LOGINI found Mateo in the training yard behind the packhouse, running drills with three of my Moonlight Warriors as if he'd been born into this pack instead of visiting it. Aerin apparently assisted him here because he wanted to make sure my daughter was safe. I watched him as he took his position as three of my men began attacking him all at the same time. I know that he is a great fighter. He had proven that over and over again. And, as his friend, I also know when he’s distracted. Just like how he is right now. It was one of the things that I admired about him. How could he still be calm and composed despite the chaos in his mind? He moved efficiently, quietly, but not as flawlessly as he could be if his focus was on the task at stake. It is the minor details that no one would notice unless you have known the man all your life. The sparring had ended with one of my warriors almost getting close to him. I took that sign to walk up to him.He saw me coming and called a halt. The warrior
Aerin led me through the palace in silence. She didn’t ask any questions, just continued walking ahead of me, leaving me alone with my thoughts that had been in complete chaos ever since I left the Fae King’s office. Watching Aerin’s composed silhouette in front of me made me think of my mother. She was a great fighter, one of the best. It makes me wonder what kind of control she had just to survive everything she went through before everything fell apart.Aerin guided me to a door near the place where my mother was now lying in her endless sleep. Knowing all of her and the Fae King’s sacrifices didn’t help ease the guilt that I was feeling. Instead, it just made it worse. “Here,” Aerin said as she held the door open for me. “You’ll be at the packhouse where your brother is once you step inside. And you have a little surprise waiting for you as well.” She added with a smile. “Thank you,” was all that I could muster to say as I walked closer to her. But before I could take a step ins
“It’s okay, Kelly,” the Fae King said, a bittersweet sadness woven into his words. “If it’s too much, you don’t have to wake your mother. But… is it alright if she stays here with me?”I knew the Fae King only said it to ease the weight I kept piling onto myself, but that didn’t stop the pressure from building.“Kelly?” he called gently, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn around.“Is everything all right?”There was real worry threaded through his voice, and my pulse skipped. If I didn’t say something, anything, I know he’d come closer. I heard the scrape of his chair as he pushed it back. My eyes fluttered shut as I tried to gather every fraying emotion and pin it down before it spilled out.Just before he could take that first step toward me, my voice finally broke free.“I’m fine,” I managed to say. My voice was higher than usual, but there was nothing I could do about it. I swallowed and pushed on. “It’s just… everything is happening all at once. And I’m trying to keep up, I real
I lingered with my mother a little longer, soaking in the comfort of her presence before I finally made up my mind. When I returned to my room, I opened the journals again, slowly, almost hesitantly, hoping that a fresh read might reveal something I’d overlooked. Some hidden clue. Some alternate path. Anything that would spare my daughter from being tangled in this prophecy.But no matter how many times I searched the lines, the meaning stayed the same. Unmoving. Unforgiving.“Fire and ice together shall awaken what love could not.”I sat there for a long while, breathing through the tightness in my chest. It would have been so much easier if this burden were mine alone. But it wasn’t. And that truth hit harder each time I faced it.Aerin was still away, still assisting Leo, no doubt. I couldn’t ask for her insight. Normally, I would have waited. She always had a way of explaining things to me in a way that I could understand. Making what seemed to be a threat become something that I
“Fire and ice together shall awaken what love could not.”I reread the line. And again. And again. My eyes skimmed the passage I had practically memorized by now, but that sentence, that sentence, had never been there before. A chill crept down my spine. I snapped the journal shut, then flipped it open as if the words might vanish the second time around.They didn’t.I pinched my cheek hard enough to sting. Definitely awake. Definitely losing my mind.“Kelly?” Katherine’s voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. I nearly jumped, but relief flooded through me at the sight of her.I hurried toward her, journal clutched to my chest like it might escape.“I need you to check something,” I blurted, breathless and trembling. I flipped the journal open and pointed at the impossible line.“What do you see right here?” I demanded. Katherine arched a brow—her you’re-being-weird-again look—but leaned in anyway.“‘Fire and ice together shall awaken what love could not,’” she read aloud. Then she
“Why, then? Why won’t you sign the alliance if you’ve already done so much for us? For me? I want to repay you, once we’re back on our feet.”For the first time since I’d entered, his quill stilled completely. When he looked up again, there was something different in his eyes, a sadness that I can’t quite explain.“Because,” he said softly, “I don’t want what happened to your father to happen to you as well.” He paused, his expression tightening with something that looked almost like grief.“I don’t want you dead.”Leo was silent for a long moment, the weight of the Fae King’s words settling over him like a heavy fog. He understood what the king was saying; he understood what had happened to his father. But after spending time in the Fae King’s presence, after seeing the flickers of gentleness behind the mask of cold and uncaring exterior, Leo knew one thing for sure: the Fae King would never hurt him. Not intentionally.“But you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me on purpose, right?” I a
It’s one bomb after the other. Why can’t we have a break?I watched my better half as she paced back and forth in front of me. My better half, who has never had a break ever since she came back to Mystic Moon. What she said to me earlier had been repeated in my head. “My mother found her Fated Ma
I re-read the same page multiple times, trying to see if what I had read was a mistake. But the duplicate entry in my mother’s journal just repeated itself to the point that I felt like I was there with her when it happened. Alpha Leon assigned a secret mission for me. A mission that no one else sh
After the revelations, we offered Katherine to stay in the pack if she wanted to. I could see her hesitation with the offer, but Clint convinced her to give it a try since there was no other place that would be safe for her other than the home she used to know. Leo asked Clint to stay for a while
“Your father killed your mother.”The sentence echoed in my mind, and the world seemed to start spinning. I know that this isn’t the first time I've heard this line. Still, the impact that the sentence had on me the first time that I heard it remains the same, painful. “What are you saying?” Aiden







