Title: Morrigan
Release Date: 11/08/12
Summary from Goodreads
Shuffled from place to place in the foster system, Morrigan doesn't know the meaning of home. Plus, she is different. She has power over fire, the ability to move objects with her mind, and glimpse into the future. Just when she believes her life can’t get any stranger, she discovers her true identity.
Filtiarn, a knight with a dark past and a surprising secret, has been tasked with guiding the heir of Tír na NÓg through countless perils to be returned to her family. Once Morrigan has been reunited with her mother and grandmother, their triad can save the forgotten land of magic from being devoured by an ancient evil.
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Excerpt
Morrigan took out a white candle and a stick of dragon blood incense,
and set them up in the corner of the room. She sat cross-legged, and leaned
forward to light them. No matches were necessary. No lighter either. She simply
touched her finger to the end of the wick, and with an iridescent spark, the
candle flickered to life. It shone at first with a bright blue flame that
gradually settled into a more normal orange. It was the same with the
incense—another reason why she preferred not to have an audience.
She stared into the candle for a moment, and took a few deep breaths to
clear her mind of all thoughts but those of the magic she intended to perform.
Danu and Dagda sat on either side of her, instantly falling into silence, as
though they knew she needed her complete concentration.
Their energy beside her
only seemed to add to the growing sense of power that charged the room.
Morrigan closed her eyes and began to shuffle the cards. As she did, she allowed her breathing to become more even. A silence filled the room as the rest of the mortal world fell away. Soon the only sound she heard was the light thump of her own heartbeat, echoed by the quicker, fast paced beat of the cats’ hearts. She wasn’t sure how much time passed as the cards slipped through her fingers. It might have been minutes. It might have been hours. When she allowed herself to fall into a trance, time became insubstantial, irrelevant.
Morrigan closed her eyes and began to shuffle the cards. As she did, she allowed her breathing to become more even. A silence filled the room as the rest of the mortal world fell away. Soon the only sound she heard was the light thump of her own heartbeat, echoed by the quicker, fast paced beat of the cats’ hearts. She wasn’t sure how much time passed as the cards slipped through her fingers. It might have been minutes. It might have been hours. When she allowed herself to fall into a trance, time became insubstantial, irrelevant.
The tarot cards were so old; the designs on the back were almost
completely worn away. She had to shuffle gently to keep them from crumbling to
pieces in her hands. Yet they held a power that she knew no newer cards could
offer her. As she shuffled them, she focused her energy into them, silently
requesting to be given the answers she was seeking. She allowed the image of her mother to fill
her mind. When she finally felt the cards had fallen into the order they were
meant to be in, she placed the deck face down on the floor, and cut them with
her right hand. Then, taking one last, calming breath, she lifted the top card
from the pile. With a trembling hand, she laid it down and read it.
“Wheel of Fortune,” she said
aloud.
In the center of card was a wheel. As she stared at the picture, that
wheel seemed to turn clockwise. The movements made her feel slightly dizzy. The
bedroom around her became more and more surreal. The scene on the card became her reality. The
figure of the sphinx that sat on top of the turning wheel looked so very real.
It might have turned its head to look at her. Its lips may or may not have
moved. Morrigan swore she heard a deep, resonating voice whispering the meaning
of the card into her ear. Destiny approaching. An unexpected and sudden change was
coming—change that could lead to good fortune.
It was the card of fate and karma returned. It meant that she needed to
be prepared—to expect the unexpected. Morrigan knew the cards were telling her
something was going to happen—and soon. Her destiny, whatever it was, was about
to be realized. Even if it did bring fortune, it still scared her to death. She
considered packing up the cards right then and there. Her rational mind had
every intention of doing just that. Her hands didn’t get the message her brain
was sending. Before she knew what she was doing, she had already flipped over
the second card.
“The Empress,” she whispered. She exhaled deeply. “My mother.”
It was the only interpretation imaginable. Even as she said it, the
pregnant woman, crowned with stars and adorned in a gown decorated with
pomegranates, turned to her and smiled. She was no longer a vague featureless
stranger, but the same woman Morrigan had sketched earlier that day—a face that
mirrored her own. It was an older version of herself, which she saw in the
reflection in the nearby full length mirror, had turned chalk white.
The Empress was a symbol of maternal power—of strong feminine influence.
But could it mean that her mother was returning? She had never allowed herself
to consider such a possibility. To dwell on something so unlikely would have
been too painful. But now, with just the flip of a card, she found herself
daring to dream. There was only one way to find out for sure. She had to keep
going with the reading.
“Six of Cups.”
The third card in the spread represented her past, and even her
immediate present. The six of cups specifically symbolized childhood, and she
was, technically, still a child. But she had a feeling that her childhood was
about to end quite abruptly. The cups in the picture were lined up across a
high stone wall, each cup holding the memories of her past.
