Chapter 2

THE MORRíGAN

I'm on my way back home.

Home.

Such a strange concept for one such as I. Millennia trapped beyond the Veil, unable to take so much as a step into the mortal realm, and instead of ravaging all that éire has to offer now that I am here, I find myself drawn back to the same cottage. Day after day, night after night.

The metallic scent of blood is still fresh in my nostrils from my evening meal, which has to be the only reason why I don't immediately sense the man standing across the road from my cottage.

Well. It's Ciara's cottage, but I've been sleeping by the front door for so many months now, that she put a shelter there for me. That makes it mine.

Most mortals are afraid of wolves; even Cú Chulainn himself froze when he first saw me in my wolfshape. But not Ciara. All Ciara saw was an animal in the rain, and she didn't even hesitate before she sheltered me.

Cliodhna scoffed when she saw it, called it a kennel and me a mere pup, leashed to some unsuspecting mortal like a dog. She backtracked fairly quick when I showed her my teeth, hiding in that little sex club of hers, The Golden Apple.

There's a scent on the wind, and it catches my attention.

I sniff, trying to trace Ciara, my Ciara, and she smells… She smells wrong.

My ears prick up and I listen.

"Let me in, Ciara," the man is saying, and his voice is low and threatening. "You know what will happen if I have to make you."

I almost gut him then and there, but a stray thought strikes me. What if Ciara doesn't want that? There are games of release and chase that I vaguely remember from my years with mortals, ones where they liked to feign fear—but all in fun. What if this is like that?

But I sniff again and I can almost taste her fear. It's coating the air between here and the cottage and all I know is that this man needs to leave. Now.

Three short strides are all it takes for me to stand between him and the cottage.

He is tall, dark, with a sharp jaw and clenched fists. And a glint in his eye that needs to Not. Be. There.

I growl and for the first time, he notices me.

"What the fuck? Mangy creature," he says, and kicks out at my head.

He kicks out at me?

It has been centuries since I felt rage like this, furious at the utter audacity of the man. How dare he? How dare he try to kick me as if I am some mere beast of the woods?

It is insult enough that he would treat any one of my creatures in such a way—raven, crow or wolf—but this is an offence that is far graver than he realizes for I am The Morrígan. A Goddess whose very presence on this land means that magic has awakened once more in éire's sweet hills.

I feel Badb's temperament rising and she whispers in my ear. Go, sister, slay this man who frightens our Ciara so.

He kicks out again and I snap, catching his boot in my mouth.

I crunch down and the rubbery sole breaks off between my teeth.

"Fucking animal," he says, but there is a tremble in his voice, and I sense that he came close to soiling himself.

Dropping the rubber, I jump forward and push until he lands on his back with a thud. My teeth are close to his face and I snarl and snap at him.

His fear rolls off him in waves, and I wait until he drops the thing he was speaking to Ciara through before I jump down.

It tastes foul when I crush it between my jaws, and he is too fearful to make much protest, just scrabbles up and rushes into some sleek red vehicle that smells of oil and death.

I have seen these before, if rarely on this solitary path. They are too noisy and too fast and they pollute the calmness of this forest which I have grown to value. Behind the Veil there is nothing: no breeze that caresses each blade of grass, no chirping of birds, nor sounds of animals scurrying along. Here the silence is loud. I luxuriate in it often and I do not wish to have it disturbed by such as this.

He must spy the kennel by the door of the cottage, and perhaps he realizes that it is mine, or perhaps he wishes to intimate Ciara further, but as he pulls away, he swerves and drives into it, so that the wood splinters everywhere, and then he is gone.

I pad up to the front door, and drop the mess of a device on the mat and wait.

I don't have to wait long.

A curtain twitches, and then I see red hair in the window.

She really does have the most wonderous hair, as deep a red as my own wolfcoat.

Then I hear steps towards the door and the sound of metal against metal…bolts moving backwards until she opens the door and looks down at me.

I nudge the remains of his device in her direction, and try not to preen too much.

She laughs.

She laughs.

I have never heard such a sound before, from her or from anyone else.

It is as if Lugh himself had lit up the sky with the sun.

"So that's what stopped him." She leans down, and for the first time ever, Ciara scratches me right between the ears. It feels amazing. I want to roll over and her to rub my belly. Thank goodness there is some sense of Goddess that overrides the wolf. I'm not sure my sisters would ever let me live down such an indiscretion.

"My protector," she says. Then I feel her entire body tense up and I spin round, growling, looking for the man.

"No, no, it's okay. He hasn't come back," Ciara explains. "But he's destroyed the kennel." Crouching down, she meets my eyes, and I'm entranced by the depth of the green in her irises. "Hmmm…"

I wait, uncertain as to what is happening, and when nothing does happen, I turn to trot back into the forest to find some new shelter for the night.

"Wait," she says, and like some untrained pup I do just that. "In."

I look up at her, red hair curling round her shoulders, her entire body vibrating with the stress of the last hour. She's holding everything in, and I don't think she knows it.

But Ciara steps aside and gestures towards the open door. "Come on in. I'll feel safer with you in here anyway."

And in I go.