‘No! He isn’t yours. Please, Morgana. Please, give him to me!’ Faye cried, the blue electricity spiking and cutting into her aura. She felt as if she was being slowly torn in two.
The faerie queen turned up the white sheet in which the baby was wrapped, so that Faye couldn’t see his face. Faye watched with the possessive horror of a new mother as her son suckled at the faerie queen’s milk.
‘Yes. Drink, child,’ Morgana murmured, turning away from Faye.
Faye felt a tear roll down her cheek.
‘Why can’t I move? What have you done to me?’ she screamed at Morgana, but the faerie queen kept her back turned.
‘We have given you the gift of a painless delivery,’ she replied levelly. ‘Many human women beg for it when their time comes. You should be grateful. The paralysis will wear off soon.’
‘You can’t…keep him from me,’ Faye panted, trying to pull herself up the bed and failing.
‘Do not be sad, Faye Morgan,’ the faerie queen said. ‘Now, I have given him the milk of the faerie realm, he has my magick in him as well as yours. This will be a son of the realms as none hasbeen before. He is the one that songs have been sung of,sidhe-leth.’
‘Why? Why did you bring me here?’ Faye appealed, holding her hands out for her baby. ‘And where is Finn? If this is his child, why isn’t he here?’
Morgana held out a glass of water. Faye took it with her spare hand and drank thirstily.
‘I did not say that the baby was his,’ Morgana answered coolly as Faye tipped the glass up to get the last of the water.
‘Is it his? Finn?’ Faye demanded, but the faerie queen smiled and shook her finger playfully in Faye’s face.
‘You will see soon enough,’ she chided.
Frustration and fear tore at Faye again. She felt as though she was going mad. Morgana was torturing her by not letting her have the baby. She was holding him hostage, but why?
‘Who won? Of the two queens? Levantiana? Did you take me for her?’ Faye handed the glass back to the queen, and it disappeared in her hands as if it had never existed.
‘Neither of them. I brought you here. You must remember, I am impartial. I am not part of their petty rivalries, and my magic surpasses all magic.’ Morgana laid the baby in a cradle made of plaited green reeds a few feet away from the bed. From where she lay, Faye couldn’t see into it. Her heart and stomach lurched with grief. Every second that the baby wasn’t with her, she felt him pulling away from her; renouncing his humanity and becoming more and more faerie. If she could only reach him and feed him from her breast, he would be hers. She ached for him.
‘Why? Why not let whichever of them have me?’ Faye was crying and couldn’t stop. Morgana sat down on the side of the bed and placed a cool cloth on her brow. Faye could smell lavender and something else; another, more musky herbal smell.
‘Try to be calm, Faye. I intervened because Finn Beatha asked me to watch over you and the child.’ Morgana’s tone wassoothing, but Faye railed against it. She’d be soothed when she had her baby and not before.
‘Finn?’ she took some deep breaths to try and regain her composure.
Morgana looked grave. ‘It is best that you recover and look after the child. You are safe here.’
‘Where is Finn?’ Faye kept her voice low so as not to wake the baby, but she was desperate, and the baby stirred, half-woken by the urgency in her voice. ‘Why won’t you tell me if he is the baby’s father? Is he?’ She had to know.
‘He has been captured in battle. In the kingdom of Falias,’ Morgana replied.
‘What?’ Faye cried. The baby stirred again, and she lowered her voice. ‘Captured? How?’
‘The legions of Falias. Lyr’s son, Luathas, took him in battle. He is alive, held prisoner there.’ Morgana sighed. ‘The battle has grown intense. All sides wish to control my castle.’
‘But none of them can. You’re more powerful than all of them,’ Faye whispered. ‘Please. My baby…’ She held out her arms. ‘Please let me hold him.’ The desperation was turning now. Faye felt a wall of despair coming for her.What if she never got to hold her child?
‘In good time. Finn Beatha did you a good deed, Faye Morgan. I was surprised, but it seems he has…feelings for you. Perhaps. But more importantly, there is a prophecy that some of them have interpreted – they think there is a way for me to be overthrown.’ Morgana smiled, untroubled. ‘Finn Beatha believes in this prophecy. He believes that your child will be the one to take my castle.’
‘But that doesn’t make sense. If he thinks that, why did he ask you to protect us? And why would you protect the child that will one day destroy you? Don’t you believe the prophecy?’ Faye hugged her arms in an attempt at comfort, but the grief forthe child just a few feet away was overpowering. ‘Please. Please, Morgana. My baby. Please give him to me,’ she begged again, but the queen of the Crystal Castle of the Moon ignored Faye, and wrapped her long hands in each other.
‘I believe it. How it transpires, I cannot predict. I play my part in the weaving and unravelling of life. I am of the moon, and the moon is changeable. It waxes and wanes. Your son has drunk of my power. That may mean that he will challenge me one day for power. Or it may mean that my milk has protected me from him. We will see. But I chose to take control of the prophecy of my ending. I chose not to let it be decided by Moronoe or Levantiana. Finn was wrong. He thought that it was you that was the one named in the prophecy, but I know that it is the child.’
‘Can I see him? Finn?’
‘He is in Falias.’
