“You have to try!”
Lizzy opened her eyes. “What are you two talking about?”
“Nothing!” Simon sent a shy glance at Cian. “I mean, I don’t...”
“How will you know if you don’t try?” Cian pleaded.
Simon’s eyes passed between his mother and his friend. “I need to come into the circle.”
“What?”
“The circle. Open it and let me in.”
“Simon.” Lizzy sighed. “This is not the time.”
“Elizabeth.” Myra jolted at her younger brother’s tone. Cian spoke like Fin. “Simon can help. He has the ability to see through the eyes of animals. If the falcon is crossing her barrier, then we can use Simon’s gift. Let him in and close the circle.”
It wasn’t a request. His voice of conviction didn’t go unnoticed by any of them. He didn’t expect his words to be ignored.
They all witnessed the moment Cian became a man, or at the very least, the kind of man he would become. An overwhelming sense of pride swelled in Myra’s chest.
Once inside, Simon held hands with the others, his face serious. His hands trembled. “Think of the falcon,” Simon instructed them.
They closed their eyes.
They all watched the falcon. Todd waited for Ian to report back from the women. His father-in-law gasped in disbelief.
“What is it?”
“Simon is trying to call to the bird.”
“Simon?” Fin asked.
“Aye.”
The falcon circled, obviously distressed. Its eyes darted between Ian and Fin. Then, without warning, it dived, landed purposely on Finlay’s shoulder.
Fin flinched, immediately turning his head away, the razor sharp beak only inches from his eyes, its talons clenching to hold its balance.
As quickly as it perched it left, taking to the sky, and circled the men before disappearing behind the invisible wall.
“What the hell?”
“Sonofabitch.”
“Do you sense the animal?” Cian asked Simon, but the women answered yes. Simon saw through the eyes of the bird. The ground was terribly far down. He stretched his fingers in the palms’ of his mother and Amber, and felt the pinch of talons touching his skin. His sight grew sharper than it had ever been before. He could see the smallest of animals scurrying below.
Although the falcon noticed them, he didn’t push his desire to hunt, instead he followed Simon’s will.
He found a perch in a tree overlooking the yard where men gathered and horses were readied.
Grainna stood in the center of the yard, her sphere of glass stood on a podium, unobstructed, with the sun catching its beauty and casting a shower of iridescent light in a perfect circle.
One of the horses, troubled by the rider who was attempting to mount him, skipped close to the podium. Grainna threw up her hand, knocking the rider off the horse. “Get that beast back!”
She studied the glass. Simon swooped down but stayed out of sight. Inside the sphere, he saw Fin and the others. Ian’s hand lay against the barrier, his back pushed into it, attempting to move the unmovable.
“She is watching the men, through her crystal ball,” Simon told the others in the room.
“Can you see how she is holding them back?”
“No, but I think it has something to do with the sun on the crystal ball. She keeps yelling at the men to stay back.”
“You can hear her?”
“Yeah, hey, Myra, didn’t you say that your dad could shoot lightning out of his fingers or thoughts?”
Simon moved the falcon to a higher perch, and stifled the cry of the animal.
“He can.”
“If her crystal ball is gone, than maybe Grainna won’t be able to see them. That’s gotta help, right?”
“It couldn’t hurt.”
“Lora, tell Ian to aim the lightning about…”
Simon studied the ground beneath the falcon, “about twenty feet beyond the wall and toward the sun.” He hoped his calculation was right.
Simon pivoted the falcon’s neck. The falcon’s perch made it easy for Simon to see both Fin and the others as well as Grainna. He glanced at Ian who nodded when Lora repeated his instructions.
Ian opened his arms. “We’re going to get a little wet.”
A smile crested Simon’s face despite the butterflies circling his stomach.
Thunder rumbled above him. The falcon and the horses started to spook. Simon wanted to reach out to the animals and settle them, but when he tried, he felt his grip on the falcon loosen. He stayed firmly planted inside the winged weapon and watched.
Todd, who leaned against the invisible force field, slipped and fell.
Simon heard a scream inside Grainna’s court.
He swiveled and witnessed Grainna wave her hands franticly, and those inside the courtyard flee to the edges. “Grainna’s hold is breaking, tell Ian to increase the clouds.”
The lightning rent the air with a loud crack.
Simon jumped and the falcon cried.
Simon saw the powerful light miss its mark.
“More toward the sun, three feet.”
“Three feet to the sun,” Lora said aloud.
The bolt was closer but still missed. The courtyard was in a panic. Grainna swirled around, searching.
Large droplets of water started falling from the sky. “Half a foot more,” Simon yelled above the noise of the storm surrounding the falcon.
The thunder roared; the crack of lightning stretched over the sky. Sensing what was happening a fraction too late, Grainna turned to her sphere in an attempt to move it out of harm’s way. Instead, she witnessed it shatter into a thousand pieces.
“Yeah! Woo-hoo!” Simon screamed, bringing his hands in the air, clutched to the others.
The falcon screeched, with Simon’s cry.
Grainna turned instantly in his direction.
“Oh, crap!”
“Simon!” His mother scolded.
“I need cover.” Simon ignored his mom, told the beast to move. He felt his own pulse pumping with the adrenalin of the bird. Another bolt of lightning distracted those on the ground, but Grainna’s eyes followed Simon inside the falcon. She bellowed for Steel.
Once the falcon safely landed back on Ian’s outstretched arm, Simon opened his eyes.
Liz focused on her son and gasped in alarm. His eyes had changed shape like those of a falcon, piercing and keen. The grey color swirled with a mix of blue. The effect was startling. Inhuman.
It took several blinks before they returned to normal.
“How?” Liz asked in awe.