Page 335 of The Daughters of Avalon
She really didn’t know,Cael realized, thinking back to his conversation with Marcella.
Of course, he didn’t say it then, nor had Marcella asked. Alas, though, he realized he couldn’t keep the truth from his wife. Reaching out for the chain in her hand, he explained the reliquary’s purpose, waiting to see disgust in her eyes.
“Shadowmagik,” she whispered.
Cael’s soul was bound to the reliquary, his body borrowed—usurped from a man he’d never met, save through the intricacies of his body. He’d assumed a dead man’s name instead of his own after Morwen summoned him back to this realm. Unfortunately, he’d always known she could and would return him from whence he came.
“So then… d’Lucy is not your true name?”
“Nay,” he said.
“What, then?”
Cael shook his head, unable to speak the rest of his truth.
God’s blood, what could he say? He was born before she was ever a thought in her mother’s head? That her great, great, great, grandsire was his foe? That he was murdered six hundred years before she was born?
Nay.
It was inconceivable. The very thought of speaking those words made him feel like a madman… except that… it was all true.
He could offer a partial truth.
“What Mordecai is, that’s what I am, too.”
“A… Shadow Beast?”
There was contempt in her voice. Cael tugged his reliquary from her hand and let it drop between them. “If that’s the name I must bear.”
“Nay,” she said. “You are not what he is! I know that in my heart!”
And yet, he was…
“Oh, my love,” she said gently, catching his cheek in her palm. “A man is not the sum of his body parts, but rather, the sum of his deeds.” Very gently, she moved her hand to his chest, laying it atop his beating heart. “I know you! You are not the same as Mordecai.”
Cael swallowed whatever words he’d been about to say.
He wanted desperately to believe she spoke true… wanted to see himself through her eyes—not as the shell of a man he’d become. Later, he decided. Later was soon enough to reveal the rest—later when he hadn’t any choice.
Right now, bathed in the light of his wife’s love and adoration, he couldn’t bear it if she turned away. One last time before they rose, he longed to taste the sweet nectar of her bodyand revel in the warmth of her touch. Forgoing any more words, he rolled atop her, lifting himself up and taking his cock into his hand, he gave her a lazy smile…
Chapter
Thirty-Four
Morwen did not appear that day, nor the next, nor the next.
Every moment that passed stretched by as taut as the string of a bow; something terrible was looming, no doubt.
Even the air began to thicken like a mire.
Anticipation bubbled like a yeasty brew.
Outside the castle, a few common black crows had begun to congregate, perching in nearby trees like an infestation of fleas.
Knowing intuitively that six alone could never defend against Morwen, they dispatched Jack to Drakewich to engage d’Lucy’s cousins. Cael wasn’t entirely certain they would feel compelled to make this fight their own, but, if indeed, Morwen should descend upon these parts with an army of Welshmen, Drakewich was too close not to be warned. At the very least, they should be armed with information and be allowed to choose a side—not that Cael had any delusions that his “cousins” had any true regard for him. They’d met but thrice, and despite that Cael did hold Blaec with the utmost respect, they were hardly close. They were cousins in name only. Pressed about the details of their affiliation, Cael would surely fail such a test.
And yet, what was there to apologize for? He was not the one who chose this man’s body. He was simply the one forced to occupy it. Whether the true d’Lucy lord was kind or cruel, Cael hadn’t a bloody clue.
