- •Independence, intelligence, and unique beauty of modern women. My heroes all have one thing in common:
- •375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, usa
- •I would like to thank Mark Stelljes, the rosarian I consulted as I researched this book. Mark, your information
- •Incredibly erotic dream of my life. I really didn’t give a damn what his face looked like.”
- •Instead of answering her, Mikki twirled an errant strand of thick, copper-colored hair and bought time by
- •It was a solid friendship, founded in trust and mutual respect. And Mikki had no idea why she was so hesitant
- •Intended to turn his face to hers—to open her eyes and to finally, finally see him. Then she had touched them.
- •I was crossing the street, and I heard something weird behind me.”
- •Incredibly articulate like ‘Whoo-hoo! You are one hot mamma, Red.’ That effectively killed the fantasy.”
- •I’m more horny than horrified.” She bit her bottom lip. “Is that awful?”
- •Vibrant, deep blue. If hope had a color, it would be the blue of the old woman’s eyes, and Mikki was struck
- •Very hardy. It makes a great hedge, and it blooms for almost four straight months.”
- •Is your name, my dear?”
- •Its light. Slate blended with mauve and coral in the fading day. Mikki knew the colors would wane quickly,
- •I aothing cd hide within it for long. Mikki opened the knife. The little blade was honed to a razorlike edge,
- •Volunteers at the Rose Gardens noticed it, Mikki would simply smile her way through their admonishments
- •In the psychic? I don’t remember Nelly saying anything about that.”
- •Insightful and well educated. They create worlds filled with strong, passionate women and honorable, heroic
- •It was exhilarating!
- •Intrigued, she searched her memory for details of Medea’s story. She vaguely remembered that the play was
- •I will love my sons and daughters, and adore the gods.”
- •Into her throat, so that when she continued the invocation, her voice strengthened and magnified. Had she
- •It took several minutes for Mikki’s cheeks to cool down. She could easily imagine the blazing red of her
- •Imposingly between the archway she had just walked beneath and the second stone archway, which framed
- •It only took a second for her to work the Band-Aid free from her left palm. The cut was already scabbing
- •It was so silent that Mikki imagined a soundless bubble had been formed around her made of roses and cool
- •It’s just a delusion, she reminded herself firmly. Nothing more than a symptom of my overactive imagination.
- •Inviting suddenly beat against them in a frenzy of scent and sound. They were caught in a vortex of
- •Impossible. Home was a nice little apartment in a great location, not a room fit for a princess. Mikki’s
- •Intermingled with ornate trees, hedges, fountains and statuary. In the heart of the gardens she thought she saw
- •If that were true, then it didn’t matter whether she chose to stay or return. Either way she was screwed
- •It smelled like home.
- •If you understood who we were when Nera and I welcomed you, but surely you know who we are now that
- •I had no idea I was a Priestess of Hecate until the goddess told me so herself. So it’s not just that I don’t
- •Voluptuous. Her body was lush; the blue silk lapped around her like translucent waves. Petite Aeras wore
- •In the center of the circle near the heart of the goddess’s flame.”
- •I think of movement and invisible power. It is a contradiction—a paradox. It cannot be contained, but it can
- •Inspired by the element’s personification, Mikki continued, “Fire is passion and heat. It consumes, but it also
- •In warmth and security, as if her mother’s arms were once again around her. With a catch in her voice, Mikki
- •Impulse or hesitate until she could second guess herself. Mikki danced. Within the circle she twirled and
- •In the midst of the sacred circle.
- •In his arms as the power of the goddess transported them to Hecate’s realm. He closed his eyes and leaned
- •In response to the flexing of his muscles, pain shot through his arms and chest. He welcomed it. The pain
- •Vigilant. He had been tireless in his devotion. And he had been alone, even during the brief moments when he
- •In the casting of a circle. She would not know that she must ground herself and use food and drink to
- •It was only when she stopped dancing that Mikki felt the return of her sick dizziness. So many women . . .
