“Where your body has been but you haven’t,” Rhyann replied testily. She leaned toward Selena. “We aren’t home anymore. You can’t get so lost in thought you’re not aware of the world. You don’t know what’s out there. Or who is out there.”

Feeling her shoulders start to hunch at the justified scolding, Selena straightened in the saddle. “You’re right. I shouldn’t let my thoughts wander so far. I’m just…I guess I’m nervous.”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“You wouldn’t say that if the power was pulling at you the way it’s pulling at me.”

“Well, it won’t impress the Fae if you’re knocked out of the saddle on the way to this gathering because you weren’t paying attention to the low-hanging branch in front of your face.”

What an embarrassing picture that made.

As she brushed her heels against Mistrunner’s sides to give him the signal to move forward toward the buildings up ahead, she said in her best long-suffering, big-sister tone of voice, “Mother, grant me the patience needed to deal with a younger sister.”

“The Great Mother doesn’t care about such things.”

“She would if she had a younger sister,” Selena replied sourly.

“Maybe the moon is Her younger sister,” Rhyann said, a mischievous light in her eyes. “Maybe that’s why they play this constant game of catch-me-if-you-can.”

“It’s possible. The younger sister is always playing with the tides while the elder moves sedately through the seasons.”

“Sedately? Phuuu.”

“Brat.”

“Mouse breath.”

Selena’s mouth fell open. “Mouse breath?”

“Remember the time Mother found you in the barn with half a mouse?” Rhyann said primly.

“I was still getting used to changing into a puppy!” And had been learning, usually the hard way, to curb the instincts of a shadow hound that had hunted down its prey.

“And Mother wouldn’t let you change back until she was sure the mouse bits had gone through you—one way or another.”

She remembered the scolding that had followed the discovery—and the flat-handed whack on the head she’d received when she’d snarled at her mother for taking the rest of the mouse away.

“I only did it once,” Selena muttered.

“Which is one time more than I ever did it,” Rhyann said. Then she raised her hand in greeting to the man who stepped out of the cottage, followed by two women. “Blessings of the day to you.”

Faced with three strangers, Selena gave up the idea of leaning over and giving Rhyann’s braid a hard yank and worked to compose her expression into something more suitably adult. “Blessings of the day to you.”

The man stepped forward, nerves and temper plain on his face. “And what would the Fair Folk be wanting with the likes of us?”