Blood Magick Read online

  Nora Roberts

  HOT ICE

  SACRED SINS

  BRAZEN VIRTUE

  SWEET REVENGE

  PUBLIC SECRETS

  GENUINE LIES

  CARNAL INNOCENCE

  DIVINE EVIL

  HONEST ILLUSIONS

  PRIVATE SCANDALS

  HIDDEN RICHES

  TRUE BETRAYALS

  MONTANA SKY

  SANCTUARY

  HOMEPORT

  THE REEF

  RIVER’S END

  CAROLINA MOON

  THE VILLA

  MIDNIGHT BAYOU

  THREE FATES

  BIRTHRIGHT

  NORTHERN LIGHTS

  BLUE SMOKE

  ANGELS FALL

  HIGH NOON

  TRIBUTE

  BLACK HILLS

  THE SEARCH

  CHASING FIRE

  THE WITNESS

  WHISKEY BEACH

  THE COLLECTOR

  TONIGHT AND ALWAYS

  Series

  Irish Born Trilogy

  BORN IN FIRE

  BORN IN ICE

  BORN IN SHAME

  Dream Trilogy

  DARING TO DREAM

  HOLDING THE DREAM

  FINDING THE DREAM

  Chesapeake Bay Saga

  SEA SWEPT

  RISING TIDES

  INNER HARBOR

  CHESAPEAKE BLUE

  Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

  JEWELS OF THE SUN

  TEARS OF THE MOON

  HEART OF THE SEA

  Three Sisters Island Trilogy

  DANCE UPON THE AIR

  HEAVEN AND EARTH

  FACE THE FIRE

  Key Trilogy

  KEY OF LIGHT

  KEY OF KNOWLEDGE

  KEY OF VALOR

  In the Garden Trilogy

  BLUE DAHLIA

  BLACK ROSE

  RED LILY

  Circle Trilogy

  MORRIGAN’S CROSS

  DANCE OF THE GODS

  VALLEY OF SILENCE

  Sign of Seven Trilogy

  BLOOD BROTHERS

  THE HOLLOW

  THE PAGAN STONE

  Bride Quartet

  VISION IN WHITE

  BED OF ROSES

  SAVOR THE MOMENT

  HAPPY EVER AFTER

  The Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy

  THE NEXT ALWAYS

  THE LAST BOYFRIEND

  THE PERFECT HOPE

  The Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy

  DARK WITCH

  SHADOW SPELL

  BLOOD MAGICK

  eBooks by Nora Roberts

  Cordina’s Royal Family

  AFFAIRE ROYALE

  COMMAND PERFORMANCE

  THE PLAYBOY PRINCE

  CORDINA’S CROWN JEWEL

  The Donovan Legacy

  CAPTIVATED

  ENTRANCED

  CHARMED

  ENCHANTED

  The O’Hurleys

  THE LAST HONEST WOMAN

  DANCE TO THE PIPER

  SKIN DEEP

  WITHOUT A TRACE

  Night Tales

  NIGHT SHIFT

  NIGHT SHADOW

  NIGHTSHADE

  NIGHT SMOKE

  NIGHT SHIELD

  The MacGregors

  THE WINNING HAND

  THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR

  ALL THE POSSIBILITIES

  ONE MAN’S ART

  TEMPTING FATE

  PLAYING THE ODDS

  THE MACGREGOR BRIDES

  THE MACGREGOR GROOMS

  REBELLION/IN FROM THE COLD

  FOR NOW, FOREVER

  The Calhouns

  SUZANNA’S SURRENDER

  MEGAN’S MATE

  COURTING CATHERINE

  A MAN FOR AMANDA

  FOR THE LOVE OF LILAH

  Irish Legacy

  IRISH ROSE

  IRISH REBEL

  IRISH THOROUGHBRED

  BEST LAID PLANS

  LOVING JACK

  LAWLESS

  SUMMER LOVE

  BOUNDARY LINES

  DUAL IMAGE

  FIRST IMPRESSIONS

  THE LAW IS A LADY

  LOCAL HERO

  THIS MAGIC MOMENT

  THE NAME OF THE GAME

  PARTNERS

  TEMPTATION

  THE WELCOMING

  OPPOSITES ATTRACT

  TIME WAS

  TIMES CHANGE

  GABRIEL’S ANGEL

  HOLIDAY WISHES

  THE HEART’S VICTORY

  THE RIGHT PATH

  RULES OF THE GAME

  SEARCH FOR LOVE

  BLITHE IMAGES

  FROM THIS DAY

  SONG OF THE WEST

  ISLAND OF FLOWERS

  HER MOTHER’S KEEPER

  UNTAMED

  SULLIVAN’S WOMAN

  LESS OF A STRANGER

  REFLECTIONS

  DANCE OF DREAMS

  STORM WARNING

  ONCE MORE WITH FEELING

  ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

  A MATTER OF CHOICE

  Nora Roberts & J. D. Robb

  REMEMBER WHEN

  J. D. Robb

  NAKED IN DEATH

  GLORY IN DEATH

  IMMORTAL IN DEATH

  RAPTURE IN DEATH

  CEREMONY IN DEATH

  VENGEANCE IN DEATH

  HOLIDAY IN DEATH

  CONSPIRACY IN DEATH

  LOYALTY IN DEATH

  WITNESS IN DEATH

  JUDGMENT IN DEATH

  BETRAYAL IN DEATH

  SEDUCTION IN DEATH

  REUNION IN DEATH

  PURITY IN DEATH

  PORTRAIT IN DEATH

  IMITATION IN DEATH

  DIVIDED IN DEATH

  VISIONS IN DEATH

  SURVIVOR IN DEATH

  ORIGIN IN DEATH

  MEMORY IN DEATH

  BORN IN DEATH

  INNOCENT IN DEATH

  CREATION IN DEATH

  STRANGERS IN DEATH

  SALVATION IN DEATH

  PROMISES IN DEATH

  KINDRED IN DEATH

  FANTASY IN DEATH

  INDULGENCE IN DEATH

  TREACHERY IN DEATH

  NEW YORK TO DALLAS

  CELEBRITY IN DEATH

  DELUSION IN DEATH

  CALCULATED IN DEATH

  THANKLESS IN DEATH

  CONCEALED IN DEATH

  FESTIVE IN DEATH

  Anthologies

  FROM THE HEART

  A LITTLE MAGIC

  A LITTLE FATE

  MOON SHADOWS

  (with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman)

  The Once Upon Series

  (with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman)