Her past. It was nothing but a childhood filled with longing—longings which were perhaps about to be fulfilled. She visualized herself taking each cup down from the wall, and pouring the troubling memories away. It was time to start fresh. A new world was about to open up for her. She had known it as soon as she had seen the image of her mother’s face. But what would that world be like? What was waiting for her in the future?
Her past. It was nothing but a childhood filled with longing—longings which were perhaps about to be fulfilled. She visualized herself taking each cup down from the wall, and pouring the troubling memories away. It was time to start fresh. A new world was about to open up for her. She had known it as soon as she had seen the image of her mother’s face. But what would that world be like? What was waiting for her in the future?
Morrigan turned over the fourth card.
“The Knight of Wands.”
The man on the horse carrying the staff had her baffled. Not because she
didn’t know its normal meaning, but because as she stared at the card, it began
to take on the physical attributes of the knight in her drawings. He had the
same long dreadlocks, the same bewitching stare, even the same cocky smile. The
familiarity did not cancel out the meaning of the card. The knight of wands was
representative of a dark man filled with a kind of honey-tongued charm. He was
also fiery and arrogant, a man with a definite possibility of a dark side. If
the knight of wands was coming into her life, she knew she needed to proceed
with caution.
She thought she was done with the fourth card, and was preparing to move
on to the next, when once again, she found she had lost control of her body.
This time, her hands refused to move, while her eyes forced their way back to
the knight in the card. She watched as the long haired stranger began to move
forward—wandering over various landscapes, some high mountains, some meadows
and fields ripe for the harvest. He kept looking back over his shoulder, as
though he were speaking to someone. He was on a journey, and he wasn’t alone.
Morrigan didn’t need to see his companion to know who it must be.
So, her journey would soon begin, and she wouldn’t be traveling alone.
She would have a guide.
Whether or not that would be a good thing was another
question best left to the cards to answer.
The next card told her nothing she didn’t already know.
“The Moon,” she said. “Caution.”
The next card told her nothing she didn’t already know.
“The Moon,” she said. “Caution.”
It was a scary card. It warned of tricks and illusions. The two howling
wolves that stood under the moon looked back at her menacingly, growling,
showing their pointed fangs in a snarl. For the first time since she began the
reading, Danu and Dagda made their presence known by lifting their heads and
hissing threateningly in the direction of the beasts.
Even the cats sensed it. The journey she was about to embark on wouldn’t
be all fun and family reunions. There would be obstacles and deceit, most
likely from people she thought could be trusted. The moon was a sign that
danger was certainly awaiting her. In was an ominous omen.
“Shhhh.”
“Shhhh.”
She hushed the hissing cats, and gave them each a gentle stroke to try
to settle them down, though she was far from settled herself. Again she felt
the urge to stop the spread. Her instincts were telling her that no good was
going to come out of this reading. She was only going to scare herself. She
should never have done it in the first place. When would she learn that sometimes
it was best to let life play out without interference or prophetic warnings?
Then again, she knew that to be forewarned might be her only advantage. So with
more bravery than she felt, Morrigan flipped over the final card.
“No . . . .” she gasped when she
looked down at the terrible, skeletal face. “Oh no.”
She should have known. She thought a part of her did know even before
she glanced down at the gruesome scene—a skeleton with a scythe in a field of
body parts. With the divination going in the direction it was, what else could
be the final outcome?
“Death,” she whispered. “Death.”
She knew that in most cases, the death card was a symbol of personal
transformation rather than literal death. But a deeper sense of understanding
told her that this time the card was meant to be taken literally. She saw only
glimpses and shadows in her mind. Brief flashes of faces, some familiar, like
her mother and the knight—some still strangers, like a beautiful, almost
angelic blonde woman in a flowing white gown. But around them all, including
herself, she saw the shadows of death.
Morrigan felt decidedly shaky as she gathered up her tarot cards. She
placed them securely in the bottom of her bag just as she heard the door
downstairs slam shut. The reading hadn’t made everything as crystal clear as
she had hoped, but one thing was certain. Her whole life was about to change.
About the Author
Laura "Luna" DeLuca lives at the beautiful Jersey
shore with her husband and three children. She has been writing stories for as
long as she can remember. Old high school friends would tell you she was always
scratching in her notebook instead of paying attention in class and the
children she used to babysit for always loved to hear her scary stories at
bedtime. In addition to writing fiction, Laura is also the sole author of a
popular review blog called New Age Mama. She is an active member of her local pagan
community, and has been studying Wicca for close to eight years.
Author Links
***GIVEAWAY***
Smudge stick with abalone shell, snake necklace, tumbled stones, incense, natural stone pendant and wood trinket box. (US only)
Smudge stick with abalone shell, snake necklace, tumbled stones, incense, natural stone pendant and wood trinket box. (US only)
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