Belladonna

Warrior.
    "I remember now," Caitlin said loudly. "The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup."
    Michael flinched, remembering the day he'd gone searching for Caitlin and found her sitting in the attic with the book open in her lap, crying for the woman in the story. Had she been old enough to understand the full tragedy of the tale?
    My heart's hope lies with Belladonna. She can't be the Warrior of Light. Can't be. Lady of Light, please let it be someone else.
    "What did you say?" Glorianna asked sharply, hurrying those last steps to reach them. She stared at Caitlin. "The Warrior of Light must drink from the Dark Cup. Isn't that what you said?"
    Michael felt a wind blow through him. Felt Caitlin shudder in response to the force of it. Saw Lee tense and lean as if to bend with it. And saw Glorianna Belladonna standing before him — face cold, green eyes wild, a flame in the Dark. A flame that would destroy everything in its path. Then the moment passed, and he wondered if he'd just imagined that wind blowing through him —
    until he looked at Caitlin and saw the same conflict in her face.
    He had imagined nothing. Something had happened. The world had changed, and nothing would be the same for any of them because he was standing in a garden in a part of the world he hadn't known existed, looking at a woman who was the living version of an ancient tale that was part of his family's legacy. On his ninth birthday, his father, Devyn, had taken him up to the attic and showed him the box of books that held the old stories.
    "I've little enough to give you, Michael," Devyn said, resting t hand on the box he'd taken out of a specially made cupboard
    "There's this cottage, but it's usually passed on through the female side of our family line. Since it came to me, I guess there are no others anymore who can lay claim to it. But this is just a place, boy. Just wood and stone. And if you have to leave it, let it ff without regrets. But this..." He stroked the wood. "What's in here is your real heritage."
    Devyn opened the box and took out a book. He set it on Michael's lap, then opened it.
    After turning a few pages to try to understand why this book was so important, Michael looked up at his father, puzzled.
    "They're just stories."
    "Aye. To most of the world, they're just stories, and you've heard them told here and there, since they've been spread across the land over the years. But the stories in that book you're holding and the ones still in the box ... Our family's history is hidden in those stories. The heart of it, anyway, if not the ordinary truth of it. Do you know the story about the Door of Locks? Well, it's like that, you see." Devyn tapped a finger on the book. "We've got all the locks, but someone along the way we lost the key that would show us how they work."
    Michael took a long swallow of koffee to ease the sudden dryness in his throat. He had found a key of sorts, because he had the feeling that Glorianna would understand his family stories better than he did. But he wasn't sure he wanted her to know those stories. Ht wasn't sure he wanted her to be anything other than the woman he'd seen in the Den last night — vibrant, alive, and smoldering with sexual energy.
    If he didn't give her the stories, he might be able to keep the woman who was Glorianna.
    In order to survive, the world would need the warrior called Belladonna.
    Michael looked at Glorianna and knew she would never forgive him if he withheld the answers that would help her fight the Destroyer of Light. Even so, he would hide one story for as long as he could. But the other ...
    He cleared his throat to catch the attention of the people around him. "Before we get on with this journey, I'd like to tell you a story that's been in my family for a good many years."

    *
Glorianna stepped off Lee's island and took a half dozen steps toward her garden before she spun around and headed for her house instead. They needed to be gone; there were things to do. But she couldn't guide them to the White Isle while she felt so unsettled.
    "I'm sorry it upset you," Michael said as he caught up to her, "and I won't pretend to know why it did. It was just a story, Glorianna."
    She stopped and faced him. Conflicts smashed inside her, like a stormy battle between sea and shore, revealing things she hadn't known she was feeling until Michael had told them that story.
    "You don't know!" she shouted.
    "Women have been saying that to men since the beginning of