Kissed by Moonlight by Shéa MacLeod Page B

an ordinary place where two girls slept peacefully.
    A shimmering disc formed next to the bed, and two dark forms stepped through: the queen and her visitor. Dread lodged in my stomach.
    Letting go of her escort's arm, the queen leaned over the bed. She glanced from one girl to the next before choosing the one with the light-colored hair. Placing her hands on either side of the girl's face, the queen closed her eyes. I could feel Morgana as she began to draw power from the Other Side. A lot of power. She was about to do something big.
    My jaw dropped as she sank her fingers through the girl's skull and into her brain. I tried to say something, but nothing came out. Again, I was rooted to the floor in silence, a mere observer to the horror.
    Morgana swirled her fingers around in the sleeping girl's brain like she was stirring a pot of soup. The girl moved uneasily and let out a little moan of pain. Slowly Morgana withdrew her fingers. As she did, she pulled out a tiny, shimmering gold thread from the sleeping girl's brain. At least, that's what it looked like.
    Morgana handed the thread to the man whose face I still couldn't make out. "These are the memories you wish to erase."
    The man stared at the delicate thread cupped in his palm. Then he closed his fist around it and crushed it. It fell from his fingers in a trickle of blackened dust.
    Morgana gave the man a wry smile. "I shall replace them with that which we discussed."
    The man said nothing, simply nodded. Once again, Morgana reached into the girl's head, stirring her fingers slowly. This time when she pulled them out, no threads came with them, but her fingers shimmered silver in the moonlight.
    "It is done."
    The man offered Morgana his arm again and they exited the way they'd come, through the disc, clearly a portal between the human world and the Other World. It closed behind them, leaving me standing in the girls' bedroom.
    As if their passing had broken some kind of spell, I was suddenly able to move. I hurried to the bed, squatting down to get a good look at the blond girl's face. What I saw made me gasp.
    ***
    I woke to sunlight streaming through the window. It was much brighter than I was used to. Portland mornings were often on the gray and gloomy side this time of year. Central Oregon mornings were a whole different animal. With a grunt, I pulled the blankets over my head to block out the light. Didn't Tommy believe in curtains?
    The rich scent of coffee tickled my nose. I could hear Tommy banging around in the kitchen. A glance at my cellphone told me it was way too freaking early in the morning, but there was no way I was getting back to sleep.
    Last night's conversation was still fresh in my mind, but I wasn't quite ready to face it yet. Tommy had said I'd know when I was ready. Today was not that day. Instead, I replayed my dream. Yeah, Cordy told me I couldn't always trust them, but this had all the hallmarks of one of my Atlantean-influenced dreams.
    I fingered the amulet around my neck. Yes, this had definitely been a true dream. A dream of the past. That was why I couldn't change anything; it had already happened.
    I sat up abruptly, ignoring the slight dizziness as my body tried to deal with the whole being awake thing. The blonde girl from my dream had been Jade Vincent. Much younger, much more innocent, and a hell of a lot happier, but definitely Jade.
    Morgana had taken memories from her. Of what, I had no idea, but I imagined they must be good ones, happy ones. The kind of memories that gave a person solid ground under her feet. Morgana had replaced those memories with what? The only reason the Fairy Queen would expend that kind of power on a nobody girl was so she could use it to her advantage. Whatever memories she'd implanted in Jade's mind had been used to manipulate the poor girl. Who she was, what she'd done, was based on a lie.
    Rage infused me. Morgana and her sidekick or partner or whoever had traveled back in time and turned an innocent