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But Morgaine was greedy, whereas Titania and Aeval had no need for avarice. Morgaine craved power, and we weren’t sure exactly to what lengths she’d go to get it. At this point, Aeval and Titania kept her in check.
She motioned to the robed attendants, and they shed their anonymity with their robes. A sick feeling lurched in the bottom of my stomach.
The one who had toweled me off was Mordred, Morgaine’s nephew. He hated us—he resented our family connection to her, and like his aunt, he burned for power. He gave me a narrow look, and the leer on his face disturbed me. Hatred and lust were ill-met partners. I’d learned that all too painfully from Hyto.
The other attendant was Arturo, an FBH who also had taken the Nectar of Life. He was in love with Morgaine. He followed her at her will, and she commanded him but seldom showed him anything but the barest of courtesy. Now he nodded slowly to me, smiling faintly.
“Aeval waits for us in the center of the Grove.” Morgaine’s voice grated over the Dark Queen’s name. “She has claimed this night of teaching.”
I prepared to follow my cousin, but she stopped, turning to me.
“You may sit in the favor of the Queen of Shadow and Night, but you have much to learn, my girl. I gave you the chance to join my court and you snubbed your nose. But let Aeval snap her fingers and you come dancing like a puppet. I will never forgive the insult. While I will not interfere with your training—I take my duties seriously—at some point, my dear young cousin, we will meet head to head, and I will teach you what it means to truly bear our lineage. For now, however…we go to meet the Night.”
And with that, she turned abruptly and headed down the path, into the grove. Mordred shot me a sickly smile, and as I passed by him, he let out a soft snicker, and one hand shot out to grab my ass.
I caught him by the wrist and gazed up at him, and said one word. “Smoky.”
Mordred pulled away, but the look on his face told me that he was definitely my enemy. And both he and I knew it.
Chapter 8
Morgaine led me down a narrow path, and at my back, Mordred and Arturo followed. I wasn’t at all comfortable with Mordred so close behind me, but there was nothing I could do.
We entered the glade in which I’d had my initiation into Aeval’s Court. What happened that night would remain secret—as all highly personal rites should. Nobody, except those who were there, knew what I’d done.
As we exited the confines of the path and entered the clearing, the clouds parted to let the crescent moon shine down. We were almost at waxing, and the silver light from the Moon Mother illuminated the glade.
Aeval and Titania stood in the center of a pentagram that was marked in the grass. Between them stood a tall man, and in the light of the crescent moon, he practically glowed. As we approached, Morgaine stepped into the center, standing just outside the inner circle.
Aeval looked beyond me at Arturo and Mordred, and a faint sneer appeared on her lips. “You are dismissed. Both of you. Return to Morgaine’s court and wait for her there.”
Mordred stiffened, gave Aeval a short bow, and turned to stride away. Arturo was more courteous and gave her a deep bow before sauntering off. They were trouble, that pair, though Mordred was far more dangerous than Arturo.
Aeval waited for a moment, then turned to Morgaine, and what was said, I could not hear, but something passed between them and Morgaine shot me a venomous look.
Titania cleared her throat and motioned me forward. I approached them, unsure of how they wanted me to enter the sigil in which they stood. The Queen of Light and Morning noticed my hesitation and gestured toward the top point of the star. “You may enter at that gate.”
I silently circled the pentagram, then entered the path that would lead to casting the rune in a deosil—or clockwise—manner. As I stepped onto the trampled grass that made up the first line of the symbol, a rush of energy washed over me and I caught my breath in the beauty of the power. It summoned me in. If I hadn’t been invited, it would have burned me to cinders.>A sadness crept into my heart when I realized that my homeworld was changing, but then again, it had originally been a part of Earthside, and it seemed natural that both worlds should integrate back together.
On one level, I secretly hoped the portals would rip, that the division wouldn’t hold, and that Otherworld and Earthside would reunite, but I also knew that might entail a great disaster. Even though I liked the thought of unification, I realized it wasn’t necessarily best.
We turned down another road, and as the carriage rumbled through a heavily wooded patch, opening out onto a cottage and a grotto beyond, I knew where I was. I’d initiated into Aeval’s Court here, during the winter solstice. As the driver helped me down, handing me my staff, my stomach fluttered. Magic was in the wind, magic was in the very land here, imbued with the elements and the energy of the moon and the sun.
The cedars and firs hadn’t changed since the winter solstice when I’d been here, except for the bright green of new growth. But the deciduous trees had blossomed out, and their young leaves now crowded the branches, creating a tapestry of shadow and light as the last of the sunlight shimmered through them.
Huckleberries were growing thick, as were ferns and brambles, and wild rhododendrons that had somehow become seeded here. Rowan trees, also known as mountain ash, ringed the grove, and their berries were white, not yet ready to turn the brilliant orange that marked them in the late summer and autumn.
The drone of bees and insects hummed in my ears. Overhead, the fading remnants of the day began to give way, and twilight took hold. Morgaine’s time was beginning to fade as Aeval’s rule ascended.
Sometimes I wondered why, though Morgaine had been assigned to train me, it was to Aeval’s Court that I’d been ordered to pledge myself, and why Aeval so often took over the training. But when I approached the subject, no one would answer, and I had come to the conclusion that the more I pressed, the less likely I was to find out, so I had quit asking. I knew when to back off.
I carried my bag and staff into the cottage, which was used as a preparation area. I had begun to sort out my garb for the evening when an acolyte approached. She looked a little scared, and I grinned as she stumbled over her words.
“Lady Camille? I have word…I’m here…they wanted me to tell you…” The poor girl looked so starstruck that I took pity on her.
“Don’t be nervous. What’s your name?”
“Tanya.”
