Page 153 of Broken Veil
The thrill of a stolen kiss.
The anguish of a fight and the comfort of his embrace.
She was crying when Duncan and Lachlan pulled her up to the summit of the hill.
“Carys?” Lachlan bent down. “What’s wrong?”
Don’t tell him.Seren’s voice was hoarse.Not yet.
“I’ll tell you later.” She patted his shoulder. Then she turned and threw her arms around Duncan. “You found us.”
“Are you okay?” Duncan hugged her tightly. “There was no getting into the village. I parked the van and walked with the rest of them. It was sheer luck that I found Lachlan and Godrik at all.”
The summit of the hill was teeming with people. Revelers from below who were dancing and beating drums. People walking on stilts through the crowd.
There was a fire-eater and several acrobats. It looked and felt like a circus.
“Thank the gods you are here,” Lachlan said. “Carys, did you have a vision at the well?”
Carys pointed to the eye patch. “More like supernatural, god-fueled night vision.”
Duncan frowned. “What does that mean?”
“I’ll explain later.” She stood on her tiptoes, but she couldn’t see anything through the crowd. She had to set her eyes on Macha. “Can you lift me up so I can see?”
Duncan nodded and waved Lachlan over. “Get her up.”
Carys grabbed both their hands, and the twin men lifted her to their shoulders, standing shoulder to shoulder so she could see what was going on at the summit of the hill.
Macha was sitting on a small grassy knoll in the distance while humans lay around her. There were flower bouquets surrounding her along with wads of cash, jewelry, mobile phones, and anything that seemed valuable.
“They’re giving her offerings,” Carys shouted.
“They have come to worship her,” Naida said. “They are completely under her control.”
Carys looked to her right and saw Naida on Godrik’s shoulders and Laura on Cadell’s.
More than one person was holding up their phone, live streaming the event to the rest of the world, and on every screen she saw, hearts and small thumb emojis littered the screen like bubbles floating in the air. Tiny animated presents and kiss emojis.
Thousands of people were watching. Maybe millions.
With a deep breath, Carys slid her eye patch to the left and looked at the gathering with her right eye.
“Oh.” Her breath caught. “Oh, this is bad.” She spoke to Seren in her mind.Do you see this?
I see it.
It wasn’t only humans on the hill but thousands of spirits, shadowy twisted creatures, and wave after wave of dark magic, all flowing up from the slopes around them and feeding into the red-gashed sky.
And from that red gash, power fell down on the summit where Macha lay.
The goddess was bathing in dark worship.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Bad stories weave enchantments. Good stories can break them.
A good story might break an enchantment, but Carys knew that first she had to break the endless cycle of attention, worship, veneration, and power that was enabling Macha to keep an entire hillside in thrall.
