It seemed the mare battled on that small hill for time unending, but my mind knew logically that only minutes had passed before dark, winged shapes completely surrounded us.

“Leave them to me!” a familiar voice hissed. The creatures parted, allowing the blood-drenched figure of Nuada to cautiously approach our hill. “Female,” he sneered, “how kind of you to set yourself apart from the others and to wait so patiently for me.”

Epi stirred restlessly under me. As Nuada glided closer, she squealed a warning at him.

“It seems your friend is not as eager to see me.” He laughed horribly.

“Rhea!” my husband’s voice roared, and I looked up to see him in a flat run toward our hill.

Nuada saw him, too.

“Kill the mare,” he ordered as he turned to meet ClanFintan’s charge. “Quickly.”

The circle of creatures around us hissed in pleasure and began to tighten, like a closing noose. Eyes flashing, Epi spun around, keeping the creatures wary of her hooves and teeth. But our hill had become slick with blood, and I felt a sickening lurch as Epi missed her footing and fell suddenly to her knees. The movement was unexpected, and I could not stop my body’s momentum from the spin. I flew over the mare’s neck, landing hard on the wet ground. A bolt of white pain blinded me as my head snapped against the cold hilt of a sword. Blackness as suffocating as an avalanche washed over me.

There was no pleasurable DreamLand interlude. Unconsciousness was complete and overwhelming as my conscious mind retreated deep within me, where only the voice of a Goddess could awaken it.

Come, Beloved, you cannot rest yet. He needs you.

My soul responded to the insistent call and I felt my spirit body lift with a sickening wave of vertigo from my crumpled body. At first I was unable to focus clearly. The battle below me was just a mass of unrecognizable red-tinged characters.

Concentrate, the Goddess whispered. I breathed slowly and tried to blink away the blurring of my vision. And abruptly the scene beneath me swam into focus.

Several members of my personal guard had joined Epi, and they were successfully battling the group of Fomorians. Relieved, my attention shifted to a scene being played out several yards away from any of the other warriors or creatures. ClanFintan and Nuada were circling each other warily. My spirit body floated over to where they fought. Both males were covered in blood and sweat. New blood was pouring from the arrow wound on the side of Nuada’s head, and several angry-looking slashes made his wings look frayed and raw. I floated closer and noticed that what I assumed at first to be blood was really a scarlet rash that covered his torso. But as he lashed out at ClanFintan, and his deadly talons raked across the centaur’s left shoulder, I realized that the disease had not yet affected his strength.

ClanFintan had lost his claymore, and he was fighting off Nuada’s increasingly wild advances with only a dagger and his hooves.

“Get out of my way, mutant horse, I wish to claim the body of your bride,” Nuada hissed.

“Never.” Instead of angering him, Nuada’s words seemed to have a strangely calming effect on ClanFintan. He fought on methodically, not giving ground but also not finding any new openings in the creature’s defenses.

“You know, horse man, she will welcome me.” Nuada’s voice lashed out with his claws. Neither found their mark.

“Never,” ClanFintan’s deep voice repeated.

“If she still lives,” Nuada continued.

The new words did have an effect on the centaur. He lunged forward suddenly, and Nuada leaped to meet him. The two males locked together, Nuada’s razor-edged teeth inches from ClanFintan’s neck, while the centaur’s dagger hovered just above the Fomorian’s prominent jugular vein.

My body sank lower until it was floating just above and to the side of my husband. I wasn’t going to watch another man I loved be killed by those things.