Darkness Revealed (Guardians of Eternity #4)(19)

“Pretty, but not what I want to hear.” She leaned forward. “Don’t you remember, my sweet, that I was to be told the moment you made contact with Sybil?”

He paled beneath her unwavering gaze. “Y…yes.”

“Then why have you kept me waiting?”

“There have been difficulties, my Queen.”

Morgana resisted the urge to kick the man in the face. Damn the fool. She didn’t want his pathetic excuses. She wanted results.

“What could possibly be difficult in such a simple task?” she demanded, the mist above the rotunda swirling in the gathering storm.

Landes cast a nervous glance upward before swallowing a lump in his throat.

“Sybil has not responded to my summons.”

“You opened a portal?”

“Of course, Your Majesty, but there is something that is blocking my efforts.”

“Something?”

“I don’t know what it is.” He lifted his hands, his expression pleading. “It’s like a fog that I can’t penetrate.”

Dark fury raced through Morgana’s blood as she slowly rose from the throne. She had devoted centuries to ending her brother’s bloodline. To making sure that each and every one of her enemies lay dead on the ground.

And for a brief time, she had been certain she had succeeded. Two hundred years ago she had killed Anna Randal, the last of the damnable clan. She was at last free of her destiny.

But somehow, some way she had missed one.

There was no mistaking the growing powers she could sense. Powers that should have been erased from the world.

Her fear had returned and she had sent out word to the fairies. Two days ago she had received word from Sybil that she had found the one Morgana searched for. She had also promised to bring the woman to Avalon.

She had never arrived, and now Landes had confessed that she couldn’t be contacted by portal.

Reaching down she grabbed Landes by the chin and jerked him to his feet.

“Obviously I overestimated your worth to me, Landes.”

His beautiful eyes widened. “No. I will find her, I swear on my life.”

With a cold smile, Morgana placed a light kiss on his lips. “Too late, my beautiful boy. I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands.”

Deepening the kiss, Morgana pressed her hands to Landes’s bare chest, using her powers to drain the life from his large body.

He struggled for a moment before sighing softly and tumbling to the ground. Morgana indifferently stepped over his carcass and with a wave of her hand the two guards were rushing to carry the dead fairy from her throne room.

Waiting for the doors to shut behind the guards, Morgana tilted back her head and shrieked in frustration.

How dare the fates continue to taunt her?

She was a queen. A beloved leader of all fairies. She should be gracing the world with her beauty. She should be worshipped by all. Instead she was forced to hide in the mists of her land, in constant fear that her brother’s final revenge was lurking just out of sight.

“Broken another one of your toys?” a reedy, female voice demanded. “How many times have I warned you about that temper?”

Whirling on her heel, Morgana watched as the shrunken old woman, with nasty tufts of gray hair stuck to her scalp and pure white eyes, shuffled into the room. The queen grimaced, disgusted by the vile smell of rotting teeth and recently slaughtered sacrifice that the woman carried with her.

Modron had taken Morgana from her crib when she was just a babe and raised her as her own. It wasn’t sentiment, however, that kept Morgana from killing the disgusting creature. The woman was a powerful seer. A rare power even among fairies.

“Shut up, you old hag,” she snarled, throwing herself onto her throne with a petulant frown. “I’ve enough troubles without listening to your tedious lectures.”

The woman gave a cackling laugh, crossing to stand before the throne with remarkable ease considering she was completely blind.

“Testy.”

“I’m not testy, I’m furious.” Morgana waved a hand before her nose, her own scent of pomegranates filling the room to cover the hag’s stench. “I’ve devoted a millennium to ridding myself of my brother’s bloodline. I was certain Anna was the last when I roasted her in London. They should be dead. They should be wiped from the face of the earth.”

Modron gave a shake of her head. “They’re like roaches. They refuse to become extinct.”

Morgana pounded her fist on the arm of her throne. “Not this time.”

“What do you intend to do?”

“The last word I had from Sybil was from Chicago.”

The hag’s smile faded, thankfully hiding her rotting teeth. “You intend to travel there?”

Morgana narrowed her gaze. “We’re both traveling there.”

Modron hissed, her hands clutching at the threadbare wool gown that covered her gaunt body. “Leave Avalon? No. It’s too dangerous.”

Morgana leaned forward to slap the woman across the face, the blow powerful enough to send the witch sprawling on the carpet. “Perhaps you should have thought of that before you predicted my death.”

Settling back in her throne, Morgana lifted her gaze toward the black mist overhead.

“I know you’re out there, hiding from me like a coward, but I’m coming for you,” she breathed, her hair swirling as her power flowed from her body. She couldn’t see her prey, but she could sense the stirring power. “And when I find you I’m going to rip your heart from your chest.”