Crescent Legacy Nicole Taylor (top young adult novels .TXT) 📖

talismans would make it a great deal easier. While acting as a layer of protection, the crystals would also react to any supernatural juju by warming, so not only were they useful in our quest to protect Derrydun but they were also handy on a cold day.

“Mornin’,” Fergus rasped, burying into his coat.

“Anythin’ out there?”

“Quiet,” he replied, glancing at me. “More than usual.”

“Thanks, Fergus,” I said, rubbing Jack on the head.

More than usual. They were on their way then.

“We appreciate your help,” Aileen added.

We’d arranged the village to be on the lookout for Carman’s coming, and they were out in shifts, patrolling the forest and the roads. A lot of people were still skeptical of our story, but I was kind of glad about that. Blind acceptance wasn’t the greatest thing even though it would’ve been easier. Free will, free thought, and earned trust were more valuable prizes.

We let Fergus go on his way and walked toward the traffic lights before turning north and climbing upward past the limit of Roy’s farm. The fields were empty. The flock had been herded into the sheds by his cottage further to the west.

“Aileen?”

“Hmm?”

“You know how I was able to take back my magic from the craglorn?” I said as we climbed the hill. “If there’s any chance of capturing Carman, then I could help give the witches back their stolen Legacies.”

“Perhaps, but it might not work out that way.”

She didn’t have to say it. We might have to kill her to stop her from opening the doorway. Take her out, and the rest will fall. It was the surest way to end this war before it got any worse. Still, I didn’t like knowing all those witches would have lost their magic forever.

“And Boone?” I asked. “If Carman dies, he’ll die, too?”

Aileen nodded.

I let my head fall into my hands and swallowed a sob. My knees wobbled beneath me, and it was all I could do not to fall into a heap. So much had happened in the last few days, and after so long waiting… It was all too much. The thought of losing Boone forever was like taking a hot poker to my heart.

“Do you want to save him?”

“I love him, “ I whispered. “Even after all of this…” I toyed with the ring on my finger, twisting it around and around.

“There’s good in him, Skye,” my mother reassured me. “Even with his amnesia, it wouldn’t have been enough to stop his true nature from shinin’ through.”

“But I thought his wolf form was his true nature?”

“It’s what he is,” she explained. “Not who. If Boone were evil, then his story here in Derrydun would’ve been as different as night and day.”

“You’re saying…”

“I don’t believe he came here out of spite or because it was some kind of plot.”

“Then why?”

“Because it was his destiny.”

Destiny… It was such a strange word. To think everything we were doing had already played out on some mystical level was infuriating, yet calming at the same time. I wasn’t sure I would ever fully understand this life. Why magic was the way it was, how we could exist, and what the point of it all was, but maybe that was it. We weren’t supposed to know everything. No one should wield absolute power. No one at all.

I scoffed at the irony and wiped my tears. It was the journey that mattered, not the destination. Boone was right. He always was, after all, and so was Aileen. I saw it now as clear as the Legacy flowing through my veins.

“Then we have to convince him to come home before Carman dies,” I said, my hopes rising. “Because Derrydun is his real home.”

“Sever her link to him…”

“And he’ll be free to live or die as he chooses.”

The tower house loomed above us, and I stared up at its ruined walls, a chill spreading through my bones. It was about to become the central computer in another kind of magical network, not unlike Skynet from the Terminator movies.

It felt like I’d come full circle. From the first time I’d faced a craglorn with Boone to the eve of the ultimate battle. This time, the tactics were similar but on a grander scale. By recycling the crystals I’d used in my failed barrier, we could create the largest web Ireland had ever seen. It would trap Carman inside—along with the ancient hawthorn and the whole of Derrydun—and then we would skewer her. There were more moving parts than that, but it was the ‘too long, didn’t read’ version. Trap. Skewer. Bam!

If it didn’t work, plan B was to improvise.

I opened the metal door that closed off the ruin from wandering tourists and allowed Aileen to enter first. Following her into the darkness, we re-emerged into what would’ve once been the main hall. It was open to the sky and the weather, and I squirmed as I watched my mother walk the perimeter of the room. Finally, she stopped in the center.

Taking the large chunk of clear quartz out of her bag, she placed it on the ground and turned it around until she was satisfied with the placement.

“Can we resell that?” I asked, studying the spiked facets of the crystal. It was one of the largest geodes in Irish Moon and was worth almost four hundred euros.

“After a cleansin’, yes.”

“Good. I’ve been trying to improve the shop’s bottom line.” I blew out a long breath. “So we aren’t actually activating the spell yet?”

“It’ll lay dormant until we need it,” Aileen replied. “It should be undetectable on this kind of scale.”

“Should be?”

She shrugged and rose to her feet, her eyes misting with tears.

“I’m not that insolent, am I?” I made a face. “It is a four-hundred-euro chunk of crystal we’re just leaving out here. The word should at a time like this—”

“You’re everythin’ I ever imagined,” Aileen declared, wiping away her own tears.

“Errr…” I squirmed, not liking the attention. I could never take a compliment without wondering when the punch line