“Wow! It’s even more incredible-looking down here close to it.”
“Then let’s get even closer.” Kegan took her hand and, leaving the basket on the little hill, they descended the last few feet to reach the level of the Salt Plains.
Morrigan sniffed the air. “Smells like the ocean, minus the fish.”
“It is too briny for fish. See how even the scrub plants stop growing well away from the shore?”
She nodded, but Morrigan wasn’t really paying attention to him. Her attention had been thoroughly captivated by the jutting hunks of crystal that rose from the shallow, salty water like escaping secrets. The sun was just beginning to nudge the western horizon to her left, changing the sky from the clear blue of a warm autumn day to the passionate colors of fuchsia and saffron and gold. Where the sky touched the crystal boulders it set them alight with the colors of evening.
“I want to go out there.” She all but hopped up and down with excitement.
“Your wishes, my Lady, are my commands.”
This time when Kegan opened his arms to her Morrigan went eagerly to him, sliding more gracefully onto his back now that her attention wasn’t focused on her own embarrassment.
“There!” Morrigan pointed over his shoulder to a crystal boulder that looked fairly flat on top and wide enough for her to stand on. “Take me out to that one.”
The centaur entered the lake, breaking the glassy surface and making his way easily to the flat stone several yards from the shore-line. Morrigan noticed that it really was much shallower than it looked. The water sometimes barely covered Kegan’s hooves.
“I guess I could have walked out here. You were right, it’s not deep at all.”
He smiled over his shoulder at her. “You would have ruined those golden sandals. And I like the excuse to get you on my back.”
She pushed at his shoulder and pretended to frown at him. “Just put me on that rock over there.”
“As you wish, my Lady.” And without getting even one of her toes wet, Kegan lifted her off his back and onto the rock.
The instant Morrigan’s feet touched the top of the crystal she felt it. Power. It pulsed up from the rock. She crouched, pressing her hands against the jagged surface, and whispered, “Do you know me?”
We know you, Light Bringer.
As in the cave, the answer somehow moved from the crystals through the skin and nerves, muscle and blood of her hands and arms, making its way, currentlike, into her body.
“Do the crystals acknowledge you?” Kegan asked.
She looked up at him, eyes shining. “Yes! They know me. It’s a little different from inside the cave. Out here it’s more like an echo of a sound, not as exuberant as it is in there. But they still call me Light Bringer.”
“Then perhaps you should call forth their light,” Kegan said, and then he took several steps back, as if to give her room. He jerked his chin toward the area over her right shoulder. “The timing is perfect. The sun is setting.”
Morrigan stood up and turned around. The sun was slowly falling into the western horizon, casting even more flamelike colors into the sky surrounding them. From the section of the Salt Plains that was already in shadow, mist was beginning to curl up from the briny water, white and diaphanous as drifting clouds. Suddenly the brilliant sky and the beauty of the mist and water reminded her of Oklahoma and the many glorious sunsets she had watched with her grandparents, and Morrigan was overwhelmed by a sense of homesickness. It was your birthplace, but never your world came the insistent voice in her head that seemed clearer and louder than it had been since she’d entered Partholon.
Cherishing your birthplace does not denigrate your new home…
Morrigan jerked a little in surprise as the voice whispered in the wind around her. Weird that she hadn’t heard it in so long. Then she shook her head and drew in a deep, cleansing breath. No. She didn’t want to listen to whispers in the wind anymore. She wasn’t a nobody who needed to grasp at whispered straws to find her way. She was a Light Bringer, the High Priestess and Chosen of a Goddess.
Morrigan lifted her arms. “Spirits of the crystal, you call me Light Bringer. So I ask that you bring me light!”
