In Abercolme, it was the fae kingdoms they were closest to: in the sea, in the wind, in the ground under them. Perhaps the faerie kingdoms were closer in those rural places; in cities, she’d supposed that people would find it harder to connect to the nature elementals. But, she reminded herself, Morgan’sinfluence in books and films was considerable. She remained the iconic witch: misunderstood and misrepresented perhaps, but a symbol of power, nonetheless.
Faye heard Ruby and Gabriel chanting,Morgan Le Fay, Lady of Magic! Morgan Le Fay, Enchantress of the Moon!and followed suit. The circle’s pacing turned into something faster and more unruly. Still, their hands stayed clasped together.Morgan Le Fay, Lady of Magic! Morgan Le Fay, Enchantress of the Moon!Faye heard her voice rasping as she started to lose her breath, the volume of the chanting increasing.
Faye was sweating from the wild skipping and chanting. She closed her eyes and saw the circle as if from above, the flickering candlelight, the moonlight on their faces. In her mind’s eye, there were two dirt paths running from one side of the clearing to the other, crossing each other at the centre of the circle. And at the point where they crossed, a gate made of the same pink-white crystal she remembered from the seven-pointed castle opened in the ground, and Morgana Le Fae appeared.
Faye opened her eyes, startled; as if they had seen the same thing, the circle stopped dancing. She narrowed her eyes. There was a shimmer of non-colour at the centre of the circle, and the candles inside the lamps guttered, making exaggerated shadows in the trees, but otherwise nothing.
It can’t be. Faye stared into the shadows, her heart full of anticipation.
She closed her eyes. Tall, silver-white-haired and black-skinned, Morgana wore long silver robes and a silver circlet on her head, with a crescent moon that pointed to the sky. Her face wasn’t human, but a shifting mass of light. She bowed her head to Faye; Faye bowed, eyes closed, in response. Her heart was pounding with the shock of Morgana’s presence.How had this happened?She’d been so sure that she was safe. She’d clearly underestimated the power of the coven.
‘I bless your circle. I am Morgana, the one you seek. I am Morgana Le Fae, Goddess of Witches and Mistress of Magic,’ the faerie queen intoned.
‘She is here!’ Sylvia cried, exultant, her head thrown back.
Faye opened her eyes. She caught Gabriel staring at her.
‘You see the goddess?’ he whispered.
‘Not clearly in the circle. With my eyes closed, yes,’ Faye stammered.
‘I see you’re accustomed to using magical imagination.’ Gabriel smiled, closing his eyes. ‘Not everyone sees Her. That’s why Sylvia is…translating, shall we say.’
‘Oh.’ Faye couldn’t express what she was really feeling, which was a mixture of fear and anticipation; she’d been resisting the call of the fae ever since she’d been in London. But at the same time, her soul was alight.
‘I come with a message for one among you.’ Morgana’s voice hung in the air between them all and sounded inside their heads at the same time. ‘Faye Morgan,sidhe-leth, step forward.’
Faye’s heart beat faster, and she released Gabriel’s hand.
‘I’m…I’m here.’ She tried to get her voice under control, but her nerves showed.
‘Faye. There is something important you must know about the war between the faerie kingdoms.’ Morgana’s voice sang with the splash of oars in a still lake and the vibrant hum of the pink-white crystal of her castle. ‘I come to speak to you, and you only.’
‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Please. I wanted to start a new life here. Can’t you leave me alone?’
‘No!’ Morgana’s voice echoed in her ears. ‘There is a prophecy that drives this war. The rifts between the elemental kingdoms are deepening because of it, and you lie at its centre.’
‘I am aware of it. I…I didn’t necessarily believe it was true,’ Faye replied slowly.
‘It is true. Do not doubt what you have been told, though the version of it may not be entirely accurate,’ Morgana said. ‘You have great power, Faye Morgan, but you must move quickly. The war between the elemental kingdoms rages on, and very soon, it will approach a tipping point. If nothing is done, the forces that wish to eliminate humankind altogether will gain advantage. You must intervene and return balance to the human and the faerie worlds.’
‘How would I do that? I have no idea what any of this means.’ Faye felt an odd sense of falling as she was talking to Morgana, as if she had lost her footing on the ground and was falling through space.
‘You made more than one bargain. You must fulfil them, and in doing so, you will fulfil the prophecy. But take care,’ Morgana warned. ‘Your involvement with Finn Beatha has begun a series of events that can only end in?—’
But there was an interference, sudden, like the irritating black and white snow on the TV set when a storm knocks out the aerial.
The goddess’s outline flickered. Faye stretched her hand out as if she could touch Morgana, but her fingers closed around air as the goddess faded.
‘They will not let me through,’ Morgana’s voice faded away. ‘Do not trust them!’
The sense of falling through space was gone, but it was replaced by something else that was just as disquieting.
A different forest had appeared around the circle, slipping against the oaks of the heath like a blurred negative. Faye looked around her, but the rest of the coven seemed to be caught in a moment of stillness, frozen in time.
‘Can only end in what?’ Faye cried out, but there was no answer.
Instead of the familiar, thick trunks of the oaks, with Hampstead Heath beyond them, a new forest stretched out around her. It was beautiful, glowing, but the trees were unlike any she had seen before, and the colours – greens, golds, reds, even blues – were so vivid that Faye had to blink to become accustomed to them. She was struck by a strong sense of hyperreality.
