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“True. Which means we’ll also station Cambyra guards outside the house during the day. The vamps can take over night duty.” I frowned. “Before we left, Regina asked us to watch the morning news on television tomorrow. Apparently Lannan’s going to give an announcement that they’ll be reading on air.”
“We’ll have to go out. We can’t watch TV here, that’s for sure, and the cable hasn’t been hooked up at the Veil House yet.” Luna stood up, still looking weak, but her cheeks were beginning to glow rosy again. She was a yummanii bard; her magic was in her song. She’d come to us for advice and ended up staying.
I glanced at her. “You okay? You can stand without help?”
She nodded. “So where do we go? And yes, I’m doing better. The food and wine helped a lot. But…I never want to go through that again.”
Peyton spoke up. “We can go over to Rex’s apartment. He’ll be fine with that.” Her father had rented an apartment in town not far from the Veil House. Anadey, her mother, was still lurking in the shadows, running her diner, but she hadn’t made another attempt to contact Peyton after she’d betrayed us.
“Good, I can charge up my cell phone while I’m there without worrying that somebody up at the house is going to steal it.” Even though they were working for Regina, I didn’t trust the vamps fixing up the house. Regina had paid for the restorations, though we could have gotten a loan from the Consortium—the magical guild we now rather forcibly belonged to—but for some reason, the Emissary had insisted on footing the bill.
“Soon enough, you must leave your toys and gadgets behind.” Lainule’s voice tripped lightly over the words and, at her melodic tongue, we turned. All of us rose, and Grieve and Chatter bowed, as Rhia and I dropped into deep curtseys.
“Your Highness…” I hadn’t expected to see her. Lainule had been keeping to herself the past few days, except when she had called us in to instruct us in what would be expected.
She looked tired. Regaining her heartstone had saved her life, but it also deposed her as Queen. However, Lainule seemed content to accept her destiny gracefully. The foliage around the Barrow was halfheartedly returning to its former glory. Once we crossed through the portals that cloaked the Marburry Barrow, though, Myst’s snows and ice came rampaging back with a fury. But here…here the trees were green again, though with a faint orange glow, like we were at the end of a long summer.
And it truly was the end of summer. At least the end of the summer that had ruled here for who knew how many centuries. Lainule would preside over the initiation and coronation of Rhiannon and me, and then she and my father would leave, forever, back to the Golden Isle. Rhia and I would then be responsible for routing Myst and bringing the balance back to the world.
But for now, she was still here, with us.
She swept into the room and accepted a chair. “Regina contacted me. She warned me of what’s going on with Geoffrey and Leo, and the Blood Oracle. You must all be cautious until they are caught and Crawl is back under lock and key. Nothing can go amiss. You must undergo the initiation and coronation without delay.”
As she sat there, it almost felt like she was one of us. Regal though she might be, the aura of her rule was fading. It made me want to cry.
“We’ll watch out. I promise. I’m also asking the guards to keep an eye on the Veil House during the day to protect Peyton and the others. Regina promised guards at night.”
“It heartens me to know you are taking this seriously. Myst must be destroyed. The balance must return. And you, Cicely, must finally visit the Court over which you will be ruling. It’s time to see your new home.”
The Barrow here would become Rhiannon’s new home. When she married Chatter—Grieve’s best friend and now soon-to-be King of Summer—they would live here, in the warmth of eternal summer. My own home was destined to be colder, caught in the grips of the eternal winter.
I sucked in a deep breath. The thought of living in perpetual snow and ice frightened me. “I wish…” But I stopped. There was no turning back, no walking away. Wishing for something that wasn’t meant to be wouldn’t make it happen.
“Yes, my child?” The Queen’s gaze rested on me, glorious and yet like fading flowers.
“I can’t wait to see my new home.” I forced a smile to my face. She knew how I felt, but I wouldn’t let her, or my father, down. I picked up the cell phone. “But I will admit, this is one thing I’m going to miss.”
“Once you take the throne, you must relinquish some of the trappings that keep you tied to the mortal world. The changes in lifestyle will take some getting used to, but there are wonders, Cicely. There are wonders you haven’t even dreamed of yet.”
With that, she smiled, rose, and passed to the door. “Your father will escort you to your new home tomorrow at noon. Be here, ready to go. Your cousin may attend. And so may your friends.” And, the hem of her dress whispering against the floor, she left the room.
I suppose this is the time for introductions.
My name is Cicely Waters. I’m twenty-six years old, and I’m one of the magic-born. Or at least, I always thought I was. I never knew my father, but had assumed he was the same lineage as Krystal, my mother. But a few weeks ago, I discovered that I’m also half Cambyra Fae—the Shifting Ones—and it threw my whole worldview into a tailspin.
So yes, I was born a witch, and I can control the wind. Or I’m learning to, at any rate. Until I was six years old, Krystal and I lived at the Veil House with aunt Heather and cousin Rhiannon.
When we were around five, Rhia and I met Grieve and Chatter out in the woods, and they secretly taught us how to increase our magic. They watched out for us, and we felt safe with them. Rhiannon and I made a pact never to tell anyone about them because my mother hated the fact that she was born to the magic and didn’t want me meddling in it either. And so they remained our secret, and everything was fine, or so we thought. That was a wonderful summer—as good as it could get, in my opinion. Heather acted as mother to both of us, while Krystal boozed her powers into oblivion.
Then, a few weeks after I turned six, my world crumbled. Fed up with her life, Krystal dragged me kicking and screaming down the front steps and away from everything I’d ever known. I spent the next twenty years on the road—eighteen of them with her. We moved from town to town, scamming, stealing, and doing whatever we needed to survive. Krystal sold herself into the booze and drugs so deep that, by the end, there was no reaching her. She drowned herself in a haze, to get away from the clamor of voices and visions in her head. Even at six years old, I realized that the only way we’d survive was if I took over, and so I bucked up, stepped in, and—with Ulean’s help—got us through.
Ulean warned me when the cops were on our tracks. She kept me from getting raped half a dozen times by telling me to get the fuck out of wherever I was. And she guarded me in the only ways she could.
Along the way, I also had help from the odd person here or there—they just seemed to fall into my life. The most important one was Uncle Brody, an old black yummanii man who, for the first few months when we were staying in Portland, Oregon, took me under his wing and taught me as many street smarts as he could. Maybe he could tell that Krystal was going batshit crazy. Maybe he just had a premonition that I needed his help. Whatever the case, he taught me the rules of the road. He also taught me to gamble so I could make money from penny-ante street games. And he taught me how to fight dirty.
“Cicely, girl, you have to learn how to hurt people,” he told me once, when I flinched at learning how to jab someone in the nuts. “Because there are plenty of people out there just waiting to hurt you. And trust me, if you give them an opening, they’ll take it. So don’t let them in.”
I paid attention; I learned to fight. And I used my wits and prescience to steer clear of potential situations.
