Page 69 of Rebel in the Deep

He turns and slashes his hands through the air. The glass parts, each pane moving independently away from the horn. Without missing a beat, he spins toward the fighting women. “Siobhan!”

She drops to the floor as if they’ve practiced this move. The panes of glass hit Morrigan in the chest, one after another. By the third, she gets her arms up, her face a mask of fury as she’s driven back several feet, her blood splashing the floor and walls.

It’s the opening Lizzie needs. The vampire slashes her own arms, her blood surging out as if it’s an independent creature, forming into a whiplike weapon that she uses to lash at Morrigan.

Nox skids to a stop in front of the horn and wraps their hands around the smallest bit. Siobhan’s eyes go wide and she throws out a hand.“No!”

I’m moving before I have a chance to think it through, responding to the desperation in her voice. I grab Nox around the waist and haul them back before they can press their lips to the horn. “Wait!”

Then there’s no more space for anything because Morriganhas rallied. She tears into Lizzie, easily dodging the vampire’s strikes and ignoring the way her blood pours unnaturally quickly from the few wounds she has. It’s not enough; they’re already closing, healing faster than we can hurt her.

Lizzie goes down from a vicious backhand, but Evelyn throws up a shield before Morrigan can finish the vampire. She pivots easily to attack Bowen, who barely gets a shield of his own up in time to stop her from disemboweling him.

Siobhan hits her sister hard enough to slam them both into the wall and shake the entire building. Dust cascades down from somewhere overhead, and I pull Nox to the floor, half expecting the roof to cave in on our heads. Nox shoves at me. “Let me up, you fool. We have to stop her.”

I don’t know whichherNox means…until Lizzie cries out. “Don’t you fuckingdare!”

While everyone was distracted, Maeve has reached the horn. The selkie gives Lizzie a small smile filled with sadness and then blows the horn. Every person in the room freezes, even Morrigan, expecting…I don’t know. The Wild Hunt, I suppose. Or something so much worse.

Nothing happens.

“No,” I whisper. I wasso surethat this would work. Ithasto work. “It can’t be.”

Harsh laughter fills the room. Morrigan shoves Siobhan off hard enough to send her rolling across the floor. She laughs. “All for nothing. Just like your little rebellion, sister. I’m going to enjoy crushing every single member, stringing them up on my mast for all to see.”

Siobhan struggles to her feet. She’s bleeding from half a dozen cuts that I can see, and likely more that I can’t. She wipesa river of it from her face. “No, you won’t. Not today. Not ever.” She staggers a little and looks at Bowen. “Hold her.”

Morrigan sneers. She takes a step forward…or she tries. Instead, she rams up against an invisible wall. “Cute. Not good enough.” Even as we watch, she sinks her claws into the barrier of Bowen’s magic and begins to shred it.

He grunts in pain. “Can’t…hold her…long.”

“I only need a few seconds.” Siobhan staggers to the horn. I try to get there first, but I’m tangled up in Nox and they’re attempting the same thing. We topple and hit the ground just as Siobhan reaches the horn. She places her hands gently, reverently, on it and looks at us. “I love you. Both of you.”

Did I think the last few days were a goodbye? I’m a fool.Thisis goodbye, and it feels so final I freeze. “Siobhan, wait!”

She blows the horn. I hold my breath, hoping that nothing will happen, that no one will respond to her summons. The horn doesn’t make a sound in the traditional sense. Instead, a wave of pure power radiates out from it.

My ears pop and Maeve cries out in pain. It’s nothing compared to what Morrigan does. She stops fighting Bowen’s barrier, leans her head back, andhowls. The sound is even worse than the pressure. It’s the call of a hunt, the promise of bloodshed and violence. She doubles over and then sinks to the ground.

When Siobhan changed on First Sister, it was with a shimmer of magic both strange and beautiful. That’s not what we’re witnessing now. Morrigan’s skin shreds, revealing bloodstained fur. Her claws grow, swallowing her fingers. I can’t be sure, but I think I hear bones cracking over the sound of rushing in my ears.

Oh gods, she’s going to kill us all.

Instinct tells me to scramble back against the wall, to put as much distance between me and the monster growling into being a few feet away, but Siobhan is still standing there, her heart in her eyes. Nox wiggles out of my grasp and hauls themself to their feet. “Siobhan, what—”

She begins to change. It’s nothing like what’s happening to her sister. Siobhan bends in half, shifting to paws instead of hands and feet. Her skin shimmers and then it’s silvery white fur, her dark eyes changing to a deep crimson. Her howl joins her sister’s, louder and louder. A call to action. A warning.

An invisible band wraps around my waist and hauls me back to the wall. Nox hits the wall a few seconds behind me, quickly followed by the others in our party. Bowen stumbles to his knees in front of us, his hands up as if physically holding something back. I can’t see what’s going on. I need tosee, to reach Siobhan. “Stop! We need—”

It’s too late.

The first warning is mist coursing from the ceiling, so thick that it quickly obscures the dome. It doesn’t stop there, giving the illusion of the walls of the room fading into nonexistence, taking the bookshelves and other obscure magical items with them. I tentatively reach out to where thereshouldbe wall but find only icy emptiness. “Fuck.” I jerk my hand away and shake the feeling back into my fingers.

A tall figure steps out of the mist, dressed in a layered robe of varying greens. They look mostly humanoid, though their features are a little too sharp, the bones protruding too overtly, and horns are curving back from their curly brown hair. Their eyes are perfectly black and set too wide on their face, too large.

They stretch out a clawed hand, so similar to Siobhan’s and Morrigan’s partially shifted forms. “You’ve summoned me, little sister. Ask your boon.”

Siobhan woofs softly.

---