Wordlessly Morgan snapped out her other hand, her finders stiff and tight. Another rock exploded, on Iona's other side. This time Iona cried out and covered her eyes with her hands. Gingerly she brushed at her face, leaving pale streaks of blood where her fingers had been.
"My eye!" Iona snarled, then looked up in concern as they heard a rumbling, scraping sound. The explosion had weakened part of the wall, and a large boulder was teetering on the edge above her. Quickly Iona jumped down onto the grass in front of Morgan just as the boulder fell and crashed into the window frame, right where she had been standing.
Morgan now had Iona's full attention. Clearly her half sister was angry. Her lips were tight with annoyance, her face streaked with blood, her eye was swelling, and she was glaring at Morgan.
"You don't know who you're dealing with," Iona said in a deadly voice. "You have no idea the things I've done or who or what I've become."
"Really. Just who are you, Iona?" Morgan said, filling her voice with unheard waves of power like tiny seismic shocks, intended to cause discomfort and anxiety. Next to her Moira shifted on her feet. Sky stood quietly, tense and at the ready.
Iona's eyes flared slightly and again she lost her composure for a split second. "I've become my father's daughter," she said in a voice full of rage and triumph.
With a calculated force Morgan thought, Push, and Iona was slammed against the back of the stone wall behind her. Her breath left her lungs with an audible "oof!" and she struggled to hold on to her balance.
"Hunter Niall," Morgan reminded her in a steely voice. "Where is he? Or should I start trying to persuade you?" She latched onto the image of Iona before her, pictured her ear, and whispered some of the words she had learned from her tath meanma-or Wiccan mind meld-with Ciaran all those years ago. Iona shrieked, grabbing her ear, her face screwed up with pain. Morgan imagined it felt as though a railroad spike were being driven into her brain.
Iona writhed against the wall, screaming curses at Morgan that had no weight.
Morgan took a deep breath and released her. "You see, Iona," she said, "I've always been my father's daughter. Now stop wasting my time. Where is Hunter?" The urgency for an answer was so great inside her, she was no longer even forcing this cold, hard anger to terrify Iona-it was real. It was everything she was right now-a great, pulsing need to find Hunter.
Iona, trying not to weep, managed to stand up and lean against the wall. With no warning she stood ramrod straight and shouted a spell. Morgan felt her knees buckle and her muscles become lax. She dropped to the ground, knowing instantly that Iona had managed to put a binding spell on her.
"You twit!" Iona screamed, standing over Morgan. "All these years you've had no idea-no idea about what I did to you-to your precious Hunter!"
Morgan saw Sky move forward, but Iona stopped her with a flex of her hand.
Stay put, Moira, don't move, Morgan sent, knowing her daughter had to be terrified. Her mind was reacting quickly, feeling her way through the invisible bond that Iona had put on her.
"You're nothing," Iona shouted at her. "You're Ciaran's bastard, his mistake, his embarrassment!" At the same moment Sky and Moira began chanting together, softly-they must have exchanged witch messages. They were working a spell to interfere with Iona's.
Morgan concentrated and felt the binding spell weaken, Iona was powerful but not nearly as strong as Morgan. Moira and Sky had weakened Iona's spell, and now Morgan could take care of the rest. With a burst of energy Morgan pushed her way through the spell, not bothering to dismantle it piece by piece but simply breaking it altogether. She broke free just as Iona was turning her focus to Moira and Sky, realizing the meaning of their chant.
Instantly Morgan again sent the pain to Iona's ear with Ciaran's dark words, Iona shrieked even louder, curling up as if to get away from the agony. Sky moved closer to Morgan- Iona couldn't hold her back any longer, Iona was on her knees on the grass, both hands pressed to her ear.
Morgan counted to twenty slowly, then she released her. "You are a joke," she said with unnatural calmness. "Do not make me ask again. Hunter Niall."
Iona sat up again, holding and rubbing her head, her bony face marred by hatred. "Haven't you figured it out yet, Morgan of Belwicket? I made the ferry go down. I did it, made that wave. I took the ferry." Her eyes were glittering with an unnatural brightness, and Morgan began to believe that twenty years of fury and resentment had made Iona insane. "And I created a bith dearc that opened above the water. I took Hunter. Poor thing, he was actually trying to swim to shore when I sucked him through it."
Morgan shook, rocked to the core at the idea of what Hunter had gone through. "You? How could you possibly do that?" she got out. Iona smiled coyly, still looking like a wreck but starting to enjoy her own story. "With his true name. I have Hunter's true name."
No! No, no, no. Morgan tried to hold back her panic, knowing Iona would sense it, but she could feel the ragged edges of fear reaching for her. To know something's true name was to have ultimate power over it. Total control, in every way. Morgan had learned Ciaran's true name arid had used it to stop him for good. How could Iona have learned Hunter's?
"Years ago I met a witch named Justine Courceau," Iona went on, as if reading Morgan's question on her face.
Justine-the woman who had collected names-the woman whom Hunter had once kissed. Hunter had told Morgan that Justine had been bitter when he had made it clear nothing would never happen between them, but… that couldn't have been enough of a reason to go along with Iona's scheme. And besides, Justine hadn't known Hunter's true name.
"She hated Hunter and had spent years searching for his true name," Iona went on. "She finally found it using a bith dearc to speak to the dead. I offered to buy it from her. The silly woman wouldn't sell it." Iona's mouth crooked upward in a horrible mockery of a smile. "So I killed her. And took her soul-her power-for myself. With her power joined to mine, I was unstoppable. I was my father's daughter. And I wanted you to suffer. I wanted to cause you pain-so I created the bith dearc and stole Hunter from you with his true name." Iona stopped, wiping the disgusting glee from her face and attempting to look more in control. She laughed. "How does that make you feel?"
Oh, Goddess, Morgan thought in horror. Now she understood why Iona was oddly strong. She had taken someone's soul, absorbed her power. Who knew if she had even stopped at Justine? Iona was power mad, but the corruption of souls- of the power-was eating away at her, Morgan realized, Iona had gained power, but the power was killing her and destroying her. An icy hand clenched around Morgan's heart as she realized that Iona might have taken Hunter's soul, too. Morgan's knees started trembling, and she prayed it didn't show. A thin, cold line of sweat had started at the back of her neck and was snaking slowly down her spine. She felt surrounded by death and horror and hatred, and all she could think of was Hunter. Hunter, Hunter. Please don't let that have happened to him. She swallowed carefully and kept an iron grip on her self-control.
"Iona, where is Hunter?" she repeated flatly-staring at the shaking, weak witch huddled at her feet.
"Oh, no, he isn't dead. No, no, that would have been too quick, too easy. Hunter's been alive all this time." Iona imparted this information as if sharing a delicious secret. "Can you imagine? You grieved like a widow for all these years. And he's alive! If you call his existence living."
Oh, Goddess, she's insane. Goddess, please help me. Please get me through this. Hunter's alive.
Sky stepped forward next to Morgan. She grasped Morgan's elbow. "Where is he?" Sky demanded. Morgan was grateful-it gave her a minute to pull herself together. Finally she knew for sure. Hunter was alive. A dull throb started in her chest, and she felt the warm, heavy stickiness of blood flowing.