"No!" The scream ripped my throat. "Steffie, no!"

"Over there," Luke said, pointing to an outcropping of rock on the western side of the Falls. "It's happening."

The center rock began to glow, first silver, then golden, then a rich, deep royal purple that seemed almost iridescent. A narrow band of pure white light bisected it vertically, then widened into a child-sized opening, then lengthened into an entrance fit for a Fae warrior.

As breathtaking as Isadora had seemed to me before, the sight of her in the flesh as she stepped from her world to ours was overwhelming. Her beauty was like another presence in the room. It wiped out everything else and made it impossible for me to glance away.

This was the creature that held my daughter's eternity in her graceful hands. I had to keep reminding myself that she was the personification of evil, not Mother Teresa in an embroidered velvet cloak.

"You're a woman of your word," Isadora said, nodding in Chloe's direction.

"Now it's your turn," Chloe said. "Release the child's spirit."

Isadora lifted her arms and instantly Steffie reappeared, floating above the jagged rocks.

"Release her," Chloe said in a calm and even tone of voice.

Isadora's teeth gleamed in the glittering light like the finest pearls but she said nothing.

"Now, Isadora." Who would've guessed there was steel in the supermodel? But it was there. I could see it.

Isadora's smile didn't waver. She raised her arms above her head and moved them in a circular motion, and as she did, the bottom of the cage dropped out and went spiraling down into the pool of water below. Steffie screamed and grabbed the edge of the enclosure just before it slipped beyond her reach. I knew those soft baby hands couldn't hang on for long.

"A terrible fate for a child," Isadora said with a delighted laugh as Steffie swung in s.p.a.ce like a rag doll. "And it will only get worse."

Just in case we didn't understand, Isadora made sure that scenes of horror and cruelty beyond imagination flashed in front of us. Steffie screaming as she fell through s.p.a.ce . . . Steffie's body slamming against the jagged rocks . . . over and over until I thought I was going to go crazy with rage and despair.

Isadora should have known there was a lion in every mother and that night the lion in me was ready to break free. Maybe it was adrenaline. Maybe it was a kind of magic born of love. I don't know. All I knew was that nothing short of death would stop me from saving my baby from the h.e.l.l that b.i.t.c.h had in store for her.

31.

CHLOE.

Karen cried out and I grabbed her wrist and held tight. Her love for her daughter was blinding her to the very real danger we were all in.

Not that I was doing any better. I was drowning in Steffie's fear and loneliness, drowning in Luke's rage and Karen's terror. My human bloodline registered everything they were feeling and multiplied it tenfold.

I had to block them out, pretend they didn't exist, that nothing existed but Isadora and the need to stop her once and for all.

I had been close, so close, to figuring out the last part of the banishment equation, but now my brain was nothing but a jumbled ma.s.s of neurons and impulses.

Magick was still new to me. I didn't know how to turn my back on almost thirty years of being human. I had lived my entire life as a mortal woman, and letting my past drop away from me felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest. A heart that right now was too filled with emotion for my own good.

I glanced at Luke's watch. Five minutes from now Saturn would swing close to Earth and the portal between dimensions would open wide enough to allow an entire town to slip through. Six minutes from now Saturn would begin to move away and I could breathe easy for another thirty years.

It was time.

I took a step forward and that must have triggered some Fae warning system because suddenly a pair of strong hands encircled my throat, slender fingers pressing hard but not too hard against my windpipe, just enough to choke off most of my air. I was lifted off my feet and whipped side to side like a rabbit in the jaws of a wolf, and I was having trouble remembering my name, much less any of the dozen banishment spells I knew like the back of my hand.

Luke sprang into motion and there was nothing I could do to stop him. Isadora removed one of her hands from my throat for a second and flung her arm against Luke, a careless gesture that sent him hurtling into the moss-covered rocks halfway up the hill.

I saw him clearly in my mind's eye. I heard the crack of his ribs breaking. I felt his pain as he lost his grip on the slick mossy rock and shot down the Falls into the pool below.

