The Bitter Seed of Magic

I jerked my head, indicating Angel, who was poking at the hissing snakes. ‘So whose soul is it?’

‘It is the sorcerer’s soul. Eating it was not a wise choice, child.’

‘I’m not sure “wise” or “choice” came into it at the time,’ I said, hiding the relief that washed through me at her words.

Consuming the sorcerer’s soul at Hallowe’en had been one of those act-now-and-live-with-the-evil-indigestion-later kind of things. The lack of immediate nasty consequences, together with the desperate need to find a way to crackthe curse, had pushed it to the bottom of my to-do list, but now it looked like I could cross it off. It also looked like I owed Angel one.

‘Chomping the sorcerer’s soul was more an instinctive kind of revenge thing,’ I said blandly, ‘payback for the evil bitch sacrificing me.’ See? I have teeth too, oh dogmother.

‘I have already told you, child. I am not here to kill you.’ The phouka’s ears twitched in disapproval, the air wavered around her and Gria

I gestured at Angel who had ripped off the head of one of the snakes and was busy sniffing it. ‘So who is little Miss Bloodthirsty?’

Angel went to pop the snake’s head in her mouth—

— and Gria

Angel?

Angel stopped, a mutinous look in her eyes.

‘Why not allow your new creations to dispose of it?’ Gria

Angel’s face scrunched as she chewed over the idea, rather than the snake’s head, then she gri

Devilled sorcerer’s soul.Hopefully they were taking it somewhere hot. ‘Is Angel her real name?’ I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

‘She was first named for Our Mother’—Gria

I suppressed a shudder as I recalled the somethingI’d seen looking out at me from Angel’s eyes. Had that been Her—Danu, The Mother? And if Angel was once named for Danu, then why were we in Disney Heaven, with its clichéd image of the Christian God? Somehow that didn’t seem overly tactful, or prudent. If I were Angel, I’d be wary of pissing off a goddess who was likely to appear and answer my prayers in person. But then again, if I had Danu hitchhiking in my mind whenever She felt like it, then maybe I wouldn’t see Her as a higher—and much scarier—being. It explained a lot, though: the combination of Danu and Gria

‘Clíona renamed her Rhia

‘So,’ I said, pushing away an overly affectionate cloud hovering near my face, ‘who is she?’

‘Clíona’s youngest daughter.’

No wonder Clíona had been so hot for me to find her and send her home! Having her youngest daughter safe was obviously more important than her erstwhile goal to eradicate me and my vamp-tainted blood. I filed the information away; maybe I could use it somehow to make Clíona take back her death promise if I became pregnant (unlikely), or refused her offer of sanctuary (very likely) …

Gria

I snorted. ‘You can tell Clíona from me that stalking is illegal.’ Not to mention skin-crawlingly creepy.

‘It is Angel who watches you. She has conjured your image in every mirror, pool of water or silver surface at court. Sometimes she spends all night observing you sleep.’

‘What? So the whole court’s spying on me—all the time?’

‘They can do so, if they have a mind to.’

Great. I was the star in my very own magical Big Brother/ Truman Show. My life was now complete.

‘But there are not many who find you entertaining.’ Gria

‘“Star” to “has-been” in five seconds flat,’ I said drily. ‘My ego bleeds.’

‘That is, until this morning.’ Her lip curled, either in either amusement or disgust; I was never sure with Gria

I grimaced. ‘Guess a murder always ups the ratings.’ Another drop of blood stained my jeans. ‘And talking of that, it’s been interestingcatching up, Gria

‘You used to enjoy our talks, child,’ she said, sounding unusually wistful, but her gaze was still fixed on Angel. I doubted she was much for listening.

‘If by “talks”, you mean “lectures”’— on and on, about all things fae—‘and by “enjoy”, you mean “suffer”, then yes, I did. Get to the point, Gria

‘Of course,’ she said briskly, ‘you should know that Clíona came to regret what she had wrought with the droch guidhe, so she petitioned Our Mother for a way to undo it. Our Mother decreed there should be a child for a child, and Angel is that child. She was created to break the curse.’

Whoa.I stared at her, questions jamming my mind to a standstill until the important one finally popped out. ‘So why isn’t the curse broken?’

‘Our Mother’s decree did not come with any specific commands other than to give birth to the child.’

Of course it didn’t. Gods and goddesses don’t do instruction leaflets—that would be way too easy. Although a child for a childsounded like it meant some sort of …

‘Birth is not the only path that Clíona has trodden seeking an end to this,’ she said. ‘Death has been another.’

… sacrifice.

‘It did not break the curse either,’ she finished in the same brisk tone.

‘Do London’s fae know about all this?’ I demanded.

She briefly turned her eerie eyes on me. ‘Have you asked them what they know, child?’

Have I—? Surprise hit me like a stampeding troll. Crap. I hadn’t. In fact, the only fae I’d talked to about the curse were Fi

Fuck. Why the hell would I do that?

‘As I have already told you, you lead an uneventful life. This is not what Clíona intended when she gifted you this time to break the droch guidhe.’

I really needed to find out what was going on. I jumped up. ‘Okay, message received. You can send me back now.’

‘I would, but it was not I who brought you here.’ She pointed at Angel, who was still humming as she smiled up at the blue-painted sky. All the devil/cherubs and hissing snakes were gone now, but the crows were still attacking the toys. They appeared to be concentrating on some more than others, but with all the bloodstained stuffing flying about, it was difficult to be sure. ‘Angel was watching your trials with the faeling and the human police,’ Gria