How could the universe be so cruel?
But the goddess and the Ancestors. Even the Elementals. They answered my pleas.
How could what she’d done been wrong? Perhaps the D’Anu had grown away from the original teachings of the Ancient Druids. Perhaps she hadn’t been wrong.
She sighed. Someday, the D’Anu are going to have to reexamine all of these ancient beliefs. Just because they’re old and traditional doesn’t make them right. The world is a grayer place now.
But would her mother still be alive if Silver hadn’t tapped such powerful magic?
Polaris slunk onto the seat beside her as she bit her lower lip and stared at the family picture her father held. Her chest ached and squeezed so much it almost felt as if her ribs hadn’t healed.
It was a picture taken only a couple of years ago, when they had spent three weeks together in Ireland. They stood before one of the ancient castles, a happy if not unusual family.
Copper with her laughing cinnamon eyes, mischievous smile, and hair the same color as her name.
Silver with her head tilted to the side, her hand to the pendant at her throat and her serpent bracelet shining in what sunlight there had been.
Victor standing behind his three women, his head high and a fierce and proud look to his eyes.
And then there was Moondust with her ethereal glow—which Silver could now see was from Elvin blood.
Victor cleared his throat as he set the photograph back on the bookcase. “There’s much I’ve been putting off telling you, Silver.”
She started and looked from the photograph to her father’s face. “We had a good time on that trip.”
“The last trip before—” Victor cleared his throat again. “Before your sister disappeared, and your mother...”
Silver went to her father and wrapped her arms around his neck. His familiar scent of cherry pipe tobacco clung to his woolen suit and she smelled his spicy aftershave. It brought back more childhood memories.
“I’m so sorry about Mother.” Silver’s tears ran freely now. “If I hadn’t—”
Victor took her by the shoulders so abruptly that he caught her by surprise. “None of this was your fault. You did what you thought was best, and damn the Coven’s blind eyes, but you saved a lot of witches, a lot of people.”
He gently rubbed her shoulders. “I’m proud of you, Silver, and nothing will change that.”
She swallowed, not knowing what to say, but the tears wouldn’t stop.
“Now for what I’ve been putting off.” From the massive mahogany desk in the library, Victor grabbed a box of tissue. He handed it to Silver and she clutched the box to her chest with one hand. She used the other to dab at her eyes with a tissue. “Sit down, my sweet.”
Silver dropped into her chair, her stomach clenching as she set the box beside her. She sniffed, trying to hold back more tears.
Victor put his hands behind his back and began pacing the deep burgundy carpet from one side of the library to the next. “It was my fault. I should have told you sooner.”
Silver started to say something, but her father stopped her with a raised hand. “Perhaps it is clichéd, but I fell for her the moment I saw her.”
No, not clichéd at all. Silver’s heart stuttered. She had fallen for Hawk in such a short time, as well.
Victor paused and cleared his throat yet again, but didn’t stop pacing. “When I discovered she was half Elvin, I was so concerned that it would affect you and your sister in being accepted by the D’Anu that I deemed it best to keep it secret. Your mother, gracious as always, agreed.”
He sighed. “When I learned you were practicing gray magic—” At this his face darkened and Silver clenched the tissue in her lap. “I was upset because of my beliefs, but also because I realized that by your being part Elvin, a more neutral alignment is literally in your blood—so you were at more risk.”
He stopped and slammed his fist on the mahogany desk so hard that Silver jumped in her seat. “The Ancestors wouldn’t have stood for this.” His face turned a darker shade. “Your being banished from the Coven, stripped of your status—unforgivable. I ought to wring Janis Arrowsmith’s neck myself.”
Polaris hissed as if in agreement.
Silver almost slid right out of her seat. In the week she’d been staying with him, he’d never said anything like that.
Victor turned his glare on his robe hanging from a coat rack in one corner of the library. The robe that signified his status as high priest of his Coven. “I’m considering leaving the D’Anu.”
She shot straight up to her feet, knocking the tissue box to the carpeted floor with a thud. “You can’t do that. With the San Francisco Coven torn and broken, the D’Anu need you more than ever to keep the natural balance.”
He fixed his gaze on her and Silver’s cheeks heated. She felt like a little girl all over again, but it didn’t stop her from saying, “The San Francisco Coven will be rebuilt with the Adept apprentices being sent from around the country. They will be fine. But your Coven needs you more than anything.”
“Sit,” her father ordered.
Silver gulped and dropped to the burgundy leather chair again.
“Your power has grown. I can sense it emanating from you.” He put his hands behind his back and looked up at the library ceiling. Silver almost stared at it, too, but kept her eyes on her father. She was too stunned at what he was saying to really know how to respond.
“This could be the Ancestors blessing your intentions, indicating that you’re right,” he continued. “Or perhaps it’s because you’re part Elvin.”
Silver still couldn’t get used to knowing that she was part of a race so old and powerful that she could barely comprehend it.
“How old was Mother?” she asked.
Victor rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “So hard to keep track. I believe she was over eight hundred years old when she passed on to Summerland.”
