The cab she had waiting for us turned out to be a terrifically old-fashioned four-seater horse drawn carriage, though I saw no sign of a driver as we climbed in. Brenna deftly maneuvered us so that we ended up sitting together facing the front of the carriage, while Athena and Artemis sat across from us facing the back. To my surprise, she hadn't taken my staff or any of my gear...perhaps she simply didn't see me as a threat. Not that I blamed her at this point.

"This is so exciting," Brenna gushed, resting her hand on my knee and squeezing. "I didn't want to attack you last time...I've wanted to meet you for the longest time. And I really must thank you for leading me to that menagerie. I hadn't expected to find anything there but someone for the Slasher's ghost to kill, but there was my darling Hathor, waiting for me to free her and take her away."

"I'm happy for you," I said dryly, glancing out the window and frowning. "We're not going to Jonathan's house."

"Of course not," Brenna said, smiling teasingly. "Did you think I'd give you any kind of advantage at all? I have them safely tucked away outside the city."

She wasn't just a step ahead of me...she was three or four steps ahead of me, and had been the whole time. I had assumed - wrongly, of course - that she'd try to use things in Jonathan's home to her advantage, and had hoped that my knowledge of his townhouse would give me an edge.

I really had been an enormous fool, and she seemed intent on making sure I was aware of every mistake I'd made and how badly I'd underestimated her. My heart sank even further.

"Oh, don't worry, dear cousin." She patted my knee. "You haven't had my training and experience. You can't expect to compete with me. But you'll learn...daddy and I will see to it."

I shivered and felt the back of my neck prickle. I wanted to ask what she meant, but couldn't quite bring myself to. I was afraid of what the answer might be. I had thought her goal was to hurt me in revenge for the harm I’d caused her, but now…

What was she doing? And why? Did I have even the faintest clue at all?

She squeezed my knee again. "I really am terribly sorry about Ben Donovan," she said, her voice dripping honey-sweet insincerity. "But I couldn't have anyone coming between you and me." Her hand lifted off my knee, caressed up my arm, over my shoulder and neck, and came to rest cupping my cheek as she turned my face to hers. "No, I couldn't have that," she whispered in a darker, somehow throatier voice. Her pupils had grown with some emotion I didn't recognize.

It took every ounce of my remaining self control to keep from reacting.

She smiled and caressed my cheek. "You do bottle things up, don't you, cousin. We'll have to fix that. Keeping your emotions hidden isn't good for you."

"Please stop touching me," I whispered.

She pouted, but giggled at the same time. "You won't be saying that for too much longer."

I pulled my cheek from her touch and looked away from her. In doing so, I met Athena's eyes and saw fear there, real fear. Looking to her left, I saw the same fear in Artemis's eyes. I thought I had known what awaited us: a fight. Instead, Brenna was being disturbingly...intimate. Like we'd been friends all our lives.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked quietly, looking back to her. "What do you want with me?"

Brenna looked honestly, earnestly confused. "I want you, of course," she replied finally. "We're so alike, you and I. We should be together." She sighed and smiled, and even though she was still looking at me, her eyes became distant as she continued. "Oh, it's going to be so perfect. Once you realize that I'm the only one who could ever truly love something as pathetic and broken as you...that's when everything will be right. Together, we'll sacrifice your fake daddy to summon my real daddy...and offer your mommy to him to be his. She's already been touched by a Sidhe, so she'll go easily enough. Then we can all be a family, just like sisters! I'll even show you and Athena and mommy all the things daddy likes and how to make him love you even though you're worthless..."

As she trailed off into silence, her face glowing with happiness, my fear was drowned out by growing horror. My mind veered sharply away from the implications of her last statement. I absolutely did not want to understand what she meant.

<> Athena whispered to me. <>

<> I replied. <>

Our eyes met for a moment, her fear and horror matching mine perfectly. <> she replied finally. <>

"It isn't nice to keep secrets," Brenna said teasingly. "No talking amongst yourselves." She'd returned from whatever distant place she'd gone to while fantasizing and was watching us knowingly. "If you're thinking of trying anything, don't. It's not time yet."

"Not time yet?" I asked incredulously.

She nodded very seriously. "Oh yes. You're battered, but you're not broken yet. And we can't rebuild you properly until you're broken." She gave me a warm, tender smile. "You'll fight, and you'll lose. You'll see the absolute folly of resisting, you'll see that only I can give you what you really need." She sighed happily. "And then we'll be together."

I shuddered and turned away from her to stare out the window as we headed for the edge of the city, folding my arms across my chest and lowering my chin. Brenna sighed unhappily, but said nothing else for the rest of the ride.

The carriage finally rattled to a halt at the edge of a small forest outside of town. "Almost there," Brenna said cheerfully, opening the door and climbing down. "We have to go the rest of the way on foot."

