Page 10 of Shadow Spell

“I swear by our blood,” Teagan said, “we are the three, and will ever be.”

“Now we close the circle, but never again close off what we are, what we have, what we were given.” Brannaugh released their hands. “We leave on the morrow.”

***

EYES WEEPY, AILISH WATCHED BRANNAUGH PACK HER SHAWL.“I beg you to stay. Think of Teagan. She’s but a child.”

“The age I was when we came to you.”

“As you were a child,” she said.

“I was more. We are more, and must be what we are.”

“I frightened you by speaking of Fial. You cannot think we would force a marriage upon you.”

“No. Oh no.” Brannaugh turned then, took her cousin’s hands. “You never would. It is not for Fial we leave you, cousin.”

Turning, Brannaugh packed the last of her things.

“Your mother would not want this for you.”

“My mother would want us to be home, happy and safe with her and our father. But that was not to be. My mother gave her life for us, gave her power to us. And now her purpose to us. We must live our lives, embrace our power, complete our purpose.”

“Where will you go?”

“To Clare, I think. For now. We will come back. And we will go home. I feel it as true as life. He will not come here.”

Turning back, she looked into her cousin’s eyes, her own like smoke. “He will not come here or harm you or any of yours. This I swear to you on my mother’s blood.”

“How can you know?”

“I am one of three. I am a dark witch of Mayo, first daughter of Sorcha. He shall not come here nor harm you or yours. You are protected for all of your life. This I have done. I would not leave you unprotected.”

“Brannaugh...”

“You worry.” Brannaugh laid her hands over her cousin’s hands, which rested on the mound of her belly. “Have I not told you your son is well and healthy? The birthing will go easy, and quickly as well. This I can promise as well, and I do. But...”

“What is it? You must tell me.”

“As you love me so still you fear what I have. But you must bide me now, in this. Your son, this one to come, must be the last. He will be healthy, and the birthing will go well. But the next will not. If there is a next, you will not survive.”

“I... You cannot know. I cannot deny my husband the marriage bed. Or myself.”

“You cannot deny your children their mother. It is a terrible grieving, Ailish.”

“God will decide.”

“God will have given you seven children, but the price for another will be your life, and the babe’s as well. As I love you, heed me.”

She took a bottle from her pocket. “I have made this for you. Only you. You will put it away. Once every month on the first day of your courses, you will drink—one sip only. You will not conceive, even after you take the last sip, for it will be done. You will live. Your children will have their mother. You will live to rock their children.”

Ailish laid her hands over the mound of her belly. “I will be barren.”

“You will sing to your children, and their children. You will share your bed with your man in pleasure. You will rejoice in the precious lives you brought into the world. The choice is yours, Ailish.”

She closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them, they turned dark, dark. “You will call him Lughaidh. He will be fair of face and hair, blue of eye. A strong boy with a ready smile, and the voice of an angel. One day he will travel and ramble and use his voice to make his living. He will fall in love with a farmer’s daughter, and will come back to you with her to work the land. And you will hear his voice across the fields, for he will ever be joyful.”

She let the vision go. “I have seen what can be. You must choose.”

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