Prologue
Brennan
The circle of hooded women regarded me silently as they waited for a reaction. Their breaths panted into the frigid night in quick puffs and each head turned toward me, illuminating a row of solemn profiles draped in fluttering capes.
The moon hung heavily in the sky above us, a beautiful and fitting symbol of the woman that I loved. The pale yellowed light glinted onto the polished stone that I laid upon, casting shadows that stretched far into the circular clearing.
I flexed my fingers, itching to throw off my restraints. I had learned to harness my demi-god strength so I knew I could easily break the chains that held my wrists. But just as I knew that, I knew that if I did such a thing I would seal Empusa’s fate. That mere thought refueled my determination to silently face my own.
Empusa. Her beautiful, ethereal face suddenly filled my mind. Her bright smile, her magnificent gray eyes, her pale skin. I would give anything to see her just one more time.
How did we get here? What had brought us to this?
No sooner did the question cross my mind and I knew the answer. Love itself had brought us to this. The love that was destructive and dangerous even while it was amazing and exhilarating. She was the moon and I was the sun. How could something like that ever end well? I would give my life to keep from burning her. But would my life be enough? I closed my eyes and braced myself to find out.
Chapter One
Empusa
Reality exploded around me in various earth-toned hues as we burst into a wet, green meadow filled with fluttering grass.
Honeysuckle.
The smell of honeysuckle filled my nose and I looked around before I realized that the smell wasn’t coming from around me. It was coming from me. Since I had drunk from Harmonia’s blood and it still pulsed through my veins, her scent was lingering on me. I shook my head, trying to regain my grasp on reality. Traveling through time was disorienting at times.
“Where are we?” my boyfriend asked curiously as we stood on the swell of a slippery, rolling hill. He held my hand with strong fingers and I appraised our surroundings.
Wet earthy smells filled my nose…moss, wood, rain. My thoughts were returning to me by the second and I was able to think more clearly, remembering where we had just come from and where we were now.
Rays from the sun shone weakly through the low-hanging clouds above us, but the filtered light was enough to make Brennan seem radiant. The golden light outlined his blonde hair and tanned, muscled frame. He looked enough like Apollo to be his father’s twin brother. Both of them were beautiful. I took a slow breath and exhaled.
“We’re far from home,” I stated the obvious calmly as if that fact wasn’t apparent already.
As I spoke, a group of women emerged from a clump of trees across the clearing. Moving in a quick blur, I yanked Brennan down until we were concealed from view as we knelt behind the waving wildflowers. Flopping onto our bellies, we observed the strangers in the hollow below us. They wore muted ankle-length tunics and their long hair was pulled back into neat braids which were held away from their faces by woven leather bands.
“Well, that much is apparent,” Brennan muttered as he took in their ancient dress. “Could you possibly be a little more specific?”
I smiled. One of the things I loved about Brennan Delacorte was his sense of humor. And I cherished it even more now.
Five minutes ago, he had broken up with me. But in the space of those minutes, in between running from my father who was trying to kill us both and landing here in an ancient Celtic land, Brennan had decided that as my soul mate, he couldn’t live without me regardless of the risks that our relationship posed for the world. And that left me almost giddy with relief.
“We’re in ancient Britain,” I answered by way of explanation, as though time traveling was common. And when you were the daughter of the goddess of witchcraft like I was, then it wasn’t really out of the ordinary. But when you were new to the whole world of gods and immortals like Brennan was, I had to admit that it must be a bit of a shock. As a new demi-god though, he was definitely handling it well.
He arched a golden eyebrow. “And I thought you were going to say someplace interesting. Or remote.”
I smiled again. We had been able to catch our breaths now since fleeing Death Valley a few minutes ago after Brennan had pulled me out of a burning crevice of lava and carried me away from the danger. We had left my parents dueling there in hand-to-hand combat. My mother was fighting to save my life and my father was fighting to take it. It was enough to make a girl crazy.
But I had a lot to fight for now. Brennan, for starters. And my freedom from the wretched curse that my father had inflicted upon me, the curse that caused me to suck away mortal souls in order to remain immortal and to drink mortal blood to stay young. I absently twisted the moonstone bracelet that circled my wrist.
My mother had given it to me long ago in an effort to protect me from my father. She had enchanted it to alert me whenever he was near. But in the process, my soul had become tied to it. If something happened to the moonstone, I would die. As in, dead-as-a-doornail forever—even Zeus’ sword wouldn’t be able to save me. And that was a daunting thought.
“Why are we here?” Brennan asked curiously, still watching the strange women in front of us. It appeared that they were spreading wet clothing out to dry on large rocks, an archaic but effective laundry system.
“It’s hard to say,” I answered, fingering the small bag of runes in my pocket. My mother had given them to Brennan in Death Valley, telling him that they would instruct us where to go. But she didn’t tell him why. And that was a very good question.
“Well, what do we do now that we’re here?” Brennan asked, finally turning to face me. “Do we wait for your mom? Do we need to hide from these people?”
I honestly didn’t know. The runes had told me where to go. They certainly hadn’t explained why or what we should do once we arrived. I stared helplessly at Brennan, but his question was answered by someone other than me.
The woman in front, a tall statuesque woman, turned to us as though she could see us. Her flame red hair hung to the small of her back and her eyes, as gray as mine, swung around the meadow as though searching for something. I gasped. There was no way she could have heard us, yet her eyes zeroed in on our location with laser precision.