The House Of Gaian

at the glowing ball of moonlight in her hand, then tossed it skyward as high as she could, sending a small breath of the branch of air with it. The ball burst over their heads, arcing in all directions, coming down on the women who made the circle.
    She watched the glow of their power brighten. When their gift had been renewed, the power flowed harmlessly into the earth, filling the whole clearing with gentle light.
    Tired now, she took a careful step back, breaking her connection to the spiral. Her limbs trembled with the need to ground the power she’d raised from the branches of the Great Mother, but she would need a few minutes of quiet and focus to do that safely, so it would have to wait a little longer. But not too much longer. Her emotions were raw. The joy she’d felt in the dance had constantly been pricked at the edges by the Fae’s resistance to what she had done here, forming little jagged slices of anger inside her that she needed to smooth out.
    That, too, had to be done soon because as conflicting emotions washed through her, she saw the power in all of those women flicker. It didn’t matter how the Fae usually decided who ascended to control a gift.
    The power itself had issued the challenge—and she had met it. She controlled the gift now. Their lives were in her hands.
    Mother’s mercy, if I lose control now. . . Please, Mother, please let me get out of this circle and find someplace quiet for a few minutes.
    She looked at the woman on the edge of the circle, who was now smiling at her shyly, hesitantly, as if waiting for some signal. But she didn’t know the signal, didn’t know—
    “Who are you?” a harsh voice, bordering on hysteria, demanded.
    The woman who had been inside the circle with her strode forward a few steps.
    “Who are you?” the woman demanded again.
    “I am Selena. And now I am the Lady of the Moon.”
    The woman stared at her, wide-eyed, as if she had just been slapped. Then her eyes narrowed, and an ugly anger filled her face. “ What are you ?”
    The sneering anger in the woman’s voice made those jagged slices of anger inside her rip a little more.
    “I am Fae,” Selena answered coldly. “But I am first, and always, a Daughter of the House of Gaian.”
    “A witch?” The woman’s voice rose to a shriek. “A half-breed wiccanfae has dared intrude on one of our ceremonies, has dared try to pretend she could be one of us, has dared think she can control the power that belongs to us ?”
    “I pretend nothing. I do command the gift now.” Power was spiking inside her, painful little flashes of lightning along her nerves.
    “You command nothing , you bitch!”
    Her body reacted to the word before she realized what she was doing. One moment she was facing the former Lady of the Moon; the next, she was a shadow hound racing across the distance between them, a snarl of fury filling her throat. The woman didn’t have time to scream before she leaped, her forelegs hitting the woman in the chest hard enough to knock her rival to the ground. Then she pinned her enemy, her fangs a mere handspan away from the vulnerable throat as the woman screamed and flailed and screamed again.
    She realized her enemy’s flailing had a purpose when she heard flesh slap boot leather, saw the flash of moonlight on metal. She whipped her head around, her fangs slashing the woman’s right forearm before the knife found its mark. Blood— and the taste of flesh, of prey—filled her mouth. She fought against the shadow hound instinct to rip and tear. This was prey. This was—
    Blood sprayed over both of them as the woman flailed again—and the knife flashed again.
    Her jaws closed unforgivingly over the torn forearm until teeth met bone. One fast, hard twist of her head
    —and bone snapped.
    The knife fell to the ground. The woman screamed. Screamed and screamed.
    She released the arm, turned her head so that she and the woman stared at each other. Blood dripped from her fangs onto the woman’s face. She snarled.
    “I yield!” the woman screamed. “I yield I yield I yield !”
    The throat. So vulnerable. So rich with hot blood. So ...
    Selena carefully backed away from the woman, her paws leaving bloody prints in the grass. With the scent of blood in the air and the taste of it in her mouth, it took fierce effort to change back to her human form.
    She could still taste the blood.
    The woman stared up at her, her face pale with shock. “W-what are you?”
    Selena looked down