Silver’s eyes widened. “So she was—”
He waved his hand and nodded. “Many years older than myself. D’Anu witches, as you know, do not have as long of a life span, but we live far longer than humans do. I was a mere child in comparison.” A smile managed to touch his lips. “She kept me grounded.”
Silver didn’t know what to say so she just waited for her father to continue.
Victor hitched up the pant legs of his suit as he placed his bulk in the seat next to Silver.
He took her hands. “Copper is out there somewhere. I scried and saw only that she is lost and needs to find her own way home.”
“She’s truly alive?” Silver clenched her father’s hands tighter. “I need to find her, at once.”
Polaris raised up, his eyes focused on Victor.
Her father shook his head. “As I said, Copper needs to find her own way home.”
His dark eyes fixed intently on Silver’s. “As you need to find yours.”
November 19
41
San Francisco
Silver left the following day and made her way back to the City by the Bay. She had planned to spend more time with her father, but she’d felt the fierce call to come to the city to aid the D’Danann.
She had driven across the country in her beat-up little VW and made the 3,300 mile trek in five days. It was a wonder her poor Bug had made it.
The first thing she did was go to the beach where she’d practiced rituals so many times before. She didn’t stop to see any of her friends. No one. She wasn’t ready, not yet. She wasn’t even sure whether she’d be welcome.
Numb from more than mere cold, Silver sat with her arms around her knees in the small cove where she had first called upon the D’Danann—and Hawk had come. Just the thought of him made her heart ache all over again.
She’d left Polaris snuggled in a big blanket in the car, not even wanting her familiar for company. No, she needed to be alone.
The waning moon rose through the fog, and what light could filter through caressed
Silver, as if to offer her some comfort.
The briny smell of the ocean, the feel of sand beneath her booted feet, and the sound of waves slapping the shore was reassuring. At least some things remained the same.
These past few weeks, she’d replayed over and over in her mind all that had happened, and couldn’t come to the conclusion that she would have done anything differently.
She had set out to do what she believed to be right, and had helped to stop an invasion of demons that would have overrun the city. Now, as far as she knew, relatively few remained.
And those demons needed to be sought out and sent back to Underworld.
Silver’s jaw tightened in determination. She had lost everything, everything but her magic, her sense of justice, and her ability to make at least some things right.
She was back, and she would help with the battle, with or without the force of the D’Anu behind her. She’d found her way home. She was now a solo practitioner, but she was home.
A chill rolled through her. But Darkwolf is here, too. What if he seeks me out again? What if this time I can’t fight him?
Her jacket fluttered in the breeze and sand shifted beneath her feet as she hugged her knees tighter. She pushed away those thoughts and at least some of the melancholy gripping her as best she could, but she couldn’t help the ache in her heart for all she had lost.
Her mother. Her sister. Her Coven. Her store.
The man she had fallen in love with.
A cold, cold tear rolled down her cheek, but it dried from the even colder breeze. She was a witch, able to withstand varying temperatures, but right now she wouldn’t be surprised if that failed her too, no matter that her father believed her magic was stronger than ever.
Whump. Whump. The sound jolted her from her thoughts. Whump.
Wings. Big wings.
She couldn’t move, but didn’t dare to hope.
A break in the fog revealed a being flying toward her. Could it be one of the D’Danann who had stayed to help find the rest of the Fomorii?
Could it be Hawk?
Silver’s heart raced as the being came closer. When she recognized the brilliant blue wings of Sher, that heart dropped right into the pit of her stomach.
Sher landed easily on the sand, her booted feet barely making an indentation. Her wheat-blonde hair swung at her shoulders and her smile met her blue eyes. “Mackenzie’s tarot cards told me I’d find you here.”
Silver tried to smile back, but faltered. “How is everyone?”
The D’Danann warrior folded away her wings and settled on the sand beside Silver. She smelled of clear night sky and jasmine. Her blue eyes looked dark and thoughtful. “Much has happened since you have been gone. More of the San Francisco D’Anu Coven fractured.”
Silver’s eyes widened. “But who? Why? What about the balance between Covens?”
With a slight shrug, Sher said, “There were enough apprentices in the other twelve Covens ready to step forward. The Coven will be fine.” She started to create a design in the sand with her fingertip. “Mackenzie, Hannah, Sydney, Alyssa, Cassia, and Rhiannon all left the Coven. They believed too strongly that you were right and the rest of the D’Anu were wrong. They think that gray magic is needed to rid this city of the Fomorii. They have started a new Coven. With you it will be seven.”
Seven. A good number.
Silver just shook her head. “What—how—where—”
Sher laughed. She had a beautiful laugh that rang through the cool night, above the roar of the ocean. “Jake owns an apartment complex in the Haight-Ashbury district by your Golden Gate Park. The area and the locals are a little odd, but all the D’Danann and the witches are using it as a HQ.”
“How is Jake?”
“Well.” She smiled. “He and the PSF are determined to aid us in the fight against the Fomorii.”
Silver almost didn’t dare to ask, but she had to. “And Hawk?”
