Succubus Ascendant: An Urban Fantasy (The Telepathic Clans Saga Book 4) by BR Kingsolver Read Free Book Online

over by Delilah O’Neill, were the portraits on the walls of women. She determined to ask Rebecca who they were.
    Eventually, she was shown into a large banquet hall for entertaining two or three hundred of her closest friends. Hugh O’Neill was awaiting her.
    “Are you ready for this, lassie?” he asked.
    “I think so,” Brenna said. “You’ll have to be more formal with me in public after this, you know.”
    “Aye, I’ll be the picture of propriety,” he chuckled. There was a glint in his eye that made her uneasy.
    When Brenna looked at Hugh, nothing stayed stable. His aura was alive, streaks of color shooting through it. Hugh was nervous, but the streaks changed color. She’d never seen anyone with an aura that looked anything like it.
    He held out his arm and she took it. They walked out into the grand ballroom, and he escorted her to the low stage at the front. The room was packed. A microphone was hooked to speakers outside in the large quadrangle where even more people waited. It was also hooked to communication lines leading to all of O’Neill’s facilities across Northern Ireland, Scotland, and their trade office in Paris.
    Hugh left her on the stage and stepped off to the side. She looked out on the faces before her, and realized that she knew all of them. Corwin’s memories in her mind told her who each of them were. She knew details about their lives. She might be a stranger to them, but to her they felt like family.
    “Corwin, Lord O’Neill, is dead,” she announced. “He has passed and the mantle of Clan Chief, confirmed by the Council, has passed to me. I am Brenna Aoife O’Donnell, daughter of Jack Brian O’Donnell and Maureen O’Neill O’Byrne O’Donnell, grandniece of Corwin and granddaughter of Caylin Mairead O’Neill O’Byrne. I claim the high seat of O’Neill.”
    Hugh, Thomas, and a number of others knelt. Like a wave, those behind them knelt, until almost everyone was kneeling.
    * What the hell?* Brenna sent to Thomas.
    *It’s traditional. Remember, it’s been a hundred fifty years since this has happened here. Just go with the flow.*
    An old woman who did not kneel attracted Brenna’s attention.
    “Donegal whore!” the woman shouted. “I’ll be damned if I kneel to an O’Donnell!”
    A ball of fire flamed in her hand and she threw it at Brenna. It only traveled about two feet before it hit an air shield and splashed throughout the tight bubble that encased her. The flames engulfed her, and she screamed a hideous, tortured scream. Everyone stared at her in horror as her blackened corpse slumped.
    *Good God! Wasn’t there another way to stop her?* Brenna sent to Rebecca.
    *Wasn’t me. That was Rhiannon.*
    Brenna looked at the copper-headed woman. Dressed in blue jeans and a sweater, Rhiannon leaned against the wall halfway to the back of the hall. Her arms crossed under her breasts and her legs crossed at the ankles, she looked as though she was bored and about to fall asleep.
    * Any other way of stopping it would have splashed it across the hall,* Rhiannon sent. * Too many people in here, too many innocents. I’m good, but not good enough to catch a fireball in mid-air. I constructed the air shield around her before she created it.*
    “Butcher!” a man shouted from the back of the room. The hall started to devolve into chaos.
    Shaken, Brenna shouted, “That wasn’t me! Our Protectors are here not just to protect me. They protect all of you. They protect the Clan. They couldn’t let someone loose a fireball in a room with innocents.” As the room quieted, she looked down at a young boy kneeling in front of her, his eyes wide. She allowed her voice to drop to a normal volume. “They couldn’t allow a fireball loose in a room with children.”
    And then a ripple of movement from the back of the room became two lines of women dressed in white robes. They walked toward her on each side of the hall, making their way to the front. People melted away in front of