Chapter nineteen
With each step closer to Morgana’s cave, the temperature dropped, the forest grew darker, the sounds of life faded, and thick mist rose around me.
But I kept going, placing one foot in front of the other, shoving thick branches out of my way, because there was no choice but to go forward.
Behind me lay a life of betrayal, heartbreak, and loneliness.
I wanted a chance to live and die, even if I wasn’t sure I wanted a chance to love a man.
James’s betrayal had brought back all my old wariness, but it had also introduced me to passion, desire, and what it could feel like to think a man wanted you for you, to protect you, to care for you, to grow old with you.
I didn’t know if I wanted to try to trust a man again, but I did know I wanted the choice, and the old yearning for a life I’d never had the chance to live caused tears to fill my eyes.
I blinked, and when the world came back into focus, there was Morgana’s cave, its mouth a jagged wound in the rock face.
There, floating just above the ground before the entrance, was Morgana herself.
Her long silver hair tumbled over her shoulders, untouched by wind.
Her silvery-purple gaze found me immediately, as if she had been watching the tree line for some time.
She smiled slowly, and gooseflesh rose along my arms. It was not that her expression was menacing.
It was that she looked exactly as she had the day in the woods, twenty years ago, when Elena, Freya, Murieall, and I had been caught kneeling over her stolen goblet, our wishes not yet finished on our lips.
She had the same face. No lines crinkled around the eyes from years gone by.
Her skin was creamy and smooth, kissed with the glow of youth.
And then, just as she had done that day without a word or a gesture I could name, she froze me.
I had lifted my foot to take a step, but I could not put it down.
I could not move my leg, my arms, or anything.
I could breathe and blink, but other than that, I was helpless.
Morgana floated toward me, closing the distance between us.
She stopped, her body lowering until her feet touched the ground, and she stood face-to-face with me, unchanged by time, just as I was.
Either Morgana did not age, or she had cast some other spell upon herself, or, I considered, someone else had put a spell upon her.
“I’ve been waiting for ye,” she said, her words puffing out little clouds of white, as if we stood in freezing temperatures.
It was then I realized how much the temperature had dropped.
Had I been able to pull my cloak tighter, I would have.
I blinked. She snapped. My foot hit the ground, and I grunted in surprise.
I could move, but I was afraid to. I’d once been the recipient of Morgana’s hand-waving, and my mouth opening of its own volition as liquid from her magical goblet slid down my throat. She was a powerful witch indeed. “How did ye ken I was coming?” I asked, wincing at how shaky my voice sounded.
She cocked her head and stared at me, as if deciding what to reveal. After a long pause, she said, “I sensed it on the wind.”
Her look told me that was all the answer I was getting, so I opened my mouth to plead my case, but she held up one finger between us, and my lips clamped shut.
Fear spiked through me, but she smiled and shook her head.
“I’m nae going to harm ye, Katreine. I’m nae a vindictive witch, contrary to what ye may believe.
Aye, I was angry that day, powerfully so, but even with my rage coursing through me, my intent with the curse was to teach each of ye a lesson ye would nae ever forget.
” She paused, tilting her head as she studied me.
“Tell me, Katreine, why should I listen to ye now?”
With a barely perceptible flick of her hand, my tongue-tie unraveled, my knees buckled, and I fell to the frozen ground before her.
This was it, possibly my only chance to make her understand and forgive me.
My tears began before I even spoke the first word.
“I’ve learned my lesson nae to take what is nae mine,” I sobbed, my voice cracking.
“It was unthinking and foolish of my friends and me to steal yer goblet.”
My heart pounded in my head and throat, and my blood rushed through my veins, scorching me with fear that she would not believe me and that I’d be stuck with the curse.
“I’m sorry,” I cried out, grabbing her hands in my haste to make her hear me.
I jerked with the currents flowing from her to me.
Inside this witch dwelled a power I’d only glimpsed.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I’m sorry our unthinking action cost yer mama her life.
I did nae ken, we did nae ken, that the wishes had such a price as a life for a life. ”
Morgana gently tugged her hands from mine, then patted me on the head as if I were a child needing consoling.
She let out a long sigh before speaking.
“Ye have nae learned, girl. I already ken ye are sorry. I kenned that the day I caught ye all. I could hear yer thoughts in each of yer heads. ‘Sorry’ was nae the lesson I meant to etch into your hearts.” She clicked her tongue, shook her head, then snapped her fingers.
My body jerked upright, spine arching as I floated unsteadily to my feet.
She gripped my chin in one cold hand. There was no pain, only absolute dominance as she forced me to meet her gaze.
“By the gods, ye’ve taken longer than any of yer companions to grasp yer lesson. ”
“What is it?” I pleaded. “What is the lesson I am to learn?”
She stepped back, eyes glowing. “Each curse I cast was tied to a choice only ye could make. Yers breaks when ye give up everything and believe with yer whole heart that the man ye love will still want ye.”
My heart twisted in agony. “But I do nae love any man!” I blurted, breath hot with dread.
A harsh snort escaped her lips. She shook her head once more, eyes glittering like twin moons.
“Fool! Ye do nae ken yer own heart. But that’s nae the point.
Listen: Love is both a blade and a blessing.
It demands risk, hope, and trust. And sometimes it gives back shattering grief, yet the ecstasy is worth every scar.
Ye’re on the right path, lass. Ye’re learning to believe in yer own worth. Now ye must dare to stake it all.”
She began to turn away, but I clutched her arm. She pivoted, her eyes snapping back to me, electric and alive. “Aye?”
“I already risked it all for a man named James!” My words tumbled out, raw and urgent.
Morgana’s lips curled in derision. She stepped close and pressed her palm to my trembling heart.
The magic swirling beneath her skin thrummed against me, a living weight.
“Ye can nae wager true love when ye hide yer soul. Ye’ve nae shown James the full truth of ye, nor the chains that bind ye.
Ye still bind love to worth and station.
Untangle that knot within, relinquish yer need to control, or ye’ll remain a prisoner of yer own fear. ”
Before I could reply, she vanished as if swallowed by mist, leaving only the fading echo of her presence.
The world went hollow without her, and panic blossomed anew in me.
“What do ye mean?!” I screamed into the emptiness.
My voice cracked and splintered as I called her name again and again until my throat burned and tears blurred the forest around me.
A sudden snap of wood behind me made me tense.
James. He had come at my screams, no doubt.
But before I could face him, a hand clamped over my mouth, hot and merciless.
A powerful arm wrapped around my waist, yanking me back until my chest was crushed against a broad, unfamiliar form.
New terror flooded me. This was no rescue.
“Time to present my prize to the king, healer,” growled a gravelly voice in my ear.