All Chapters of Under the Shadow of the Moon: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Alec Seeing Delaney makes my heart beat out of my fucking chest. She made it. She actually made it. The whole morning, I’ve been thinking about whether or not we should have made a better plan. How would she find her way to me when she could have ended up taking one of the hatches on the other side of the Underworld? She would’ve ended up on the other side of the city. But I trusted that she might show up here. Something stronger than me made me stay, and it’s times like these that make me realize that there’s a higher force guiding us all. We were meant to meet today. I’ve been thinking about last night nonstop. When we finally reach each other, her steps slow and so do mine. I keep my eyes on her face, though, taking in every little part of her. Her eyes. Her lips. Her nose. Everything. I commit it all to memory. “You made it,” I tell her.“Yeah,” she replies breathlessly. “It was by some miracle that I found this place.”Goddess knows how much I want to pull her close to me

Delaney After I say the words, he and I share another heated kiss and this time, Alec climbs on top of me to kiss me even deeper than before. He leaves me breathless with his kisses while tears continue to run down my face. I can’t believe he told me he loved me, but what affected me so much weren’t the words, per se. It was the sincerity in his eyes. He spoke with an honesty I’ve never heard before. Not once. He loves me. Dammit, I think I love him, too. This feeling in my chest that keeps growing and expanding and taking up so much space inside of me has to be love. I think I’ve loved him from the moment we first shared a kiss right under this roof. Unfortunately, he burst the bubble for us both, drawing us back to reality, but that feeling lingered, that’s pretty evident. This feeling in my chest, it’s like a wild, blooming thing that refuses to be tamed. It grows and expands, stretching to fill every inch of me, until it feels like I might burst from it. It’s inescapable, thi

Delaney We lay in each other’s arms, and I have to say that I’ve never felt this peaceful in all my life. I’m filled to the brim with this feeling of security. This feels right—this whole thing. I don’t have any regrets. I’m not even thinking about what comes after this, which honestly should be something I should think about. But right now, I don’t want to over complicate anything. I feel Alec’s heartbeat steadily against my cheek. This is the first time that I’m not thinking about my father and the whole mess with Margaret since it happened, and whenever the thought enters my mind, it’s quickly pushed to the back of my mind. My wolf hasn’t felt this at peace in a very long time. Finally, he sighs and says, “I wish that it could always be like this.” “Me too,” I admit. “Stay with me, then,” he says before shifting so he can look at my face. I search his face, trying to understand how he can even be serious. I want to say yes—more than anything, I want to let my

Delaney As soon as I climb down the hatch, I know that something is horribly wrong.To start with, there’s smoke everywhere, so much of it that my eyes start to burn immediately, and the thickness of it hits the back of my throat when I inhale and makes me cough. Panic rises in me, reaching an all-time high. What is this? What’s happening? These are the questions that I’m asking myself because there’s no way that this is normal. I start toward the passageway, and find it by a miracle because of how difficult it is to see. I don’t see a single person around, and the closer toward the houses and the bar I get, the hotter it gets, too. Fire. There’s a fire. Many of the houses on either side of me are in flames, and I gasp, horrified. Goddess, what happened? “Hello!? Hello!? Is there anyone there!? Hello!?”Nobody. Nothing. I don’t receive a single answer. I use the hem of my shirt to cover my nose. I needed some water, but this will have to do. I start speeding up as I look around,

Delaney We arrive at a very obscure, shady motel. Nobody goes to the reception, so I’m assuming that it’s not necessary. Pollux has the key to one of the very last rooms, so he opens it and we all slip inside. Cade carries Paola in, and immediately sets her down on one of the twin beds. I look around at the group, and run a hand down my hair. Guilt is an understatement. I’ve ruined everything. Everything. Once again. Now, we don’t have a home, and many of the rebels have been caught and taken to locations that we don’t know. We have no way of rescuing them. Matteo is also gone, and he hasn’t contacted us at all. It’s all a mess, and Cade says that he doubts we’ll be able to come back from this. Alec. I’ve been trying not to think about him, but it’s getting increasingly harder. Everything we went through felt so real. The way he touched me. The way we kissed. It was all out of a fairytale. It was magical. But he used me. For some reason, he used me. Distracted me, maybe. And th