And still I’m not afraid.
They call the puppy Diarmait, and set it down so it can romp around the fountain. Its excited yaps ring like bells. I see one girl slide her arm around the waist of another, and the third rest her head on the second’s shoulder. There, they become a unit. A kind of triad. A whole of three parts that chatter about their new puppy, and laugh as he rolls gleefully in the flowers.
I hear them say names I know, somehow know, and look as they look. In the distance, in the shade of a tree that drips down with graceful branches heavy with jeweled fruit, are a couple caught in a passionate embrace.
He’s tall and dark, and there’s a strength to him I can sense might be terrible if roused. She’s beautiful, and very slender. But there is about her, too, a sense of more.
They’re desperately in love. I can feel that need, that heat inside me, throbbing like a wound.
Is love so painful?
The girls sigh over it. And they wish. Someday, they hope. Someday they will love like that—desire and romance, fear and joy all tied into one consuming entity. They will know the taste of a lover’s lips, the thrill of a lover’s touch.
Someday.
We are, all of us, caught in that urgent embrace, absorbed with our envy and our dreams. The sky darkens. The colors dim. I feel the wind now. Cold, cold as it spins around and around. The sudden roar of it screams in my ears. Blossoms tear from branches, petals fly like bright bullets.
Now I’m afraid. Now I’m terrified even before I see the sly black shape of the snake slither over those silver tiles, before I see the shadow slink out of the trees and lift high the glass box it holds in its black arms.
Words boom out. Though I press my hands to my ears to block them, I hear them inside my head.
Mark this time and mark this hour when I wield my awful power. Mortal souls of daughters three forever will belong to me. Their bodies lie in eternal sleep, their souls imprisoned in this glass. The spell will hold sure and deep unless these things come to pass. Three keys to find, to fit, only by mortal hands to turn. Three thousand years in which to learn. An instant more and souls will burn.
This test, this quest, to prove a mortal’s worthiness. With these words I wind them, and with my art I bind them. These locks I seal and forge these keys, and here hurl them to the hand of destiny.
The wind dies, and the air goes still. There on those sun-washed tiles, the three girls lie, their eyes closed as if in sleep, their hands clasped. Three parts of one whole.
Beside them is a glass box, its clear panels leaded at the seams, its trio of locks glinting gold. Warm blue lights dance frantically inside it, seem to beat against the glass walls like trapped wings.
Three keys lie scattered around it.
And seeing them, I weep.
Malory was still shaky when she opened the door to Zoe.
“I got here as soon as I could. I had to get Simon off to school. You sounded so upset on the phone. What—”
“Dana’s not here yet. I’d rather just go through this once. I made coffee.”
“Great.” Zoe put a hand on Malory’s shoulder and simply lowered her into a chair. “I’ll get it. You look like you still need to catch your breath. Kitchen that way?”
“Yeah.” Grateful, Malory leaned back, rubbed her hands over her face.
“Why don’t you tell me how your date with Flynn went the other night?”
“What? Oh. Good. Fine.” She dropped her hands, then stared at them as if they belonged to someone else. “He seems almost normal without his dog. That must be Dana.”
“I’ll get it. Just sit.” Zoe hurried out from the kitchen, heading Malory off before she could rise.
“Okay, where’s the fire?” Dana demanded. Then stopped, sniffed. “Coffee. Don’t make me beg for it.”
“I’m getting it. Go sit with Malory,” Zoe added under her breath.
Dana plopped down in a chair, pursed her lips, and gave Malory a long, hard stare. “You look terrible.”
“Thanks so much.”
“Hey, don’t expect hugs and kisses when you get me out of bed and over here within twenty minutes and on one cup of coffee. Besides, it’s reassuring to know you don’t roll out of bed looking perfect. What’s up?”