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"Take me to them."
As we marched away from the battle to the small tent where those who needed medical or magical attention rested, I twisted to look up at the sky. Roars tore through the clouds, the sky cut open by blood-red wings. I fought the smile on my lips as I found Hywel playing with the Stone Eater like a cat that had caught a mouse. A gold streak swooped below the dragon, Laszlo moving from one part of the battlefield to another. Conall would be on the ground somewhere, barking orders to the packs of werewolves that had come to our aid.
Breathe, I reminded my tight and frozen chest.
We reached the tent quickly, and I heard Esther's voice from outside.
"But-But how could you have let Rooksgravefall?"
I parted the curtain, immediately lowering my eyes at the strange and heavy aura of the woman standing central in the tent.
Magdalena Mortimer spoke softly, but her voice had too much weight in my ears. "It was in the cards. We all answer to fate, darling."
I cleared my throat, searching the beds around the edge of the tent for familiar faces and sighing with relief to find there were only a few mild injuries being tended at the moment.
"Evanthia!"
I raised my gaze to Esther, wincing against the burn of Magdalena out of the corner of my eye. "You were looking for me?"
She was as pale as Auguste standing at her side, and the vampire was busy gaping at Magdalena. "But I've known you for…for—"
"Ages, yes," Magdalena said, nodding. "Far too long to be a simple hedge witch, don't you think?"
Auguste blinked, and Esther spared the woman another brief, startled glance before turning back to me.
"Sorry, we've just had a bit of a…shock," she said, shaking her head. "Hazel should be here in a moment too."
"Who else knows?" Auguste asked Magdalena.
"Khepri."
"And that'sall?"
"Well, my sister, of course. And Hywel might have recognized me, but of course a dragon loves a good secret."
I startled at the mention of my dragon, but Magdalena was blazing now, an eerie, brilliant shadow glowing thick and opaque over her skin, and I closed my eyes, covering them with my hand.
"And you see, she can tell," Magdalena said.
"Evanthia?" Esther called.
"I'm sorry, it's just veryuncomfortableto look at her," I said.
"Oh, yes, that would be the glamour," Magdalena murmured. "I'll take it off now, if you don't mind."
I turned my face away from the flash of lightning-bright magic, but Esther and Auguste both gasped as it faded away.
"Goodness, what was—Oh! Magdalena, is thatyou?"
I opened my eyes as Hazel ran to a stop at my side. Her hair was falling loose from its braid, one lock near her cheek was singed, and the sleeve of her shirt was torn and marked with a little blood, but thenéktarstored in me didn't revolt, so she must've been safe. When I glanced reflexively to the center of the tent once more, I found a new version of the woman I'd been introduced to the day before, and this one didn't make my eyes water in refusal.
Magdalena Mortimer was fae, I realized, taking in the high point of her ears and the sharp edges of the teeth in her wide smile. She was still pale, her skin glowing and shimmering like a pearl, and the hair that coiled and braided down her back was as black and fathomless as ink. She was beautiful, with features so impossibly fine and delicate they defied age, and huge eyes that threatened to swallow your thoughts and soul if you held her gaze too long. I pulled mine away and hauled a sudden gulp of air into my starving lungs.
"Morgana Le Fay, at your service," she announced with a flourish of hands that were now much longer and more spindling than before. "Although, truth be told, that name is a little heavy-handed and I've grown quite fond of Magdalena, so don't trouble yourselves."
Auguste turned Esther's cheek toward him, breaking that hypnotic stare. "There's so much you could've done," he said, frowning and staring down at the ground. "You've been playing matchmaker in the country when you could've been stopping Birsha in his tracks."
"Perhaps," Magdalena answered, with a shrug. "I did what I would do and what was done."
