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Prologue

There were pictures in the fire Dragons and demons and warriors The children would see the and the very old often sahat others could not Or would not

He had told theun with the sorcerer as called by the goddess Morrigan Hoyt of the Mac Cionaoith was charged by the gods to travel to other worlds, to other tiainst the vareat battle between human and demon would take place on the sabbot of Samhain, in the Valley of Silence, in the land of Geall

He had told theed by the wily Lilith, who had existed near a thousand years as a va Cian one of her kind Nearly another thousand years would pass for Cian before he would join Hoyt and the witch Glenna to make those first links in the circle of six The next links were forged by two Geallians—the shifter of shapes and the scholar who traveled betorlds to gather in those first days And the last of the circle was joined by the warrior, a demon hunter of the Mac Cionaoith blood

The tales he had told thee, of death and friendship And of love The love that had bloomed between sorcerer and witch, and between the shifter and the warrior, had strengthened the circle as true ic must

But there was more to tell Triumphs and loss, fear and valor, love and sacrifice—and all that caht

As the children waited for in the end of the tale

“There were six,” he said, still watching the fire while the children’s whispers silenced and their squir stilled in anticipation “And each had the choice to accept or refuse For even orlds are held in your hands, you must choose to face ould destroy them, or to turn away And with this choice,” he continued, “there are many other choices to be made”

“They were brave and true,” one of the children called out “They chose to fight!”

The old man smiled a little “And so they did But still, every day, every night of the tiiven, that choice re theer huht of the tier human He was but a shadow in the worlds he had chosen to protect

“And so,” the old man said, “the vampire dreamed”

Chapter 1

He drea, perhaps foolish, undoubtedly rash But then, what he believed was a woman had such beauty, such allure

She wore a fine gown in a deep shade of red, , sweeping sleeves Like a good claret it poured over her forold, the curls of it glinting against her headdress

The gown, her bearing, the jewels that were sparkling at her throat, on her fingers, told him she was a lady of some means and fashion