Blood In Fire (Celtic Elementals Book 2) by Heather R. Blair Read Free Book Online Page A

is…. I will grant you all that you have ever desired and more.”
    Declan smiled, a thin splitting of his lips that he fancied made him look more like the demon fae before him than the human he was.
    “Thank you, my master. It will be my greatest pleasure to give you your vengeance. May I—” Declan hesitated, wondering if his request would be going too far, but Abhartach waved an impatient hand, the spidery shadows of his gesture skittering down the walls. “May I also have the pleasure of watching you end him?”
    This time it was Abhartach who smiled. That smile killed Declan’s pretended imitation of his master’s heritage. No human on earth could smile like that—red-black lips parting, dark teeth gleaming—a bloody crack leading straight to the bowels of hell. Declan sucked in a breath of pure terror and admiration.
    “Oh, daor , you silly boy. Who said anything about ending him? Aidan O’Neill has much to answer for, and answer he will. If he should fail again to bend to my will, then his screams will echo within these walls for the rest of eternity.”
    Abhartach swept from the chamber, one large hand brushing Declan’s shoulder for the briefest instance as he passed. His master’s caress burned like cold fire long after Abhartach had gone, an ache that pierced down to the bone. But the tears that splashed and darkened the grey stone between Declan’s hands were not of pain, but of a trembling ecstasy that threatened to burst from his every pore. His heart’s desire was so close he could taste it.
     
    Aine, goddess of the moon, stood next to the scrying pool of Ti'rna No'g, her heart heavy. The graceful, ethereal city of the gods swirled and gleamed softly with starlight around her delicate form.
    It wasn’t fair. Danu damn Bav anyway! This was no way to repay a debt.
    Yet...a favor had been granted…a favor that may have saved Aine's very life. So a debt was owed.
    Aine had a lot of spunk, but not enough to shortchange the goddess of death. Besides, this was a road they had started on together long ago. She just hadn't gotten the full picture of what Bav had been up to at the time. Now, however…
    “But I like Aidan,” she whispered to no one in particular. Not to mention she pitied him. A pity the vampire would have undoubtedly mocked her for, but Aine didn’t care.
    Even by her extreme meddling standards, Aidan had been fucked with more than any mortal deserved. Not that he was truly mortal any longer, but still this…this was evil.
    She sighed and hesitantly dipped her fingers into the moonlight filling the pool, her cobalt blue eyes dark with regret, as she touched the cheek of the woman reflected in the bowl, a young woman with honey blonde hair and clever, half-familiar silvery-green eyes. When Aine’s fingertip made contact, the image scattered into endless rings that lapped agitatedly against the sloped sides of the scrying pool.
    The druidic runes carved into the lip of the ancient basin started to glow as Aine whispered the spell she had been given. A spell that only she and one other of all the Tuatha de Nanaan could have cast—
     
    ‘ Child lost to time, Child born anew,
    Go in grace, go in haste…
    And seek the dark man of yew—‘
     
    Aine gasped as that last line escaped her lips and slapped a hand over her own mouth. She hadn’t meant to say that. Those weren’t the words Bav had demanded of her.
    Immediately, the pool shimmered and a strong masculine face, one Aine knew well, flashed on the surface of the moonlight. His green eyes met hers and narrowed, first in recognition and then in fury…
    Manannán mac Lir, god of the sea. Could he know what they had done?
    Oh crap…Bav was going to kill her!
    Gripping the basin with fingers gone white as bone, Aine glanced over her shoulder. Only her fairy half-sister was anywhere near her, but Fand was possibly the worst person to catch a glimpse of that face in the pool. Aine shook the bowl hastily so that the reflection