“Except it’s not blameless, is it? You’re in my head. Meaning I called you up to get the rest of the story. Which is also in my head. Locked away.”

She grinned like a teacher with a slow pupil who has finally learned to read. “Clever girl. Yes, you have the memories. We all do. Now, do you want to finish Matilda’s story?”

Guilt flickered, but my answer came quickly. “Yes.”

“Good. You’ve seen how it ends, in fire and death. Now see how it begins.”

—

She pointed to a rise about twenty feet away. A boy shouted beyond it. Then a girl laughed. I crested the rise and saw them below. A girl with long, light brown hair sailing behind her as she ran from a blond boy. They were both no more than eight or nine. They tore through the meadow, the girl laughing as the boy tried to catch her. Then a blur shot from the forest. Another boy, dark-haired, riding a black horse. He raced up alongside the girl, leaned over so far I thought he’d fall, grabbed her arm, and swung her onto the horse. Then he tore off, laughing as the blond boy stopped and stared after them.

The girl clung to the horse, her hair whipping behind her, eyes narrowed in rapture as the horse galloped ever faster. They leapt over the stream, and the girl shrieked with delight. In the meadow, the sun itself seemed to dim as the fair-haired boy stood abandoned. Then they shot from the forest and tore back. The dark-haired rider launched from his horse and tackled the blond boy. The girl swung off, too, and moments later they were all walking through the forest, running, laughing, and playing.

“Matilda, Gwynn, and Arawn,” I said.

“This is how it begins. With two boys and a girl, back before Romans set their filthy boots on our shores. The Tylwyth Teg and the Cwn Annwn are the two sides of fae—light and dark. Light is not good nor dark evil.”

“Just two sides of the same coin. Or stone.”

She smiled. “Yes. Light and dark. Day and night. Meadow and forest. The living and the dead. The ties between the two were strong, and the ruling families were close. So, too, then, were the children of those kings. Gwynn and Arawn grew up together, along with a girl from the most respected family of dyn hysbys and dynes hysbys. Cunning men and women.”

“Which means witches and seers. That’s what Matilda was.”

“She was also Tylwyth Teg and Cwn Annwn. Half of each. Both sides claimed her. She grew up with Gwynn and Arawn, separately in their lands, and together as three friends. Which is fine for children, but when a woman comes of age, things change . . .”