- •Illuminate. Its light danced off a crystal goblet filled with dark red wine. She lifted it, admiring the elaborate
- •In the darkest shadows, washing around her and causing the hair on her body to prickle. “It is a belief to
- •It was totally fucking Loony Tunes.
- •Is not appropriate. What I did for you is out of duty. It is why Hecate called me into her service. Do you
- •Instantly, he halted. “Have care where you step. The glass can cut through the soles of your slippers.” The
- •Impossible that I was aware again. At first I sensed you, but I could not see you. I only knew your presence.”
- •It was so beautiful that it weakened the disbelief and cynicism she had learned from a very young age to carry
- •Intelligent gray eyes looked unnaturally mature and out of place in the goddess’s smooth young face. “I rarely
- •I may be older, but that also means I’ve lived through more experiences, so I suggest they watch their silly
- •Important in either her mother’s or her grandmother’s life. Not that either of them hadn’t been wonderful,
- •Interior? Now she was saying that beauty was everything.
- •Vast forest, a kind of netherworld, which is the crossroads between reality and magick. On one side of the
- •Instincts, Mikado. Allow your spirit and the knowledge held in your blood to guide you, and you will do well .
- •Various other types of mantles.” Taking a wide, soft brush from the vanity dresser, Gii fussed with Mikki’s
- •Voice rumbled intimately between them. If‘Ђfro
- •Inexperienced young girl, had called him back to her without knowing for sure what she wanted to say.
- •It’s your turn to listen and answer.”
- •I can’t do it on my own, so the women are going to have to help me.”
- •Ignored the lingering soreness in her body and the vague nausea she seemed unable to get rid of and looked
- •Ignoring Gii’s sudden surprised intake of breath, Mikki tilted her head in what she liked to think was a
- •I have to finish up here and then take a bath or something because I am definitely a mess and—”
- •It seemed that these roses were greener and healthier than those in the rest of the realm. Beyond the beds of
- •It was true, but she squelched the thought, pulling her mind from the beast to the mystery that surrounded the
- •I’ll definitely need you in the morning. I’m going to have breakfast with the four Elementals. Could you be
- •Instead of being included in one of their groups at lunch . . .
- •In handy in your line of work.”
- •If he was afraid of crushing it.
- •It’s a great resource for me. Now I don’t have to worry about not knowing my way around.” She couldn’t
- •In entering her bed, the very thought of which was abhorrent to her. The sight of me was a constant reminder
- •I should not be here with you.”
- •It was impossible between them because he was making it that way. It was as if there was some kind of
- •If she asked the goddess outright and Hecate commanded her to stay away from him, then what would she
- •In return; she had shivered beneath his lips.
- •If he would be the only one to pay the price, he would gladly do so. He knew it for truth, even though the
- •Imagined that she was preparing to summon the Elementals and begin her day. He, too, must begin his. She
- •Ink, and she’d drawn her own considerably less-attractive lines to quarter the blueprint. “As I said before,
- •In the dirt as she demonstrated exactly how the earth needed to be worked around the roots of the bushes.
- •It had taken Mikado longer to inspect the southern section of the gardens. The roses were more ill there,
- •Its shadows to him and attempt to cloak himself from prying eyes. There he would rest and perhaps drink
- •Intoxicating than wine could ever be. Then he realized what she had said and commanded himself to stop
- •It was the exact green of her eyes. She knew it flattered her, just as she knew Daphne had brought it to her at
- •It was okay for her to touch him. But his only movement was the pounding of his heart and the drawing of his
- •View of the torch-lit gardens. The north side of the hall held door after door, each ornately carved with mystic
- •If they like the wish, they turn it into a dream.”
- •Is a dream you will grant.”
- •In Tulsa when you started coming to me in my dreams—and I didn’t even know the man within you then.
- •It was not enough! The beast within him roared.
- •Into stone. She pulled away, but only by a hand’s width, so she could meet his eyes.
- •Into the marble troughs that stretched from its base outward and all the way to the four corners of the
- •Invoked the spells?” Gii said.
