Page 59 of Rise of the Morrigan

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I hadn't anticipatedKing Conchobar would embrace the union between Cú Chulainn and the faerie. It was but a minor complication. I'd intended to reveal to Fand, after the two left Ulster together, that her husband loved her still, that the Fomorians were acting of their own accord. I'd hoped she'd be moved by her honor and return to her husband. There is nothing more important to a faerie than her sense of honor.

Anand had an idea... it had worked before with Aife. We'd used her to assault the Fomorians, to turn them against the faerie to wound Cú Chulainn's heart. But Aifebelievedin vengeance. For her, to allow anyone who'd wronged her to escape her wrath was to admit defeat, to acknowledge a weakness—something contrary to her instincts as a warrior.

Emer had no such beliefs. She wasn't a warrior. She wasn't a killer. But she was a woman whose heart had been spurned by the very man she loved. She was angry. She was wounded. Her heart churned with a perfect recipe of emotions suitable to conjure up a drive for revenge.

But to kill a faerie... it wasn't easy. She'd need a unique blade, one poisoned bymycauldron... one vested with the power to take whomever it stabbed through death and into rebirth with a single strike. I could provide her with such a blade...

All at once, Fand could be put away with and Emer, if not punished by the king for the murder, would be the one who killed Cú Chulainn's beloved. He'd never return to Emer after that. Yes, Cú Chulainn would have to mourn the loss of Fand... but as an eternal deity, I had the time to wait. I'd soothe him in the wake of his loss... I'd gradually present myself as a new chance at love... it would work. If Emer pulled it off. Either way, I could always revert to my original plan and reveal to Fand that her husband desired her still. She'd leave to preserve her honor. But would that put Cú Chulainn's love for her to rest? Not likely... he needed to lose her, to mourn her, and to heal.

Kill the faerie...

I only whispered the suggestion in her ear as she wandered Ulster's streets. My whisper was subtle enough that she might think the idea was her own.

Emer shook her head. "I think I'm losing my mind..."

Kill Fand... I can help you do it...

She'd realize, now, that it wasn't just her imagination speaking.

"Who's there?"

I appeared in front of her. "Dearest Emer..."

Emer gasped.

"Your heart cried out to me and I have answered."

"Are you..."

"I am the Morrigan. I am the Phantom Queen."

"But you are a goddess of war! Of war and death! That is not who I am. Killing her is not the answer..."

"Death is but a turning of a page, one season turning to another, even as one moves from childhood into adulthood, so too does one pass from death to life. It is time that the faerie should complete the cycle, that she should return to me."

"Then why don't you kill her yourself?"

"That is not my way. I do not assault mortals."

Emer shook her head. "I don't understand. Why do you care about my broken heart?"

"Your heartbreak simply affords me the opportunity to collect the faerie. It is her time. And you are the one I've chosen as my instrument to return her soul to me."

In truth, I'd never ushered a faerie from death to rebirth. Would the cauldron work on the Fae? Probably not. But she didn't know that. I imagined the faeries had some other deity, some other force, to whom they appealed in their own cycle of rebirth. Still, what Emer did not know I'd use to my advantage. This had to succeed... it was my best chance, yet.

"Very well," Emer said. "I will take her life and my own. Provided you will take me, too, to your cauldron. I am weary of this life. My father is gone, and my husband, too... his heart now belongs to another."

I smiled. What she wanted... it was well within my power. And more than that, it would work to my advantage. In a single night, both Fand and Emer would be out of the picture forever. And I would be left to console Cú Chulainn for as long as it might take until he came to love me, as he did the faerie, as he'd once hoped to love Emer.

"I will be with you," I said as I held out the blade I'd prepared for this very purpose.

Emer took the blade, her hand trembling as she grabbed it by the handle.

"It will take only a small strike, anywhere on the faerie's flesh, and the blade will accomplish my purpose."

Emer nodded. Her hand continued to shake as she held the blade and examined the blade. "And will the blade do the same for me? Can I cut myself on my finger or thumb or must I plunge it into my heart?"

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