by Alexa Egan
“Are you real?”
The arched brows, the raking dagger cheekbones, the full sensual lips; he was as every dream had conjured him. He stepped from the shelter of the cliff into the light, the moon revealing every line of his lean sculpted naked body and every fresh hideous scar spiderwebbing across the broad planes of his chest.
“As real as this.”
“I don’t know whether to throw my arms around you or beat you senseless.”
“I know which I’d prefer,” he answered with a wry twist to his lips.
She reached out to touch the puckered flesh of his chest, tracing the ridges, the uneven seams of newly knit skin. He allowed her study as if he understood her need to reassure herself. He was too warm to be a ghost. Too solid to be a fantasy.
“How dare you come home now?”
He took an uncertain step back, but she couldn’t stop. Six months of tamped-down grief erupted all at once. Six months of holding herself and her world together through sheer force of will unraveled with the abruptness of a severed knot.
“I hated you.” She could not stop the words or the rush of tears or the shaking that left her crouched upon the sand, hands wrapped about her midsection, hair falling across her face. “I hated you and then I hated myself, but it was the only way I could draw a breath without feeling as if I were inhaling shards of glass, as if my heart were being scissored with every beat.” She took a quick shuddery breath. Damn it, she would not let him see her weep. “I said good-bye, Gray. I burned my offerings and said my prayers to the Mother for the safe passage of your soul, and I moved on. Hating you let me do that. It made the pain bearable. It was the only way I could keep living.”
Arms collected her like a child, wrapped around her so that she lay nestled against his chest, his heart beating steady beneath her ear, his lungs filling and emptying with human regularity. If she’d possessed the strength, she would have pulled away. Instead she remained curled and shaking in the circle of his embrace, the heat of him saturating her down to the coldest, hardest knots where she’d buried her pain.
“I never meant to stay away so long. I didn’t know. Not about you, not about the . . . not about the child. I knew nothing of what went on in the world.”
“What do you mean you didn’t know?”
“I lost everything when I was taken by the river. I had my life and that was a broken, scattered thing. Only when I recovered my strength did Badb hand me back all I had forgotten—including you.”
She should have known the Fey had a hand in this. The marks of their interference lay all over his return, as clear and present as the scars upon Gray’s body.
“I can walk away now, Meeryn. None will know. I can stay dead. You can go on as you have done. You can . . . you can go on hating me if that’s how it has to be.”
He started to withdraw, leaving her cold and alone. Panic snatched away her breath. Her hard-won struggle with hate dissolved and sloughed away. She leapt to her feet, grabbing his wrist, clasping it between her hands hard enough that she felt the tendons tighten and the bump of an old break. “Don’t!”
He turned back, his eyes luminous in the light of the full moon.
She didn’t let go of his wrist. Instead she pulled him back until he stood before her, and she was surprised to see his shoulders trembling, his throat working as he swallowed back his own emotion.
“Don’t leave.”
His stare carved into the stone of her heart, but it was his kiss that broke through the last crumbling barriers she’d maintained through six months of anguish. His lips moved over hers, tentative at first, then when she did not pull away, the current running between them grew in power until she must grab his shoulders to keep her knees from giving way and she wanted to melt into his body.
Tears tracked her cheeks, slid hot into her mouth where his tongue danced and plunged. He threaded the long wet fall of her hair, cradled the back of her neck, glided a hand over the swell of her buttock and finally her stomach.
“I need you, Meeryn,” he murmured, his breath warm upon her cheek.
“Me or the child I carry?” she only half-teased.
His mouth found hers again and he kissed her like a man drowning. A sensuous, desperate kiss she matched with every slide of his tongue against hers. Her heart still ached, but now with a surging flood of desire and relief.
His hand fell to skim the bulge of her stomach, pausing in wonder as the surface rippled with the baby’s movement in her womb. “I need you, my beautiful and powerful N’thuil. I love you.” His gaze darkened with desire and a longing that tore her breath away. “I’ll beg if you want me to,” he said quietly. “I’ll fall to my knees before you if that’s what it takes.”
Joyous laughter dizzied her insides and slid hot and fizzy along her nerves. “You need never beg again, Gray. I’m here for the asking. Now and for always.” She leaned close to his ear, her words barely more than a breath. “You’re in my blood.”
Glossary of the Imnada
Afailth luinan. Also known as the blood cure. According to ancient legend, Imnada blood possesses great healing powers. It’s said that a drop can heal most injuries or illness, though few believe the old stories anymore.
Berenth. The night of the last quarter moon. This begins the period when the Imnada’s powers to shift at will begin to ebb and it becomes both more difficult and more dangerous.
