Elfhaven (the Danu Cycle: Fiann Trilogy Book 2)

Niamh was drained; she had next to nothing left. If she were a car, she would be running on fumes. She lay for a few more moments, the sky above her bright and clear. She blinked slowly, trying to return the feeling to her legs. There was a heaviness on her body and a dead Fomorian slowly came into focus. She had just enough magic to roll him off. She took a deep breath and spoke, not really caring who was nearby to hear her.

"Is it done? Is it over?" she asked.

She felt a rustling at her side and turned her head wearily. Myrna and Lochlan smiled down at her, their red heads bowed towards her. They were covered with blood and dirt, but it was still them. Lochlan crouched down and touched her cheek gently.

"Ladybug, you're okay!" His brown eyes shone and she thought he was either tearing up or had been crying.

Hearing the nickname her fianna had lovingly given her almost made her smile, but she didn't have the energy. Her heart did feel a little bit lighter though.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" she asked, looking up at them, confusion clouding her mind. "Did I die?"

Myrna laughed shakily. "You were last seen being dragged off looking half-dead. No one dreamed you were lying among us. We...thought you were gone."

She breathed out slowly. "No...no, I got that guy." She narrowed her eyes and looked at them. "What about the other guy? Dwen-terrible-name?"

"You got him too. You won, Ladybug." Lochlan chuckled softly.

"You sure? That felt kind of easy..." she made to flop her hand over her eyes, but found she was still holding her sword. She groaned and tried to let go of it, but the muscles of her fingers had cramped. "Can you help me up?"

Lochlan helped pull her to her feet and held her steady. Her sword hanging limply from her hand as she surveyed the damage. Bodies lay strewn across the crater, the wan light of the sun bathing them gently. Whatever had happened here had not been easy at all, and the feeling in Niamh's mind and body reminded her of that.

She realised there were Sidhe lying among the enemy bodies and she felt panic well. She looked for familiar faces. Her heart constricted painfully as she saw more familiar faces among the dead than she had expected.

Molly and Owen lay metres apart, their heads turned to each other and their hands outstretched, only just not touching. She felt hot angry tears forming. They had died not being able to hold the one they loved.

She turned away, hanging onto Lochlan for support, as her heart began beating erratically. She searched the bodies for more familiar faces. Her fiann had also lost Luke and Teague, she saw their bodies by the edge of the crater, surrounded by at least twenty enemy bodies. Eamon's fiann had lost five Sidhe. Niamh felt a lump in her throat and she shivered against the pain, trying to remain calm at least for the moment. The enemy had lost far more, not to mention his totem, she reminded herself, it wasn't all for nothing. The survivors of his army, if there had been any, must have fled.

The Fergs, Nessa, Oran and Tiernan wandered through the carnage, though what they were looking for, she didn't know. Fergus limped, leaning on a thick branch. Fergal's arm was bandaged. Nessa was head-to-toe red with blood, only the whites of her eyes showing, making her look fearsome. Oran wrote in his book madly, scrawling page after page of detail. Tiernan strode slower, picking something up here and there; or maybe putting it down, Niamh wasn't sure.

She kept searching, looking for the last three faces. Her heart thumped wildly until she saw them; a familiar dark head in the middle of the bodies methodically ensuring the enemy troops were dead, and the other lighter head who she could tell even from this distance was yelling at his second. Her heart rate slowed and her breath came more easily, though it hitched a few times.