Athena, Artemis and I followed her out and towards the trees. When I glanced back over my shoulder, the carriage was gone - I hadn't heard it leave, so I assumed it had been some sort of magical construct. If it was, and she'd created it, she was more skilled than I'd thought. A lot more skilled.

I mentally prepared myself for what was to come: A full-fledged spell-battle. Combat between two spellcasters is always a spectacular sight, but rarely more so than between two trained Mages, let alone Mages training to earn the title of Wizard.

All magic is beautiful to behold, but the light-show put on by dueling spellcasters can dazzle even other spellcasters. I had no doubts whatsoever that Brenna would be a skilled and dangerous opponent...but I knew my own skills well, knew where my strengths lay and had spent many days in mock duels with Jonathan Tremane during my apprenticeship. I was confident I could take her in a fair fight.

If it was a fair fight. The doubt which had lurked at the edges of my thoughts since arriving in Dublin to find her waiting for us resurfaced and made itself known. Maybe I couldn't take her in a fight. She probably had more experience with such things than I did, and was at least as powerful as I was.

I shivered and followed her. What else could I do?

We came to a clearing in the trees, a rough circle marked by tall standing stones, one of many ritual circles which dotted the Éire countryside. It was lit by torches that had been planted in the ground between the stones, and directly across the circle I saw Brenna's familiars.

Hecate, the Elevated panther we'd encountered the previous winter, stood in front of one of the stones, her arms folded across her chest. Beneath a broad cloak she wore the same skin-tight lightly armored leathers that Athena wore - bodysuit, gloves, and stockings without heel or toe - and had a pair of curved swords strapped to her back. I believe they were short scimitars of some kind. Her new sister, Hathor, paced restlessly before her, the panther's sleek and obviously powerful muscles rippling as she moved. They watched us, their eyes first going to Brenna, then moving to me and their counterparts.

Then Hecate gave me a lazy, wicked smile and stepped aside, revealing my mother and Jonathan. They knelt side-by-side, their wrists and ankles bound with heavy-looking manacles, cloth gags knotted in their mouths. Jonathan had a vicious-looking set of scratches on one side of his face, dried blood matting his hair and beard. His eyes shone with fury in the torchlight, and I tried to think of a way to free him - and his vastly superior skills - to aid us. My mother seemed outwardly unharmed, but her anguish and distress were etched into the lines of her face.

The manacles were probably magic dampening, like the ones the police had held me with. Otherwise, I couldn't imagine how Brenna could have kept either of them restrained for any length of time.

"There," Brenna said from beside me. "Safe and sound for the time being, and mommy is almost completely unharmed. She'll recover from the aftereffects of my spell soon enough."

"What did you do to her?" I asked quietly, hearing the steel and fear in my own voice clearly.

Brenna laughed. "You'll find out, soon enough. I'd hate to spoil the surprise."

I took a step towards my mother, only to have Brenna quickly move in front of me. "Oh no, dear cousin. That comes later."

"Get out of my way," I replied quietly, making my voice as cold as I could. Now that we were here, now that I could see they were alive, it was time to act. "Move, or I will make you move."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Brenna practically purred. "Good. Anger is good, fear is good. Come then, show me."

I wasted no time and gave my action no thought. One moment we were standing face to face, the next the spread fingers of my right hand slapped into her chest as I released the Anima I'd slowly, quietly been gathering since we'd begun our walk into the woods. It took the shape of a blast of force - no subtlety or artistry to the blow, simply raw force.

Brenna was blown off her feet and tumbled across the clearing for a moment before coming to a halt at Hecate's feet. "Get them!" She snapped to her familiars.

Hecate was fast. Her scimitars were out in her hands in the blink of an eye as she broke into a run, heading straight for Athena. But Athena was faster, and not interested in locking swords with her. Before Hecate had gone two steps, Athena had her big LeMat revolver in her right hand and was pulling the trigger. The gun boomed three times...the first shot caused sparks to spray from one of the standing stones across the clearing. The second kicked up dirt just behind Hecate. The third slammed into the Elevated panther's left shoulder, spinning her off her feet with a cry of pain.

Revealing that Hathor had been right behind her, working up to a full sprint. The panther hit Athena hard before she could alter her aim, sending her to the ground with a grunt. Artemis yowled and bolted in, driving Hathor off her sister in a furious assault of slapping paws and slashing claws.

I had expected Brenna to rise before retaliating, but as I had been all along, I was mistaken. She wasted no time, sending a bolt of fire streaking towards me before rolling to her feet. I caught it with the broad circle of a magical shield and redirected it up into the sky, then retaliated with a bolt of lightning.

