LOGINAviva
Moonlight ghosts over my skin as I stand at the highest point of the valley that overlooks Silverhide. Wind whispers through my fur, and my keen eyes scan the valley below for movement before I move along the narrow rocks, careful of the steep drop-offs hidden in the shadows. The stars are out in full overhead, bright and wild against ribbons of deep, swirling purple.
It’s a perfect night. The kind of night I always longed for after days of rain a
SkyeI cock my head and laugh as Abby braces her hands on my doorframe. Her fair skin is flushed pink from the cold, which means she was likely outside, possibly in one of the “bubble labs” as we call them, where a few of the departments do their experiments on the ice. Or, more probable, in the terrifying ice labs beneath the surface, where tunnels of ancient ice go on for miles.The gray slate walls behind her gleam in the pale light in the hallway of our apartment–which isn’t much, but we have windows to the outside world, which is a privilege.The student dormitories are in the tunnels weaving beneath the university where the sun never shines even in the summer, and the lights are specially made to give students who live there a minuscule amount of synthetic sunlight to aid the copious amounts of vitamin D supplements everyone keeps in their backpacks.I landed an apartment in one of the towers two years ago. It was a miracle, an actual act of the Goddess, and no one can convince
Book 18SkyeThere’re only two types of people who would ever remotely consider calling Lunaria home.The wolves of the small towns and rural pack territories that dot the eternally icy, always dark frozen wasteland so far north of Crescent Falls that the sun only rises a few inches over the horizon for three months out of the year… and people like me–intellectuals. Researchers. Souls chasing the unexplainable with new scientific methods and theories even magic can’t decipher. People who haven’t been outside in weeks because the daily negative sixty-degree low is cold enough to freeze eyeballs in less than ten minutes. Crazy people. I digress.I love it here. The darkness. The stars. The endless, flat landscape of ice against the wash of the aurora, painting the sky in shades of emerald and pale pink every night… and day, in reality. It’s fall, a week before the official start of the semester, and already the sun has failed to rise for several days, barely poking above the horizon, gi
Ryatt“Dance with me.” “I don’t dance with men who won’t even tell me their last names.”I fidget on the edge of the dreamworld again, the same scene playing through my memories. Ella, so young, so beautiful, in that too-tight red gown against a sea of vibrant color in a ballroom that at the time was considered enemy territory. Now, I’ve been to countless events and weddings there, watched the sun set and rise through the same ceiling height windows, the same creamy golden walls, a thousand times. Some would say, after being together as long as we have, that the memory of that first meeting should feel like a lifetime ago. In reality, it was. We’re so old now. But I dream about it every night, the same memories of our youth, that tumultuous first year. Her in the gown at Isaac’s twenty-first birthday. Her in the pouring rain at that dilapidated cottage in the middle of nowhere after I finally caught up to her in the Roguelands. Her in only moonlight, my face buried between her leg
Posey“I don’t think I understand.” I set the letter down and turn to Aris, who’s leaning against the hearth in our bedroom. “My father wrote this?”“It’s his blessing.” He crouches, inspecting the fire with a poker. I resist the urge to crumple the letter but set it neatly on the bed instead. “In what world did you think I needed or wanted his blessing?”“It was not my idea, trust me.” Aris returned minutes ago from Sapphire Ridge. When he mentioned he’d fix this, I hadn’t realized he meant now, as soon as possible, slipping away in the quiet hours of the morning, leaving me wondering where the hell he was and why. I spent the morning in the kitchen, mostly playing with the fawn that we’ve taken to calling “Darling,” mostly because Aris calls her that. Then, I wandered the library. Then, I sat on a stool in my workshop twiddling my thumbs. Then, I came here to pace our bedroom, nursing an irrational fear that he’d suddenly developed cold feet and regretted our spur-of-the-moment n
ArisSapphire Ridge isn’t a beautiful place by any means. Compared to the sub-tropical, evergreen landscape of the capital, the Ridge is, for the most part, buried in several feet of fog on even the sunniest of days. Today is no exception. It’s raining. Pouring, to be completely, brutally honest. The hood of my cloak is sopping wet by the time I reach the gate of the castle, which opens wide with the help of a quartet of guards who either sensed my presence or open the gate for anyone who comes near, the latter being more likely. Sapphire Ridge is secluded, rural, and not friendly to outsiders. Everyone here–all two-hundred pack members or so–are related loosely, I believe. Distance cousins–at bes–are given the preference to marry and reproduce for alchemy power over love or even the mate bond. The castle of Sapphire Ridge is a boxy fortress of moss-eaten gray stone that casts the rest of the village buildings in its shadow. Built into the side of the mountain, its grounds are littl
ArisI’ve seen things in my life I can’t explain. This is, by far, the most intense. I was perfectly fine staying ignorant of the fact that the spirits who keep the castle running like a well-oiled machine were once people, and that Soren was right about being unnerved by their ghostly presence. But this is…. This is just… Posey steps forward to stand between me and the young woman draped in silver moonlight, her gown like something out of the ancient books in Arthur’s archives. It’s strange seeing the haunting outline of the diadem on her head, her dark, tightly curled hair woven through the slits of metal in an intricate updo compared to Posey, soot-stained and gorgeous, still in her apron, the diadem resting on top of her thick, strawberry-blonde waves. Two princesses separated by death and centuries stare at each other for a very long time. I feel the male spirit's presence nearby, but he’s invisible, just a touch of air on the side of my cheek. Isolde, that’s what Posey ca







