Page 236 of Sigils & Spells

Ravyn glared at him. “Because this is bigger than us.” She quickly relayed what happened with Mothman.

“What old evil is awakening?” Aoibhe asked after Ravyn finished recounting the interaction. “And what goddess wants our help for war?”

“I don’t know. But I have a feeling the dean knows about it. She opened the window for me in the bathroom. Knew it was me.”

“Dean Caelan?” Aoibhe, bit her lip as she pondered that connection. “She does know an awful lot about our kind.”

Gabe snorted. “That woman has three auras instead of one. I don’t trust it.”

She met Aoibhe’s eyes as the banshee touched her cheek where her mark was located. “You don’t think?” Ravyn asked.

“The Morrigan,” Aoibhe said the name with reverence, and a bit of fear. “Sheisa war goddess.”

All Ravyn had wanted was a normal college life. A boyfriend, one she preferably wouldn’t destroy with the truth of what she was. She clearly wasn’t getting her wish.

An old evil and a war goddess were setting up a chessboard, and somehow…they were the pawns. Why was Mothman interfering, and why had he called her Coronis—the name of the Thessalian princess betrayed by Corvus, the white crow Apollo had cursed by scorching her feathers to black and ensuring none of her descendants kept the men they loved?

Most importantly, would Daniel ever trust her after hearing the truth?

All her questions didn’t hold a candle to her concern for Daniel, who now knew the secret that had doomed every mortal man the women in her family dared to love. The only thing that mattered to her was keeping him safe from whatever disaster clearly had its sights on all of them. She would do everything in her power to do so.

EPILOGUE

Daniel stood beside the door,listening to the rest of their conversation. No laughter and change of topic. They were serious. They truly believed they were death omens. Portents of doom. That Dylan, his own brother, was one as well.

He hated to admit it, but it tracked. From his research on the matter thus far, the Dullahan was active around Samhain. Halloween. Dylan had had the weird dreams, problems with his bike around that time a year ago and it had repeated this year as well. Because he was turning into the Headless Horseman while out on his bike?

It didn’t seem possible. How could it?

Frankly, he felt as though he should be more upset and angry than he was. Had some paranormal turn of events killed his mother? And why did the symbol on Aoibhe’s face look exactly like the pendant on Dean Caelan’s necklace?

The three of them were still talking as he pulled away from the wall and headed down the corridor. At the end, a window was open and a big, black raven landed on the open window seal. He paused, staring at it, then twisted his head back in the direction he’d left his girlfriend.

His girlfriend. Could their relationship survive this?

I still want to be with her.

Daniel turned back to the bird, about to pass it to reach the stairwell and ignore it, when a flash of light on its throat made him squint and look closer. A gold Celtic knot pendant on a dainty necklace like the dean wore, and what had appeared on Aoibhe’s face when he had looked too closely, shimmered in the sunlight.

The crow cawed and burst away from the window, toward the trees in a fury of feathers.

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