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Believing a Grindylow had taken her, I’d held out hope that she might still be alive. When Merlin informed me that my mother was dead, I relived her loss all over again. But this time, I knew that I had been witness to her a*******n and unknowingly held information that might have saved her. I had contributed to her death, no matter how unwittingly. I might have only been twelve years old, but I lost what was left of my innocence that day. I spent the following years learning everything I could because knowledge was power, and I never wanted to be weak again. As Merlin’s apprentice, I had access to his vast knowledge of sorcery and gleaned every morsel I could get. My memories of my mother kept me focused. They reminded me that no one was to be trusted, and only the strong survived—a lesson I would never forget. But that was the past. A time when every sneer and whisper, every snub and attack, felt like a blade slicing into tender flesh. Death by a thousand cuts, but not a physical death. Morgan of the Lake had been reborn as the sorceress Morgan Le Fay, stronger and more resilient than ever. She didn’t give a f**k what anyone thought. All that mattered was getting the cauldron, and I was closer than I had ever been. I had to keep myself focused on the present. On my mission. For centuries, I had worked tirelessly to get back onto Seelie Lands, seeking out archaic spells and barbaric runes in the hopes one might get me past Guin’s wards. I had come to the conclusion that the only way to get past her wards was to kill her. Upon her death, all her magic would cease to exist. The wards would fall, and I would be free to go after the cauldron. As the saying went, easier said than done. Guin hadn’t become the Seelie Queen based on her winning personality. Upon the death of the previous queen, Guin had been chosen by the magic of Faery as the most powerful Fae woman and ruler of the Seelie. Not to mention, she had over a thousand years of practice keeping her crown. In order to orchestrate a rebellion that had a chance to overthrow her, I had forged alliances with the deadliest Shadow Fae and rallied hordes of Unseelie. Years of research and strategizing culminated on the sacred night of Beltane when the veil between the worlds was the thinnest, and there was a swell of magic in the air. While not everything had gone exactly to plan, overall, the rebellion had unfolded according to my design. On the night my revolution was to occur, I was drunk with the knowledge my struggles would soon be at an end. Until she showed up—the human-turned-Fae woman Merlin had plucked from obscurity and ordained the savior of her people. Rebecca. In a matter of minutes, she used the unique powers Merlin had bestowed upon her to crush everything I had worked toward. Yet again, he had won. I gazed up at the bantiff tree that towered over me. It stood tall and proud, each full-grown tree nearly as wide as they were tall. Their brilliant green leaves spread out in clusters at the end of each branch, creating a multilayered canopy over the forest floor. Had it not been for the wards, the branches would have made a perfect ladder to help me over the cursed wall. I had attempted to scale the wall on the first day I arrived. One touch of Merlin’s ward, and I was blasted backward as if I had grabbed hold of a live powerline. I had no need to repeat the experience. Without my magic, I was a bird without wings. The wall was secure, and my powers were bound. At present, there was no way to change either of those situations. The only unknown variable was Knight. He had entered my prison of his own volition and could likely leave in the same fashion. Whether he used his magic to take me with him or removed my iron cuffs, he had the ability to help me. He claimed he wouldn’t, but stranger things had been known to happen. What kind of negotiator was I if I walked away the first time I was told no? The direct approach hadn’t worked. Fine. Maybe I could find another way to win him over … perhaps appeal to his more … elemental nature. Two people might find common ground in a lot of ways. FEELING MORE CENTERED, I walked back to the simple one-story house tucked beneath the canopy of trees like a child hiding under their blanket. The house was not a standard Fae dwelling, much too modern to appeal to the traditional Seelie tastes. Considering only a handful of Seelie had been exposed to the progress of modern human culture, I could only imagine the house had been designed by Merlin himself. While I was not a fan of the man personally, I had to give him credit for the clean lines of the transitional design. Floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the space gave the feel of outdoor living with the finest of indoor comforts available. Knight hadn’t been wrong—the house was far from unpleasant. The electromagnetic pulses common in Faery didn’t allow for the use of electronics, but Merlin had found a way to duplicate the use of modern human amenities in his home. Not only was the place temperature controlled but there was also a refrigerator and modern plumbing. On my first day at the house, I had been immensely relieved to discover he had fashioned a shower with hot running water. A long, hot shower was exactly what I needed to eradicate the chill that had seeped beneath the surface and deep into my bones. Once I had thawed myself inside and out, I would attempt to warm Knight to my cause. I could be rather persuasive when I wanted to be.
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