Tanner throws the first blast of magic at the barrier, and it explodes as it bounces off the surface, splaying outward with rays of yellow and burnt umber. One by one, we follow suit, throwing our energy bombs into the silvery fog. Our fire balls paint the space above the pond with fireworks of russet, amber, and bright yellow. The air fills with smoke, and we cough and hack as it drifts back to us.
Courtney flies back and forth to avoid the streams of fire, but a stray ember falls on her wings, singing an outer edge. She waves at us to continue, and we sling our magic bombs at the fairy shield. After five minutes of this, my upper arms burn and my ears ring from the explosions. I may be an ancestral witch, but my body tells me I’m menopausal and shouldn’t have skipped the fitness center last week.
“It’s not working!” I shout over the hissing and crackling. “Should we try something else?”
“No!” shouts Agnes, hurling another blast of magic. “She can’t put up with this indefinitely. At some point, she’ll get pissed off.”
“I agree!” Elijah yells. “If I know Alys, she’s fuming about now. She has little patience.”
Spence throws another sphere of fire. “I don’t know. She appears to be just fine with us wasting our time.”
“Keep at it, witches!” Trinity yells. “We can’t stop now!”
“Look!” Zoe says, pointing to the left of the pond. “The fog is separating.”
Alys emerges and flies straight up, her wings flapping a mile a minute. Her usual rosy complexion is red as a pomegranate.
“She’s madder than a wet hen,” Shane says.
“Or a protective mother,” I reply.
Zoe calls up a magical burning sphere. “Look out! Here she comes!”
“Prepare yourselves, witches!” Trinity shouts.
Alys flies toward us. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t allow you to take my children! I will kill you all first.”
She waves her hand from left to right and her fairy magic blows each of us back toward the trees like dominoes. My back slams against a pine tree with a trunk the size of a compact car. The evil councilwoman retreats into the trees behind the bog. Tyler’s screams echo from the left side of the trail.
“Mom!” he says, dashing to me. “Are you OK?”
I roll over and try to get up. “No. The pain in my lower back has returned. Screw that bitch.”
Archie arrives and helps me stand. “Your mum is made of tough stock. She’ll heal.”
“Gwynedd, are you hurt badly?” Seamus asks. “The defensive use of wind was unexpected.”
“No. I’ll be black and blue for a few weeks, though. Are you hurt?”
“Merely a few abrasions,” Seamus replies.
The others slowly rise, dusting off their clothes. I glance over at the shield where Courtney was floating. She’s nowhere to be found. Alys emerges from the forest, blowing air at us with such speed that we have to drop to the ground and clutch at the protruding rocks buried in the dirt. Limbs, stones, and other debris graze the skin on our faces, leaving lacerations. Blood seeps from the wounds and rolls down our cheeks.
“Leave before you suffer the consequence of your evil actions!” the narcissistic Tylwyth Teg yells as she flies back into the cover of the trees.
Courtney appears at the weak spot in the shield and flies toward the edge of the pond, snuggling a baby. The newly outed Tylwyth Teg floats down to the ground and passes the little one to Skye. The young witch darts back to the woods, her fire-red hair streaming behind her, and places the child into Ronnie’s arms. My best friend cries tears of joy. Luna is safe in her mama’s embrace once again.
Courtney turns and jets back to the shield to retrieve another child while the rest of us prepare for the next attack from a mother enraged.
“We must fortify our stance,” Leslie says. “Come together as one.”
“Yes!” Agnes shouts. “We’ll combine our magic like before, except this time, cast a protection barrier. When she turns around to head back into the forest, we attack.”
“Brilliant, Agnes.” Archie motions at the coven. “Quickly, before she returns.”
“Raise our hands as one, witches,” Trinity says, gesturing.
As we wait for Alys to return, Courtney passes through the shield and places the other kidnapped baby into Skye’s arms—Jenny Hansen’s son Daniel. Just as Courtney passes back through the shield, the councilwoman heads in our direction again. She must be losing patience, because she targets the coven with a bolt of fairy magic like the one she used to attack Archie and me. But this time, we are prepared. We combine our witch energy, creating an amber halo above us. The Tylwyth Teg’s lightning strikes our barrier and ricochets into the woods, starting a blaze. Alys retreats once more.
“Fire!” Spence shouts into the rafters of the forest.
“I’ll put it out!” Tanner runs to the burning flames quickly taking hold in the dry leaves and casts a spell for a contained downpour.
“I’m going to lend him a hand. You’ll be all right, Gwyn?” Archie asks.
“Yes,” I reply. “Go help him before it triggers the fire department to respond.”
“Here comes Courtney with the third child,” Shane says. “The two-year-old girl.”
Courtney sets the golden-haired girl onto the muddy ground and flits back to rescue the last of the kidnapped children, the toddler who was snatched in broad daylight. The little girl wraps her short arms around Skye’s neck as she picks her up and darts to Ronnie and Derek. Derek takes the crying little one and positions her behind the wall of rhododendrons.
Alys appears again, more enraged than ever, her face resembling the crimson hue of Ronnie’s curly hair. Who knew a fairy’s complexion could flush so severely with anger? I pull out the dirk because we may not have another option but to eliminate her. She heads toward us, her arm raised.
“I warned you!” she screams. “The children are mine!”
She propels her fairy magic with the force of a missile, and we barely get our halo barrier up in time. The impact pushes us to the ground again, adding to our accumulation of abrasions and bruises. She glares down at the bog and dives back through the fog. I shove the dirk back into its leather shield.
Archie and Tyler dart to me about the time Seamus is helping me up.
