by P. C. Cast
He was right. Her skin was glowing. She pulled her hand from his and raised her other arm in front of her, spreading the fingers of both hands and turning them over and over…palm up…palm down…as she watched her skin glisten and shine with a radiance that mirrored the selenite.
“How can this be happening?” Kyle said in a low, hushed voice.
She answered automatically, without looking at him. “I’m the daughter of a High Priestess who was Chosen by the Goddess Epona.” Morrigan realized there was more to her mother’s history than simply being Epona’s Chosen, but saying the words out loud felt good—felt more than good. It felt wonderful and right and something she should have done ages ago, would have done ages ago, if only she’d known. In the air around her she heard laughter. Not mocking laughter from a dark, evil god, but sweet, musical laughter that seemed to be made of pure happiness. It was her mother. It had to be her mother! With growing wonder in her voice she continued. “I have divine gifts because I carry the blood of generations of priestesses within me.” She wasn’t sure how, but she knew she was telling the truth.
“You’re the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”
Morrigan glanced up from studying her glowing skin and was caught by the look of raw passion in Kyle’s eyes.
“You’re a goddess,” he said.
She opened her mouth to correct him—to say no, to explain again that she wasn’t a goddess, she was just the daughter of a goddess’s priestess. But before she could speak, two things happened simultaneously. The wind whirled around her, carrying with it beguiling whispers that caught and echoed Kyle’s words.
Yes…you are a goddess…you are beauty…
At the same time Morrigan couldn’t stop staring at Kyle. His eyes were full of adoration. He was so handsome, so desirable, so sexy!
Yes…you are a goddess…take your pleasure where you will…
Morrigan’s pulse quickened. The power of the crystals still thrummed with her blood, hot and sweet and heavy through her body, boiling deep in her belly, drifting even lower to cause a rush of heat and moisture between her legs. She suddenly wanted the man who stood before her with an intensity that her very limited experience with sex left her unprepared to deal with.
Kyle moved closer to her, drawn to the open flame of her allure.
“God, you’re incredible. So, so sexy. I want to touch you…”
“Then touch me,” Morrigan breathed.
Without hesitation he caressed her cheek. His hand moved down to stroke the softness of the curve of her neck.
Morrigan trembled. Not from the nerves of a virgin, but from the liquid rush of sensation that was shivering its way from his fingertips through her body.
“More,” she whispered.
With a moan Kyle pulled her into his arms and bent to kiss her. She met his tongue with her own, snaking it into the warmth of his mouth and swallowing his moans of desire. She wound her arms around his broad shoulders. She’d never felt like this before—strong, powerful, filled to overflowing with passion.
You are an object of desire to be worshipped and obeyed, the wind whispered.
Yes, yes I am, Morrigan thought as she sucked at Kyle’s bruised lips and rubbed her breasts against him, molding her hips to his, rocking against the hot hardness in his pants. Her eyes were open and she could see the crystals sparkling all around them, blazing brilliant white light as if in response to her passion.
“God! This is all like a dream, one damn hot dream,” Kyle gasped against her lips. His hands cupped her butt and pulled her more firmly against him.
Somewhere in the back of her mind Morrigan was shocked at her behavior, but she couldn’t seem to stop. She didn’t want to stop. Her glowing skin was burning with heat and need and lust. She was overflowing with power. She was a goddess!
“Morrigan Christine Parker, just what in the hell is going on here!”
Grandpa’s voice splashed cold water all over her hot make-out scene. She jumped back and blurted, “Grandpa!” Face blazing, head spinning and blood pounding from unfulfilled lust. Over Kyle’s shoulder she could see her grandpa, looking like a cross between a grizzly bear and a giant pissed-off blowfish. He was wearing a ratty old hunting jacket and holding the ultra-heavy-duty flashlight that was usually kept in the barn. And (oh, no!) Grandma was standing beside him. They were both frowning severely at Kyle.
“Young man, who are you and why did you have your hands all over my granddaughter?”
