MistyThe royal temple in Crescent Falls is the shining star of the city–the center of the capital of my kingdom. My parents got married here. I attended services and funerals here. I’ve always been in awe of the craftsmanship that went into building this place. Every inch of the temple is detailed. Depictions of great battles, of central characters in the Goddess’ narrative, sweep across the walls as I travel down a quiet corridor toward the small group of people taking refuge in an alcove. Kenna looks solemn as she scrunches the fabric of her dress between her fingers. Evander’s hand rests on her waist as he watches memorial goers leaving the temple. Mom and Dad stand at the temple entrance nearby, shaking hands and accepting condolences. Sydney sighs heavily, watching our parents. “Just family back at the castle for the luncheon, right?”“That’s what Mom said,” Ryan replies. It’s been ages since I’ve seen Ryan in a suit. He looks stuffy and uncomfortable as he slides his hand o
ColeSnowy sunlight dusts through ceiling height windows in one of the guest rooms in King Isaac’s castle. I stare at the snowflakes sticking to the frosted window as a woman with mousy brown hair and bright gray eyes adjusts my tuxedo for the eighth time, her small fingers deftly plucking invisible thread from my suit jacket. “Mom,” I say, then clear my throat. “I’m sure I look fine.”She glances up at me with glassy eyes before turning from me, walking toward the vanity. She’s wearing a shimmering gray gown and a cape trimmed with white fur, possibly mink. Her braided hair is wrapped in an updo at the base of her neck, and she looks… stunning but lost in her thoughts. She and Dad never married. Not officially. She never took vows before the Goddess, but I know they were deeply, utterly completely in love. She lost her mate. I killed her mate, and now she’s preparing me to marry my own mate. I visited her alone shortly after the Winter Solstice. The reunion had been tense–heartbr
RyanSpringI try to flatten my back against the wall of the impossibly narrow corridor in the depths of the castle in Moonrise. It’s nearly street level, and dim, with witch nurses in starched white uniforms darting from door to door tending mother’s and new babies. I’ve been here all morning long. Since last night, actually, when I woke up to Aviva clutching the dresser on the far side of the bedroom in our Moonrise suite, screaming in pain, and then the sound of water hitting the floor. She’s two weeks overdue. For a while, we considered just having the baby in Silverhide. During the course of her pregnancy, when her morning-sickness waned, things had been… fine. Amazing, actually. I’ve never seen my mate look more beautiful than she does now…. Well, maybe not right now. I edge into her delivery room as silently as I can, not that it matters. Aviva screams, her face dripping with sweat. Her eyes are bright, however, and set with determination as I walk to her side, smoothing her
MistySpringCrescent Falls has erupted with spring blooms. The weather is soft and fair, which has been great, because this past winter royally sucked. I sigh heavily, tilting my face toward the warm sunlight dusting through the library at my parents’ castle and breathing in the warmth, letting it flow over my skin. It’s been six months since the war. The war that hasn’t yet been named, hasn’t yet become text in some new editions of our history books. The wounded memories of my time in Tarsian are still fresh enough to send chills licking up my spine if I think about them too deeply, but lately, there’s been a shift–something tangible. Something I can taste. Grief has turned to resignation, and resignation turns to conviction while I rise from one of the tables in the library and slip the books I’ve been studying into my messenger bag. I’m going to learn how to read the Book of Whispers because I won’t allow what happened last year to ever, ever, happen again. I pad downstairs, w
MistyTwo weeks after Georgia asked me to be her matron of honor, technically, at her wedding next fall, I wake up with a start–alone–in the cottage I share with Cole. It’s the middle of the night, and Cole’s at the hospital. His side of the bed is cold when I stretch my arm across it, pinching the sheets between my fingers. Echoes of pain drift in waves over my belly. My muscles are painfully tight as I roll onto my side, curling around the swell of my stomach. It hurts enough that it’s hard to catch my breath, and when I finally do, I feel… a pop, deep within me. “Oh, Goddess,” I rasp, sliding out of bed as my water breaks, soaking the sheets and falling onto the floor. My hands tremble, and my mind goes completely, utterly numb while I take the comforter off the bed and waddle to the laundry room where I do a load of laundry like… like this isn’t happening. I change my clothes. I pull my hair into a bun and brace myself on the bathroom sink before turning to leave the bathroom,
AvivaThree month old Lexa’s dark blue eyes are wide and round as she grips Mercy’s arm. Her eyes go glassy as her lower lip begins to tremble, her little face twisting with pitiful sorrow. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning,” I try to assure her, but my voice wobbles with sudden heartbreak. I look at my sister, desperate and unsure. “It’s too early, isn’t it? Leaving her like this?”Mercy rolls her eyes. “You’re going to be gone for like… ten hours, Aviva. She’s fine. She has plenty of milk–”I take a single step away, and Lexa wails. We’re attached, that’s clear. I’ve been wearing her on my chest since the day she was born. We’re rarely apart, and if we are, Lexa firmly believes she’ll never see me again. She wants nothing to do with Ryan recently. It’s not that she doesn’t like him, or can’t find comfort in his arms but… I’m her mother. I smell familiar, feel familiar….“I’ll be back very soon, love,” I croak, trying not to burst into tears myself. Lexa gives me the most heartbroke
MistySome days I don’t think about the war.Some mornings I wake to sunshine and Cole’s arms around me while I cradle Adrian in my arms and don’t think about how the three of us came to be. I think of clean sheets that smell like lavender, not the smell of Richard’s bloody war room where I’d healed that cursed wolf. I sip coffee while watching my mate–my husband–the love of my life rush around the kitchen packing his bag for another long shift at the hospital instead of watching him don that black cloak.We have a house instead of shared spaces. Our home is safe and full of love instead of constant stress and the crushing weight that, at any moment, our safety will end.But some days I have to remind myself that we made it out. That we’re here, and whole, and together.Today is one of those days.Mom peeks into the massive library at the castle of Cr
AvivaIt’s just after dawn when I slide Lexa into her sling and head out of the house into another warm, later summer morning. The sun stretches across the pastures, casting golden light as far as the eye can see. Lexa–who I’ve taken to carrying on my back lately–coos softly as she uses my hair as reins, her chubby fingers tangled in the sloppy braid I managed to throw together just after I woke up, alone in bed, in a quiet house.I stare at the road leading into the forest–out of the valley of Silverhide. It’s empty. No wolves trot in my direction. I grind my teeth as the crippling unease that’s been coasting through my body for days nearly chokes me, but I turn toward Freya and Andrew’s house.Andrew built Freya a shopfront earlier this spring while they waited for their son, Samuel, to make his arrival. It’s cozied up beside his blacksmith shop, and her gorgeous tapestries and wov
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