And then I was the one who was falling into a mocking darkness, fully aware yet powerless. It seemed like the story of my life.

Was this the way I was going to end my time in this dimension? Strangled to death by a powerful Fae leader who thought so little of my abilities that she didn't bother to use her magick against me? What pathetic star had I been born under? What once-in-a-lifetime conjunction of planets had- That was it. The transit of planets. The birth of stars. Those mighty astronomical and astrological forces that changed worlds and shaped lives. The Fae understood the importance of those celestial patterns. They got the deeper meaning only a handful of humans had ever understood.

Suddenly I knew exactly what I had to do, and I had Luke to thank.

It had taken the very human man I loved to make me see what had been in front of my eyes all this time.

I could link a hundred banishment spells together but they wouldn't be able to contain Isadora permanently. They were temporary fixes, nothing more. But the stars and the planets were forever. The Fae understood that. I needed to link my strongest banishment spell with an astronomical event in the vastly distant future that was so devastating it would wipe the cosmic slate clean.

Isadora loosened her grip for a second and oxygen flooded my screaming lungs and swept clarity in with it.

My heart pounded in my ears. Pulse points in my wrists and throat throbbed as adrenaline pushed blood through my veins and the answer swam into focus.

The death of the sun.

This would give us a few billion years to figure out a way to live together in harmony.

The way I saw it, we would need every single one.

Right now Isadora was toying with me but that wouldn't last much longer. I had to put the final banishment in motion before she tired of the game and finished the job.

I wished I'd paid more attention to the old Kung Fu Kung Fu reruns on Nick at Nite. There were probably any number of nifty moves that would break a choke hold and look great in the replay. reruns on Nick at Nite. There were probably any number of nifty moves that would break a choke hold and look great in the replay.

But never underestimate the power of pa.s.sive resistance. It wasn't flashy but it worked.

I went limp. The surprise of one hundred fifteen pounds of sagging deadweight knocked Isadora off balance and sent us crashing to the ground.

"A small triumph," she said, looking up at me. "Enjoy it while you can."

The human-sized portal in the waterfall was expanding, growing wider and taller with every second.

"It's over," she said. "In the name of my ancestors, I claim final victory."

I scrambled to my feet and started the chant, calling upon my own ancestors and every force for goodness that had ever walked the earth and all its dimensions.

Her laughter rang out. "This is absurd."

". . . fortress against evil . . ."

"You're a child. Your powers are insignificant."

". . . unbreakable . . . inviolable . . ."

"Nothing but words. You know I'll find my way out."

". . . through time and s.p.a.ce until the sun-"

"Stop!" Isadora commanded. "Stop talking!"

". . . moves from red giant to white dwarf . . ."

"No!" Her cry made the earth tremble. "Noo!" "Noo!"

". . . to blackness and all life follows."

Our eyes locked. The air between us shimmered with heat. I was aware of Luke and Karen standing a few feet away and wondered if they felt the same pulsing of energy coming off the Fae ruler. Did they have any idea of the magnitude of what was happening here?

I had attained the unattainable: I had beaten Isadora at her own game. My reputation as a sorcerer, as the rightful heir to all that Aerynn had built, had been made tonight. I was euphoric and I didn't try to hide that from the Fae leader.

"There are many ways to win, Chloe," Isadora said as she began to fade. "Remember that after I'm gone."

I laughed out loud. She was finished here. I didn't need any of her lofty p.r.o.nouncements meant to strike terror in my half-human heart. I had evolved past that. I was a leader now.

I heard the choking sound of sobs from Karen and looked at her with confusion. We were barreling toward an unexpectedly happy ending. Isadora was about to disappear, Sugar Maple hadn't been pulled beyond the mist, Steffie would be free, and we were all still standing.

I followed Karen's gaze and saw Steffie still imprisoned, still terrified, still alone.

I had misplayed my hand, trusted someone who was inherently untrustworthy. Only the rankest novice, the most self-obsessed fool of a sorcerer-in-training, would ever have made a mistake like this, and now Steffie's spirit would pay the price.

