Once Upon a Dark October

Chapter Ten

M orrigan slept into the following day. Her midnight transformation had left her weakened after all the bloodletting. She’d had a little rest, hanging from the headboard, small as a house-bat. I figured she did not have the energy for anything else. I’d wake every few hours to blink up at her in the semidarkness, nestled with her wings tucked in, still breathing, her heart pattering its feral drumbeat. Once or twice, I reached out to run my forefinger along her snout and marvel at the softness of her fur, a streak of moonlight above me.

It was remarkable to think a small creature could contain all of her. How volatile the nature of sorcery was, contorting her vampiric body into a nocturnal beast, bending and breaking until she was remade. And yet… There was something about Morrigan’s power that had broken her, too. I wondered if it was merely the price of blood magic—shedding your own to take another’s.

I wished she would tell me.