Morrigan almost laughed. Typical of G-pa, he ignored the fact that crystals were glowing with magical power all around him, the fact that she had basically run away and probably worried the hell out of him, and the fact that she’d had her hands all over Kyle, too. G-pa’s narrowed eyes and dark expression said that it didn’t matter that he was seventy-five. He was more than willing (and able) to kick the guy’s butt who was, in his decidedly slanted opinion, taking advantage of his supposedly innocent granddaughter.
“Sir, I’m sorry.” Kyle ran his hands shakily through his hair. “I—I guess I got carried away. She’s just so beautiful and I…” He trailed off, looking completely embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to disrespect her.” Then he cleared his throat and stepped forward, offering Grandpa his hand. “Sir, my name is Kyle Cameron. I’m the head guide and curator of Alabaster Caverns State Park. I met your granddaughter earlier today when she and her friends toured the cave.”
Grandpa grunted and reluctantly shook Kyle’s hand, still eyeballing him narrowly. Morrigan had no doubt he was also squeezing the crap out of Kyle’s hand.
“Well, Kyle Cameron, do you always maul young ladies the same day you meet them, or is this gentlemanly—” Grandpa laced the word heavily with sarcasm “—behavior exclusive to my granddaughter?”
“Sir, I—” he began.
“Grandpa, he—” she sputtered, finally finding her voice.
“Hon, look at the crystals. I think Morrigan is making them glow.” As usual, G-ma’s was the voice of reason.
Grandpa broke off (thankfully) what Morrigan was sure was going to be a severe lecture on respecting the integrity of well-raised young ladies, when his eyes finally registered something in the cave besides Kyle making out with her. She watched her grandpa look around the Encampment Room, taking in everything from the glistening crystals in the ceiling to the glowing boulder.
“Selenite,” he grunted, nodding his head thoughtfully. “Settlers used slices of it for windows in their homesteads.”
“Yes, sir, that’s right,” said Kyle eagerly.
Grandpa looked at him like he had no sense at all. “I’m a retired biology teacher, son. I know more about the ecosystems of Oklahoma than whatever Podunk high school you attended taught you in their on-level, overly crowded biology classes.”
“Sir, I’m finishing up my master’s.”
Richard Parker raised his eyebrows at him. “Do tell. What is your field?”
“Geology.”
Morrigan forced herself not to grin. Grandpa had a doctorate in zoology.
“Huh,” he snorted. “You must be a damn sight older than eighteen.”
“Twenty-two, sir. I tested out of most of my general college classes, so I got my B.S. early.”
“Huh,” Grandpa grunted. “Then you should have enough sense not to maul my granddaughter.”
“Hon, Morrigan and the crystals…” Mama Parker nudged him.
He grunted again, but shifted his attention to his granddaughter. “Morgie old girl, are you doing this?”
She nodded. “Yes, Grandpa.”
“Oh, so you’ve decided we’re your grandparents again, have you?”
Morrigan looked down at her feet. “I’m sorry about that, Grandpa.” She glanced sheepishly up at Mama Parker. “I’m sorry, Grandma.”
“Oh, hon, that’s all right! I know what you learned today has been a lot to take in.”
Morrigan straightened her spine and met her grandpa’s level gaze. “Yeah, it was a lot, but I shouldn’
t have freaked out and taken it out on you guys. You’ll always be my grandparents, no matter what.”
“Of course we will, Morgie old girl,” Grandpa said gruffly. Then he cleared his throat. “You can make the crystals glow. What else can you do?”
“The rocks speak to me. I can hear them.”
Mama Parker nodded her head thoughtfully. “An affinity for the spirits of the earth. Celtic druids, as well as Native American shamans reported such things.”
“Shannon heard the spirits in the trees. They greeted her as Epona’s Chosen and lent her power when she called on them,” Grandpa said.
“They call me Light Bringer,” Morrigan said softly.
Her grandpa’s sharp gaze bored into her. “Do they call you Goddess? Greet you as the Chosen One?”
Morrigan started to shake her head no, but Kyle interrupted her. “She is a goddess!” he blurted. “If you had seen her just a little while ago you’d understand what I mean. Her skin was literally glowing.” He took a half step closer to her and raised his hand so that he brushed the hair from the side of her face. “She must be a goddess come to earth.”