- •Imagine what was going to go on in the women’s wing tonight. I wish the same thing was going on in my
- •Is that Crete?”
- •Into the realm.”
- •In the middle of which sat a huge pallet covered with more pelts. This is where he sleeps. The thought sent a
- •Voluptuous swell of her ass.
- •Imagined knowing the joy of.”
- •It is your love that sustains us.” He closed his eyes and buried his head in her hair, willing himself not to
- •In the mundane world. He would still be without her, but Asterius could live with that. He would miss her for
- •Inhumanly feral grace that the comparison was jarring. She didn’t desire the golden man, but she did feel a
- •In some harmless flirtation. And why not? She felt amazingly pretty and completely loved. But that didn’t
- •It is not. Perhaps he will choose to keep you to himself while we visit the women in the rest of your pathetic
- •Instantly, Asterius checked his attack.
- •It is the goddess you must beseech in the future.” Without another word, the Titan disappeared from the
- •Very much alive. Slowly, she lifted her eyes to meet her lover’s.
- •Victory for them. If they can taint your life, even after they’ve been banished, then they haven’t truly been
- •Idiot! Do you have bandages? Ugh—some of these look like they need stitches. There has to be a doctor in
- •In the barely controlled strength of his thrusts. Mikki didn’t close her eyes. She wanted to see him, to watch
- •Violently. Mikki pulled back to see that his eyes were closed and tears were slowly tracking their way down
- •Violence was left to disturb you.” Gii’s voice shook, and her face was deathly pale. “They’re dying, Empousa.
- •Varieties, with their double blooms and abundant midseason and fall repeat blossoming. But why had these
- •Irrigation for the realm. Is that true?”
- •In the spring they would grow back and be healthier and hardier than before. Roses were survivors—not the
- •Imagine it, and so she refused to think about it. She would do what she had to do when the time came. Until
- •Into the walls of the cave and lighting more torches until the bedroom was alive with warmth and light. He
- •Into the heart of the gardens. Mikki didn’t allow her mind to wander. She hurried up the stairs, barely glancing
- •Into Asterius’s bed . . .
- •I began to hope that perhaps Hecate had allowed me to live for so longt o±ђ† for another reason.” Sevillana’s
- •Is only part of my name. I rarely use my family name—it is too difficult for me to hear it and to know that I
- •Very least, forced me back to face Hecate’s wrath. Instead, he said one small thing and then stepped aside and
- •It all made horrible sense. Asterius’s behavior when they first met and were attracted to each other . . . How
- •Into the meadow, followed by a group of young, beautiful women. Their flowing chitons were draped
- •In the shadows, Hecate smiled and patted one of her great beasts on his dark head.
- •Into eyes that were so big and blue and beautifully dark lashed that she suddenly and moronically forgot her
- •I’m not sure whether to get her another dog, get her some Prozac or take her for a visit to the pet psychic.”
- •Interested in women like me.”
It’s a great resource for me. Now I don’t have to worry about not knowing my way around.” She couldn’t
help looking at his hands, which more closely resembled massive paws than an artist’s delicate tools. “How
dwalСЂr mid you do it?”
For a moment he didn’t answer and then, slowly, he lifted his left hand. It was man-shaped, but bigger, with
thicker, more powerful fingers than even what she imagined would be normal for a pro football linebacker.
“They’re really more dexterous than they look,” he said. “I have spent centuries learning to wield them.”
Spreading his fingers, his hand quivered, and from each fingernail bed a long, pointed, talonlike claw
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extended.
“Shit on a shingle!” she gasped.
He barked a rough laugh. “Is that a curse?”
She drew her spine up straight. “Yes. A very bad one. I should watch my language, but you . . .” Her words
ran out and she could only gaze at the five dangerous knives his fingers had become.
“I frightened you,” he finished for her.
“No,” she said quickly. “You didn’t scare me, you just surprised me.” She met his eyes. “May I touch them?”
“Yes . . .” The word rumbled from deep within his chest.
