*Maddy*Sunlight beats down on the back garden. It’s too beautiful a day. The sun is bright and warm, the sky totally cloudless, and every flower in Isla’s rose garden in bloom.Ella walks through the flowers, rubbing petals between her fingers. I watch her for several moments before I hear the clinking of glass behind me and turn my head to find Isla setting a tray of ice tea on one of the bistro tables. Her eyes are red and distant as she pours a glass for herself, drinking deeply. I haven’t seen her since the three of us left the sitting room. Ella took me outside to get some fresh air, leaving me alone with my thoughts while she walked alone with hers. And Isla had disappeared into the depths of the castle. “You were born here,” she says, looking down in her iced tea with a far off expression on her face. “In the very room you occupied until last night. I used to rock you to sleep. You were such a quiet baby. You barely ever made a sound. I wondered sometimes if you knew your mo
*Isaac*Four days earlier…Cassian crouches on the other side of the fire, balancing on his heels. His pen scribbles over the notepad resting on his knee. He pauses, cursing under his breath,and tears the page free before crumpling it and throwing it in the fire. “What the fuck am I even supposed to say?” he says to himself, growling low in his throat as he makes a single mark on the page before sinking into a seated position on the hard ground. Trees choked by moss, their branches long dead, surround us. Behind us, miles of open plains stretch all the way back to Moorn. It took us days to reach this place. Several dozen camps light up the edge of the forest. Wolves pass back and forth in groups of three or four, and small groups of warriors in their human forms gather around fires just like this one, eating, drinking, and resting. Or trying to put words down on paper to send back home. Phones don’t work this far from any settlement. “Just tell her you're alive,” I mumble, scrat
*Maddy*I spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening with Ella in her studio. She’s nearly finished with my official portrait, and it’s exquisite, so realistic it could be a photograph.As I pick through my dinner sometime later, I silently wonder if anyone captured any pictures of Isaac and I on our wedding day. I hadn’t even thought about it before now, and my chest tightens with the sudden realization that we might not have anything that shows us together but a silly piece of paper with our signatures on it proving we’ve wed. Dinners at the castle lately have been quiet and tense. Emery and Ben’s children are the only reason any of us haven’t succumbed to total numbness waiting for news from the front lines. Isla is getting especially fidgety lately. She wants to go to Maddox, that’s clear, and I know she eventually will. How would she feel about me going, too? I shake the thought from my mind as I leave the table and excuse myself, feigning a headache, ready to spend the
*Maddy*I stand on the steps leading to the tower watching Isla as she hovers in the doorway. Past her, I she Ella’s shadow moving through her art studio, the sounds of paint being poured and brushes scraping against the ceramic jars she keeps them in. It’s almost dawn. The sky through the narrow windows is dreary and gray, and the scent of rain is heavy in the air. There will be no sun today. Or additional sleep, apparently, especially for Ella. I slowly ascend the stairs to stand in silence with Isla. Ella stands, her arm flying as she coats a canvas a foot taller than her with black paint. I find it momentarily hard to swallow as the black paint swirls like it has a mind of its own, drawing me in. “Come with me,” Isla whispers. She gently touches my elbow and turns toward the stairs. I glance back at Ella once more before following her. The house is quiet as we walk through the darkened hallways. Isla shows me into her room and closes the door behind us. She switches on the li
*Maddy*Cassian is in pieces. That’s the only way I can describe him. His chest is flayed open, the bandages holding him together are soaked through with blood. Isla’s magic isn’t working fast enough. She’s leaning over him, her face stained with fresh tears as she pours a fourth vial of that precious liquid onto his dry and cracked lips. I watch in awe as the slices covering his legs slowly, miraculously, knit themselves together. “Get her out of here,” Trinity says somewhere behind me, where a frantic Hannah is having a panic attack. I feel someone–likely Rosie–come up behind me, her shoulder brushing against my back as she forces Hannah from the room. My heart is lodged in my throat as I count every breath Cassian struggles to take. My eyes slide to the place where his right arm should be, and I force them closed. He’s going to die. I can feel it. But I know he’s in better shape than some of the warriors who have returned, their tarnished bodies having filled the hospital in a