“Son, she isn’t a goddess. She’s the daughter of a goddess’s priestess,” Grandpa said.
Do not allow him to steal your divinity! the wind wailed around her. Morrigan tried to ignore it, but she felt a stirring of anger at her grandfather’s words. No matter that her thoughts had echoed them not long before, suddenly it felt as if what he was saying was slighting her…stealing something that was, or should be, hers.
“My mother was more than a priestess.” Morrigan spoke the words aloud that were moving in the wind around her. “She was Goddess Incarnate and she held the power of her goddess.”
She noticed that her grandpa’s forehead was furrowed with worry, but all she heard when he spoke was a denial of her heritage and a rejection of her newfound powers.
“Morrigan, your mother, Rhiannon, might have once been Epona’s Chosen and her High Priestess, but she lost her position, and the powers that went with it.”
“Did she lose them, or were they stolen from her?” Morrigan heard herself ask the question in a voice that sounded cold and unfamiliar.
Her grandpa paused, and then his eyes narrowed. “Who am I speaking to? Morrigan or Rhiannon?”
“Now you don’t know whether I’m your granddaughter or not?” Morrigan felt the hurt of his words slice through her. But instead of tears, anger and betrayal swelled within her, bubbling together in a bitter soup and making it seem there was an earthquake of emotions happening inside her.
“Ah, dammit! Of course I know you’re my granddaughter! I just want you to sound like her and not some crazy-assed, power-hungry stranger.”
Morrigan jerked back as if he’d slapped her. “All my life you’ve told me I’m not crazy. How did that change all of a sudden?”
“Morrigan Christine, I did not call you crazy.”
That isn’t who you are…swirled around her.
“Who gave me my middle name?”
Her grandpa blinked and looked momentarily confused.
“Well, we did, hon,” Grandma supplied.
“Because it was Shannon’s middle name,” Morrigan said.
“Because Christine is one of my favorite girl’s names,” Grandpa said, sounding indignant.
“My mom didn’t give it to me.” Morrigan didn’t let her grandpa respond, she just kept on speaking, as if a dam had broken inside her and the words couldn’t help but spill out in a rush. “My name isn’t Morrigan Christine Parker. I’m not that girl. Shannon Christine Parker is not my mother. My name is Morrigan MacCallan, daughter of Rhiannon MacCallan, Chosen of the Goddess Epona.”
“She was the Goddess’s Chosen, but she also denied and betrayed Epona, so that she lost that position,” her grandpa said gruffly.
“How do we know all of that? How do we know exactly what happened?”
“We knew Rhiannon. And we knew Shannon. You’ll just have to trust that we’re telling you the truth.”
With a groan of frustration, Morrigan whirled around and leaned against the selenite boulder, taking comfort from the echoes of Light Bringer that rustled against her palm. She was completely, utterly confused. Her mind was a jumble of heat and thought and doubt. Her world was being shaken into millions of little pieces.
“Morrigan! I asked if you’re doing that!”
Kyle’s sharp voice intruded on her inner turmoil, and she glared up at him, wondering why his face was so colorless and his eyes so big and dark.
“Doing what?” she snapped.
“Are you making the cave rumble?”
“Wha—” Morrigan looked up just as a fist-size chunk of rock dropped from the ceiling.
Beware, Light Bringer! There is danger here. You must depart swiftly.
And through the crystals the certain knowledge came to Morrigan that unless they got out of there immediately they were all going to die.
CHAPTER 9
“Grandpa! Grandma! Get out of here!” Morrigan yelled over her shoulder at them. Rationally, she knew she should rush out of the room, hauling her grandparents and Kyle with her, but she couldn’t make herself take her hands from the selenite boulder.
“Morrigan, what’s going on?” Kyle cried.
Another chunk of rock fell so close to her grandpa that Morrigan’s stomach clenched painfully.
Danger, Light Bringer! screamed the crystals.