Bloodline scrolls. The written history and genealogies created and maintained by the Ossine. These records are used to select mates for the Imnada from the five clans.
Clan mark. The crescent symbol tattooed on the upper backs of the male members of the Imnada, signifying their full acceptance into the clan upon their majority. Both males and females are also marked mentally with a signum identifying their clan affiliation and holding.
Dunsgathaic. A mighty fortress located on the Isle of Skye in Scotland that encompasses both the military headquarters of the brotherhood of Amhas-draoi and a convent of Sisters of High Danu.
Emnil. An exile who has been formally sentenced by the Gather and had his clan mark and signum removed and his name erased from the Ossine’s bloodline scrolls. An emnil is considered dead to the clan and his life forfeit if he attempts any contact with a clan member or a return to clan lands.
Enforcer. The warrior arm of the Ossine whose job it is to track down and eliminate any potential threat to the Imnada.
Fealla Mhòr. The Great Betrayal: the betrayal and murder of the last king of Other, Arthur, by the Imnada warlord Lucan. This event triggered a vengeful purge of the Imnada by the Fey-bloods, who had always mistrusted and feared the shapechangers.
Fey-bloods. (Slang.) Also known as the Other. Men and women who possess the blood and magical powers of the Fey.
Gateway. The door between Earth and the galaxy where the Imnada first originated.
Gather. The ruling council of the Imnada, consisting of seven members: the clan leader from each of the five clans, the head of the Ossine, and the Duke of Morieux, who is hereditary leader over the five clans.
Idrin the Traveler. Among the first Imnada to come through the Gateway and settle on Earth. He is considered the father of their race and from his seed the five clans sprang.
Imnada. A race of shapechangers and telepaths divided into five clans overseen by the ruling Gather. They wield no magical powers, though they are sensitive to its presence and can identify those who possess magic. At first they existed peacefully with the magical race of Other but when the Imnada betrayed King Arthur to his death, they were hunted down in the wars and uprisings that followed. In the ensuing centuries, those who survived grew reclusive and fiercely suspicious of all outsiders to the point that most believe the Imnada no longer exist.
Krythos. Also known as a far-seeing disk. A notched glass disk about two and a half inches in diameter. It is used to augment and amplify the Imnada’s natural telepathic abilities over long distances.
Lucan. Leader of the clans during King Arthur’s
reign. He conspired with Morgana, the king’s half sister, to place her son Mordred upon the throne. His betrayal led to Arthur’s murder. He was captured by the Fey for his treachery and imprisoned within the Bear’s Stone for all eternity.
Morderoth. The night of the new moon, when the shift is impossible for the Imnada.
Mother Goddess. The moon from which the Imnada derive their magical powers.
Ossine. Shamans and spiritual advisers to the clans, they tend to be the strongest and most powerful of the Imnada. They maintain the bloodline scrolls used for selecting each Imnada mating pair and protect the Imnada from out-clan interference with their armed militia of enforcers.
Other. See Fey-blood.
Out-clan. Someone who is not a member of the five clans.
Palings. Magical mists conjured and maintained by the Ossine of each clan. They are used as a natural force field, disguising and shunting people away from the hidden holdings. In recent years, these warded fields have weakened as the clans’ powers have weakened.
Pathing. Speaking mind to mind. Imnada can use this telepathy to speak to one another over short distances or when they are in their animal aspect. For longer distances, they use the amplifying power of the krythos to connect with each other mentally.
Realing. A magical servant bound to a specific person or place.
Rogue. An unmarked shapechanger without clan or hold affiliation.
Signum. The mental imprint set on every shapechanger’s mind at birth by the Ossine. It identifies clan affiliation and rank. Those cast out of the clans have their signa stripped, denoting their outlaw status.
Silmith. The night of the full moon, when the shift comes easiest and the powers of the Imnada are at their height.
Sisters of High Danu. An order of Other priestesses, also known as bandraoi, devoted to a contemplative life in service to the gods.
Warriors of Scathach (Amhas-draoi). An Other brotherhood of warrior mages who serve as guardians between the Fey and human worlds.
Ynys Avalenn. Also known as the Summer Kingdom, this is the realm of the Fey.
Youngling. A child of the Imnada who has not yet reached maturity or been marked.
A member of Romance Writers of America and a Golden Heart finalist, ALEXA EGAN lives in Maryland with her family. Visit her on the web at www.alexaegan.com.
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Also by ALEXA EGAN
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Pocket Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Alexa Egan
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Pocket Books paperback edition May 2014
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Cover illustration by Craig White
ISBN 978-1-4516-7293-0
ISBN 978-1-4516-7296-1 (ebook)
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Glossary of the Imnada
About Alexa Egan
