Belladonna

fitted together but not necessarily in a tidy way of one village fitting with the next if you kept following a road. Oh, no. Nothing as simple as that. And them — Nadia and Glorianna — sitting at a table with her last night and asking, as calmly as you please, what landscapes, what parts of her country, were held in her garden. How was she to know? And why was Glorianna so sure they would be able to reach the White Isle? How was she planning to reach it? Was she figuring to have Lee cart them around on his little bit of an island?
    "Like a magic carpet with trees," she muttered.
    "Talking to yourself Caitlin Marie?" Michael asked as he came up the garden path to stand beside her.
    She stiffened. She'd missed him so much, had wanted to sec him so much — and now he seemed like just another bully, the way he had yelled at her yesterday and acted like a surly dog when they all went to the Den last evening.
    Thinking about the Den made her think about Teaser and that made her think about ...
    "You're blushing," Michael said.
    "You had no right to be so mean to Teaser," she replied, giving him her coolest tone. Not cold, because he was her brother and she wouldn't be cold to him, but chilly enough to warn him off "We weren't doing anything wrong." At least, not by the Den's standards. Even Nadia had said as much, hadn't she?
    "Can we not talk about Teaser? I don't need a sour belly so early in the morning. Here. I brought a peace offering. Will you accept?" He held out a mug of rapidly cooling koffee.
    She took the mug of koffee but wasn't sure if she was ready to warm to him. "Teaser was nice to me. The boys in the village were never nice to me."
    "He's an incubus. There were things he was wanting from you that you wouldn't be knowing anything about."
    "I'm not a child, Michael," Caitlin snapped. "What be wanted was no different from what the boys back home wanted, but at least Teaser was showing me a good time, and he didn't expect me to go down on my back!"
    She saw pain slash across Michael's face before he looked away, focusing on that walled garden that led to other parts of the world.
    "The world has disappeared right out from under me, Caitie, and I've lost my balance," he said quietly.
    He hadn't called her "Caitie" since she was a little girl. She hadn't allowed him to call her "Caitie," not since he'd taken up the wandering life. That had been his punishment for leaving her. But she didn't have the heart to slap at him for it. Not when she was feeling lost too.
    "I thought I knew my life," he continued. "I thought I was resigned to the bitterness of it and the hardship of it and the fear that I'd enter a village just as I'd done for years but this would be the time the people would turn against me because I was a Magician, and all their troubles would be laid on my shoulders. I thought I was resigned to the things I couldn't have because of what I was, and I had found a kind of contentment, even joy, when my being in a place made a difference to someone. But the world is so much more than I thought it was — and I'm not sure of who or what I am anymore. I'm scared for myself, and I'm scared for you. I've seen the monster, Caitlin Marie. I've seen the thing that wants to chew up the Light and leave us all in the Dark. And may the Lady of Light have mercy on us, because I don't know how we're going to stop that thing."
    Caitlin looked back toward the house and saw Glorianna and Lee heading toward her and Michael. There was still enough distance between them not to be overheard, but she lowered her voice just the same. "Do you think they know how to fight the monster?"
    "I'm thinking if they knew, they would already be standing on the battleground. It's clear from the things that were said —
    and not said — last night that they all think Glorianna is the key to fighting this battle."
    Caitlin's breath rushed out of her, leaving her lightheaded for a moment. As clearly as if she'd done it yesterday, she could feel herself as a girl sitting near the attic window, looking at an old storybook she'd found in a finely made wooden box, puzzling out the words with her newly acquired reading skills.
    "The Warrior of Light," she whispered, staring at Glorianna.
    No.
    Michael denied the words with all his will, but the truth of it clanged through him like alarm bells shattering a peaceful morning.
    No, he thought, struggling to breathe. Glorianna is the key to finding the Warrior of Light, but she isn't the