When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears: The Goblin Wars, Book Three by Kersten Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

child cry in the night, and sent me looking. That was providence for the both of us. Now I called for help, and Seamus here is the one who answered.”
    “You are saying the Almighty sent you into Mag Mell because a goblin child prayed?” Seamus asked.
    “Did I say she prayed? Aileen had no more idea of the Almighty that night than you do, you heathen Scot. I said she cried out for help. The difference between us was she knew she didn’t know everything, and I thought I did.”
    “Sounds familiar,” Finn said. “Are you sure you’re not part Scots, Mamieo?”
    “Get in the van,” Mamieo snapped. “That should sound familiar too, boyo. I’ve said it three times.”
    “That police car has been past us twice,” Mr. Wylltson said. “I never thought I’d be worried about the police.”
    Finn climbed back in, and Seamus started the van.
    “I’m not asking you to believe me,” Mamieo told Seamus. “I’m suggesting that if you shut your mouth and listen, you might learn a thing or two you don’t know. Or you can let us out on the street and spend the rest of your life wondering.”
    “I’m listening.”
    “Good. John Paul was about to tell us what happened at the park when you started going on about your law career. The man might get the tale told if you don’t interrupt.”
    “Fine.” Seamus pulled into traffic again.
    “Well,” Mr. Wylltson began, “I could feel the shadow men’s presence before I started singing.”
    Seamus looked at Mamieo, his eyebrows up.
    “And that’s not interrupting?” Mamieo said. “Put your eyebrows down, boyo, before they get stuck that way. John Paul has no second sight, but he is a direct descendent of the Welsh bard Myrddyn Wyllt, the real Merlin. Our wee Aiden, Teagan’s six-year-old bráthair , has Myrddyn on his father’s side and Amergin, the Milesian bard whose songs drove Fear Doirich and the Sídhe into Mag Mell, on his máthair ’s, and second sight as well. That’s important for you to know if you’re to understand what’s happening. After Aileen was killed, John Paul was taken to Mag Mell and tortured by the Dark Man.”
    “Fear Doirich?”
    “Himself,” Mamieo said.
    “Cops following us.” Finn was looking over his shoulder.
    Seamus nodded but didn’t say anything. Teagan leaned forward so that she could watch the cruiser in the side-view mirror. She knew exactly what her father meant. The police had always seemed friendly before. Helpful, even. Now they were a little scary.
    “John has no Traveler blood in him,” Mamieo went on, “and he’s not an aingeal or a Highborn, and as those are the only creatures that can walk completely present in any world of creation, John Paul’s body was damaged by stepping into Mag Mell, his mind almost destroyed.”
    “Not my mind, Ida, just a few of my memories. And I’m getting better.”
    “How did he get out of Mag Mell?”
    “His children have Highborn blood in them, from their máthair , don’t they? My Aileen half grew up in Mag Mell. After she died her ashes were scattered in the library park. They woke the trees and opened a doorway that shouldn’t have been —the doorway Finn, Teagan, and Aiden went through to find their da. Raynor has been guarding it to keep the shadows and goblinkind from stepping into Chicago.”
    The police cruiser turned down a side street, and Teagan snuggled under Finn’s arm again. Raynor may have been keeping the shadows in, but he was also waiting for Fear Doirich to step out. The Dark Man’s spells kept the holy angels out of Mag Mell.
    “Teagan and Finn went back to Mag Mell,” Mamieo said. “Tea was going to drag Fear Doirich out and give him to the angel. But it didn’t work out that way. Which brings us to John Paul standing shoulder to shoulder with an aingeal as a wall of vileness tried to roll out of Mag Mell while the children went off to deal with the nasty creatures at the school.”
    “He won’t have to stand guard there anymore,” Mr.