Free Highland Raven by Melanie Karsak

power surge up in me. It was a strange, tingly feeling. I opened my eyes. Green light glimmered before me, illuminating the cavern, shining its light on the bones of the dead queen. When I turned to look on the skeleton, the green light faded, and I couldn’t hear Sid anymore.
    “Sid?” I called. A deep, empty silence fell all around me. My skin crept. “Sid? Sid, can you hear me?”
    No answer came. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate again, but anxiety racked me. I was too late. A glimmer of sunlight slanted though the hole in the side of the barrow. The sun had risen.
    I puzzled at what to do. I was certain I couldn’t get back to the grove on my own. Distraught, I sat by the hole and stared at the bones. My hands were shaking. My comrade, who swore we knew each other in lives past, had just disappeared into the world of the fey, and I was alone with bones—my own? I felt the otherworld pungently around me, more strongly than I had ever felt it before. My skin chilled to goose bumps. My head began to feel very dizzy. The darkness around me felt heavy. I closed my eyes and heard the wings of a bird. Wings. My wings. Raven wings. I felt myself fly though the darkness.
    “You’re halfway there,” a voice said.
    Startled, I opened my eyes. I was sitting with my back against a wide gray column. Before me stood the Wyrd Sisters.
    “Welcome back,” the older woman said.
    The world around me was very dark.
    “Sid?” I called. I rose to my feet and tried to look around. “Sid?”
    “Sidhe is not here, though she is close,” the old woman said.
    “Come, come to the cauldron,” the younger woman said.
    “Come, Cerridwen,” the ancient matriarch called, motioning me forward.
    The younger, red-haired woman frowned. “Not too much or Epona will hide her away.”
    “Bah, Epona will do as the Goddess commands.”
    “Cerridwen…why call me by the name of the Welsh Cauldron Goddess?” I demanded.
    “Welsh!” the elder woman declared in disgust. “The Goddess of the Cauldron is eternal. She is known by many names…Cerridwen, Hecate, Astarte…all ladies of war and magic, all the same divine creature…all just like you.”
    I frowned at her. Her answer felt like a riddle. “Why have you brought me here?”
    The younger woman with the deep red hair grinned at me. “You tell us. Why have you come here?”
    “I was in the barrow.”
    “But your path ends here,” the red-haired woman said.
    “Yet still, you are right, Epona will keep her too long,” the older woman complained.
    “Epona can smell the magic on her, but that is not why Epona keeps her.”
    “You’re right. It is Crearwy she desires.”
    “And the other.”
    “Look in your cauldron. The boy belongs to the world. Don’t you see the crown on his head?”
    The women became silent, their eyes flicking back toward me.
    “Come, Cerridwen. I will show him to you. I know you wish to see him,” said the elder.
    “Who?”
    “The man in your dream. Your raven-haired man with skin like snow and eyes the color of the sky,” said the younger.
    “Your King,” added the elder.
    Curiosity got the better of me. I stepped forward and looked in the cauldron. He was there, the man from my dream just the night before. He was in battle. I gasped. Many men were upon him, but a blond-haired giant, swinging a massive battle axe, cleared them away. My heart stilled. The women were watching me, but I didn’t care. I watched as the raven-haired man moved through the battlefield. He was beautiful. His clear blue eyes sought out his enemy. His cheeks were flushed red from battle vigor.
    I reached out and touched his image in the cauldron. The liquid did not ripple like water; it felt soft like silk. I was surprised when the man stopped and looked around him.
    “Can you feel me?” I asked.
    “Yes,” he answered.
    “Where are you?” I whispered.
    “Caithness.”
    “Can you see me?”
    He shook his head. Then a fierce warrior came upon him. Hearing my