Page 258 of The Daughters of Avalon
Despite her untold years, the woman was still uncannily beautiful—not a wrinkle visible on her face, no loss of sheen in her hair. The gleam of her eye was still sharp enough to wound. Much to her dismay, Rhiannon felt a new surge of hatred so intense that it threatened to discompose her—that she should be seated here, forced to converse with this creature whilst her husband flirted with his cousin!
Morwen smiled thinly. “One day you’ll learn to forgive your enemies. Nothing, and I do meannothing, vexes them more.”
“Alas, I willneverforgive you,” Rhiannon said behind clenched teeth. “Youare the reason my sisters are dead—or needst I remind you?”
Of course, she would never address Morien—that sweet child she slew in the womb. “Arwyn was a full-grown woman with a mind of her own. She made her own choice.”
“Becauseyouforced her,” Rhiannon countered, fury heating her cheeks. If only to calm herself, she took another sip of her mead and then put the goblet down, realizing how dangerousit was to imbibe in her present state of mind and mood. She mustn’t let down her guard at all.
Her mother turned to assess her then, and it was all Rhiannon could do not to flinch beneath her hateful scrutiny—not because she was afraid, mind you, but because she had never felt so exposed as she did at that instant.
Her mother’s gaze was savage; her lips curled. “No one told that little knob to set the ship ablaze.”
Her very stature seemed to grow before Rhiannon’s eyes, and her eyes slitted vengefully.
“In truth,Ishould be the one so furious that my own daughter preferred to toast herself rather than reunite with her mother! Rejected, I am! By all of you! I gave you birth, and you share my blood, still you forswear me!”
Discomfited by her mother’s loss of temper, although she’d certainly sought it, Rhiannon averted her gaze, secretly pleased that if she must lose her temper, she still had the means to make Morwen lose hers as well. Even so, she wished to the Goddess that she could do what she longed to do: How delightful would it be to thrust her poniard straight through her mother’s wicked heart?
If indeed she had one.
And still, against her better judgment, she couldn’t hold her tongue. “Mark me,Mother. In the end, Duke Henrywillwin the day, and youwilllose everything.” She averted her gaze. “I only fear for my lord husband. He will come to regret having put in his lot with a treacherous bitch like you. I know you have bewitched him!”
Morwen snorted. “Me? Bewitchhim?”
She sounded furiously amused.
“Cael d’Lucy?” She laughed again, a bark that resounded throughout the hall. “Nay, daughter. Much to my bother, the lord of Blackwood is his own man; hecannotbe ensorcelled—which is a very good thing for you, since you no longer have the means.” She flicked a glance at Rhiannon’s manacles, then sneered, although Rhiannon blinked in surprise at her words. “Good thing he hasn’t lost his wits so soundly that he removedthose, and yet I see he’s discovered a way to lessen the burden. How thoughtful. I shall have to speak to him about that to see if we can remedy it.”
Rhiannon blinked again.
Despite the overt threat, it was not that which gave her pause… Cael could not be ensorcelled?
Everyonecould be ensorcelled.
Except forfaefolkordewinekind.
Rhiannon narrowed her gaze.
“Why can’t he be ensorcelled?”
“Because, you stupid, piteous girl, he’s been to the Other Realm and once that Veil has been crossed, a man’s eyes cannot unsee what they have seen.”
Rhiannon blinked again. “What?”
Her mother flicked a hand, dismissing the conversation once and for all. “Never mind, stupid wench! These things are none of your concern. If you care to know more, ask your beloved—that is, if you can pry him away from his cousin!”
Rhiannon sat upright, stunned, uncertain how to respond.Cael had crossed the Veil?
When?
How?
Was hedewine?
Nay… nay… there was naught about Cael d’Lucy that had ever led her to believe he was aught more than a mortal man. He was an executioner for the King, she realized—feared by many, but still only flesh and blood.
Yet so was Morwen—for the most part—so was Rhiannon. They wereallflesh and blood. They were born and bled likeeveryone else. So, then, who was Cael that he should cross the Veil, and live to speak of it? So far as she knew, not even Morwen had ever done so…
