Ella “I’m ready,” I reply, straightening my shoulders and sitting up, away from my mother, who is also the Goddess. “What do I need to do?” “You must go,” she urges, her eyes clear and untroubled despite the turmoil in mine. “Into the desert beyond this temple. There, I can communicate more clea
Everyone stands, ready for action, ready to follow me out into the desert to meet whatever the Goddess holds for us there. ________________ In the end, we don’t all go into the desert. Instead, it is only Cora, Reina, and I who prepare to set out into the sands. Roger puts up the biggest fuss at
Ella In the darkness of the back room, Reina instructs us to strip down to our skins and then hands us two rough robes that we pull over our heads, hardly more than bleached potato sacks with cowl necks and long sleeves. “Is this part of the ceremony?” I ask, curious and disliking the feel of th
“What do we do now?” Cora asks, likewise looking all around. As beautiful as it is, we are in an empty place. There is nothing here to with any script regarding what to do next. “Sit,” Reina instructs, pulling her garment over her head in a single graceful movement and spreading it out on the grou
Sinclair God damn it, I think, looking around at the hastily set-up headquarters that looks like a little more than a rickety table surrounded by anxious wolves. If this isn’t hell, then I don’t know what is. We arrived at the edge of the capital days ago and set up here, in an abandoned warehouse
As the prince stares, the door begins to creek open. With it, Damon’s smile grows. “Welcome, Kieran,” Damon purrs, quickly scanning the group he sees before him. “So nice to see you on this…momentous occasion.” “My Prince,” Kieran replies, giving him a deep bow. “King, now,” Damon growls, glarin
3rd Person “Now!” Kieran shouts, just as the knife starts to draw Sinclair’s blood, just as he was instructed to do. The blood, after all, would throw Damon’s guards into a frenzy, giving Kieran and his men the slight advantage they will need to pull this off. At his word, every single one of his
As they work, Sinclair leaps onto the table, which shudders under his weight. He crawls over top of the smaller wolf’s shuddering, whimpering form, his face still curled in a wolf’s rage, his jaws slavering with his hunger for vengeance. Beneath him, there is a flash, and then, in the blink of an
He shakes his head at me as tears fill his own eyes and he leans forward, pulling me against him while somehow miraculously managing not to crush our children between us as he holds me tight in his arms. “So, I guess it wouldn’t matter,” he murmurs against my hair as I sniff back my tears and nod.
“Even more than the kids!?” I gasp, my mouth falling open a bit. “I mean, the kids,” he says, shrugging as if they’re not much, which makes me laugh. But then he goes a little rigid as he realizes something, raising his eyes to glare at me a bit. “Wait, are you saying you like the kids more than m
Ella “Nope,” Sinclair says, heaving himself out of bed and grabbing his phone off the bedside table as he does. “I can’t live like this, Ella – I’m calling Roger, I’ve got to know –“ “Dominic!” I say, laughing and grabbing for him, trying to catch the edge of his pajamas and failing because I’v
She laughs and I look first at Sinclair, who shrugs, and then back at my sister. “Come on,” Roger says, nodding at the crowds of people waiting to congratulate us and at the small table of refreshments. “Let’s decide this over some champagne.” Sinclair nods at me and I sigh, moving with my famil
The last image, though, lingers. Ariel, with Rafe and Jesse on either side – as they always are – and her two mates behind her. All standing together on a battlefield with Ariel at the center, magic welling between her hands and passing to her brother, to her cousin. Their faces are serious as t
Cora The images of Ariel’s future come in quick flashes, and somehow I get the impression that the Goddess is eager to share these glimpses of her life. The ones that come first are what I sort of expected, especially after seeing some images of Rafe’s childhood and hearing about the ones that
“We are not,” Cora scoffs, gently taking Ariel into her arms as Sinclair and I laugh. Roger grins, leaning forward to kiss me on the cheek before passing Jesse to me. “You know I’m kidding, right, Ells?” he whispers. I smile at my brother-in-law and gently pat his cheek. “When in doubt, Roger,”
Ella Three weeks later – Ariel was born under a waning quarter moon, not a new moon like her brother and her cousin – I stand anxiously in the woods, my little girl held tight in my arms. “I’m sensing some anxiety,” Cora says, grinning at me with a little too much glee as she comes up to my sid
“Oh my god,” I say, the words spilling out of my mouth. “Oh my god,” I sit up straight, staring at Henry, my eyes flicking to his legs – because honestly, I don’t even notice his chair anymore, or think of him at all as someone whose abilities are hindered. Or of me as someone who is able to do an