since every one of you needs to be in the fight for the natural balance to be sustained, but every time in the past, one or more of you has never made it to adulthood. Bres would hunt you all and kill you the moment he laid eyes on you.

“This is the first time he hasn’t, but now that you have your powers, he knows you’ve awakened. Finally, you are all here, alive and well, which I am extremely thankful for because this is our last chance. I will not survive another lifetime waiting for you all.”

“We live, get our powers, and are ready to fight? Why couldn’t we fight them before instead of getting exiled from the world?” Justin asked.

“That, my dear children, is a question I have yet to figure out. They are darkness where you are light, but that was not enough in the past, when you had greater strength due to earth breathing life into your powers. Now, we must figure out how to fight demons in a hell of their own making.”

Chapter 24

BrynranafterSage,the woman taking off at a tear.

The moment Danu had told them about the demons they were up against, Sage was on the move. It was going to surely be an underdog story for the ages... if they lived.

If there was a way to have knowledge at their fingertips like their ancestors, Bryn would find a way to get that for Sage just to keep the hummingbird of a woman in one place for more than a minute.

“Sage, wait!” she yelled, following her through the alleyways of the buildings as her friend didn’t bother to slow down.

Making her way to the cottage, Sage disappeared inside but left the door open behind her for Bryn.

Footsteps thudded behind them, and Bryn knew they’d have company soon, she just hoped it was company that wouldn’t bring pitchforks and torches.

As Bryn broke through the doorway, Sage’s focus was already completely on the shelves of books in her home.

Turning back to the footsteps following them, Bryn stood guard and relief ran through her as Jace and Justin ran into the cottage. Kessler sauntered in at his own pace, tipping an imaginary hat to Bryn as he moved past her. Closing the door behind them, the room not large enough to hold three large men, she was barely able to maneuver her way through to Sage.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of skin contact, but she was relieved when no visions came. Her friends were not going to die anytime soon, and that was the only balm for her confused state of mind.

No shocks either, which she found curious but decided to focus on what was at hand.

“Here!” Sage put the book on the table. “The Fomorians, or Fomori. Celtic mythology. They were demons who rose from the sea to fight the Tuatha Dé Danann and lost. They were then forced back underground.”

“It doesn’t seem like we won at all,” Jace whispered as he looked around the room. “Obviously they came back with a vengeance.”

“They had the opportunity to since our ancestors destroyed the world for their descendants,” Kessler murmured from his place along the wall.

“The king is Fomori himself, which means we have to kill him to end it all...” Jace worked out, as if saying the words aloud would make more sense than they did in his head.

“Sure, that sounds easy.” Justin laughed, crossing his arms as he shook his head. “This is all a joke. We have an old lady running our minds in circles and trying to get us to commit regicide.”

Killing the king did sound like a terrible idea, and like her friends, Bryn was rethinking this whole thing now that they were no longer face-to-face with Danu.

What evidence did they actually have that Danu was who she said she was? There was nothing to prove who the bad guys were. They would hardly wear nametags proclaiming them the enemy.

Perhaps all the happenings that Bryn took as proof of Danu’s theory was just Bryn going deeper into madness. It certainly made a lot more sense.

Sage stopped pacing, holding a book. She turned a page, then turned back again with a hitch in her breath. Her fingers went to her lips, her mouth forming a softOat whatever she had just read.

“I...” No more words came forward as her body went so still Bryn wondered if she still breathed. Sage was a living statue as Jace moved toward her.

“What is it, Sage?” he asked, taking the book gently from her hands, her head moving up and her eyes meeting Jace’s. Something in Sage’s eyes said she was terrified, as if pleading for him to read it, to tell her that what she had just read was wrong.

Giving her a pat of reassurance on the shoulder, Jace looked down at the book, his eyebrows furrowing as his eyes moved over the page, then to the top as he bit his lip, his breath quickening. Turning the page, his face went slack.

“No... no. . .,” he whispered as he turned the page back and forth just as Sage had. The book fell from his fingers, and he made no attempt to grab it again. It was a testament to how shocked Sage was that she didn’t bristle at the mishandling of her precious tome.

Justin grabbed the book, looking for the passage that had Jace and Sage wound up. His fingers skimming through, turning page after page, while Bryn worked to calm Sage, who was now breathing far too quickly, as Jace started to pace.