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Morio scooted over to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, his body heat warming me.
“I’ve run with the Hunt ever since I was first initiated into the Moon Mother’s service. But…this feels big, and cold, and different than anything I’ve ever done. It reminds me of when the Moon Mother caught me up, when I was held captive by Hyto. She took me on a rampage—I tore through the skies with her.” And it had felt good. Cleansing, to destroy, smash, take out my fury on the world.
Morio let out a murmur. “I do understand.”
“Tell me…what was the demon you fought? And the snake…unless, of course, they are private parts of your life you’d rather not share?”
He paused, then let out a long, slow breath. “The demon, I fought when I was younger. I was grown and on my own, but still naïve and still easily swayed. She presented herself as a beautiful woman and seduced me. I had been traveling with a companion—a very devout monk—and she used me to get to him, to make him break his vows. After she corrupted him, she tortured and killed him. I was helpless to intervene. I managed to track her down and kill her, but I’ve never forgiven myself for being so blind to the danger.”
Regret…it was in his voice. I knew my men had secrets they kept—just as I did, although Trillian and I were most open with one another. We talked about everything. But Morio had told me little of his past. I knew less about him than I did Smoky and far less than I knew about my alpha lover.
“I’m sorry.” There wasn’t much else I could say.
“No, it was long ago, and over. But I think…I think it will always haunt me. He didn’t have to die. If I’d been more cautious, he would have not been in danger. I was responsible for his safety on that journey, and I failed miserably.”
He hung his head.
I leaned forward, tipped his chin up, and kissed him lightly. “Some things can never be undone. We can only learn and move forward. And…the snake?”
A tear slipped down his face. He bit his lip and hung his head. “You know how my parents don’t blame all humans for the slaughter that happened in their families, and how Grandmother Coyote rescued my father and brought him up?”
“Yes. She sent him to live with Kimiko, the nature spirit who rules over the devas and flower faeries, right?”
“Right. Well, we were visiting her when I was in my teens. I loved attending to her shrine, and I loved it when she summoned us to her side. I met a young woman back then—my age. We were both…oh…teenagers, in our time frame. She was my first.” He dipped his head, smiling slyly. “She was brash and independent, and her family tried to rein her in, but it never worked. Anyway, we spent that summer at Kimiko’s, and Yoshiko and I fell in love, in that reckless teenage way where every look, every touch means something earth-shaking.”
I let out a small laugh. “Like Shamas and I did, before his family separated us.”
“Right.” Morio frowned. “Let’s leave Shamas out of this, okay? I still don’t trust that he’s not after you.”
Rather than argue, I shrugged and bit my tongue.
“Anyway, we were out exploring one day, and we came to a cave. We decided to explore, and when we entered the main chamber, we discovered a nest of magical sea vipers. We were near the cliffs, near the ocean.”
I’d never heard of the snakes before. “Were they poisonous?”
“Very.” He pressed his lips together for a moment, then let out a long sigh. “Long story short, they separated us. They were quick and large and managed to cut her off from me. I had no choice—if I didn’t get out of there, they’d kill me. I had to leave her behind. I can still hear her screams as they swarmed her. I glanced back, but all I could see was a mass of writhing scales and slithering bodies. I ran home to get help. Kimiko herself joined the search party. But we couldn’t find Yoshiko. We never even found a trace of her, though we found the nest and destroyed it. I knew she was dead, but the rest of the summer, I went out there every day, looking and hoping that somehow she managed to get away.”
“What about her family? How did they take the news?”
He shrugged. “They were pissed that she’d disobeyed them and gone with me. They had forbidden us to be together. They disowned her memory, cut her out of the lineage. They forgot her.”
The hairs on my arms stood up. How could parents be so cruel? I still hadn’t fully forgiven Father for disowning me, even though he’d been on his best behavior since he came around a few months ago. But it would take a long time to heal the wound he’d left on my heart.
I took Morio’s hand, held it tight. “And you’ve never forgiven yourself. It wasn’t your fault. Neither one of you knew that the cave had monsters in it.”ne was coming, and the energy rode us hard. The King Stag was in rut, ready to mate with the Goddess of Sovereignty in order to claim kingship, and nothing could keep them apart. And the Moon Mother was riding me high.
I kept phasing in and out. I was the goddess, I was myself, then back again. The Moon Mother laughed, and her laughter poured out of my throat, rich and heady.
Morio’s youkai side was on the verge of showing, but instead of shifting into demonic form, I could see the auric outline of antlers rising high above his head, and his lusty smile was backed by the power of the god.
As I drew back, leading him to the center of the pentagram, muffled sounds from the woods caught my attention. The night creatures had come out to watch. I scuffed through a scattered handful of leaves, and several pale moths—Pale Beauties—fluttered up around my face, then went winging overhead, glowing luminous white in the moonlight. They circled around, wings flickering in the night breeze, and then, as if raising a silent call, were joined by a kaleidoscope of their kin, swirling, dancing, diving, darting through the air. We watched, hand in hand, as they danced in silent unison, like a murmuration of starlings.
Laughing in wonder and joy, I turned to Morio. He gazed at me, holding my hands.
“When we mate…”
“Then I will be fit to be your priest. I will have earned the right.”
And then I understood. Tonight was really his initiation. He would walk beside me, under the Moon Mother, as my magical consort as well as my husband. I drew him into the center of the pentagram, and the candles at each point sparked, their flames flaring higher. I made him stand back, arms at his sides, naked beneath the moon, and knelt at his feet.