She touched one of the gleaming claws. “You’re like Wolverine.”
“I’m like a small, mean-tempered animal?”
“No.” Fascinated, she stared at the claw. It felt cold and hard against the pad of her finger. “It’s the name of a
fictional character who was created for something called comic books in my old world. Actually, he probably
was named after the animal. He’s a man who has special abilities. One of which is that he can make claws
come out of his hands, like you can.”
The Guardian didn’t take his eyes from his hands, where she was still tracing his claw with the soft warmth of
her finger.
“And is this Wolverine a demon, shunned and rejected by the rest of the comic book characters?”
“He seems to get himself in more than his share of trouble, but he’s really a man with a good heart who tries
hard to do the right thing.” She finally raised her eyes to his. “After you get to know him you understand that
the only demon within him is the one he imagines in his own imperfections.” Mikki couldn’t look away from
him. His dark eyes devoured her sense of reason. Reality bent until it wasn’t important what he was, as long
as he kept looking at her like that—like she was his world.
With a little tremor, she felt his claws retract and she realized that her hand was resting within his. With a
nervous laugh, she pulled her hand quickly to her side. “So you actually use your claws as quills?”
“Yes, Empousa.” His expression hardened into unreadable lines again.
Mikki’s stomach clenched. She didn’t want him to retreat from her, so before she sat back down she reached
over and placed her hand gently on his forearm. His eyes shot to hers, but he didn’t speak, nor did he pull
away from hert tСЂ hi touch.
“Thank you for this beautiful map. It is exactly what I need to organize the women tomorrow.”
“You are most welcome, Empousa.”
She smiled and then returned to her chair. “I wish you would call me Mikki. I like being High Priestess, but
there are times when I just want to be me.”
“If you would not mind,” his deep voice rumbled between them, “I would prefer to call you Mikado. It is a
lovely rose, and I find that it reminds me of you.”
She felt a thrill of pleasure at his compliment. “I don’t mind. I like the way my name sounds when you say
it—like there’s some kind of secret hidden within the word.”
“Perhaps there is,” he said.
“Perhaps . . .” she said. She was falling into his gaze again, losing herself . . .
“I should go,” he said abruptly, breaking their gaze and beginning to stand.
“Not yet!” Leaning forward, she caught his hand and felt the jolt that went through him when their flesh
touched. “Stay a little longer and have one more glass of wine with me.” When he relaxed back into his chair,
she reluctantly released his hand and then busied herself refilling both of their wine goblets. “I know I should
be exhausted, and my body is, but my mind keeps going around and around with all the things I need to do
tomorrow and all the things I should have gotten done today.”
“You accomplished much today. You should be pleased.”
“I am. I’m just impatient to get to work on the rest of the gardens.” He nodded. “It is important that the roses
heal and thrive. They are the foundation of our realm and its strength. It is dangerous for them to be unwell.”
“Can you tell me what it is in the forest that you’re so worried about?” she asked quietly.
“Dream Stealers.”
“That’s what Hecate called them, too, but I have no idea what that means. All I know is that you and she, and
by the way the women who went into the forest stayed quiet and frightened looking, everyone in this realm
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believes they’re dangerous. I get that, but I don’t get what they are.”
“Dream Stealers take different forms, depending upon their victim. That is one reason they are so dangerous.
The face they would show you would be different from the one they would show one of your handmaidens.”
“So they’re physical beings?”
“They can take physical forms, yes.” He paused and studied her carefully. “In your old world, there must
have been Dream Stealers. Perhaps they just chose to personify yet another form there.”
She thought about the young gang members who were regulars in the ER until they inevitably ended up in the
morgue or the state penitentiary—about the statistics that reported Oklahoma as one of the states
with/foСЂyou the largest number of teen pregnancies, as well as reports of child abuse—and about the
ridiculously high number of Oklahoma women who lived in poverty.
“You’re right. There are Dream Stealers in my old world. Young men throw away their lives; girls repeat
cycles of abuse until they can see no way out; terrible things happen every day.”