Sher’s shoulders lifted and settled with a sigh. “Since he returned to Otherworld, none have heard from him. But then, he cannot cross over unless it is one of the nights when the membranes between worlds are thin enough.”
The D’Danann woman stared into the dark sky as she softly said, “Unless he is aided by one of Elvin blood,” she added.
Silver’s heart pounded a little more rapidly again. “But he hasn’t come back.”
Their gazes met again. “No,” Sher said, and continued to trace the design into the sand. “We have not seen him. I have not sensed him.”
That part of Silver holding on to her love for Hawk weakened. “He can’t leave his daughter, and I wouldn’t expect him to. And the Chieftains—they may have locked him in the cells.”
That thought made her so ill, she shuddered.
Sher just traced the design in the sand with her finger, and when she finished, Silver saw that the design was a Celtic love knot. Sher looked back up at Silver. “Where there is love, the heart will find a way.”
Silver could only shake her head again. “It’s not meant to be.”
With the grace of her species, Sher moved to her feet and unfurled her wings. She spread the beautiful blue feathers and lifted into the air. “When you are ready, we are waiting for you.”
Before Silver could say anything more, Sher darted into the night sky. She pumped her wings, waved, and flew back toward the city.
For a long time Silver just sat and stared at the ocean, and listened to the waves slap the shore. She had a home and friends to return to.
Others willing to fight the Fomorii—probably already seeking them out. Perhaps over the past weeks they had already located them and were ridding the city of the demons.
Silver’s thoughts turned back to the time with her father. They had come to an understanding, and she had hope again for her sister. That Copper would one day come back.
Another whump of wings startled Silver. This time the sound was stronger, more powerful. A dark shape closed in on her, moving faster and faster.
The winged figure drew closer. Silver’s heart started to pound so hard she almost couldn’t breathe. When he finally touched down on the sand she put a hand to her mouth, certain she was seeing things.
Hawk.
42
Hawk strode across the sand toward Silver, his ebony wings stretched wide. Before he reached her, he folded the wings away until they vanished.
He never paused in his stride. He was tall, powerful, each well-defined muscle rippling with strength. His long dark hair whipped in the wind around the strong curve of his jaw.
He no longer wore a cast, but he still had the pentagram at his throat. The one that matched her own.
When Hawk reached Silver, he scooped her up in his embrace, causing her to cry out in surprise. She wrapped her arms around his neck as if he might drop her.
He cradled her to his chest. “A thaisce,” he murmured and kissed the top of her head.
The feel of his arms around her, his clean scent of forest breezes and man—it was almost too much. It didn’t even seem real. She’d missed the feel of him, the power in his embrace, the scent of him, his touch.
No. No.
“Let me down,” she said quietly as his lips hovered over hers.
Hawk’s warm breath fanned her face as he shook his head. “I will not,” he murmured a moment before his lips touched hers.
His kiss was achingly slow and Silver couldn’t help but close her eyes and melt into it. How she’d missed this. How she’d missed him.
He gently moved his mouth over hers and his tongue darted out to taste her. When he nipped at her lower lip, she gave something between a sigh and a little cry, and he slipped his tongue into her mouth.
Hawk’s gut clenched at the incredible feel of Silver in his arms again. Gods, how he had missed her. How he had regretted their parting.
And how it had nearly driven him out of his mind not to be able to return to her sooner.
The Chieftains—they had taken long to consider, bu
t had finally ruled that he remain a D’Danann Enforcer and could pass between worlds if he so had the aid.
Silver’s sweet scent flowed over him, filled his senses. And her taste, how he had missed everything about her.
A sigh of pleasure rose in Silver, and she couldn’t help herself. She relaxed against him, within his arms. As their tongues mated, he tasted so wonderful, of pure male—and she could almost swear he tasted of chocolate chip cookies, too.
She wanted to deepen the kiss, but Hawk pulled away from her and she found herself looking into his beautiful eyes.
“What are you doing here?” She brought one hand from his neck to cup his stubbled cheek. “You’re supposed to be in Otherworld with your daughter.”
“The Great Guardian let me through.” He hugged her tighter to him. “I have come to bring you home with me.”
Silver bit her lower lip and turned her face away. “Let me down.”
This time he released her, letting her slide down his length. She felt every inch of him through her jacket and jeans, from his powerful chest to his strong thighs.
Even though he set her on her booted feet, he held her close, and she knew he wouldn’t completely let her go. Not yet.
She couldn’t help the immediate awareness of him, and how much her body desired him. But her heart wanted more. Needed more.
Hawk took in his beautiful woman, from her shining silvery-blonde hair floating in the ocean breeze to her Elvin features and gray eyes.
Her supple body was clothed, hiding it from his view. How he wanted to strip her bare and take her now, to be inside her and claim her completely. To let her know she belonged to him.
The way she looked at him tugged at his heart. He had hurt her. It was in her eyes, in the slight tremble of her well-kissed lips.
He had ached just as much. He had known the minute he left that he’d been wrong in not telling her of his love.
He couldn’t have stayed—his only choice had been to return to his daughter and to face the Chieftains, yes. But he hadn’t admitted the truth before he left, not even to himself.
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