Page 107 of The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
“I will do this all day with you, Mother. You are not reopening the Abyss. Please. Come home with me.”
Maire’s eyes glistened in the shadows. “You don’t understand this world. You haven’t been here long enough. Kormick—”
“Kormick is done! Can’t you see his power waning already? You owe him nothing!” Bristol stepped closer and grabbed her mother’s shoulders. “Listen to me! Sometimes you get another chance, Mother. This is yours.”
Her mother’s eyes locked on to hers, and the pain Bristol saw in them was bottomless, the depth endless. Bristol ached for her, but she wouldn’t back down. She kept a firm grip on her shoulders. “Remember, Mother. Listen to my voice, and remember. Listen to Cat and Harper and all of us laughing around a campfire, Daddy playing a tune on his harmonica.Listen. You are the strongest woman I know. You found the dream once, and you can find it again—and this time, you’ll keep it.”
She saw the panic in her mother’s face, still resisting, but Bristol wouldn’t stop, not trying to sell her something false this time, but something true, something her mother once had: her love of her loom, the seashore, powdered doughnuts, rose oil baths, orange soda, and her family. “Your family wants you. We want you back.”
Bristol watched her mother’s eyes transform, like Bristol had finally shaken something loose inside her. The cold glass faded, and her eyes became the ones that searched the night with Bristol and pointed out the stars, the eyes that sparked with pride when her daughters recited a play without missing a line, the eyes that held dreams as she wove another colorful scarf. The eyes that looked over her husband’s shoulder, admiring his new painting. Her green irises shimmered with puddles.
“I love you, Mother. It’s not too late.”
And then a furious shout destroyed the moment, and they both turned toward it.
It was Kormick, surrounded by guards, spears in hand. “Open the portal!” he shouted at Maire. “Summon them now!” And then to Bristol, “Step away from your mother. Closer to me.”
Closer? His gaze was deadly. He didn’t want her closer for old times’ sake. He wasn’t Mick with his eyes full of lust. He was Kormick, filled with hate. He wanted a clean shot at her. He wanted to kill Bristol without harming Maire. But then she noticed a glimpse of something else in his gaze. Terror? A shine in his frozen eyes pinned her in place, and his parted lips were set with dread. The dawning was sudden, cold needles pricking her spine. She stood near the inner ring of standing stones, closer than him, only one stride away from a place where the earth felt footsteps—and judged them. If he charged her, she had only one direction to run—straight to the Stone of Destiny itself.
Her mother moved fully in front of Bristol. “Kormick, she’s my daughter.”
Distant shouts erupted from the opposite direction.
“Bring her forward, Maire,” he said more urgently. “And she’ll be fine.”
Metal clanked and golden spears beat against shields, the sound of combat getting closer. A wall of knights pounded a path through the warriors still protecting the ring—clearing it for another squad that ran toward it. Cael was in the middle of them.
“No!” Maire cried out. “No!” Bristol wasn’t sure if she was shouting at the knights or Kormick, but she grabbed Bristol and swept her behind the inner standing stones and into the Mother Ring. Kormick screamed and ran after them. Maire kept going, her grip iron around Bristol’s wrist. The Stone of Destiny was only thirty feet away.
“Mother—” Bristol knew her intent and strained against her grip, like the time her mother dragged her toward the portal to send her home, but this time nothing could stop Maire. She was thwarting Cael, Kormick, maybe all of Elphame. She was summoning a different kind of power.Come to me. She was a mother dragging her daughter away from a park and rubbing herbs in her hair and whispering spells to protect her. Determined. She dragged her to the center, more screams erupting, not just Kormick’s anymore, and just before Maire reached the center, she stopped and pushed Bristol onto the Stone of Destiny.
CHAPTER 81
Tyghan and his officers saw their chance. Their troops had overcome and killed the restless dead, and thanks to some bizarre intervention of the gods, dragons in the distance were culling the incoming troops of Fomoria. Their warriors were either roasted or retreating. It was a mystery to all of them, but it gave Danu the edge they needed to snuff out hot spots on the valley floor.
Now they attacked Kormick’s last precious stronghold, the already diminished shield guard of warriors and wizards around the Mother Ring. Danu hit them from all sides, Cully attacking with archers on the other side of the ring and Tyghan leading forces who paved the way for Cael. Bristol’s squad had reported that she made it into the interior, and it was clear she had been successful in stopping her mother from reopening the Abyss, but Tyghan was desperate to reach her, to hold her—to tell her that her father was here and fighting on their side. Fighting with Tyghan.
His platoon broke through the wall of warriors, and as they charged through the standing stones, he caught a glimpse between them. A tunic. An arm. A flash of brown hair. They emerged onto the sacred grounds, but after only a few steps in, a sound he had never heard before drowned out all the chaos. Everyone froze, unsure where it came from. It swept upward through the stones, like wind plucking a tune through the trees, exultant. Decisive. The sound vibrated through Tyghan’s bones.The Stone of Destiny. It was hailing a new ruler of Elphame.
Bristol dragged herself to her feet, her legs weak, every part of her unbelieving. She turned. Every direction she looked, she was met with blank stares. Disbelief. Cael. Tyghan. Kormick. Shocked. Silent. “No,” she said, “No. No.” She couldn’t think what else to say. To do. This was a mistake.
The silence was fractured by Kormick’s enraged scream. He yanked someone out from behind one of his guards—a man bound and gagged—and held a wide dagger to his heart.
Panic gripped Bristol. She couldn’t summon even the smallest fireball to her fingertips. Magic didn’t work within the sacred ring. But a dagger—
“Let him go!” Tyghan yelled. “It’s over.”
There was a crazed glint in Kormick’s eyes. “It’s never over.”
Maire screamed. “Don’t,” she pleaded. “Please—”
“You did this, Bristol,” Kormick said. “Remember that every day of your miserable reign. You should have left when you promised.”
Before any of them could move, he plunged the dagger into her father’s chest, then ran through the stones, disappearing instantly. A nightjump. His guards fled too, knights in pursuit. Maire ran to her husband. Tyghan was there first, pulling Kierus into his arms as he collapsed. “Outside the ring!” he yelled to everyone else—where magic would work. Dalagorn helped him carry her father out to the meadow, and they laid him on the grass. Maire fell to his side and pulled away his gag.
“Do something!” Bristol screamed at Tyghan. He was already pressing on the wound and whispering spells, Kierus’s blood pumping through his fingers.
Bristol vaguely heard shouts to summon the High Witch.Get her! Now!Sashka raced away. Tyghan worked furiously to heal the wound to Kierus’s chest. Julia dropped to her knees beside Tyghan, using all her healing powers to help him too.