*Maddy*Wind whispers over us. Little flakes of silver ice bite into my cheeks despite the fact that it’s summer. Nothing here feels right. The long dead grass sways in a vicious breeze, the air so chilled it stings. The sky is pitch black and moonless, like the night came and refused to ease its grip on the world. There’s magic in the air, and not the good kind. The scent of death reaches my nose and causes me to shudder. Ella watches me, her eyes nearly black in the darkness. She pulls the tiniest bag I’ve ever seen out of her pocket, something so small she can hold it in the palm of her hand, and sets it on the ground at her feet. She starts removing her clothes. “Undress, Maddy. We need to get going. We’re not alone out here.”As if in answer, howling reaches us on the wind. I bristle and start unclasping my belt. What will we do with our clothes? Carry them in our mouths? I halt my progress, my shirt pulled up over my belly, as I watch reach down to stuff her boots into the im
*Isaac*Blood drips down from my temple where a gash runs from my forehead to my chin, right over the bridge of my nose. It’s not healing with the usual speed my powers award me. I’m not like my mother. I can’t heal others. But my body rapidly heals itself…. At least, it should have by now. The young warrior, Emmet, one of the six survivors I found after the battle in the plains, crouches beside me while we watch an enemy encampment from a large, jagged rock on the base of the mountains. Both of us are drenched in blood–most of it belonging to others–and sweat, filth, and dirt from the forest. It’s impossible to keep track of time when the whole forest is under a spell of pure darkness, but I’d guess we’d been out here for days now, watching, waiting to strike. Emmet, a boy of fifteen, had snuck out of his home and joined the cause illegally. Too young to shift, some would have thought he’d been helpless during the battle. But when I found him, he’d been wielding his great-grandfa
*Maddox*These Goddess forsaken kids of mine. “He pulled a sword on me, Isla. A sword!” I shrug my leathers over my shoulders and fix my mate with a look that mimics her own–something made of steel and ice cold. “It’s been three days since Ella and Maddy took off after him. I’m going. I’m bringing Cassian with me.”“He had his arm bitten clean off–”“He is just fine,” I say through gritted teeth, knowing the direction this conversation is about to go. Isla, beautiful and convincing as always, has no intentions of hearing me out. She had no intentions of doing so yesterday–when I showed up at the castle expecting to find her and Ella safe and sound. Instead, after two days securing a perimeter around Moorn after the battle on the plains that had wiped out half of our territory’s warriors, and left a third of those remaining severely injured, I found her going toe-to-toe with Trinity. For twenty four years, they’d been friends, best friends, but Isla had murder in her eyes when I fou
BrieI take a step away from Logan, then another, until my back hits the wall just outside of the bathroom. The room blurs, the soft cream fabrics and dark wood turning dreamlike and hazy. We could be anywhere–any kingdom–any room or darkened forest, and I wouldn’t know it because right now it’s just me and him, and I’m utterly, wholly exposed. I’m sure my family and those others who know me well would say I’m a complicated person. They’d be right. Below the surface, beyond my mask of resilience, I’m like ice, and within that icy fortress is something akin to fear. No one has been able to penetrate those walls. Not even Maeve. But Logan is looking right through me, shoving those walls down, clawing at them until they topple and shatter. “If you don’t feel the same,” he says, his tone softening, “I… I understand. I know our situation is complicated, Brie, I get it. I have an… obligation to return to Emberfyll, and you–”“I regret it.” My voice shakes, but my gaze stays locked on hi
BrieI can’t be your friend. I lean my forehead against the railing, closing my eyes as I dangle my legs through the rails. What feels like fathoms below me, the ocean stretches toward the milky light of the last minutes of what had been the most spectacular sunset I’d ever seen in my life. Stars flicker into view overhead, nestled against a blanket of deep orange and crimson, and behind me, I listen to Sawyer and Logan pouring over a map spread out on a table bolted to the floor just beside the helm–the massive wheel used to steer a ship only a pirate would have. Logan doesn’t want to believe we have, in fact, been thrust through time and now sail the open seas in the company of pirates. In his rational defense, I haven’t seen a single person with a peg leg, a parrot, or an eye-patch, so he’s probably right. It’s a fun thought, though. I kick my legs, my bare toes chilled by the wind whipping into the sails as we practically fly over the water. I like this better than the yacht.
LoganSunlight pours over the deck of the Asteria, glinting off the sails. I watch the Artemis drift past, Alex waving from the upper deck before fading into the bright glare of the sun. I grip the railing, closing my eyes for a moment and taking a much needed breath that catches in my throat the second footsteps sound on the stairs nearby. Sawyer grunts softly as he reaches the top of the steps and turns in my direction, squinting against the sun but smiling as he says, “You settled in?”I nod, biting back that breath I desperately needed and all the other feelings threatening to make themselves known the next time I see Brie, which is hopefully several hours from now after I’ve had a chance to cool off. “The Asteria’s the oldest and slowest,” Sawyer says under his breath, joining me at the railing. “But she’s a solid ship. A good girl. My favorite of the fleet, actually.”“Why aren’t you captaining her, then?”He grins and shrugs. “The same reason I’m not on the Artemis with Alex.
