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

“I have my sons and all the power of Ireland behind me,” Carman shouted. “You have nothing! Stand aside or be annihilated. It’s your choice. Do you want your human friends to die?”

Empty bravado. I felt the thread connecting Boone to his mother and silently willed him to sever it. My gaze met his, and I mouthed the words, I love you. At that moment, I swore his eyes widened slightly, but I couldn’t be sure. He was still entwined with Carman, and we were out of time.

“The only person who’s dying today is you,” I said, my lip curling. “This is where it ends.” Turning to Boone, I cast out my magic and caught his. Whatever happens next…know that I will always love you.

I raised my hand, hoping he would see the ring was still where he’d placed it, and to signal our trump card. Carman’s gaze flickered to the side as Aileen emerged from Mary’s Teahouse and came to join me.

The ancient witch’s expression fell, and she let out an unearthly scream that vibrated through my bones. “Noooo!”

Turning, I reached out for Aileen’s hand. “Now!”

Our Legacy flared in a whoosh of wind, blowing our hair upward. The sky erupted overhead, a thread of golden light shooting out of the tower house. The tendril snaked across the clouds, separating into dozens of spidery beams as the central crystal connected with the outer boundary. The web flared brightly as it was completed, and then it faded, the afterimage burned into my retina.

“Kill them!” Carman wailed. “Kill them all!”

“She’s a bit dramatic,” Aileen said, tilting her head to the side.

“I guess it’s time to fight for real this time,” I replied.

My mother smiled. “Go get him.”

Carman flung her hands out at us with a cry, and shadows erupted around her and flew toward us with terrifying speed.

“Sluagh!” I cried, covering my face with my arms.

“Get down!” Aileen shouted.

The sluagh weaved right around me, buffeting my body with a whoosh of violent wind. They weren’t aiming for me, they were going for the humans!

“The crystals!” I exclaimed as the shadows sped toward the villagers.

Roy immediately dropped his shotgun and fumbled in his pocket. He fell onto his ass as he thrust the piece of quartz into the air just as a sluagh bore down onto his position. A flare of golden light met the creature, and it wailed, altering its path and zooming toward the sky. Up and up it went before it slammed into the web and literally went poof.

The other villagers did the same, standing shoulder to shoulder in a long line, brandishing their crystals. Aileen ran to help them as I turned my focus to Carman and the wolves. I had to separate Boone from his brothers, sever his link to Carman, and kill her. Easy…not.

The three men shifted once more, their bodies exploding into their wolf forms. It wasn’t anything like I’d seen Boone do before, not until the night of the ritual. There was no other way to describe it. They’d seemed to have turned inside out. That had to hurt.

They edged toward me, teeth bared and dripping saliva as sluagh exploded overhead like fireworks. One snap from one set of those jaws and I was a goner. Totally kaput. I raised my hand and called on my magic, hoping the spirit that had latched onto me wouldn’t fudge with me now.

Please, don’t overload, I pleaded. Not now. Please, not now.

I let the athame slip down my other sleeve. Curling my hand around the hilt, I held the blade steady, eyeing the two wolves as they prowled toward me. If they were hoping for an easy fight, they had another thing coming. This knife was more than sharp enough for three.

“Boone…” I murmured. “Please, don’t make me do this… Please…”

Dother snapped his jaws and leaped, but a ball of silver fur collided with him, knocking him to the side. They rolled over and over as I swiped the athame at Dub’s eye.

“I told you I’d poke the other one out if you ever came back!” I shrieked. “Come a little closer. Here puppy, puppy, puppy!”

Dub’s haunches tensed, and he launched himself into the air with a growl, his jaws opening. Ô mo dhia!

Silver collided with him, too, the streak so fast it caught me off guard. Boone! He was fighting back!

“Stop it!” Carman exclaimed, jabbing a finger in my direction. “Kill her! Kill the Crescent!”

Dub and Dain snapped and snarled, fighting one another while Dother lay motionless on the side of the road, his coat stained red.

Boone’s jaws crunched down on Dub’s neck, and I winced, brandishing the athame. Finally, wolf-Boone glanced up and focused on Carman, his lips curling back to show his stained teeth.

“My children!” she shrieked, holding her palms toward Boone. “My boys! My precious boys!”

He began to change, his bones snapping, and his paws twisting. He howled in pain, writhing on the ground.

“Stop it!” I shrieked at her. “Stop it!”

Carman wasn’t listening, her face was contorted, malice dripping from her twisted smile. This was her idea of punishment? Bitch!

Boone’s human form cowered on the road, the fur that had been matted with his brother’s blood now stuck to his skin. He forced himself to his knees even though he was shaking uncontrollably.

“You had no power over me then, and you have none over me now!” he shouted. “Get outta me head!”

Carman took a step toward him, her boot treading in Dother’s blood. “You’re grounded, Dain. You thought your last punishment was bad. The curse I’ll put on you will torment you for eternity.”

“Great parenting skills,” I muttered. “And I thought I was unqualified.”

Boone rose to his feet, the blood of his brothers caked onto his skin. The air began to crackle around him, and I knew. He was breaking the chains that bound him to his mother. He was coming home. He was coming back to me.

He fell to his knees with a cry,