My lightning met a conjured stone halfway across the circle, which exploded violently and sent up a cloud of dust that obscured the casting of next bolt of fire that Brenna sent at me. I managed to deflect it with my shield...but my right hip was grazed by a second bolt of fire that came in low, leaving my shield out of position to stop it. My coat and jeans beneath smoldered a little, but didn't ignite, so I ignored the pain and took several steps to my right, intending to cast another lightning bolt through the rapidly dissipating cloud of rock dust.

I stepped directly into the path of a magically propelled dagger. It drove into my left thigh with a sharp burst of pain that buckled my leg. I dropped to my right knee with a cry, grabbing the dagger and yanking it out without thinking about it.

There was no blood, and no wound. I blinked in surprise. The dagger was gone as well, and I was down on one knee in a vulnerable position.

An illusion. It had been an illusion. How could she possibly have hit me with so utterly real and convincing an illusion with so little preparation?

The lightning bolt that struck me wasn't an illusion. I cried out again as my body convulsed helplessly, the pain blotting out everything for a few moments. I found myself lying on my back, still twitching, and struggled to roll out of the way of two bolts of fire that gouged out chunks of dirt and set the grass on fire.

I came to my feet, my left leg still weak from the lingering pain of the phantom dagger and my whole body aching from the shock of the lightning. Brenna stood calmly across the circle from me, beaming a manic smile at me. "Come now, cousin...I know you can do better. That was pathetic!"

I glanced around quickly. Athena and Hecate were busily and energetically exchanging sword blows. I could see blood staining Athena's fur from several cuts, and Hecate's left arm was obviously weak and moving more slowly than her right. Artemis and Hathor were locked in a tumbling bundle of black and white fur, fangs and claws flashing as they fought furiously. Behind Brenna and to one side, my mother and Jonathan looked on helplessly, mixtures of fear and anger clear on their faces.

Fear and anger. I drew on my own, knowing that I had to do better or they would die - or worse.

Brenna laughed and sucked in a breath. "Oh yes! That's the way!"

I took my staff in both hands and thrust it towards her, howling with fury as I gathered up and forced into my staff all the Anima I could quickly gather. How dare she hurt the people I loved? The ball of blue-white fire that leapt from the end of my staff was bigger around than my head, and moved across the distance between us so quickly that she barely had time to deflect it with her own shield. It hit one of the standing stones and melted a hole clean through it before exploding violently on the other side.

"Better!" She cried. "But lacking control!" She waved her hands in a strange gesture and sent a spray of tiny bright pinpoints of light swirling towards me. I caught some on my shield, while others burned effortless through my coat and pants, leaving tiny spots of pain all over my legs and right arm. I quickly slapped them out…only my shield had kept one or two of them from burning holes in more vital places. That had been an impressively sophisticated piece of spellcraft, but she’d traded power for style…the burns hurt, but weren’t crippling.

I spun my staff in a circle over my head, calling out to the sky in Gaelic as I sent Anima swirling through my staff and towards Brenna. The magic created a small swirling tornado, which Brenna laughingly redirected out of the clearing to tear down several trees. The effort left me breathless - I was wearing down quickly - so I missed the return strike she launched even as she redirected my little tornado. The blast of force she sent towards me struck my staff directly, shattering it and spraying me with splinters.

"You're too reliant on tools!" Brenna taunted me, lowering her arms. "Let's take a breather, it'll give you a sporting chance."

A breather? Was she joking? I sent another bolt of lightning arcing towards her, but she caught it - literally caught it, cupping it between her spread hands like she'd caught a ball - and sent it back towards me, forcing me to dive to the side as it gouged out a line of earth where I'd been standing. I conjured a sphere of water between us to stop the two bolts of fire she sent towards me next, and used the cover provided by the resulting cloud of steam to recreate her clever fire spell, sending a stream of brightly burning sparks spraying towards her. They burned away the steam, but she had already moved, and all they struck was a standing stone and the trees beyond it, doing little damage.

The truth struck me then. The first time I'd faced her, she hadn't really been fighting me - she'd been trying to get away with the dagger. I was completely and utterly over-matched. We were equals in power, but her experience was vastly greater than mine. She had obviously done this sort of thing before in earnest as opposed to my friendly duels with Jonathan. My heart sank into my stomach and became a lead weight.

Brenna laughed. "There's the despair! Time to begin!"

She began to chant under her breath, and I felt a strange tingling sensation on the back of my neck. I quickly gathered Anima and shaped it into a fresh shield before me, ready to try to block whatever she threw at me. She waved her hand towards me, and tiny sparks of violet light swirled around it, then lanced towards me. They passed through my shield as if it wasn't there, and…

I heard myself screaming, but it seemed to be miles and miles away. There was pain...intense, overwhelming pain, but it simply wasn't important. The only thing that mattered was the weight of the despair that seemed powerful enough to physically crush me. It was all I could feel, the only emotion in the world that mattered, though it was mixed with other negative emotions that I had no names for at that moment. Somewhere, even further away than my own screaming, I could hear someone laughing maniacally.

