Page 159 of First Light

Carys hit the ground as if she’d run into a wall. She felt sick to her stomach and turned to retch, but nothing came out.

“What is that?”

“Black magic,” Lachlan muttered. “She’s more powerful than we knew.”

Dafydd narrowed his eyes. “I feel fae magic too, my boy.”

Duncan walked back and forth along the edge of the shimmering barrier, which flexed and pulsed with power. “Fae magic, is it?” He drew his dragon steel from the scabbard at his side and plunged the tip of it into the earth.

There was a scream in the distance and a shuddering groan as the earth lifted and the ground shook.

“What is that?” Dafydd growled.

“You know what it is.” Duncan left the sword in the ground and nodded at Lachlan. “See if you can get through.”

Lachlan nodded at his brother and pressed his shoulder against the shimmering barrier, which flexed and wobbled for a moment before he pushed through and stumbled to the other side.

“I’m in.” Lachlan looked at Dafydd and Cadell. “Come on.”

Cadell stepped forward, pushing through the shimmering barrier before he turned and helped Carys through, then Dafydd.

Duncan pushed through the barrier, his hand on the sword’s hilt, then he pulled it from the ground behind him and the earth shook again, but Lachlan and Cadell were already running.

I will kill her,Cadell said into Carys’s mind.I will kill her, Nêrys.

She’d never heard Cadell’s voice so cold.

“Come on!”

Duncan ran past a copse of hawthorn trees and stopped. “Mags?”

The body of a small creature lay on the ground. It was dressed a brown dress and a green cap. Its ears were pointed, and it was barely over two feet tall.

“Mags!” Duncan knelt and touched his fingers to the small body. “What has that bitch done?”

The body moved a little bit but not much.

“She was protecting the cottage,” Cadell said. “The bwbach have old power. That this Regan could hurt your brownie means she is more than a human mage.”

Duncan stood and looked at Carys. “Angus. He’ll be in danger.”

“We need to get to the house.” She looked at the tiny body. “Cadell?”

“She’s alive,” Cadell said. “The best thing we can do is kill the mage so Mags can heal from her familiar energy.”

“I’m sorry, old girl.” Duncan placed her gently under the hawthorn trees and they kept moving. “I’ll be back.”

The ground angled up even though the cottage sat on no hill or rise in the earth. Nevertheless, the way forward meant they were climbing over rocks and thorny ground as they approached the cottage.

“How did she do this?”

Dafydd answered. “She’s using fae magic, but I don’t know how.”

“The fae can make a mountain out of flat land?”

Lachlan panted. “How do you think they built their forts?”

Carys slipped and fell as the sky opened up and they were pelted with icy rain. The soft grey clouds turned black as they approached the cottage, which was now perched on top of a mound. The air cracked with lightning, and Mared roared in the distance, covering the sky with fire and black smoke.

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