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He caught her wrist, both of their skin slicked from ogre gore. “I beg of you, my lady, a name?”
“That would be unwise.”
“Morrigan! There you are!” A shout came from above from a female faerie with wings. Her eyes swept over Dagda, grasping Morrigan, then over the dead ogres, and paled. “I shall tell the others the plan is… complete.”
Morrigan looked between the female and Dagda, a frown on her lips, unease flitting in her expression.
“I stand by my promise,” Dagda said. “Not a soul.” He bowed over her hand. “Till we meet again, Morrigan.”
He released her, and she rose into the air. He smiled up at her. “Do you not wish to learn my name?”
Morrigan shook her head. “You are fire faerie.”
“There are hundreds of fire faeries.”
“Then you shall have to work extra hard to ensure I can distinguish you from the others next time we meet.”
His laughter followed her as she flew up into the sky.
Another scene arose. One of Dagda and Morrigan meeting, bickering, coming closer and moving on. Over and over. It was a dance, the push and pull, the give and take. Tension yielding to intimacy. A waltz that Dagda and I had been locked in from the beginning. Over years, decades, millennia. One we were still dancing today.
When their kisses became passionate and he took her to the floor of a small green thatched cottage, both trembling as they pulled at each other’s clothes, I thought,Take me to the Oncemate Ceremony.
The world blurred, then settled around a large tree. The bows reached high into the night sky. I recognized it as the Rowan tree from the tapestry. A crowd of people were gathered around it. The moon above shone brightly on the scene. Morrigan stood among a circle of roots dressed in a loose, sleeveless burgundy gown that glimmered and shifted with every movement of her hips. Her lips were painted to match, bringing out the color in her cheeks. Dagda stood with her. The heartstone lay in her palm and he placed his hand on it. A glowing started between their cupped palms as they spoke their vows.
When they finished, Dagda lifted his hand and took the still glowing heartstone and hung it around Morrigan’s neck. The silvery light that emitted from the darkness within the stone cast her pale skin in sharp relief to the richness of her gown and painted lips.
She was gorgeous. Godly. A queen.
Then he kissed her. The passion in that kiss made me want to look away at the same time that I thought of Dagda’s tongue gliding across the roof of my mouth. The onlookers watched as the Dagda in the memory gathered Morrigan against him, both of their wings flaring out behind them. As Morrigan lifted off his shirt. As Dagda drew the straps on her dress down her arms, the front of her dress tumbled to her hips, displaying her bare upper body for all to see. They ended up on the ground in the circle of roots, wings splayed wide. From the passion in their eyes, I realized they weren’t going to stop. She worked at the buttons on his pants while he slid her dress to her ankles.
I jerked my hand from the stone. “They had sex? Right there in front of everyone?”
Dagda stared at the diamond heartstone in my palm. “For faeries, it is part of the ceremony. A witness to the unification of two souls.”
My cheeks were flushed red. What I had witnessed between those roots under the Rowan tree made what had just happened between Dagda and me feel like a chaste peck on the cheek.
“I would never,never, want others to watch me being that… intimate.”Or vulnerable, I wanted to add.
“It is only a custom for oncemate ceremonies,” he said, the fleeting semblance of a smile disappearing. “And that is long past for us.” A tinge of sorrow laced his words.
It was multiple lives ago. Both Dagda and Morrigan had fallen at least once since the Otherworld was created. Maybe more times before that.
Temptation urged me to place my hand on the stone again and see the version of Morrigan that the Dagda that sat next to me actually remembered. To see what made him think I was worthy of his love.
Too dangerous, I thought, and I tucked my fingers under my leg.
“Three years ago, at the battle of the Fomori,” I mumbled. “Mina, Thaya, the other faeries, and I were racing for the portal, trying to beat the Fomori that were on the human side to the entrance to the Otherworld so that we could get through, get help. Mina and the others didn’t know, but the Fomori…Niamhhad offered me a deal. Release the power from the scepter for them at the portal entrance, destroy the Otherworld for them. And they’d let me live.”
“But you did not take the deal?”
“I-I wanted to. Except I knew by then that Niamh could lie. I’d also had a vision…” I sucked in a long breath. “Of me dying at the portal.”
I looked at Dagda. “I knew there was an army waiting on the other side of the portal. They would destroy Mina and the others if I didn't go. Still, I couldn’t decide. I couldn’t…” I shut my eyes. “I let them go without me. They went to the portal while I stayed behind. Then I saw one last vision. I saw Thaya pretend to be me at the portal. I saw her die in my place. It was only then that I went, that I tried to stop what was about to happen, but when I got there…” My voice fell to a whisper. “Thaya was killed right in front of me.”
“Chels…” Dagda reached for my hand, but I scooted back. “You may have seen what was to come,” he said, “but that does not mean you knew what would lead to that event—”
“You’re notlisteningto me. I’m trying totellyou. You can’t trust me. I’m not a good person.”