After an eternity of despair so intense that it kept my agony at a distance, fingers caressed my cheek and I looked up into Brenna's eyes. "Yes," she whispered to me in a sickeningly hungry voice, "Let it fill you, cousin. Nothing else matters...you have failed. Your fake daddy will die, perhaps at your own hand. Your mommy will belong to my daddy, and you and your familiars will belong to me and mine. And dear, darling, sweet Ben Donovan died because you couldn't stay away from him…"

Her words broke through the despair, reminding me that she wasn't infallible. She didn't know everything. She had been sloppy. Ben was perfectly safe in Hollis's home. He had arrived right after Brenna's letter with the news that his internal injuries were nothing more than bruising. While I'd gone to cast my Sendings, Elsie had hustled him off to a room to rest while Hollis had thrown up his home's strongest wards. We'd had almost no time to talk, barely enough to get him to agree that he had to stay there. To be safe, for me.

He. Was. Safe.

The effort it took was like lifting one of the standing stones, but I overcame the despair and agony alike and drove my knee into Brenna's kidneys as hard as I could.

She grunted in pain and rolled off of me, her spell shattering and collapsing, freeing my mind and body alike. The pain vanished instantly, though my muscles still twitched and trembled with it and my heart ached.

"I…" I rasped breathlessly, "Will never...be...yours." I rolled towards her, balling my right hand into a fist and using my momentum to smash it into her face. I heard the snap as her nose broke, followed by a quick spray of blood.

She cried out in pain and surprise and rolled away, coming to her feet smoothly and staring at me with a mixture of fury and incredulity. "How dare you!" She spat a bit of blood at her feet and began gathering Anima. "Fine then, if I can't have you, nobody will!"

"Wow," I said dazedly, not really thinking about what I was saying. "Clichéd much?"

Her blast of fire exploded in the ground at my side, sending me tumbling helplessly away from her. I crashed into one of the standing stones and groaned, bracing myself against it and struggling out of my now-burning coat.

As I rose, I felt a stab of pain across my abdomen and looked up in time to see Athena drop her shieldblade, clutching her stomach, blood seeping between her fingers. Hecate stood over her, licking the blood from one of her short scimitars as Athena dropped to her knees. Artemis appeared to have the upper hand over Hathor, though both were covered in scratches and bite marks.

"Hecate!" Brenna cried. "Bring me the sword."

"Yes, Mistress!" Hecate called back, bending and picking up Athena's shieldblade.

"No!" I gathered my strength and will, gathered Anima, and began throwing spells with everything I had left. Two lightning bolts, then a blast of flame, and finally a third bolt of lightning wrapped in an invisible lance of force. Brenna stopped the first two bolts of lightning with a shield, but the fire - though low and badly aimed - set the hem of her skirt on fire and forced her to shift her attention long enough for the third bolt of lightning and its accompanying kinetic force to blast her off her feet.

I staggered back against the stone I'd crashed into and tried to find the strength for another spell. Instead, I was so dizzy and light-headed that I stumbled and fell to my knees. As I struggled to push myself back to my feet, Brenna arrived.

Her clothes were smoking and scorched from the fire and lightning, and her golden eyes seemed inhuman in their rage. "I didn't want it this way, cousin," she said quietly, then swung Athena's shieldblade in both hands.

The blunt side struck me in the ribs on my right hard enough to send me sprawling back to the ground. I couldn't catch my breath - every time I tried I felt a sharp pain where I'd been struck. Broken ribs, I thought absently. I'll match Ben.

The blunt side of the shieldblade came down again, on my right knee this time, causing another intense burst of pain. A third blow broke something in my right arm near my wrist. Somehow, I kept from crying out as each blow sent fresh bolts of pain lancing through my body...maybe I was just too worn out to do more than grunt.

I could hear someone sobbing, and when I looked up I was utterly shocked to see that it was Brenna. She stood over me, tears streaming down her cheeks, and though her eyes were still furious her expression was one of loss. "I didn't want it this way," she said again. Then she lifted the shieldblade in both hands and positioned its chiseled tip over my face.

I tried to think through the pain. There had to be something I could do. If she killed me, there'd be nothing to stop her from killing Athena and Artemis instantly, assuming the shock of my death didn't do the job for her. Jonathan and my mother would no doubt follow, and she'd probably go after Ben and Hollis out of mad spite.

But I could barely move...my entire right side seemed to be on fire. I couldn't concentrate enough to gather any Anima. What her spell had failed to do, the beating she'd given me achieved - I felt the despair wash over me again, but had nothing to fight it off with this time. Even if the pain wasn’t overwhelming me, I was utterly spent.

I closed my eyes and prayed she'd at least make it quick.