Page 48 of Evil Eyed
Yeah. Balor wanted something from us. From me. But what?
Giving a mental shrug, I decided to fuck around and find out. “I have a question first.”
Boss Man gave me a wide smile. “Of course, lady, it would be my great pleasure to help in any way that I may, especially if it assuages your reluctance to enjoy Dún Bhalair’s hospitality.”
Giving him an equally wide—fake—smile, I pulled my hag stone out from beneath my shirt. I watched his face carefully, hoping he might betray himself somehow.
“Ah! A hag stone.” He clapped his hands like a delighted child. “Now Dún Bhalair’s full magnificence may be revealed to you. That makes my objective much easier.”
“You don’t mind if I look at you or your castle?” I asked suspiciously.
Boss Man ducked in an elegant, sweeping bow, though his eyes never left mine. “Be my guest, lady.”
28
Staring at Boss Man, I lifted the hag stone to my eye. Staggering backward, I would have fallen without the guys around me.
Brilliance assaulted my senses. Blinded, tears streamed from my eyes. My ears rang like a massive gong hammered inside my head. My skin shredded beneath that majesty, zinging with a million tiny needles. Everything burned inside me, as if I’d swallowed the sun and burned from the inside out.
He wasn’t an ugly one-eyed giant. He was the most brutally beautiful creature in all the worlds that had ever existed.
So fucking dangerous.
Beauty that wounded with a glance. Brilliance that punished and burned. I could only imagine what it would be like to touch him, or be touched by him. One innocent stroke of his finger would rock the foundations of the world and destroy time itself.
I cried in agony just looking at him. It hurt. So much. I couldn’t even think, my mind blanked and broken beneath the onslaught of his gods-level power.
We had no hope of defeating him. None whatsoever.
He stepped aside, removing himself from my line of vision. I sobbed with relief, sagging against Doran and blubbering like a baby.
“What is it, love?” Doran rumbled, tucking me under his wing. “What has he done to you?”
“Absolutely nothing, Stoneheart,” Boss Man replied. “I have only allowed her to see my true form.”
Warwick’s fingers dug into my back. Aidan growled a string of intelligible words in a language I didn’t recognize, undoubtedly cursing to blue blazes. My fingers ached with cold but I kept the hag stone to my eye. I had to see. I had to know. There had to be a weakness. Somehow.
Without his brilliance destroying my senses, I could see a shimmering curtain similar to the net that Warwick had thrown up over us to keep out the rain and wind. However, this curtain had no end—it stretched upward as far as my human eyes could see.
Through that glittering veil, I saw Dún Bhalair in all its glory. Rather than rough, jagged stone, elegant towers and thick walls formed a massive castle that rose from the ocean like a jeweled crown. Massive sea monsters and kelpies the size of ocean liners swam in the waters around the castle. Winged dragons made slow, lazy circles over the grounds. Soldiers lined the walls, shining High Court fae and green hairy pookas and other creatures I couldn’t identify.
Hundreds. Thousands. Weapons, teeth, and claws at the ready. Magic shimmered all around them, ready to fling at us if we so much as twitched. Tentacles curled up out of the ocean, thicker than sequoia trunks. It’d take the Slaughterer hours to hack through something that thick.
All the might of Dún Bhalair… against thesixof us.
:Do you see them?:I asked Warwick, my mental voice small and shaking like a child waking from a nightmare.
:In your mind, aye,:he replied back just as softly.:But to my eyes, it’s still the rocky key. Remember the magic in your painting, love. The hag stone reveals magic—but that doesn’t mean it’s the truth.:
I’d known this battle was hopeless. Even these mighty, legendary warriors with magical weapons hadn’t been able to end the war against Evil Eye. I’d been so damned foolish and arrogant to think that I could do anything to change our fate. To save them.
To end this war once and for all.
My throat ached as I lowered the hag stone. I buried my face against Doran’s side, unable to bear the sight of Balor’s might.
“So now you see,” Boss Man said in a kind, gentle voice. “Don’t despair, lady. Come now, and see your dear friend. She’s waiting for you.”
I swallowed down the sobs threatening to tear out of my chest.
