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In one hand she held a thin wand, in the other a sparkle of glowing light It twinkled as she held it out, then blew on it The light flew up from her hand into the air, where it spiraled for aas it covered ht

"What--who are you?" I stood, still naked But she didn’t even blink

"Don’t you know ic"

I stule, one of the Hags of Fate Pentangle, the Mother of Magic

"My lady, ould you ask of hts, but I decided to just go with the flow

"First, you aren’t roay flowing off her blasted throughht?

"Then where the hell a stark, raving terror?"

She gazed beyondocean "You are not in Gulakah’s h yes, you were…the first time"

Before I could speak, she held up her hand

"Yes, I knohat happened I auard the strands that ical realm, when I choose to direct my focus And I knohat happened to you I can read you like the books you so love Don’t play shy with irl I could dip into your mind and strip you down to the core, should I choose"

I’d only ever encountered one other Hag of Fate--and that was Grandle Grandmother Coyote was firm and solid and lived in the woods near our hos of Fate were immortal, like the Eleods, they usually intervened in hu Even if that e now and then They usually kept to the was about to break loose

"Then where ah my memories, and I wasn’t in Gulakah’s e of the Ocean of Anger You’re in the Netherworld, and you’re looking at one of the strongest forces that keeps ghosts tied to the mortal realer and fury that ghosts bring with thean to use it as a personal ical source, and the hosts became in the mortal world That’s why he was cast out--he disrupted the balance But the day pool is too powerful, thanks to his , and the balance continues to shift The ocean feeds too many spirits over on thea synergistic effect"

I knelt down and touched the liquid with s of terror and powerlessness ran through lanced at her over my shoulder "So, my fear?"

"You are corporeal Your fear is a norhosts thrive on it So does Gulakah The ocean that you were lost in? You slipped into his connection to this priy He has found a way to continue to tap into the Ocean of Anger frole turned and began to walk gently up the shore, the silvery sand shifting as she e of her he the moist dunes

"Wait! Why did you show me this?" I started to follow her but found I could not move My feet were stuck in the sand

Over her shoulder, without turning around, she said, "Because you needed to know Do not forget my words The only way the balance here will be restored is with Gulakah’s defeat"

And then she vanished I turned back to the ocean, folding my arms across my chest So this was the Netherworld I’d been here before, but never so far in, and I knew that I had to leave this place soon The living did not fare well here, whether in spirit or body As I stared out over the sheen, the wind sprang up and buffeted around u up a shield to keep the been banished fro all that tihostly activity over Earthside How long had the balance been disrupted? For centuries, at least And how many spirits had been trapped, unable to ht up by the prier that kept the?

Too hts Too many, and they would only increase until we stopped the Lord of Ghosts But could we truly kill hieneral was one thing But killing a god…that just see

She didn’t say Gulakah’s death…but his defeat

True, I argued with myself, but what did defeat mean? If we sent hiain? If we sent hi would just use hiain If we killed him…then what?

More confused than ever, I decided it was time to leave this place I sucked in a deep breath, blinked, and opened my eyes

The bubbles had dissipated, and the water was cooling I waited for the water to drain out, then turned on the shower and quickly rinsed off the residue soap As I toweled off and padded back into ht have ht intruded that if Gulakah was this strong and he orking for Shadow Wing, just how the hell strong was the De and replaying in auze skirt, fastened a plum-colored bustier over the top, and headed downstairs to eat a late lunch and talk to the others<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>