I could almost see the cat-like smile in the lilting voice. It was a sound straight out of my nightmares. I knew the speaker even before I turned. “Hello, Morgan,” I said as cheerily as I could manage.
We regarded each other coldly, each taking the other’s measure. She was little changed, the candlelight making her skin glow. Wherever she had fled couldn’t have given her too hard a life.
She settled into a mock curtsy. “Your Majesty.” She nearly choked on the words.
I gave her a triumphant smile. “Last I heard, you slipped Avalon’s guard and went missing. What ill star directs you to darken this happy occasion?”
Morgan shook her head and clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “Still bitter about being second best, I see.”
“You know my role, yet you dare call me second best?”
She was nonp
