“But I don’t see anything,” Emily argued.“There is nothing up ahead.”
“Yes, there is,” Jessa told her without shifting her gaze from a point up ahead that shimmered as though extreme heat rose from the ground.“Get behind us, Em.Please?”Morrigan might go after Emily next since she had yet to find and connect with her fated mate.
A raven appeared in the middle of the path at the base of the shimmering heat waves.It shape-shifted into a wolf, then changed again into an all too familiar cloaked figure.Morrigan lifted her bony hand and clicked her long, lethal black nails.“Induciae.I would speak with Mairwen and Grant’s mate.Alone.”
“My name isJessa, and what doesinduciaemean?”
“Suspension of hostilities.”Morrigan pushed back her hood, revealing her form of the armored warrioress who was almost too beautiful to look upon.She bowed her sleek head, making the ebony gemstone in her silver circlet glint in the sunlight.“And forgive me,Jessa.”
“When ye speak to one of us, ye speak to us all,” Grant said.
Morrigan twitched a shrug, then shifted her gaze to Mairwen.“Is that what ye wish, sister?”
“Sister?”Jessa repeated in a squeaking whisper.Why had Mairwen not told them that little tidbit of information?
Grant gave her a subtle squeeze meant to make her be quiet.
Mairwen drew herself up, sitting taller in the saddle.She gave the barest dip of her chin.“Say what ye will, Morrigan.”
“Our sons are dead.”
Mairwen’s hands tightened on the reins, and her horse shifted from side to side, displaying the agitation of its rider.“That is not possible.Bride and Cerridwen promised—as did the ancient one, the mighty Danu.”
Morrigan’s pained scowl almost softened as she lowered her gaze.“Carman’s sons destroyed Valor and Valan’s vaults in a bid for power.They scattered the crystal shards across eternity.”
“The jars,” Mairwen said, her voice ragged.“The jars housing their essence crystals?”
“That is why I am here.”
When Morrigan’s focus slid to her, Jessa instinctively backed up against Grant’s chest.“What?”
“Ye dinna realize it yet because mortals are oblivious to such things until their bodies bellow with the proof of it, but ye carry twin sons in yer womb.Mine and Mairwen’s sons.The sons fathered by Lùnastal when he could not choose between Mairwen and me.”
Jessa swallowed hard, struggling to wrap her mind around what the dark one had just shared.“If I am pregnant—and that is very big if—then I’m barely pregnant and Grant’s the father.Not someone named Lùnastal.”
“There is no such thing asbarelypregnant,” the Morrigan said.“Did you not once utter those exact words to an acquaintance?Either ye are with child or ye are not.And ye are.Two of them, as a matter of fact.”
“How do you know what I’ve uttered to anyone?”Jessa asked, trying to ignore Grant’s ever-tightening embrace.His excitement at the prospect of fatherhood pulsed through her.“And like I said, Grant would be the father.”
“Aye, Grant is the father of the wee bairns,” Mairwen said, “but their souls—” She bowed her head and covered her face with her hands, her shoulders trembling with her grief.“The goddesses promised.How could they let this happen to my son?”
“When I opened their jars,” Morrigan told Mairwen, “their essence crystals were gone.The ancient one granted me a rare audience because she felt my sorrow as a mother.She assured me they had kept their promise that our sons would not die for their mistakes—” She drew in a deep breath and lifted her chin higher, then shifted her focus back to Jessa.“After Dub, Dother, and Dain razed the crystal vaults, the mighty Danu, Bride, and Cerridwen gathered what was left of Valor and Valan’s souls and intertwined them with Jessa’s children.”
“Intertwined?”Jessa repeated.“My babies aren’t even born yet, and you’re telling me they’re going to have multiple personality problems?”
Morrigan frowned, visibly confused.“No.They will merely grow to be extraordinary males, powerful, and possess the same lifespan as Mairwen and I, rather than you weak, insignificant mortals.”
“You’re not getting them,” Jessa said, already seeing where this was going.She shook her head at Mairwen too.“These babies are mine, and no one is taking them away.”
The Morrigan smiled, sending a chill through Jessa that made her shudder.“I am glad ye will keep them safe.Once I bring down the Veil, I will come for them.”
“The Veil will remain strong,” Mairwen said, her voice like thunder, “and once the goddesses allow, I will come for my Lùnastal.We all know ye assumed my form when ye seduced him.”She jutted her chin higher, her face wet with the tears of her loss.“He does still live, aye?”
“Aye,” the Morrigan said.“Mybeloved still lives.Angry and handsome as ever in his crystal cell.Even Carman’s wicked sons are not so foolhardy as to meddle with the god of light while he repents in the mighty Danu’s prison.”
Jessa fisted her hands to keep from digging her nails into Grant’s arm again.Here she was, caught in the middle of a love triangle of immortals, and if there was one thing she despised, it was being manipulated for someone else’s gain.She had spent her formative years enduring that despicable abuse.She’d be damned if she went through it again.
“I am not a pawn in your stupid little games,” she said, bouncing in the saddle to get the horse to step forward and take a more dominant stance.“Or at least I am finished being a pawn in your selfish games.”She laid her hand on Grant’s, taking hold of the sword that had banished the darkness when she needed it most.As soon as she touched its haft, the blade’s light became blinding and shot a powerful beam of pure white brightness into the heavens and held it.“You will stay away from me and mine—and that includes Emily and the mate she has yet to claim.I might be mortal, but I will fight like hell for those I love.My children will never know you.”She turned and glared at Mairwen.“Either of you.Keep me and mine out of your petty fight over some stupid man with fidelity issues.I can get behind protecting the Highland Veil because of what I have seen so far.But I will be damned if I get caught up in two jealous women fighting over a man who apparently thinks with nothing but his cock.”