“You have to go! The ceiling’s falling,” she called as the rumbling that she had thought was nothing more than the turmoil inside her began to growl through the cave, vibrating up through the floor. More pieces of the ceiling came loose and fell in a deadly rain to the floor. She tore her eyes from the crystal and said, “You, too, Kyle. Get out of here!”
“Morgie?” Grandpa sounded torn and started to take a step toward her.
“Go, Grandpa! I’m coming!” she lied.
She saw him nod, take her grandma’s arm and begin helping her up the pathway toward the entrance. Then he stopped and turned back toward her.
“Morrigan, come on!” he shouted above the gravelly roar.
She smiled sadly at him and thought how much she loved his craggy, weather-worn face that always reminded her of Rooster Cogburn in the old John Wayne movie True Grit. She didn’t have to look into the boulder to know that the middle of it had rippled and changed, once again affording her a glimpse into a weird mirrorlike image of that other cave. She knew what that image had to be—in her soul she’d known it from the first. She’d known even then what she must eventually do. Morrigan pushed against the boulder and felt her palms dip into it, like it had turned from rock to half-set Jell-O.
“I love you, Grandpa! I love you, Grandma!” she yelled. “I’m sorry for this. I’m sorry for everything!”
Her grandpa’s expression shifted from worry to despair.
“No, Morrigan!”
He took a step toward her, but was forced to stop when a large hunk of the ceiling just mere feet in front of him broke off and crashed to the floor, causing a cloud of dust and debris to lift and to obscure her view of him. She couldn’t see him anymore, but she could still hear his words, even though they were muffled by the growing sound of the cave-in.
“Morrigan, get out of there! You don’t know what you’re doing. Crossing over isn’t that easy.”
“Morrigan, we need to go! Now!” Kyle said urgently, grabbing her arm and trying to pull her away from the boulder.
She yanked herself away from him. “No. You need to go, Kyle. I’m staying.”
“That’s crazy!” he yelled. Kyle pointed up at the ceiling. “It’s coming down and it will kill you. I don’t really know you, but I feel something for you that I’ve never experienced before, and I sure as hell don’t want to lose you before I understand what’s going on between us!”
She met his eyes and, ignoring the awful, sinking feeling it gave her, made her voice hard and cruel. “You’re right. You don’t know me. No
w get out of here and leave me alone!” Morrigan pulled one hand free from the boulder with a wet, sucking sound that made Kyle’s eyes widen. “You wouldn’t believe the things I can do. I have power you can’t comprehend.” She spat the words at him. “I don’t belong here. Ask my grandparents. They’ll tell you.” Then, channeling heat and power from the crystals, she pushed him. And was thoroughly shocked when he was lifted from his feet and shoved several yards away from her.
Wow! It was just like she was Storm from the X-Men!
“Leave, Kyle,” she said firmly.
“Morrigan!” Her grandpa’s yell was muffled.
“Get out of here!” she shouted, raising her voice above the growling earth.
Kyle was getting to his feet as he stared at her with a mixture of awe and fear. Still, he seemed unable to leave.
“Morrigan, don’t push me away. I don’t want to leave you.” He took one hesitant step toward her.
And, with a sickening crack, the ceiling above him shattered and gave way. Morrigan watched in silent, screamless horror as Kyle was buried beneath an avalanche of stone. Disbelieving, she stared at the huge pile of rock that covered him. She shook her head back and forth, back and forth as her body began to tremble. She couldn’t take her eyes from the rock. In all the dust and debris she couldn’t see Kyle, but he had to be dead. But no, maybe he wasn’t. Maybe she should try to move the stones off him. She could use the power of the crystals to help her.
But before she could pull her other hand free of the selenite his heart no longer beats drifted through the crystal and into her body.
Then the floor beneath her began to shake again and the earth growled.
You are in danger, Light Bringer! the crystals told her insistently.
What had she thought she was doing? This wasn’t a game she was playing. She’d caused a man’s death. Morrigan had to get out of there. She pulled her other hand free from the boulder and began stumbling toward the path. And the ceiling in front of her rained death, neatly cutting off her escape. Choking and coughing from the thickening dust, she lurched backward and fell against the selenite boulder. It gave under the weight of her body.