“You’re his lady,” a voice said from behind us. I stiffened at the sound, swallowing bile that rose abruptly in my throat. I knew the voice.
What is she doing here? What does she want now?
But there she stood, clad in steel gray with a black owl perching on her shoulder, peering at us from the shadows of a pine tree. Her eyes gleamed in her pale face, her lips bright and red as the holly berries that still studded the bushes not fifty yards from where we stood. Momentarily, her sharp-eyed gaze flicked from Carolyn to me.
“Do not worry yourself overmuch, Seer,” she said, her voice a low, soft purr that I felt straight down to my bones more than heard. “I have not come to exact my price from any of you this day, nor will I. Not yet.”
I swallowed again, throat dry. I wish that somehow made me feel better, but I know better than to bank on something one deity says when we’re about to face down another—maybe two.
“Who are you?” Carolyn whispered, taking half a step forward, then another. She was beyond my reach before I had the presence of mine to grab her arm and stop her.
Dammit.
“A friend,” the Morrigan said softly, a smile touching her lips. “Someone with a vested interest in your survival.” Her gaze flicked to me for a brief moment. “All of you.”
That made my heart give a strange, painful double-beat. I don’t like the sound of that at all.
I eased up behind Carolyn and put my hand on her shoulder. “If you’re not here to claim your price, then why are you here?” I asked softly. “A warning? Something else?”
“A warning,” she agreed softly. “You are ill-prepared for his coming and even more ill-prepared for what she plans. She will be here well before your wounds have closed once you’ve faced him, and the wounds that he will inflict upon you are grave indeed.”
My throat tightened. Carolyn shook her head slowly. “I don’t believe that. I can’t. We’ll defeat him the way we did before.” Carolyn glanced at me, then back at the Morrigan. “Marin’s seen us in her visions. Everything will be fine.”
A shudder ran through me. What did I do to deserve this much faith?
“Carolyn? Marin? Who are you talk—” Phelan stopped dead in his tracks, following our gaze. His eyes widened and he went chalk-white. “Bloody hell,” he breathed.
“Hello, cousin,” the Morrigan said softly. “You’ve been missed.”
“I’ve been exiled,” Phelan said, his voice equally quiet. “And I am perfectly fine with the arrangement.” He swallowed hard. “What do you want with us? Who have you come for?”
“No one,” she said softly. “Simply to warn. You’re ill prepared, cousin, even with Seamus’s get among you, it may not be enough to sway Cariocecus from his goal of seizing this place from beneath your feet.”
Phelan shivered. I took his hand and squeezed as tightly as I could.
“We’ll find a way,” he said, hoarsely echoing what was in my heart. “There is no other choice.”
“So says the Taliesin,” the Morrigan said with a faint, wry smile. “You’ve faced far more and suffered far more deeply than any other to bear that mantle, cousin.” She stepped out of the tree’s shadow. The winter sunshine was blinding against her pale skin, turned her coal-dark hair to ink. She cupped Phelan’s face between long-fingered hands. He squeezed his eyes shut.
“It’s neither the place nor the time,” Phelan whispered. I could feel him shivering at her touch, trembling.
Phelan.
“There will never be another place, a better place, a better time,” the Morrigan whispered. Her gaze took in Carolyn and I. “And there will never be better witnesses than a guardian and a Seer.”
Cold and shadows wrapped around the four of us and for a moment, I could see nothing at all.
