"Somewhere dark."

"You reckon?"

"Found something. One of those twisty candlesticks, I think. With candles."

"Well, light it, then."

Fynn exhaled gently, and a single flame rose from the wick. It revealed a forest of other candles, a hearth, and a small side table.

"Oh," said Fran softly, "it's the fire room."

Fynn smiled. "I remember the first time I saw you in this room. I hated you and wanted you and it was ripping me apart."

Fran smiled back. Wordlessly, she licked her finger, and touched it to the lit candle. The flame jumped onto her finger, but didn't seem to be hurting her. One by one, she touched all the remaining wicks with the travelling flame, and one by one they all lit. Finally, the end of her finger went out. The room was filled with tiny gold stars.

"I had this fantasy," she whispered.

"That's a coincidence," murmured Fynn. "So did I."

Fynn smiled down at Fran, and took her hand. Fran drifted forward, and began to kiss him. The kiss deepened, and Fran's hands gently slipped out of Fynn's grasp, finding their way under his shirt. Slowly, her fingertips traced his ribs, and she felt him smile under her lips. He reached out one finger and began to stroke the back of her neck, and heard her sigh softly. The kiss broken, they looked at each other for a minute, then grinned like naughty schoolchildren and began to frantically undress each other, which is surprisingly difficult to do.

Somehow, they ended up on the floor, the rough carpet scratching Fran's back. And dammit, she thought jovially, my feet are getting cold already. But Fynn's expression drove all mockery away as he began to explore all the places well known but rendered alien in the candlelight. Fran wrapped herself around him- and so knew that Fynn jumped as well as herself when there was a discreet cough.

Hannah was fiddling with her upside-down watch and trying not to eye up Fynn. "I think you'd better come home. Riarté has abducted Amanda."

Fran arrived with a slight bump. The first thing she saw was chalk. A circle chalked on the floor of the cottage. Fynn and Hannah were staring in horror at Riarté, who kissed Amanda and handed her back to his former apprentice.

"What are you doing?" asked Hannah.

Fran made herself stay calm. It was one of her bio-father's tests. It would probably be all right, he'd never physically harmed her, and Fynn would save her. It would be all right.

Riarté watched her carefully. "Hannah here is an exceptionally skilled at mimicry. Did I mention this earlier? No? Then tell me, Fran, how many nuns were there at the hospital?"

"She wasn't the old nun."

Hannah nodded. "Very perceptive."

The wider implications hit Fran. The chalk seemed to be slowing her down.

"You bastard. Why did you send me after her if Hannah was already planted in the hospital? Unless... you needed to be seen to intervene. Someone to draw the fire. You sent me out there to die, you and Gregor."

"You were to slow down the enemy long enough for Hannah to hide the child."

Hannah's power flared up in sheer disgust. "Damn you, Riarté. Nobody else dies for me. Not now, not ever."

"Unimportant, now. Tell her about Tony."

"Tony was the man working with the vampire, remember? Don't worry, the nice thing about assaulting someone in hospital is that there's generally some medical staff around. Anyway, we saved him, and discovered that he was human, but with a unique condition. There was another soul, floating in his. A demon's soul, trying to claw it's way back up to grace. It was looking for another like it, in the same condition, and knew only that it would be near the Last Enchantress."

Riarté took over. "Someone in close proximity to both Amanda and a demon. Tell me, Francesca, what do you know of your birth?"

Chalk circle, she thought. Oh, my God. "Only what you've told me and a few news clippings. Cora tried to sacrifice me to raise a demon that would destroy you and give her your power. But something went wrong, and she dumped me outside St. Fran's hospital."

Fynn swallowed hard. He could see what was coming. "That part of your mind that nobody can reach. Jesus. Why did nobody know before?"

"Nobody's ever known it was possible before." Riarté bent to Fran's eye level. "Normally, the baby dies. Or sometimes repels the demon completely. You and Tony are the only people to have ever achieved symbiosis. But now it knows you know, and it's safe removal is imperative. And we have the perfect means, look."

Fran, in her extremely demon-proof circle, found herself looking in Amanda's eyes. There was such knowledge, such strength. She'd forget it all when she started learning things, but right now...

Amanda. Hannah. Riarté. Fynn. The sheer power in the room made the stone walls burn with a silent green flame. Fran's expression slackened, and she staggered. Fynn wanted to run to her, but he could feel the corona of enchantment around him, and knew that nothing must be allowed to break the circle.

A cracking sound filled everyone's mind, as the barriers Fran had spent all her life building shattered. Still staring at Amanda, she screamed, impossibly high. The scream shimmered on the air, until it reached the chalk boundary and found itself trapped. There grew a hint of colour in it, a rich grey smudge. A human might have seen horns or hooves. It instinctively tried to return to the form that had housed it for so long, but Fran brought her own strength to bear, and it found itself squeezed by the combined enchantment. Thinner and thinner it became until at the edge of the circle the smudge became a column became a thread, finally vanishing upwards with a thin screech.

Fran collapsed, her head made a terrible cracking sound as it hit the stone floor. There was a shocked silence.

"Break the circle," said Riarté softly.

© Naomi 'Ni' Claydon 2000. No copying without permission.