"You lied," Karen said to Isadora, her voice filled with inexpressible pain. "You said you would release my daughter but you lied."

"A small oversight," Isadora said with a cold smile. She was little more than a shadow now. "It could have happened to anyone."

Karen gave her a pitying look. "I can't believe Gunnar is your son. He's good and kind and decent."

Stop while you're still ahead, Karen. This isn't going to end well.

Isadora was little more than an afterglow, but she had one final trick up her sleeve. A high-pitched wail sounded in the distance. We glanced around but saw nothing. It sounded again and I found myself wishing there were some place to hide. It was the sound of evil unleashed.

The sound grew closer, then suddenly the sky lit up and fire-breathing winged creatures with bloodred eyes and claws like grappling hooks appeared over the horizon. Their hide was plated like the hide of a rhino, and it glistened iridescent blue in the moonlight. Still screaming, they swooped in on Steffie, nudging her with their flat and fiery snouts, tearing at her white dress with their claws, tossing her around like a soccer ball while she screamed for her mother.

With a guttural cry, Luke launched himself in Steffie's direction but his injured ribs brought him to his knees.

Karen ducked around him and took off full speed toward her daughter. Her fate and her daughter's were inextricably linked and always had been. She was where she was meant to be. This was her moment.

Protect them, Aerynn, I beseeched my ancestor. I beseeched my ancestor. See them to safety in the name of all mothers and daughters. See them to safety in the name of all mothers and daughters.

Steffie's spirit was falling fast. Karen gathered speed, and just when she was about to hurl herself into s.p.a.ce in an attempt to somehow save her child from eternal agony, a jagged bolt of lightning pierced the sky and headed straight for her.

She was gone, vaporized before the image reached our retinas. Only Steffie, eternally tortured, remained. Falling and falling- "Look!" Luke's voice was hoa.r.s.e with emotion as he pointed toward the spot where Karen had been struck.

A shadowy human form appeared, lingered for a moment, then rose into the spring night, moving slowly toward Steffie.

"It's Karen," I said. "Her spirit is-" I couldn't speak over the huge lump in my throat.

Steffie stopped her endless tumble into darkness. "Mommy?" she whispered as a joyous smile lit up her face. That one word held everything that was good about the world, everything that we could ever hope to be.

Luke and I clasped hands, holding tightly to each other, as Karen opened her arms and Steffie ran into her embrace. The familiar silver and gold fireworks melted into the night. I would have given almost anything to share a moment like that with my own mother, but that wasn't my destiny. Helping Karen and Steffie find each other again ran a pretty close second.

Steffie met Luke's eyes over her mother's shoulder and she smiled at him, the smile of a little girl whose world was exactly the way it should be. The guilt and sorrow he had carried around for so long melted away like the spring thaw.

I pressed my face against his warm, strong shoulder and started to cry.

You always were a sucker for a happy ending.

"Gunnar?"

"What?" Luke asked.

He can't hear me. Only you can.

"You did this, didn't you? You brought them together."

"Who are you talking to?" Luke asked.

We're confusing him. He's still only human, Chloe. Be kind.

"Why did you do it?" I asked Gunnar.

Forever is a long time, Hobbs. Those two deserved better than they got.

"Things are going to be great now. You'll see. Sugar Maple's problems are a thing of the past. Maybe you could-"

He was there for an instant. Or at least I thought he was. Maybe it was only that I missed my old friend so much that I conjured him up, but it was so wonderful to see his face again that- "Gunnar?" Luke said. "What the h.e.l.l?"

"You saw him too?"

"Over there," he said, pointing toward Steffie and Karen. "He's with Karen and Steffie."

I caught a glimpse of them as mist rose up from the pool at the base of the waterfall, rising higher and higher until it enveloped all three of them in a thick cloud, then evaporated, leaving behind nothing but the faint shimmer of Gunnar's silvery-blue glitterprint.

"Don't worry," I said to Luke through happy tears. "They're going to be all right."

32.