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wouldn't let anyone find me without my wil ."
For a moment Hunter looked uncomfortable, and I thought,
Oh my god, he's lying to me.
"You have a watch sigil on you," he said, and blew out a
breath, as though glad I final y knew.
"Excuse me?" I almost dropped my mug.
"You have a watch sigil on you." He looked embarrassed.
"Since Eoife taught you the ward-evil spel s. During one of
those she put a watch sigil on you."
I stared at him.
"We needed to know where you were, who you were with.
You're inexperienced, love, and that makes you a target.
Any dark witch who knew that would be dangerous to you.
There was nothing about this mission that was safe."
If we'd been having this conversation before Eoife had come
to town, I would have been furious. As it was, after al I'd been
through, all I knew, al I felt was a vague sense of gratitude. I
sighed and murmured, "Take it off now."
"I will," Hunter promised.
I stared into the bottom of my dark mug. "I feel like such a
failure. I haven't learned anything about the time of the dark
wave, or the spel , or anything. I've sentenced Alyce and
Starlocket to death." My eyes stung, and I knew tears would
come later.
"No, Morgan," Hunter said, rubbing my knee through the
blanket. "You got Kil ian here, and Ciaran. They know we're
here and that we're on high alert. And you have to
remembered, you did incredibly well just not to have been
killed."
"Oh, God." I groaned and shook my head. "At least I planted
the watch sigil on him."
"What? You did?" Hunter looked incredulous. "When?"
"Right as we were turning, shifting. I breathed it into his fur
and traced the sigil on his neck.
Actual y, that was probably useless, too. Once he changes
back---"
"It wil stil be on him," Hunter said, his face breaking into a
huge grin. "Oh, Goddess, Morgan! The council is going to be
ecstatic to hear it. That's the best news I've had in a long
time." He leaned and kissed my cheek and my forehead.
"Morgan, I think your mission was a smashing success. You
planted the watch sigil on Ciaran, and we're both still alive,
unhurt..."
Hunter took my free hand and kissed it, looking at me
encouragingly. I didn't know how to respond.
The truth was, his joy didn't affect me that much. I had planted
a betraying sigil on my biological father. And he had given
me such a gift... For a moment I remembered running
through the woods on all fours, and I closed my eyes.
And then I remembered... I had learned his true name.
Something that could give me complete power over my
father, one of the darkest witches the world had ever know.
The thought of using it against him made my stomach clench.
For now, I thought, I would guard this as my secret. I wouldn't
tel the council---wouldn't even tel Hunter. If it became
necessary, I could use it. But I didn't want to give anyone else
the power to destroy my natural father. I couldn't.
"He wanted you to kil me," he said softly, as though he was
reading my mind. He wrapped his arms around me, and I felt
his warmth seeping through the blanket. "If you had kil ed, it
would have been one less Seeker---and you'd have lost your
mùirn beatha dàn. It would have bound you to him in a way
that love alone never could."
I shuddered at the thought of losing Hunter. "I was starting to
care for him," I admitted.
"I know," said Hunter. "How could you not? He's your birth
father. And I believe that his feelings for you were sincere
also. Despite everything, I believe that's true."
Then I began to cry again, tears leaking silently out of my
eyes and running hotly down my cheeks. I didn't have the
energy to sob, and it would have hurt too much, anyway.
"I have you," Hunter said, holding me close. "I have you.
You're safe. It's al right.
Everything's going to be al right."
"There's no way anything will ever be al right again," I said
shakily, and he began kissing the tears away from my
cheeks.
"That's not true," he said.
I looked into his green eyes, the eyes that had stared me
down when I was a wolf. And I knew then: I knew in my heart
that I was good.
"I love you so much," I said.
He gave me a half smile and leaned closer, blotting out my
vision of the fire. He's going to kiss me, I thought, but by then
his lips were already against mine. Tentatively at first, then
with increasing pressure as I responded. Gradually I felt light
growing all around us, bathing us in a silvery white glow. I
reached one arm up to curl it around his neck, and then we
had our arms around each other. We kissed deeply an more
deeply, trying to fuse together after being apart too long.
Then suddenly it was just like the day at Bree's house with
Killian: flowers, all different kinds and colors and sizes,
showering down upon us, petal soft. I broke away for a
moment, gazing around me, and started to laugh. Hunter fol
owed my gaze, looking up at the shower of petals, and his
face transformed into a huge smile. He kissed me again,
and his body pressed against mine, comforting me to my
very soul. I held him t me as tightly as I could, al my muscles
screaming in pain as I moved. I didn't care. I was back in
Hunters arms and he was in mine, and everything was going
to be al right.
My parents came home the next day, while I was home
"sick." I felt their car come up the driveway and quickly ran
my hands over my ears, checking to make sure they were stil
round and naked instead of pointy and furry. Moving gingerly
downstairs, I met them at the front door.
"Hi, honey!" My mom said, giving me a big hug. I tried not to
moan in pain; every cel in my body stil hurt. She glanced at
her watch and looked at my face more closely.
"Morgan!" Dad said, struggling through the door with two
suitcases. "Are you sick?"
"You look awful," Mom said, putting her hand to my cheek.
"Do you have a fever?"
"I think so," I said. "I thought I'd better stay home today. It's
the only day I've missed."
"Poor thing," Mom said, and I felt a maternal mantle of
comfort settle around me. "You go get back into bed. I'l bring
you some Tylenol and a ginger ale."
I almost wept with happiness. "I'm glad you're home," I
choked out, then headed back upstairs to my waiting bed.
Ciaran was gone, Kil ian hadn't been heard from since our
father disappeared, Hunter and I were back together (I
thought), and my parents were home. It was a whole new
day.
"Today is the feast of lights," said Eoife at our circle two
days later. She raised a white candle high. "Today is for new
beginnings, for purification, for renewal of spirit, body, hearth,
and home. We give blessed thanks to the Goddess for the
past year and dedicate ourselves anew to our studies and
devotions."
Next to her Alyce Fernbrake ignited her candle from Eoife's,
and the two women smiled at each other before Alyce turned
and bent to light Suzanna Mearis's candle. Suzanna was now
in a wheelchair. Around the circle went the flame, from
candle to candle, witch to witch.
"Blessed thanks," we said when the last candle was lit. Then,
moving deasil around Hunter and Sky's large circle room, we
each sprinkled a smal handful of salt on the floor around us.
It crunched under our feet. I looked around at the many softly
lit faces. It was Saturday night, Imbolic, February 2. For this
joyful celebration, one of the four major Wiccan Sabbats,
Kithic had joined forces with Starlocket, and there were
twenty-six of us purifying ourselves, this room, this year.
After Alyce had led us in prayer to Brigid---she pronounced it
Breed---the Goddess of fire, we sat in a large circle. I gazed
across at Hunter, thinking about how beautiful he looked in
candlelight. He'd pretty much convinced me that after
passing the test of choosing good over evil, I was probably
safe for him to date. Now every time I looked at him, my heart
went al fluttery and I wanted to hold him.
"Blessed be," Hunter said, and we repeated it. "This joyful
occasion," he went in, "signifies the beginning of winter's [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]