As one of the Lords of the Woods stepped forward in challenge, Morphia gasped, “Cullan.”

Morag clamped down on her temper. Cullan had been Morphia’s lover last summer. Her lover, but he didn’t love her. She would have been his excuse to leave his home Clan, who disapproved of going down to the human world more than was necessary. Not an easy Clan for a Lord of the Woods, since there were no woods in Tir Alainn.

Not that it mattered anymore. She’d been there when the shining road had closed, and she, Morphia, Cullan, and a few other Fae she’d been able to force down the road with her had escaped before the road closed completely, trapping the rest of the Fae in the mist that had rolled in to shroud that Clan’s piece of Tir Alainn.

Because of Cullan, Sheridan had worked hard to convince Morphia that he wanted to be more than a mere bed-warmer.

Now she looked at Cullan’s angry face. A tool for the lesson? Mother’s mercy, Ashk. What kind of lesson?

Death whispered.

“I am the Hunter.” Ashk’s voice rang clearly in the morning air.

“A deceiver!” Cullan spat out the words.

Ashk smiled.

Morag shivered.

“Did I deceive the Lords of the Woods into believing I was male?” Ashk said mildly. “Yes, I did. But the time for that deception is over. Did I deceive you into believing I’m the Hunter?” She shook her head. “Oh, no, young Lord. I am the Hunter. The gift is mine, and I command the woods and all that lives there. Wherever the woods resides.”

“Perhaps you were able to wrest the power from the old Lord of the Woods all those years ago, but you should have offered a time for challenge after that so that a man worthy of commanding the gift could ascend.”

“Like you?” Ashk said softly. “There are Ladies of the Woods. They command the gift just as well as the Lords.”

“But none of them had the audacity to pretend to be the Lord of the Woods.”

“I pretend nothing. My sex doesn’t matter. Whether I’m the Green Lord or the Green Lady doesn’t matter. What matters is I am the Hunter.”

“A title gained through deception!”

Ashk shook her head slowly. “Kernos knew who I was, and what I was, and what I am. That is why he trained me.”

A ripple of uneasiness went through the Fae who stood behind the Lords of the Woods—and among the Lords as well. Except Cullan, who was now red-faced with anger.

Ashk asked quietly, “Do you understand who the Hunter is, young Lord? What the Hunter is? Do you understand what I can do?”

Cullan stared at her defiantly. “What can you do?”

“Destroy the Fae.”

Silence.