T
he water was the exact temperature to ensure relaxation, and I felt completely boneless as I floated. Moira’s hand cupping the back of my neck kept me in the center of the small pool, and grounded me in the here and now. She was murmuring an appeal to the ancestors, asking for them to appear to us.

Not that I was in trouble. It was Sunday, January 6, 2008—a Red Letter day because it was the first Sunday I’d managed to spend with the clan since my adoption ceremony. It had been a good day, filled with fun, food, and plenty of cuddling—mostly with Logan.

I’d finally had the time to discuss seeing the tiger ancestors with the red-haired shamaness. I’d seen them three times: at my adoption ceremony, during a dream in the Unseelie realm, and again at the Solstice bonfire a couple of weeks before. When Moira said she knew of a way to try to discover what had happened to the White Queen who’d helped me locate Logan, I was all for trying.

It’d been a little weird, getting naked with another woman, especially one I knew had been naked with the guy I was dating. But she was the clan’s shamaness, and she said the nudity was necessary. She also assured me no one would come peeking.

We were in a circular cave, the pool smack dab in the middle of its floor. The cave was somewhere in the forest behind Moira’s cute log cabin. If I opened my eyes, I wouldn’t see anything but swirling steam—or maybe it was fog—high overhead. Considering we hadn’t descended any great distance, and there hadn’t been a huge hill aboveground, the cave was a weird place. Then again, that was kind of par for the course when it came to pocket realms.

Moira paused, then quietly said, “Open your eyes and tell me what you see.”

It took a few seconds to obey, because even my eyelids were relaxed to the point of not wanting to move. Once opened, I managed to focus and said, “The ancestors are up there, but they’re sitting this time.”

“Good. You see the empty place?”

“Yes.” The spectral tigers sat in concentric rings, each bigger than the one inside it. All of them that I could see were staring down at us. “It’s in the inner circle.”

“That innermost circle is the First Clan,” Moira said. “The clan that all others are descended from. Which means that the missing White Queen is Cerridwen.”

Not an English name. Irish? But there weren’t tigers in Ireland. Not native ones anyway. I could ask about that later. Bigger fish to fry at the moment. “What do we do now?”

“We’ll ask her mate where she is. Remember, they’re spirits, and our ancestors.”

“Yeah, but they’re not my ancestors. I’m adopted.”

Moira softly chuckled. “They approved your inclusion. They accepted you as one of us.”

I wanted to ask them why, but maybe it was better not to know. Didn’t really want to learn anything that might ruin my newfound joy in belonging to the clan. “Which one is he?”

There were ten other tigers in that innermost circle, nine oranges, and one black. I knew the black tiger wouldn’t be the missing Queen’s mate, because black tigers were sterile. He was nearly solid black, having only a few, subtle pale markings. He sat on one side of the empty spot.

“Matthew,” the shamaness called, and the orange tiger on the empty spot’s other side blinked large, pale gold eyes. She began to greet him, so I took the time to look at the rings of tigers.

There were more circles than I’d first thought, receding into the outer limits of visibility of the cave’s foggy ceiling. I spotted over a dozen White Queens in the circles I could clearly see, some with black striping, others with brown, orange, or gold striping. There were only three black tigers in those circles. From the one in the First Clan circle to the third in the fourteenth circle, the last I could easily make out, their markings became more noticeable.

A movement refocused my attention directly above us, and I watched Matthew climbing down invisible rocks. He was gazing intently at me. “What’s he doing?”

“Telling us where Cerridwen is. It’s all right.” Moira lifted her free hand from the water to touch my arm. I’d relaxed into a starfish shape, arms out, legs apart. Nice and vulnerable. Easy prey for a tiger to rip to shreds.

“Everything is fine,” she said. “He won’t hurt you.”

Logan trusted her, and I didn’t have any reason not to trust her as well. Matthew reached us then, and sat beside me, across from Moira. The tiger stayed above the water’s surface, as though it were solid ground for him. He lowered his head, and I met his eyes.

They were calm and steady. Being that close, I could see the light yellow and green mix that made up the pale gold. The tiger nodded once, and laid a huge front paw on my chest. It was a weird sensation, not any actual pressure, but I definitely knew he was touching me. “She’s stuck inside me. That’s what he’s saying, right?”