“And what causes those things to happen? What is at the heart of those tragedies?”
“Hatred, ignorance, apathy,” she said.
“Exactly. And those are just some of the Dream Stealers that lurk in the forest of the crossroads between
worlds. If they would enter our realm, they would be able to not simply destroy people’s lives, but the dreams
on which generations survive.”
“You’ll keep them out, won’t you?”
“I have sworn a life oath to do so.”
“You should have told me all this earlier.” Mikki shivered, feeling sick at the thought that she’d insisted he
open the gate and let the women go into the forest. “No, it’s not your fault. You tried to tell me that it was
dangerous; I should have listened to you.”
“You did what you believed was best for the roses. No harm was done; I was there to guard the gate. I will
always be there to guard the gate.”
“But if those things are in the forest, why is there a gate at all? Shouldn’t we seal it up and be sure it’s never
opened again?”
“We cannot. Mikado, not everything in the forest is evil. You should know that even dreams must be
tempered with reality from time to time. Our reality comes from the forest and the threads of reality that drift
there from the worlds beyond.”
“First thing tomorrow you’ll check all the rest of the hedge to be sure no other area has been weakened by
the roses being sick?”
“I will. You may rest easily, Mikado. The realm is safe under my protection.”
She knew what he said was the truth—she knew it because she felt it deep within her blood. All her intuition
told her that this incredible man-beast would give his life to keep the Realm of the Rose, and its Empousa,
safe.
“Thank you.”
This time instead of bristling at her appreciation, he simply bowed his head slightly.
For a while they sipped their wine, each lost in their own thoughts.
“May I ask you another question?” Mikki said.
“You may.” He was looking at her with an open, interested expression.
“When I asked you if you could teach me to conjure things, you said you couldn’t because only someone
born of a Titan had that ability. Just exactly who were your parents?”
He dmorСЂcouidn’t respond to her question for a long time, weighing whether he should tell her his story, or
whether he should stay silent and remain a mystery to her—a mystery that she would eventually tire of trying
to solve.
The thought made him feel crushingly alone.
When he began to speak, his powerful voice was unusually subdued, and he could not look at her. Instead, he
stared blankly out into the night.
“My father is the Titan Cronos. One day he visited the ancient island of Crete and was struck by more than
the beauty of the land amidst sea. He saw and instantly fell in love with the fair Pasiphea. But she was no
mindless maiden. Pasiphea knew that mortals who become lovers of the gods usually come to tragic endings,
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so she refused the Titan. Cronos was not dissuaded by her rejection—he waited and watched. When Minos,
king of Crete, chose Pasiphea as his bride, my father saw his opportunity. On Minos’s wedding night, he
drugged the king and took his likeness, as well as his bride’s virginity. Minos was fooled, as was Pasiphea. But
Cronos’s wife, Rhea, was not. She suspected her husband’s infidelity and confronted Cronos. He denied
loving Pasiphea. And in truth, he did not lie. Once he’d sated his desire for the mortal woman, his love faded.
Still, Rhea was not satisfied. She watched Pasiphea, discovering that the new bride was pregnant. In a fit of
jealous anger, Rhea cursed Pasiphea’s child. If, indeed, it was the son of a Titan, the child would be born not
man or god, but an abomination, a creature like none other in the ancient world. That is how I came into
being.”
“You are what the myth of the Minotaur was based on!”
Bottomless and empty, his eyes found hers. “That is the name Minos gave me. He loathed me from the
moment I was born.”
“And your mother?”
“Pasiphea was kinder than her husband. She even used to secretly visit me, and I remember when I was
young, she sometimes sang me to sleep.” He paused, struggling to control his emotions.
“Your mother loved you.”
He flinched and felt as if her words physically hurt him. “I like to believe that she tried to love me. She named
me Asterius, refusing to call me by the name Minos had given me, but even in her kindness she could not
forget that I was a beast. She knew that because of my monstrous form, Cronos had somehow been successful