บททั้งหมดของ Hayle Coven Novels: บทที่ 241 - บทที่ 250

We went home. Nowhere else to go, really. I checked for messages, hoping maybe Quaid was over his hissy fit, but no luck. Well, that was just fine, Mr. Jealous. Be that way. I had more important things to fret over than his sensitive ego.Angry, I almost snapped at the voice on the other end of the phone when I answered the insistent ringing."Did I get you at a bad time?" Angela's voice quavered."No, not at all." I instantly dialed back my annoyance and focused on her. "Is everything okay?""Oh, yes, I'm sorry, of course." Her nervous laugh told me she felt guilty for letting amusement out in any form. "I was just hoping... Alison is awake, and I was thinking it would be nice...""I'm on my way now." Like I wasn't tired enough. But when I hung up to her very grateful goodbye, I knew I made the right choice.I turned to go and found Meira watching me."I want to come with you." Her amber eyes faded slowly to blue, skin tinting to human tone. "Can I?"Um. What would Mom do? Exp

Liam and I were casing the steps of the home when I spotted someone I recognized. Angela emerged from the building and registered my presence at the same moment, a huge smile taking over her face as she hurried to Minnie."Syd!" She leaning in my hastily opened window and hugged me. "How sweet of you to come to see Alison again so soon. They are just getting her settled, but you should be able to go in shortly."Oh, crap. Al was here?My smile must have looked pathetic, but she seemed to accept it at face value. "Did she make the trip okay?"Angela's smile was much better than mine. "She did, thank you, Syd. Are you a friend of my daughter's?" She held out her hand to Liam across me. He shook it with great grace."She's a wonderful person," he said. "I hear you both love my mom."A quick chat about Sonja's hairdressing skills and his acceptance was sealed."The nurses might give us a hard time," I said as I climbed out of the car, a half-formed plan in my head, leaning ever so g

The air tingled around me as I passed through the magic doorway into the stone chamber beyond. Not just one chamber, it turned out, but a triad of linking rooms, all open to each other through doorless entries. I peeked in the first on our way past, spotting a large carved bed that seemed to be constructed of a huge oak tree. The next was some kind of office or study, stretching back into the dimly lit distance. Fergus didn't pause, so my chance to look around was brief. What I saw, what I felt, took me back centuries to a time when the Sidhe walked the earth among humans.But the final chamber, the smallest but most impressive, took my complete attention the moment we entered. There, against the far wall, stood the Gate. I'm not sure what I was expecting, maybe some elaborately carved golden filigree, a giant cast iron monstrosity maybe. Instead, I was greeted by a carved wooden doorway, if that door was built for giants. It stretched upward into the gloom of the vaulted chamber and

The moment the Gate's power released the seal between worlds, I threw my power at it and created my own.I think I was more shocked it worked than I was relieved.They were clearly visible, the horde of the Sluagh, pressing against my magic, already worming their way to the edges, looking for a break, a chink in my armor, a place I was weak. But with Liam's Keeper blood tied to the barrier I'd erected, the Gate responded by welcoming my shield and feeding it with its own magic.For now."Now what?" His voice was a little high-pitched, palm sweating in mine.I wished I had a clue. "Galleytrot, we need Fergus!"The faces of the Unseelie gathered behind the barrier were coming into view. I wanted to look away, afraid of what I might see. But Shaylee forced me to focus, to look on her people, and I realized then that as evil as we humans might perceive them to be, they were beautiful to her.Large, as big as bears some of them, larger, with distorted features and patches of hair han

Erica waited for me in the kitchen. "I just saw Celeste leave." Her expression was troubled, but I just shrugged."She has her orders," I said. Erica paused, like she wanted to ask me what happened, but I was already marching downstairs.Dad looked up, startled, backing off when I approached the pentagram. The witches followed, a long stream of them, faster than I expected, but silently, expectant.When the last of our family, Meira and Sassafras huddled in the corner with Dad included, had passed the wards, I sealed them with us inside and opened to the family. Mom's mind flickered against my attempt to keep her out, but for now I was in charge."The Gate is real." I showed them, dragged them through what I'd been through in the last few hours as they gasped and moaned and raged with me against the Unseelie and the wounding of Fergus."Syd," Erica's voice trembled, hands reaching for me as I shrugged her off. "You can't go."The whole coven immediately echoed her mentally with t