MasukAviva
Rain patters across the wooden roof covering one corner of the old temple. I roll off the makeshift bed of hay and wool blankets I keep here. I stretch, rolling my neck. My hands are still bloody from the rogue I encountered last night as I gather my weapons and head down to the creek.
I sleep out here sometimes, especially when the weather is nice. The old temple is just far enough from the village where I don’t have to worry about running into anyone dZaynTali walks at my side down the stretch of narrow dirt road weaving across the private royal island. It’s a fine day. It was, at least. I spent the majority of it avoiding Fallon at all costs, which meant tiptoeing through the house, occasionally catching glimpses of her talking to the maids, the chef, or the messengers who travel to and from Eurye. I’m staying out of her way for good reason. I almost lost my grip on the situation this morning. Tali whistles low, drawing my attention back to the moment instead of lingering on the way Fallon’s hair shimmered across the pillows in the morning light. “When’s the last time you shifted?” he asks. I kick a pebble of pumice, squinting into the sun drifting between the palm fronds overhead. “When I was challenged. Yesterday.”“I mean, when was the last time you got it out of your system?”“What?” The guesthouse comes into view. Tali halts, touching my arm in a silent request for me to stop walking. “Tali–”“You smell like a wolf on e
FallonI wake to full sunlight dusting the domed ceiling. It reflects off the chandelier, painting the room in rainbows. Groggy and unsure what time it is, I close my eyes again, wiggling under an immense amount of pressure gluing me to the mattress. Warmth like I’ve never known pins me down. It’s cozy. The coziest thing I’ve ever felt. The most comfortable and secure I’ve ever been. It’s likely that I’m still hovering somewhere between reality and the dreamworld. I feel full and slightly dizzy from what might be the longest stretch of real, deep sleep I’ve had in a long while. I’m not sure what woke me up, but I quickly assume it’s my senses blaring in warning, and with a start, I open my eyes again and realize the weight keeping me pressed to the bed is not the dreamworld or my body’s slow roll into awareness. Nope. Zayn sighs so deeply his body rattles. It hums through me because the man is draped over me in a way that’s so damningly intimate I have to suck in a breath and pore
ZaynI was twenty when my father found me on the beach, sopping wet and covered in sand. It was a strange day, to put it lightly. The weather was terrible, roiling and violent, though I suppose I was used to that. I couldn’t remember how I ended up there. I have hazy memories of him kneeling in front of me, clutching my face between his hands and shouting my name over, and over. But that was the moment. The night the stars aligned, deciding my destiny. The night everything about my upbringing ceased to matter. Father’s tenure in Meridem was supposed to be life-long. That was the rule for governors–one step below the Principate in hierarchy of wizardry. He was supposed to keep Meridem and the shifters who called it home in check, to ensure the laws of the wizards were followed, and beat into submission anyone who disagreed. Meridem was a gift, so to speak, when he became an adult. The Alexandrite mines in Meridem were the main source of the precious stone that allowed lower wizards a
ZaynIt’s well past 9:00 in the evening when Tali and I walk up the steps to his home. The first thing I see with full clarity after a hell of a long day, mostly in my wolf form, is Fallon resting in an oversized armchair with Koa draped over her lap. He’s fast asleep. Andy hangs off one shoulder, his dark eyes bright and honed on the picture book she’s reading. Gracen is perched on her other side, resting his elbow on her shoulder, his cheek squished against the top of Fallon’s head. She yawns, which makes the little boys yawn, and turns the page. “Hey now,” Tali whispers, which startles both boys. “How’d you weasel your way into staying up an hour past your bedtime?”Andy fidgets, but I expect as such from him. Little wizard boys are essentially whipped into submission from birth if they’re unlucky enough to be separated from good fathers, like he was. He slides off the armchair, but Gracen hesitates, narrowing his eyes at his father, battling some internal shifter rage at the ide
FallonZayn is doing his best to ignore me. Either that, or I hit a nerve by telling him I’m actually enjoying my, well, kidnapping and confinement in KiloKilo. He didn’t take that sentiment pleasantly, which immediately brought me back in time to when I made this decision in the first place. I promised him I wouldn’t leave. I did. I mean, I did change my mind at the very last second, so it wasn’t entirely my fault, but it’s clear his trust in me and my judgment is minimal, but if we’re going to play house, he must trust me. Which is why I plan to be the best behaved I’ve ever been. Today. Right now, at this very moment! It should be easy. I’ve been one of the only women in a room of men on countless occasions. Men who used to sneer and turn their cheek at my mother, who now bow and crawl before her. Men are easy to please in regard to diplomacy. Throw them a bone, and eventually, they’ll throw you a whole animal carcass, or whatever the hell Grandma Ella said. I can shut up. I ca
FallonCathy turns me by the shoulders to inspect the roughly cut silhouette hanging from my body. Pins pinch precariously close to my skin, but I’m not a novice by any means. I’ve been to thousands of dress fittings over the course of my mostly dreadfully boring twenty-three years in the Goddess’ kingdom, and this one doesn’t even come close to the more painful experiences I’ve had. “Is this really the type of shape you like?” Cathy frowns, pinching the fabric toward the curve of my hips. I swat her hands away, tilting my chin toward the ceiling in defiance. “I know what I like.”“Obviously,” she murmurs, sucking the word in on a breath. “Well, it wouldn’t be what I’d choose.”I bite my tongue to stop myself from tossing the fact that she’s shaped like an effigy of a goddess while I’m reminiscent of a twelve-year-old boy out into the universe. “I like to be able to move and breathe.”“It’s rather dated.”I huff with frustration, blinking up at the ceiling. “It’s a vintage cut. Ther
EllaI wake to bright sunshine streaming through the window next to our bed in the cottage. I squeeze my eyes shut against the onslaught of light and reach over the sun-warmed sheets for Ryatt, but the other side of the bed is still as empty as it was when I fell asleep. For the first time in weeks,
EllaA fine layer of mist covers the ground as I follow Commander Westfall down a steep embankment. Pockets of loose shale give way beside me, tumbling to the ground and shattering like glass. I pull my cloak tighter, grimacing as my feet slip and slide over the uneven ground. The sun hasn’t risen ye
EllaThis is fucked up, and I am pissed off. I readjust my position in the ridiculously comfortable, high-backed throne I’ve been seated in and curl my fingers around my knee. Hot sunshine beats down into a pit of shallow sand that’s currently being raked while the people arriving to witness my mate’
EllaWe don’t linger long at the falls. The sunset fades to a rich, velvety purple by the time I pull the car I borrowed into the massive garage behind the castle. Ryatt didn’t say a word the entire drive back. I glanced at him a few times, noticing the absent look in his eyes as he hung his arm out