MaeveThe hallowed halls of the palace in Moonrise are quiet and somber. Normally, light would spill through the ancient stained glass windows lining the foyer, casting sunlight that made the golden walls gleam, but today everything is dark. Gray. Lifeless. Rain thunders across the glass ceiling, echoing down hallways usually alive with conversation and bodies bustling from room to room. Now, my only company is my shadow, and even that’s trying to curl away, just as worn and empty as I feel. It’s been nearly a week since we lost Brie. I couldn’t stay in Maatua for another second waiting for news.I walk up the grand staircase, wearing a hoodie, jeans, and sneakers, a far cry from the sweeping, luxurious gowns of silk I normally dress in when visiting my future home.Yes, one day all of this will be mine. I’ve known it–felt it in my bones since I was just a little girl. I will be queen. Soon. Three years from now, I’ll stand on the balcony and wave down at the people of Moonrise–of a
BrieAt first, I feel nothing but his mouth on mine. He inhales, but otherwise, is still as stone. The tension between us is so thick I could drown in it, and I wouldn’t bother saving myself by coming up for air.I pull away just a touch–just enough to take a shuddering breath. Maybe this was a mistake. I’m not sure what I was thinking kissing him back, but… here I am, wondering when he’s going to start laughing at me.Logan’s nose brushes mine as he closes his eyes. His hands drift to my waist, and my eyes flutter closed as his grip tightens. He takes a step toward me, then another, until I’m forced back, until my shoulders hit the wall. Time moves in slow motion as his lips brush the corner of my mouth, and he groans.Logan presses me to the wall and kisses me hard enough to steal my breath away. I rise on my toes to meet him, my lips parting as I try to suck in another breath, but his
BrieNight falls on the trio of ships. During the course of the evening, the ships had been readied, and the camp on the beach had been totally dismantled, leaving no trace that Alex’s pack had ever been there.Now, against a blanket of silver moonlight, the Artemis bobs in the shallows just beyond the mouth of the lagoon, engines purring and sails drawn.I lean against the railing and soak in the cool night breeze. It smells amazing here–like salt and tropical flowers. It’s almost exactly like Maatua but far more rocky and mountainous. Beyond the mountain shielding the lagoon, nothing but calm, open water stretches as far as the eye can see… which means we’ll be totally exposed to whatever enemies are lying in wait.The deck teems with people waiting for the two other ships to silently leave the lagoon. It’s a rough looking bunch–mostly hardened men with deep suntans and scars on
BrieMonica arches her brow as she plucks another petal off the flower she’s been defacing for the last ten minutes in relative silence. She’s precariously perched on the railing of the upper deck, with an insane drop to sudden death beneath her, yet she doesn’t look the least bit fazed by it.Me, however?I adjust my position on a crate nearby, neatly crossing my legs and refusing to look over the railing and the lagoon below.“Afraid of heights, Princess?”“No,” I rush out, but the word wobbles. I straighten my back, brushing invisible dust from my dress, and fix her with a cold look. “I’m not.”“Come sit with me then.” She pats the railing, a cocky smile tugging on the corner of her mouth.“I’m fine here,” I counter, narrowing my eyes.“Suit yourself. You’re missing the show.&rdquo
LoganI don’t remember falling asleep. I don’t remember much of the past day, actually, not since washing up on the shore on some nameless island. I slowly sit up, wincing as bright, fresh pain ripples through my back. I press my hand to my chest where the bandages cover most of my skin and find them damp with blood, but it’s not fresh. No, I must have stopped bleeding like a stuck pig a few hours ago. That’s one thing going my way, at least.A soft murmur beside me steals my attention from my pain, and I turn to find Brie fast asleep, her hands tucked beneath her cheek. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her wear her hair natural before. It’s wild and… lovely. But looking at her–at the soft, relaxed expression on her face as she sleeps–has me careening back to going into the water with her and realizing that was it.I’m not sure how we survived. Call it divine intervent
BrieThis giant boat is something out of a fairy tale… well, I’ve just found out that Alpha Alex not only has these three but two more tucked away in some island chain about as far from the capital of KiloKilo as he could get. It’s hard to believe these boats even exist. It doesn’t make sense. This room and its finery doesn’t make sense.I watch Logan resting only a few feet away, his large frame eating up the dainty armchair perched in front of a dormant hearth. He hasn’t touched any of the food laid out for us, but I have. I’m on my second bowl of stew, swiping the nearly empty bowl with my fourth or fifth piece of rustic sourdough bread. With food in my body for the first time in what feels like days, I’m acutely aware of my senses and the room around me… and the people within it. The ship's ornate details come into startling view as I scan the room under the shadow of my eyelashes, carefully not