  ONCE UPON A CASTLE

  ONCE UPON A STAR

  ONCE UPON A DREAM

  ONCE UPON A ROSE

  ONCE UPON A KISS

  ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT

  SILENT NIGHT

  (with Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, and Claire Cross)

  OUT OF THIS WORLD

  (with Laurell K. Hamilton, Susan Krinard, and Maggie Shayne)

  BUMP IN THE NIGHT

  (with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

  DEAD OF NIGHT

  (with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

  THREE IN DEATH

  SUITE 606

  (with Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

  IN DEATH

  THE LOST

  (with Patricia Gaffney, Mary Blayney, and Ruth Ryan Langan)

  THE OTHER SIDE

  (with Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

  TIME OF DEATH

&n
bsp; THE UNQUIET

  (with Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas)

  MIRROR, MIRROR

  (with Mary Blayney, Elaine Fox, Mary Kay McComas, and R. C. Ryan)

  Also available . . .

  THE OFFICIAL NORA ROBERTS COMPANION

  (edited by Denise Little and Laura Hayden)

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

  USA • Canada • UK • Ireland • Australia • New Zealand • India • South Africa • China

  penguin.com

  A Penguin Random House Company

  This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  Copyright © 2014 by Nora Roberts.

  Excerpt from The Collector by Nora Roberts copyright © 2014 by Nora Roberts.

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  NR® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-14454-5

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Roberts, Nora.

  Blood magick / Nora Roberts. — Berkley trade paperback edition p. cm. —(Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy; book three)

  ISBN 978-0-425-25987-0 (paperback)

  1. Buisnesswomen—Fiction. 2. Witches—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction. 4. Ireland—Fiction. 5. Domestic fiction I. Title.

  PS3568.O243B5465 2014

  813'.54—dc23

  2014012909

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Berkley trade paperback edition / November 2014

  Cover design by Rita Frangie.

  Cover photographs: “House” by fotoedu / Shutterstock; “Irish wolfhound” by Capture Light / Shutterstock; “Trees” by Andrew Roland / Shutterstock.

  Interior cover images: “Flowers on a wooden background” by Malakhova Ganna / Shutterstock; “Wolfhound” by Sushko Anastasia / Shutterstock; “Chain” by Alexander Evstafyev / Shutterstock; “Vintage metal pendant” by Taigi / Shutterstock.

  Text design by Kristin del Rosario.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  For Kat,

  one of the brightest lights in my life

  Contents

  Books by Nora Roberts

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Excerpt from The Collector

  How far away the stars seem,

  and how far is our first kiss,

  and, ah, how old is my heart.

  —WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

  It will have blood; they say,

  blood will have blood.

  —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

  1

  Summer 1276

  ON A BRIGHT DAY AS SUMMER FADED, BRANNAUGH gathered herbs, flowers, foliage, all for salves and potions and teas. They came to her, neighbors, travelers, for their hopes and healings. They came to her, the Dark Witch, as once they’d come to her mother, with aches in body, in heart, in spirit, and paid with coin or service or trade.

  So she and her brother, her sister, had built their lives in Clare, so far from their home in Mayo. Far from the cabin in the woods where they had lived, where their mother had died.

  So she had built her life, more contented, more joyful than she’d believed possible since that terrible day their mother had given them all but the dregs of her own power, had sent them away to be safe as she sacrificed herself.

  All grief, Brannaugh thought now, all duty and fear as she’d done what was asked of her, as she’d led her younger brother and little sister away from home.

  They’d left love, childhood, and all innocence behind.

  Long years. The first few spent, as their mother had bid, with their cousin and her man—safe, tended, welcomed. But the time had come, as time does, to leave that nest, to embrace who and what they were, and would ever be.

