That was what it looked like, anyway. What came out was a roar like all the other roars and a belch of black energy that fountained skyward. But in her head, Keller heard maniacal laughter.
Then it swung its head back down and pointed the horn straight at Iliana.
Die! it said. The word wasn't spoken but sent on a cold wave of pure energy.
"Mine is the power of the ages" Iliana shouted back. "Mine is the power-"
The golden flare in her palms was changing, blazing white, blinding hot...
"-OF THE END OF THE WORLD!"
Something like a supernova was born between her hands.
The tight shot up and out, exploding. It was impossible to look at. And it was no longer white but dazzling, lightning-brilliant blue.
The blue fire.
The Wild Power had awakened.
I knew it, Keller thought I knew it all along.
Keller couldn't see what happened to the dragon;
the light was simply too bright. While it flared around her, she was bathed in radiance that seemed to shine through her, humming inside her and lighting up her bones. She tried to lift her own hand and saw nothing but a vague rainbow shape.
But she heard the dragon's scream. Not low like the roar but high and squealing, a sound like icicles driving into her ears. It went up and up, higher in pitch until even Keller couldn't track it. And then there was a thin sound like distant glass shattering, and then there was no sound at all.
There were shooting stars in the blue-white light.
For the second time that evening, Keller fainted.
"Boss! Please, Boss, hurry. Wake up!"
Keller blinked open her eyes. Galen was holding her. He was human. So was she.
And Winnie and Nissa were trying to drag both of them somewhere.
Keller gazed up into those gold-green eyes. The exact color of a leopard's, she thought. Only leopards don't cry, and his were brimming with tears.
She lifted a languorous hand and stroked his cheek. He cupped his own hand over it.
Keller couldn't think. There were no words in her mind. But she was glad to be here with him, for this last moment in the moonlight. It had all been worth it
"Boss, please!" Winnie was almost crying, too.
"Let me die in peace," Keller said, although she didn't realize she was saying it aloud until she heard the words. Then she added, "Don't you cry, Winfrith. You did a good job."
"Boss, you're not dying! The blue fire did something-it healed us. We're all okay. But it's almost midnight!"
Keller bunked. She blinked again.
Her body didn't hurt anymore. She'd assumed it was the blessed numbness that comes just before death. But now she realized that it wasn't. Her blood was running in her veins; her muscles felt firm and strong. She didn't even have a headache.
She stared beyond Winnie to the girl in white.
Diana was still slight and childlike, almost fairy-like of figure. But something had changed about her. At first, Keller thought she looked as distant and beautiful as a star, but then she smiled and wasn't distant at all. She was simply more beautiful than the dreams of mortals.
And really shining with her own light. It pooled around her in soft, silvery radiance. Keller had never seen a Wild Power do that before, not on any of the tapes.
But she's not just a Wild Power, the voice in her head whispered. She's the Witch Child.
And Goddess alone knows all that she's meant to do.
For a moment, Keller felt so awed that it was almost like unhappiness. But then Winnie's message finally sank in.
She snapped her head up. "Midnight?"
"Yes!" Winnie said frantically.
Keller bolted upright. "Nissa?"
"Right here, Boss."
Keller felt a flood of relief. Nissa was the one who had seemed closest to death on the ground there. But now she was standing on her own two feet, looking cool and imperturbable, even though her shirt was bloody and in rags.
"Nissa, can you drive that Jeep? Can you figure out how to get to Charlotte?"
"I think so. Boss."
Keller had never been so grateful to hear that calm voice in her life. She jumped up.
"Then let's go!"
Chapter 18
The ride to Charlotte passed in a blur. All Keller could remember was hanging on while Nissa did some of the wildest driving she'd ever experienced. They went offroad for a good deal of the way.
It was one minute to midnight when they squealed into a parking lot in front of a long, low building. "Go in, go in!" Nissa said, slamming to a stop in front of a set of double doors.
Keller and Galen and Winnie and Iliana ran.
They burst into a large room that seemed very brightly lit. A sea of chairs with bodies sitting in them swam in front of Keller's eyes. Then she focused on a platform at the front.
"Come on," she said tersely.
There were a number of people sitting at a table on the platform, facing the audience just like any ordinary panel, with glasses of water and microphones
in front of them. But Keller recognized some of the people as she got closer, and they were anything but ordinary.
That little dumpling-shaped woman with the round face was Mother Cybele. Mother of all the Witches, just as Grandma Harman had been Crone. With Grandma Harman dead, she was the witches' leader.
The tall girl with the lovely features and the cafe au lait skin who sat beside her was Aradia. The blind Maiden of the Witches mentioned in the prophecies.
And that regal-looking man with the golden hair and beard, sitting by the queenly woman with flashing green eyes...
They could only be the leaders of the First House of the shapeshifters.
Galen's mother and father.
There were others, too, important people from Circle Daybreak, but Keller didn't have time to focus on them. Mother Cybele was on her feet and speaking. She must have been a little short-sighted, because she didn't appear to see Keller and the others coming up on the side. Her voice was slow and concerned.
"I'm afraid that since it's now past midnight-"
Keller glanced at her watch. "It's just midnight now!"
Mother Cybele looked up, startled, over her glasses. Every head on the panel turned. And every face in the audience was suddenly fixed on Keller's group.
A low murmur like the humming of bees began,
but it swelled very quickly to something like a muted roar. People were pointing openly as Keller ran up the steps to the stage.