The Magician's Mistake (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 1) by Katherine Sparrow Read Free Book Online Page B

we must, over the centuries.” Her feet, in high heeled leather boots, landed lightly on the ground.
    Grail magic?
    As in, the Holy Grail ?
    Was that the secret to my immortality? I knew that it was tied to magic, but when I tried to think of the details, the memory faded away in mist. Usually. But now I saw —
    A cup of iron. Filled with sweet water. A hum as I sipped it. Laughter on my lips.
    The Grail. I saw it in my mind’s eye, clear and unclouded by any failure of memory. I sensed its magic deep in my bones and wrapped through my tissue. The Grail. The cup of cups. Yet I had no memory of how I came to hold it, or who had been laughing beside me when I did.
    And no matter my long years, I should remember that, shouldn’t I? A dizziness raced through me. I gritted my teeth and willed it away. I put myself between the witch and the two moaning bodies behind me.
    Keep it together, Morgan , I thought. There will be time enough later for losing your mind.
    I cleared my throat. “So you steal the lives of women across the country, is that it, Jennifer? You promise them sisterhood, and then murder them for your own vanity?”
    “Oh please. You’ve gotten so righteous in your old age, Morgan. As though murder and mayhem were not your bread and butter. No need to worry about the commoners. There’s a rare death, here and there, but it’s way too much work to cover them up in this modern era of detectives and prisons. I prefer to leave them insane and disfigured.” She smiled prettily and grew younger still. Thirty-five. Magic flowed in undulating ribbons out from the amulet and into her.
    I longed to throw every nasty spell I had at her.
    None of them would make it past her protection spell.
    She spoke on. “And you should know I haven’t been holding ceremonies everywhere I go just for my beauty, Morgan. I needed vast amounts of magic to make a finding spell huge enough to find you. To break through the layers of deception you set up so that I could hunt you down and give you everything you deserve.”
    “Layers of deception?” I echoed. I had set them up, so others wouldn’t find me? That made sense — my years and years in Seattle had been peaceful, and yet I did not remember those spells were in place.
    A memory pulsed through me, of desperation and deep magic making.
    Not now, I thought forcefully. Focus.
    I blinked and studied the protection spell around Jennifer. It would keep out any of my spells, but it let the raw magic from the amulet through. A smile grew on my lips as I watched Jennifer grow younger. Her face. That face. I knew her. I —
    Images flew out at me from the dark and forgotten corners of my mind.
    A primitive castle, newly made of rough-hewn stone. The smell of bread and roasting pig. Running down cold hallways and laughing. Collecting baskets full of daisies for the festival of new life. An image of her, this Jennifer, sitting up straight in a tall and uncomfortable chair, drinking mead from a metal chalice and staring at me as though I was a dirty thing. A wrong thing. And standing behind her, a man in a long, gray cloak. A man of blue eyes, kind eyes, and long fingers. He —
    I cried as I fell to the ground. Dizzy. Unmoored. What was this foul magic? How had she gotten past all my wards without even tripping any of them and how was she making me remember things I’d long forgotten? I lay where I’d fallen, breathing, and running my palms over the smooth concrete ground, letting it bring me back to the real. The present.
    Jennifer laughed at me.
    I pushed myself up to sitting. The witch muttered and waved her hands through the air as she held the amulet, my amulet.
    “Do you know me yet, Morgan?”
    “Guinevere,” I whispered, the word falling like stones from my mouth. She was real back then and real now. Not some imagined iconic princess of Malory’s quill.
    Guinevere stood before me, another as old as me. Another from the age of Arthur. I should remember her. What in five hells