“Who challenges me?” she shouted. As she turned slowly to look at all the women gathered in the circle, they averted their eyes. Or, like the ones from the western Clans, they stared apprehensively at the center of the clearing.

“Who challenges the Lady of the Moon for the right to lead the Fae?”

No answer. No one stepped forward to test their power against hers.

Then she saw a glow among the trees, coming toward the clearing. As it came out of the trees, it took shape as a woman riding a gray horse.

Two Fae males stepped forward to intercept the intruder, took a long look at the woman’s face, then hastily stepped back, bowing respectfully.

The woman dismounted, rested a hand on her horse’s neck, then walked to the circle. The Ladies of the Moon stepped aside to make room for her, but she walked past them into the clearing until she stopped a few lengths from the center, her face lifted as if she were looking at something hovering above the ground.

The glow on the woman’s dress, on her skin…It was as if the moon itself had walked into the clearing.

Jagged fear slashed through Dianna again. No. There was nothing special about this woman who had intruded into one of the Fae’s private gatherings. There wasn’t. It was just a trick of the starlight. The woman was just an intruder, while she, Dianna, was the Lady of the Moon. How dare this stranger ignore her? This time, when she asked the question, her voice rose in a scream. “Who challenges me?”

Selena heard the words, but they had no meaning. Nothing in the clearing had meaning…except that glory in its center. She felt the pull of it, the hunger of it, and she felt the jagged need within it.

It should have been glorious. And it was. But it was also dangerous. Why had these women raised power like this and then never used it? Why hadn’t they released it back into the world, or grounded it to merge with the rest of the magic that lived in the Great Mother? It had the flavor of something that had been done over and over again. They’d taken what they’d needed and had ignored the rest. Now that power was no longer willing to be taken…or ignored. It was going to release tonight. Whether it became something wonderful or something devastating would depend on how it was shaped by those who could channel it.

She glanced at the women around the circle. Why weren’t they coming forward to start the dance? Couldn’t they feel the urgency? What were they waiting for?