“Her spirit’s within you, but whether or not she’s trapped there is the new question.” Moira let her hand slip away from my arm. “He’s staying calm. That’s a good sign.”

“Does that mean she’s okay?”

“This is unfamiliar ground for me, Cordi. Matthew knows her location, and isn’t angry. He’s not upset at all, which I can only interpret as she’s choosing to be where she is, and is fine.”

The tiger blinked, lifting his paw while looking from me to Moira. His mouth began opening and closing slightly. “What’s he doing?”

“He’s calling to his Queen. Maybe he can retrieve her.”

“Okay.” A weird sliding, wiggling sensation occurred inside me. I couldn’t tell if it was in my mind or a real sensation somewhere in my body. “I just felt something.”

“Painful?”

“No, weird.” The strange sensation continued, and my body began to tingle. “Now everything’s beginning to tingle.”

Moira’s hand slid over my bicep again, and her fingers were trembling. Her voice was steady and calm. “Tell me exactly what you’re feeling.”

“Tingling all over, like my whole body is regaining blood flow. And a,” I hesitated, trying to find just the right description for that sliding, wiggly feeling. “Oh, I know. You know how cats sometimes do the Twist on the floor, on their backs? It’s like there’s a cat inside, doing that.”

She smiled. “That’s good.”

“It is?”

“Yes because it means she’s not in distress. I’d guess it also means she’s not trapped.”

Well, that was a relief. The White Queen was alive, and not stuck. Or whatever passed for “alive” when it came to spirits. “Then she should be able to leave, right?”

“Right. When she’s ready. Helping you locate Logan apparently wasn’t her only reason to do this.”

Matthew quit his silent calling, dropping his head to press his muzzle to the side of my face. He gave my forehead a single lick and turned to begin climbing thin air back to his place in the ancestral circle. I wondered if he’d gotten more solid or something, because I’d felt the caress of fur and the roughness of his tongue instead of vague sensory reactions.

“Guessing he’s okay with the situation.”

The shamaness nodded. “Looks that way.”

We watched him reach his spot, and Matthew silently roared. All the tigers stood up, and began to pace. Their rings slowly condensed into the single circle of tigers I’d originally seen, and after a few more moments, the tiger merry-go-round faded into the fog and out of sight.

“Wow.”

“That was interesting. I’m sorry I wasn’t more help.”

I grinned at Moira. “Are you kidding? We know she’s in one piece and seems to be okay. That’s awesome.”

My cell phone chose that moment to play the opening bars of “Bells, Books, and Candles”, Damian’s ringtone. Grin fading, I sighed. “Ugh. Duty’s calling.”

“S
orry about this.”

Logan glanced at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he fought a smile. “I’ve never seen you this relaxed. Not even when you were asleep. It’s nice.”

“I can barely walk.” My whole body felt rubbery, and my joints weren’t cooperating.

Moira had had to help me, from leaving the pool and answering the phone, to drying off, getting dressed, and returning to the main building.

He’d taken over from there, half-carrying me to his car. We’d left Dane behind to enjoy the rest of the evening with the clan.

“It’ll wear off; enjoy it while it lasts.”

How did he know that? “Done some soaking yourself?”

“Yeah, it’s a good tension reliever.”

“Yup.” I was not going to ask if he’d been there with Moira. We were officially dating, but we weren’t sleeping together. It wasn’t my business if he’d had a nude soak with her. Shifters got naked around each other all the time. It didn’t mean... I pulled my thoughts up short, aware of Logan glancing at me again.

“Something wrong?”

“Nope.” Nothing but my stupid, unnecessary jealousy.

He braked for a stoplight. “You sure?”

“Uh huh. Damien said it’s a messy scene. Advance warning: I’m probably going to puke.”

“That’s why you wanted a bottle of water.”

“Yeah.”

Logan changed the subject. “Did you two find out anything?”

There hadn’t been time to talk about that before leaving. “Yes, we did. She’s still inside me, and seems to be okay. Her name’s Cerridwen. She’s...”

He interrupted, turning wide eyes my way. “The First Queen? That Cerridwen?”

I nodded. “The light’s green.”

“Oh.” Logan turned back to face the road and let off the brake. “The First Queen’s spirit is inside you.”

“Crazy, huh?”