Page 159 of Broken Veil
She is growing angry. I hope you know what you’re doing.
Carys kept talking in what Laura called her “professor voice.” “They didn’t really believe inyou, Macha. Modern humans want something to distract them, and you gave them that.”
The internet worshippers left next. Carys saw them and their buzzing blue and pink lights heading toward the back of the hill where the downhill path started. The rain was too heavy to keep their phones out, and Macha had stopped dancing naked.
Without the feedback from their live streams, they quickly lost interest in the woman on top of the hill.
“They will come back!” Macha spun back to Carys. “You can’t keep up the rain all night.”
Carys sighed. “Morrígan, this isn’t the Shadowlands. By the time you dry out, they’ll be distracted by something else.”
“What?” The Morrígan threw up her arms. “What could possibly match the thrill of the goddess of war?”
Cadell, Seren whispered.Now.
With a roar and a great crack of thunder, Cadell took his true form in the Brightlands, and a dragon spread its wings over Salisbury Plain.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“Dragon!”
The Morrígan’s acolytes ran for the edge of the drop-off where Cadell had mounted the sky, pulling out their phones and trying to capture the flight of an honest-to-God dragon flying over Wiltshire.
“Holy shit,” someone yelled. “That’s a dragon!”
“Oh my god!”
“Is that real?”
The crowd surged down the hillside, tumbling over each other and rushing to capture the vision of a dragon flying before it disappeared into the darkness.
The moon was full, and the wingspan of the great beast blocked out the stars.
Nêrys, are there humans taking pictures of me?
It’s fine. For once, give them a show.
Cadell grumbled in her mind, but he kept flying in circles, drawing Macha’s followers away from Cley Hill and down across the wheat fields.
“This is the best music festival ever!” a woman shouted.
A few short minutes after the dragon had taken flight, Carys and Macha were alone on the altar and the only humans left at the top of the hill were Duncan and Lachlan, who carefully stepped over the muddy summit and walked toward Macha and Carys.
The goddess was furious and bleeding, but she lifted her chin in defiance. “Do you think you have defeated me?”
“I think I’ve wounded you at best.” Carys spread her arms. “And Morrígan, I’m not your enemy.”
“Oh?” Macha smiled slyly. “I see you have unleashed your beast in the Brightlands.”
“Carys?” Duncan called. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!”
“Your warrior sister sits on your shoulder,” the Morrígan whispered, “and you wear a powerful collar from the mother goddess.” Macha stared at the gold glowing through her skin.
She is going to try to tempt you with power.
“Yeah, I caught that.”
