Always Forever Read Online Free PDF Page B

mass of writing impossible to decipher. Church, who had continued his relationship with Laura, was confronted by
a furious Niamh, who came close to slaying him for breaking his promise to her.
Instead of helping capture Maponus, she had brought the mad god to the
vicinity of the Tor, to wreak his vengeance upon Church.
    In a moment of staggering revelation, Church deciphered the scrawling on
the wall to read a message for him from his dead girlfriend, Marianne. He had
no idea how she had managed to contact him, or why he was only aware of it at
that moment, but it was a transcendental experience that gave him a glimpse of
the meaning behind everything. Infused with this understanding at his lowest
ebb, he found new strength to fight on.

    With a half-formed plan in mind, Church crept through the Fomorii-
infested countryside in search of Maponus. He found him-and the Bone
Inspector, who had been tracking the insane god. Church explained his plan and
the Bone Inspector agreed to help, but on his way back to the cottage, Church
was finally brought face-to-face with the Fomorii warrior. The battle was short
and brutal, and Church was left broken. But before the warrior could end his
life, the beast was itself killed, by Mollecht, freed from his imprisonment at the
hands of Calatin by the devastation in Edinburgh. Instead of slaying Church, he
departed, leaving behind a mysterious black sword, obviously for Church's use.
Church took it back to the cottage, attempting to recover from his wounds
before the Fomorii's imminent attack.
    In Windsor Park, Shavi summoned Cernunnos, who gave him a strange
potion to help Ruth. The essence of Balor could not be destroyed, but it could
be removed, Cernunnos told him; like everything connected with the gods, a
price would have to be paid, a sacrifice made.
    As Shavi made his way back, he was attacked by the pursuer they perceived
as a giant wolf. It was Callow, hideously transformed by Calatin for his part in
the debacle that led to the freeing of the exiled Tuatha De Danann. His suffering
had driven him insane and he had been stalking the Brothers and Sisters of
Dragons as architects of his pain, cutting off fingers in a ritual that only he truly
understood. He murdered Shavi with one blow of his knife, then loped away in
pursuit of the others.
    At Mam Tor, on the eve of Lughnasadh, the Fomorii attacked in force.
Church sent Laura to stand guard over Ruth in the cottage while he faced up to
Calatin in a mirror image of the confrontation on Skye that had led to his death.
Although badly injured, this time Church had an advantage: the black sword
bequeathed him by Mollecht. It had a life of its own, shaping his attack, then
plunging into Calatin's heart of its own volition. Calatin was eradicated on the
spot, a fate beyond imagining for a god unable to be completely destroyed. And
then the sword revealed its true form: it was Mollecht's shape-shifting Caraprix.
    Before the Fomorii could seek revenge, the Bone Inspector led Maponus
into their midst, where the mad god wreaked vengeance for his suffering. When
the carnage was finally over and the Fomorii fled, the Tuatha De Danann
reclaimed their insane kinsman.
    Then, in the middle of victory, there was only one last, terrible act for
Church: to kill Ruth and prevent Balor from being reborn. As he approached the
cottage with a heavy heart, Ruth stepped out, seemingly freed from the corruption of Balor. But nothing is ever that simple. Cernunnos had appeared during
the battle and offered his potion to Laura, who accepted the sacrifice to save Ruth. The essence of Balor was transferred from Ruth to Laura, an act of spiritual redemption that would mean her own death. As Ruth gradually came
round, Mollecht and his loyal Fomorii broke in and took Laura; the crowcreature's supremacy in the Fomorii hierarchy was now assured.

    Unable to come to terms with the act of sacrifice from a woman they had
both