Guinevere's Grail | ✓ [BOOK 2]

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Little bird! O little bird!
I wonder at what thou doest,
Thou singing merry far from me,
I in sadness all alone!

Little bird! O little bird!
I wonder at how thou art
Thou high on the tips of branching boughs,
I on the ground a-creeping!

Little bird! O little bird!
Thou art music far away,
Like the tender croon of the mother love

In the kindly sleep of death.

* * *

S

TORMS WERE NOT A rarity in Fells. No one bat an eye as the clouds gathered in the sky above their heads, threatening rain at any moment.

The moment it started to pour, the druids gave blessings to their gardens and prayed for their homes to stay together. Kit watched with reverent awe as they did their rituals. As a people, they were close to the Gods, and centered their lives around them. He assumed they would have to depend on them in their condition.

Morgana and Giselle stuck together, taking a stroll towards the shore to look out over the lake. Kit kept his eye out from the distance, but tried not to invade their privacy. He didn't know whether to respect again Morgana or not, but he knew he respected Giselle.

As much as he loved her, though, he knew she would be the easiest for him to manipulate into letting him go. She wasn't often controlled by her emotions over her logic, but she loved Morgana more than anything, and love was her weakness as much as it was her strength.

Eurion approached him, following his gaze to the two on the shore.

"What did he do?" she asked. "You know, besides betraying us. What did he do to you that his sacrifice isn't enough to try and trust him again?"

He looked down at his feet. It was hard to think about what happened between them, because there were so many feelings that came up and he didn't know how to process them. He hadn't told anyone the full story since it happened, but he knew he could confide in Eurion.

"He kissed me," he said, swallowing the lump in his throat. "I liked it, and he knew that I liked it. I thought he did, too, but it was just a trick. He took advantage of my feelings and stabbed me, then he threw me into my room to get killed by my father."

"Yikes," she murmured. "But he took the hit for you. Do you think that was the plan? Get Wylan to try and kill you, then jump in and take it so he would die?"

Kit shrugged. "It sounds like something he would do, he's awful clever like that. It's just... whatever his motive was, he still took advantage of me. He made me think for a minute that..."

He swallowed.

"He played with your feelings," Eurion said. "I can't say I haven't done the same before, but it's never been to that level. I'm sorry he did that, Kit. I can see why that made you hesitant."

"Thank you."

It was a strange thing, the two that struggled the most with emotions helping each other through their feelings. Selene was judgy and blunt and saw every act of sympathy as taking pity, so she wasn't the one to go to. Giselle was good with her emotions, but that made it hard for her to understand when others weren't. Eurion got it, though. She knew what it was like, to be so afraid of opening up.

"It's raining a lot," she pointed out, adjusting the hood of her cloak further over her face. Kit didn't have anything to keep himself from getting soaked, and now his hair was dripping and his white tunic was starting to cling to his chest.