  The Dark Witches three.

  Their duty, their purpose above all else? To destroy Cabhan, the dark sorcerer, the murderer of their father, Daithi the brave, of their mother, Sorcha. Cabhan, who had somehow survived the spell the dying Sorcha had cast.

  But on such a bright day in summer’s end, it all seemed so far away—the terrors of that last winter, the blood and death of that last spring.

  Here, in the home she’d made, the air smelled of the rosemary in her basket, of the roses planted by her husband on the birth of their first child. The clouds puffed white as lambs across the blue meadow of the sky, and the woods, the little fields they’d cleared, as green as emeralds.

  Her son, not yet three years, sat in a patch of sun and banged on the little drum his father had made him. He sang and hooted and beat with such joyous innocence her eyes burned from the love.

  Her daughter, barely a year, slept clutching her favored rag doll while guarded by Kathel, their faithful hound.

  And another son stirred and kicked in her womb.

  From where she stood she could see the clearing, and the little cabin she, Eamon, and Teagan had built near to eight years before. Children, she thought now. They’d been but children who could not embrace childhood.

  They lived there still, close. Eamon the loyal, so strong and true. Teagan, so kind and fair. So happy now, Brannaugh thought, and Teagan so in love with the man she’d married in the spring.

  All so peaceful, she thought, despite Brin’s banging and hooting. The cabin, the trees, the green hills with their dots of sheep, the gardens, the bright blue sky.

  And it would have to end. It would have to end soon.

  The time was coming—she felt it as sure as she felt the babe’s kicks in her womb. The bright days would give way to the dark. The peace would end in blood and battle.

  She touched the amulet with its symbol of a hound. The protection her mother had conjured with blood magicks. Soon, she thought, all too soon now, she would need that protection again.

  She pressed a hand to the small of her back as it ached a bit, and saw her man riding toward home.

  Eoghan, so handsome, so hers. Eyes as green as the hills, hair a raven’s wing that curled to his shoulders. He rode tall and straight and easy on the sturdy chestnut mare, his voice lifted—as often it was—in song.

  By the gods, he made her smile, he made her heart lift like a bird on the wing. She, who had been so sure there could be no love for her, no family but her blood, no life but her purpose, had fallen deeper than oceans for Eoghan of Clare.

  Brin leaped up, began to run as fast as his little legs could manage, all the while calling.

  “Da, Da, Da!”

  Eoghan leaned down, scooped the boy up in the saddle. The laugh, the man’s, t
he boy’s mixed, flew toward her. Her eyes stung yet again. In that moment, she would have given all of her power, every drop given her, to spare them what was to come.

  The baby she’d named for her mother whimpered, and Kathel stirred his old bones to let out a soft woof.

  “I hear her.” Brannaugh set down her basket, moved over to lift her waking daughter, snuggled her in with kisses as Eoghan rode up beside her.

  “Look here, would you, what I found on the road. Some little lost gypsy.”

  “Ah well, I suppose we should keep him. It may be he’ll clean up fine, then we can sell him at the market.”

  “He might fetch us a good price.” Eoghan kissed the top of his giggling son’s head. “Off you go, lad.”

  “Ride, Da!” Brin turned his head, beseeched with big dark eyes. “Please! Ride!”

  “A quick one, then I want me tea.” He winked at Brannaugh before setting off in a gallop that had the boy shouting with delight.

  Brannaugh picked up her basket, shifted young Sorcha on her hip. “Come, old friend,” she said to Kathel. “It’s time for your tonic.”

  She moved to the pretty cottage Eoghan with his clever hands and strong back had built. Inside, she stirred the fire, settled her daughter, started the tea.

  Stroking Kathel, she doused him with the tonic she’d conjured to keep him healthy and clear-eyed. Her guide, her heart, she thought, she could stretch his life a few years more. And would know when the time came to let him go.

  But not yet, no, not yet.

  She set out honey cakes, some jam, and had the tea ready when Eoghan and Brin came in, hand in hand.

  “Well now, this is fine.”

  He scrubbed Brin’s head, leaned down to kiss Brannaugh, lingered over it as he always did.

  “You’re home early,” she began, then her mother’s eye caught her son reaching for a cake. “Wash those hands first, my boy, then you’ll sit like a gentleman for your tea.”

  “They’re not dirty, Ma.” He held them out.

  Brannaugh just lifted her eyebrows at the grubby little hands. “Wash. The both of you.”

  “There’s no arguing with women,” Eoghan told Brin. “It’s a lesson you’ll learn. I finished the shed for the widow O’Brian. It’s God’s truth her boy is useless as teats on a billy goat, and wandered off to his own devices. The job went quicker without him.”

  He spoke of his work as he helped his son dry his hands, spoke of work to come as he swung his daughter up, set her to squealing with delight.

  “You’re the joy in this house,” she murmured. “You’re the light of it.”

  He gave her a quiet look, set the baby down again. “You’re the heart of it. Sit down, off your feet awhile. Have your tea.”

  He waited. Oh, she knew him for the most patient of men. Or the most stubborn, for one was often the same as the other, at least wrapped inside the like of her Eoghan.