Rituals (Cainsville 5)

"Those are the sluagh?" I whispered.

"No, they're the harbingers of the sluagh. The sluagh is still coming. We need to get--"

A tremendous, deafening roar, and I doubled over, hands to my ears. The sound seemed to come from everywhere. The beating of a thousand wings, amplified a thousand times, rising to a frenzy.

The cottage quaked. The shutters cracked against their latches. The door warped inward, boards groaning. And then...

Silence.

Everything stopped at once--the roar and the quaking and the groaning--and the silence was, for a moment, almost painful, like coming out of darkness into the light.

"They're gone." I turned to Gabriel. "You did it. You got rid--"

"No," he whispered, his eyes widening, filling with a look that wasn't quite Gabriel, wasn't quite Gwynn, somewhere between the two. "No!"

He slammed into me. Hit me square in the back, taking me down so fast I didn't have time to brace as I fell face-first to the floor with Gabriel overtop of me. Then I heard the barest whine, like a single mosquito. I lifted my head, tasting blood trickling from my lip. Gabriel's hand went to the back of my head, ready to push me down and--

The cottage exploded.

It shattered, a million slivers of wood shooting into the night, darkness billowing in, black clouds that writhed and whipped about us.

I heard a distant bark. Frantic barking.

Lloergan.

Gabriel pushed me down, his body on mine, shielding me as the black smoke wound around us. Fingers clutched my arm. I flew to my feet, Gabriel suddenly gone, and when I turned, I saw a woman in the writhing blackness. A woman with long blond hair and flashing brown eyes.

"Out!" she snarled. "Get out now!"

I knew that voice. Knew it well. But my brain wouldn't make the connection, and I found myself being dragged through the black smoke as I yelled, "Gabriel!" and twisted to look for him, seeing only...

Light. A blinding flash of light, and then I was in an apartment. An ordinary apartment, almost exactly like mine, with an old sofa and chairs and--

"Olivia!" Gabriel called.

A familiar voice snapped, "She's right here," and I saw who was holding me. It was Grace, now back in her old-crone glamour, her ugly face contorted in a scowl, one bony hand wrapped around my arm, the other around Gabriel's, as she hauled us toward the hall.

Something bashed against the apartment door, and I stumbled back, saying, "No!" as I imagined the birds again, but Grace only muttered under her breath and released us.

She threw open the door and was nearly bowled over by Lloergan. The hound ran straight to me and then looked around wildly before seeing Gabriel and exhaling, her flanks quivering.

"Yes, they're fine," Grace muttered. "Now get the hell out of my--"

Lloergan spun on Grace and growled, her fur rising as she pressed against my leg.

"Don't you growl at me, cwn," Grace said.

Lloergan kept rumbling but turned her attention to the room, peering about it. When I laid my hand on her head, darkness hit me, a sudden breathtaking wave of it.

I saw the birds again, that dark whirl of them, heard the roar, felt the wind from those wings battering me as terror, absolute terror, washed through me, my legs locking, the growl in my throat turning to a whimper, my tail sliding between my legs, my only thought to flee, to run, to get out.

I snapped back to myself, Lloergan still pressed against my leg, Gabriel's fingers wrapped around my arm. "Are you all right?" he asked.

I nodded, and we passed Grace as we headed for the door.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Grace ushered us into the hallway and then locked the apartment door behind us.