“All right.” Ashk rose. “Come on, then. Best to meet the joys of the day.” When Morag just looked at her, she smiled grimly. “I spent yesterday afternoon in the women’s room, so the fact that I’m female is no longer a secret from the Fae beyond the west. And there’s been enough time for that news to travel, so I expect any Lord of the Woods within a few hours’ ride of this Clan house will have arrived by now.”

Morag frowned. “You think someone will challenge you because you’re a woman?”

“A challenge can be issued anytime two people with the same gift are in the same place. It doesn’t usually happen unless the power is waning in the one who rules the gift since the challenger can lose a great deal more than the challenge.” Ashk shrugged. “But I expect there will be a young Lord among those gathered outside the Clan house who will be foolish enough to issue a challenge. A tool for the lesson, I suppose.”

Morag rose, her eyes now filled with uneasiness and concern. “Ashk?”

Ashk shook her head. She wanted a quick bath to start the day clean. It wasn’t likely it would end clean. “As you said, Morag. I understand the shadows.”

The dreams haunted her. Ashk scared her.

As she followed Ashk to the grassy, open ground near the Clan house where dozens of the Fae had gathered around a handful of young men, Morag decided it was good for the Gatherer of Souls to feel wary of the power of another Fae. The Gatherer’s gift could overshadow anything the Hunter commanded—after all, Death embraced everything sooner or later—but there was something about Ashk herself that made it easier to face the dreams.

She would lean on that strength, using her own to pursue a deadly enemy that hunted in her dreams.

As they reached the open ground, Aiden, Lyrra, Morphia, and Sheridan joined them. The huntsmen riding with Ashk formed a broken half circle behind them, leaving an open path directly behind where Ashk stood.

A way to escape? Morag wondered. A step to the side, and the men in the front row would block the path. As she glanced back, she caught a glimpse of arrows loosely nocked in bows among the men in the second row of the half circle. One step to the side, and the front row of men would give their comrades the opening needed to fire on the enemy.

Except the only other people here were also Fae.

She opened herself to her gift—and heard Death whisper.

Ashk?

She thought she’d spoken out loud, but she couldn’t be sure. She was certain Ashk hadn’t heard her, since the Hunter kept moving forward to stand alone and face the young Lords of the Woods, who were backed by their own half circle of Fae from the residing Clan.