Lilith's eyes were still wide, but they shot a momentary glance at Ian, who was standing to her side. He reached out to touch her. "Mother?" he asked, concern in his voice. He turned to Morgan, angry. "Stop it! What are you doing?"
"It's a binding spell, Ian," Sky said, her voice as dry and calm as a desert rock. "Morgan's always been particularly good at them. Must be Ciaran's blood."
There was a spike in the fear that Moira felt coming from Lilith, fear and disbelief.
Lilith hadn't thought Mum was so strong, Moira realized. She'd had no idea who she was up against. Even after everything Moira had heard about her mum, even after the stories about the dark wave, it was hard for Moira herself to believe.
"Hunter Niall," Morgan said again. "Tell me everything you know." Her voice was like thunder, felt but unheard, deep tremors rolling through the five of them.
"I know nothing," Lilith spit through stiff lips. Morgan made an almost imperceptible movement, and Lilith whimpered again.
"Stop it!" Ian cried, trying to step between his mother and Morgan. "Moira! Make her stop!"
Moira ignored him, feeling her heart rip apart. She hated to hear the pain in his voice, but she couldn't give in. He had lied to her, betrayed her. She was so ashamed of how stupid, how naive she had been. Even after her mum had warned her about Cal, had tried to make her see the parallels, Moira had refused to believe it. She'd thought Ian was different. She'd been wrong.
"Where is Hunter Niall?" Morgan pressed, and when Lilith didn't answer, she closed her fingers a bit more. Lilith seemed to shrink against the door, her knuckles white, as if someone were wrapping her in a cloth of pain and twisting it. Her knees bent slightly, and Moira could see tiny beads of sweat appear on her upper lip.
"The thing about binding spells," Sky added conversationally, "is that they can do quite a bit of damage without leaving a mark." She let these words sink in, and then she looked at Lilith and said, an edge of steel in her voice, "The other interesting thing is that you're not the only one at stake here." She glanced first at Ian, then looked back to Lilith, making her intentions clear.
Moira bit her lips, tension making her muscles feel like knotted wood. Tell Morgan what she wants to know. Do not force her to harm your son.
Feeling ill, Moira started to sink to her knees in the wet grass, giving in, but instantly stood when Sky's eyes flicked to her. She could not show weakness. She could not become a liability in this desperate situation. She was Moira of Belwicket, Morgan's daughter, and she would show that she had her mother's strength. Locking her knees, she clenched her hands at her sides and pressed her lips firmly together. Only now was she beginning to understand what it must have been like for her mother when she'd found out she was a blood witch, when she'd realized that Cal was using her, when she'd had to fight the darkest forces Wicca had seen in generations. She'd never be able to look at her mum in the same way again.
"Moira saw you looking at an image of Hunter Niall in a crystal," said Morgan. "Tell me what you know. Don't make this worse than it has to be."
"You don't know who you're dealing with," Lilith snarled.
"Neither do you. You would be hard-pressed to come up with someone who could scare me," Morgan said coldly. "Not after my father. I've felt the foul wind of a dark wave against my face. I've gone face-to-face against Ciaran and defeated him. I've been hard to impress since then. Now, for the last time, you will tell me what you know, or after tonight you will know what it's like to be hard to impress."
With that she clenched her hand into a fist, then twisted it sideways, and Lilith crumpled like a puppet with cut strings. She slumped to the ground, curled around the door, her face contorted into a mask of pain and rage. Ian dropped to his knees next to her and put his hand on her shoulder, then shot Morgan a look of anger.
"Stop it! Stop it!" he said harshly, and Moira closed her eyes for a moment and stepped back, still unable to bear seeing Ian frightened, angry, hurt.
Flecks of blood appeared at Lilith's lips, but she could not speak. Morgan made the tiniest gesture with her closed hand, and a high keening escaped from Lilith and split the night air, a howl of agony.
Morgan leaned closer, not looking at Ian. "I can do this all night," she said slowly. "Can you?"
Lilith's face deformed one last time, then suddenly she spit out, "It was Iona! Iona MacEwan!"
Moira saw her mother step back, visibly shocked, "Iona. What about her?" she demanded.
Iona? Moira thought. Ciaran's other daughter? "She'll know the answers you want," Lilith said.
"And where's Iona?" Sky said, her voice sounding like a dry knife on leather. "Where is she now?"
Lilith seemed to wrestle with this answer. Her short, heavy body was still frozen on the ground, and Moira thought that if she could move, she would be writhing and screaming. Then she burst out, "Arsdeth."
"Where is Arsdeth?" Sky snapped.
With an effort Lilith gasped, "North. North, by the sea."
Morgan looked at Ian. "Get a map."
He clearly wanted to refuse: his face was red with anger and overlain with worry for his mother. But Morgan's voice was a force field, and Ian stood and disappeared into the house. A few moments later he returned, a much-used and faded map of Ireland in his hand. He threw it on the ground between Morgan and Sky, and Sky picked it up.
"Arsdeth," she said. "In the north."
Moira swallowed hard as she saw a dark red drop of blood slide from Lilith's nose to sink onto the worn stone step under her head. Goddess, this was a bloody night. She understood now what Keady had meant when she'd told Moira it would truly be better never to understand what Morgan was capable of. So much pain and terror already. Did she have enough of her mother's strength in her to bear it?
"Arsdeth," Sky murmured again, tracing the map with her finger. "Oh, Goddess, here it is. Arsdeth, way the hell up north in County Donegal, by the ocean."
Morgan looked at her, and Sky nodded. Then Morgan said to Lilith, "What will happen to you if we go there and find you've been lying to us?" Morgan let Lilith have a minute to think about it. "What will happen to your son? Your house? Your coven? You do know you'd never escape me." Her tone was conversational, mildly curious.
There was no response, and Morgan rocked her fist from side to side slightly. A crumpled sound of agony came from Lilith, and once again Moira had to look away. "You know that I'll track you to the ends of the earth if you flee, if you've lied to us?"
Lilith nodded. Ian looked as though he was trying not to cry. Goddess, how could she turn off her feelings for him? How could he have betrayed her to his mother? Nothing would ever seem normal again. In one short week, one long night, her life had changed dramatically forever.
"Lilith," Morgan said, her voice sounding horribly gentle, "think about this. Do you believe I'm my father's daughter?"
A flash of fury sparked from Lilith's eyes. Her lips, stained with blood flecks, pressed even more tightly together. Her nod was unwilling, but it was there.
"You are right," Morgan whispered, and straightened. She nodded to Sky, who was looking at her curiously. Sky folded the map and put it on the ground next to Ian. Ian angrily scraped his sweater sleeve across his eyes. Moira couldn't resist meeting his gaze one last time. To her surprise, the look he gave her was anguished, but not full of hatred.