Light Bringer! The title echoed eerily around her as the shards of crystal answered her call and blazed. And as the boulders glistened a luminous golden light that seemed to harness the rays of the dying sun, Morrigan gasped with the power that filled her. It was as if the light was shooting through her body and filling her with heat and sensation and joy. She held her arms out in front of her, enthralled by the way her skin glowed, like she was crystal turned flesh, turned fire. And then, on a whim, she held out her hand, palm up, and said, “Light for me.” The flame that burst up from her hand was so unlike the furtive little sputtering things she had had to concentrate hard to conjure back in Oklahoma that she gasped in shock, and then the gasp turned into laughter. Flame still glowing from her hand, Morrigan turned toward Kegan.
“Look what I can do!”
“I’ve never seen anything like it—I’ve never seen anything like you.” Kegan’s eyes devoured her, changing the heat and passion and joy that had been building inside Morrigan to pure, raw passion. The centaur read the change within her and began moving toward her. “You are light and flame, so beautiful that it’s difficult to gaze fully upon you. You could shine light into any darkness, Morrigan.”
He stood in front of her. With a flick of her wrist, she extinguished the flame and then leaned forward and wrapped her glowing arm around his shoulders. Desire was burning so hot within her that she had to calm her breathing before she spoke. Finally, she said, in a voice she barely recognized as her own. “I want you to kiss me, and then make love to me while I’m burning like this.”
With a moan that was more like a growl, Kegan bent to possess her mouth, but it was Morrigan who was the pursuer. She met him with a passion that flamed like the crystals surrounding them. Kegan lifted her in his arms and when he would have carried her like that back to the shore she looked into his eyes and said, “No, put me on your back again.”
Wordlessly, he changed her position in his arms and turned so that he could place her astride him. Morrigan wrapped her arms around him and pressed her thrumming body into him—breasts, thighs, the very core of her—all the while exploring the strong line of his neck with her lips and teeth.
“Ah, gods! Your body is so warm you feel afire,” Kegan moaned.
“Is it too much? Am I hurting you?” she asked breathlessly.
“No, gods no! Don’t stop.”
Kegan surged out of the water and covered the short distance back up to the top of the little knoll on which he’d left their basket. He lifted Morrigan from his back, holding her close to him and devouring her mouth. When he pulled away she made a frustrated sound and tried to press herself against him again.
“Wait, I must call the Change to me.”
What he was saying managed to clear some of the red haze of lust from Morrigan’s heated mind and she nodded shakily. “Okay, what do you want me to do?”
“You must remain very quiet. Even if what you see frightens you.”
“But—”
“Do you trust me?”
Morrigan didn’t hesitate. “I do.”
Kegan gave Morrigan a brief, hard kiss, and then moved several paces away from her. With the backdrop of twilight and mist and glowing golden stones silhouetting him, Morrigan watched Kegan bow his head and begin a chant. He spoke low and deep in a language she could not understand, but she could feel the power of his words brushing against her sensitized skin. As he spoke, he began lifting his arms and it seemed to Morrigan that his skin began to vibrate weirdly, like it was moving almost too fast for her eyes to see, and then the vibration became shimmering and, as his chant grew louder and louder, Morrigan’s gaze was pulled to his face. She had to press her hand against her mouth to keep from screaming at his expression of agony. And then Kegan’s body exploded in light.
Morrigan blinked hard, trying to clear the spots from her eyes. She wanted to call Kegan, but was still too scared to say anything.
“You may speak now,” Kegan gasped through gulping breaths.
Her vision cleared and she saw Kegan, naked except for the leather vest he still wore, on his knees—his human knees. His head was bowed and he was leaning hard on one of his arms, which was shaking pretty badly. She rushed to him and dropped to her knees, brushing his damp hair out of his face.
“Ohmygod, Kegan! Are you okay? You scared the crap out of me!”
He looked up at her and gave her a crooked grin. “The Change takes some getting used to.”
“Some getting used to hell! It was awful. It hurt you.”
“Yes. It definitely hurts.” His grin widened as his breathing began to return to normal. He stood up only a little shakily, and pulled her up with him.
“You should have told me it would hurt so much.” Morrigan rested her arms lightly on his chest, almost afraid to touch him.
“I wasn’t thinking of pain when I decided to Change.”
She shook her head. “Well, I’ll know next time.”
“And I am pleased there will be a next time.”
Kegan bent to kiss her briefly, then, surprising her, he took Morrigan’s hand and walked slowly, though steadily, over to where he’d left their basket. With absolutely no modesty, he peeled off his vest and then opened the basket to pull out a blanket from its depths. As he spread it out on the ground, Morrigan got an eyeful of Kegan as a man. She absolutely liked what she saw, even if his calling the Change to him had allowed rational thought to overshadow raw lust, so that she was beginning to feel nervous. Very nervous.
“Do I pass inspection?”
“Yes,” she said quickly, realizing he had been standing there, naked, watching her watch him for several minutes.
“Good. I’m glad the way I look pleases you.”
“I like the way you look as a centaur, too.” She meant it. He was an excellent-looking male in either form.
“Good,” he repeated, smiling slowly. “May I ask a favor of you, my Lady?”
Morrigan looked at him dubiously, but said, “Yes.”
Kegan pointed back out at the Salt Plains. Morrigan’s eyes followed his hand. The crystals were still glowing, but not with the blaze they’d shone with before. The sky was fading from flame to ash, and the mist was thickening to make everything look surreal.
“Make them light again.”
Morrigan looked from the Salt Plains back to Kegan. “You want me to go back out there?”
“No, I want you to stay here with me.”
“But I can’t do it from here.”
“I believe you can.” He walked over to the edge of the little knoll and held his hand out to her.
Morrigan came to him and let him turn her so that she was looking out at the softly glowing crystals and he was standing behind her, hands resting on her shoulders. He bent and his warm breath tickled her ear, making her shiver with remembered passion.
“Tell them to light again. They’ll hear you.”
“I don’t know. It’s so far away.”
“It is, but you are still connected to the spirits. Feel the ground under your feet. Somewhere below us is the cave, and within the cave are more of your crystals. They will connect you to the crystals out there. Concentrate, Light Bringer. Call them. The spirits will answer you.”
Use your power…The words filled her mind. Morrigan concentrated, focusing on the ground beneath her feet, just as she had focused earlier when she stood on the crystal boulder. This time she felt farther, searched harder…Yes! Soon there was an answering wave of sensation that lifted from the earth itself. Light Bringer! We hear you. It was faint, but it was definitely the jubilant voice of the crystal spirits in the cave. Smiling, Morrigan lifted her arms as she shouted.
“Light the Salt Plains for me again! Light for me!” Morrigan sucked in a gasping breath as the power of light flooded through her and the shards of crystal boulders jutting from the shallow lake lit again with their distinctive sun-kissed light.
“I knew you could do it. You’re my flame, my shining one,” Kegan said, his voice already deepening with desire.
Morrigan pulled her gaze from the brilliant rocks and turned in his arms. She didn’t have to look at her skin to know she was glowing. The light within her pulsed through her blood, heating her and filling her with what was becoming a familiar burning passion that she ached to slake. Her virginity be damned, Morrigan’s nervousness evaporated under the heat of her need. She kissed Kegan, long and hard and demandingly. Then she left him to walk over to the blanket he had already spread on the ground. He followed her. She didn’t have to look back to know it. She could feel his heat as if it were an extension of her own. Still turned away from him, Morrigan took off her dress, letting it and her underclothes pool in a pile at her feet. When she turned to face him, she was completely naked.
They moved together as if a trap had been sprung. There was no hesitation, no timidity in Morrigan. What she lacked in experience, she made up for in passion. She wanted to taste, touch, experience all of him. It was as if her glowing skin was absorbing his desire. The more she touched the more aroused she became. Kegan was no inexperienced lover. He took his time with her, even though she was pushing him to his limit. He tasted her and readied her before finally positioning himself above her and entering her with one thrust.
Morrigan cried aloud in pain at the sudden intrusion of his hard flesh, causing Kegan’s head to jerk back.
“I am your first?” he gasped.
She nodded.
“Ah, gods!” He pressed his forehead to hers and whispered, “You should have told me. I would have been gentler. I would have—”
Her lips stopped his words. She kissed him, letting the delicious heat inside her that had only been temporarily banked begin to flame again. Already her body was accustoming itself to him. Already she moved restlessly, wanting more.
Kegan responded, pulling back only enough so that he could look into her eyes. And when their bodies gathered and then released, she cried his name and he claimed her mouth again, whispering against her lips, “My flame…”
CHAPTER 18
Morrigan lay in his arms as Kegan watched the glow of her skin fade. Saying that she fascinated him would be a distinct understatement. What had begun as curiosity, simple physical attraction, and he admitted to himself, an interest in the power she wielded, had shifted into something so alien to what he usually felt for a lover that she had utterly disarmed him.
Kai had been right when he’d needled Kegan about desiring Myrna for the power she could have gained him. Status and power had long been his guiding light. Ironic, really, that he now had a new light. He glanced at Morrigan. Her eyes were closed and her face was relaxed. Kegan flipped more of the edge of the blanket over her and she sighed and snuggled closer to him.
By Epona’s sacred chalice, she’d been a virgin! With the unbridled, passionate way she’d responded to him he would never have guessed it. Morrigan was such a contradiction. She possessed the gifts of a great priestess, yet she seemed utterly surprised by those gifts. She burned with desire and passion, yet she had been untouched before he had possessed her.
To possess her…The thought circled around and around his mind. He wanted her, there was no doubt about that. But it was more than a physical lust and more than a base desire for power. Morrigan touched something within him that had lain dormant until he met her. It was true that Myrna had stirred it, but she had been a colorless version of Morrigan, his flame.
Could it be that Epona had fashioned him for Morrigan, and that was why his reaction to her was innate? Kegan frowned. He’d never really considered the ramifications of being the mate of someone’s soul. Sure, he’d appeared to consider it when he was wooing Myrna. Centaur High Shamans spoke amongst themselves of the responsibility of being destined to mate Epona’s Chosen, especially when the curre
nt Chosen had a daughter of mating age. They mused about what it would truly be like to love a woman a goddess had fashioned for them. Kegan remembered how he had often been the centaur to make sarcastic comments about the subject, quipping that if a woman had been fashioned for him by a goddess then perhaps she had been made without the typical female gift for nagging.
Kegan closed his eyes and sighed heavily. He had truly been an obnoxious young ass, as the older High Shaman had called him.
“You’re sighing,” Morrigan murmured.
“Just recalling the mistakes of my past,” he said before he considered how the words might sound to Morrigan.
She raised herself on an elbow and lifted a brow at him. “Mistakes of your past? Do tell. Do they involve disgustingly sordid affairs and lots of broken hearts?”
He chuckled. “No, my flame, they do not.”
“No broken hearts?” Morrigan snorted. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Do you?” He smoothed back the hair that had fallen over one of her blue eyes.
“Well, yeah. I mean, you obviously knew what you were doing, so you must be experienced.” He watched with amusement as her cheeks flushed. “Not that I expected you to be a virgin or anything.”
“But you were,” he said softly.
She nodded. Morrigan didn’t say anything, though he could read the depth of her feelings in her eyes. He wanted to pull her closer and hold her and tell her that she couldn’t have been more perfect—that he would cherish the gift she’d given him forever, just as he would cherish her. But Kegan sensed Morrigan would find his words condescending. So he simply kissed her softly before saying, “Had you told me I would have chosen a more luxurious spot and a different—”
Her fingers against his mouth stilled his words. “No. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. This spot was perfect. With the crystals out there and the cave under us I felt safe, like I belong here.”
“You do belong here. You belong with me.” Kegan put his hand over hers and kissed her fingers. His heart felt so full that he thought it would burst from his chest. How had he believed his life had been complete before he’d met her? And then the realization that without her his life would be dim and empty slammed into his gut. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him, kissing her with newfound tenderness.