GRACE'S POV ✧✦✧✦✧✦✧It had been five years since the night everything changed.Five years since secrets nearly shattered us.Five years since I looked Sophia in the eye and knew she was holding something bigger, heavier, than any of us could understand.✧✦✧✦✧✦✧I stood barefoot in my living room, dodging a flying banana peel and trying to coax one of my twins out from under the couch. I could honestly say, well, I wouldn’t trade this life for anything.“Emelia!” I called, peering beneath the couch where only two tiny feet stuck out. “Come out of there, or your brother is getting all the cookies!”“I don’t like cookies today!” Emelia's tiny voice shot back. “I’m a dinosaur!”“Dinosaurs eat cookies too.” I said, trying not to laugh as Lucas walked into the living room, holding our other son – Leo – by one leg.“Found this one climbing the pantry like it’s Everest,” Lucas said dryly. “What’s your plan of survival today, Captain?”“Bribe and surrender.” I replied.He chuckled, setting Le
SOPHIA'S POV The day started off like any other – coffee, morning rush, a few cracked eggs and spilled spices – but the weight in my chest made everything feel heavier. I hadn’t slept much. Not because of nightmares, but because of clarity. It had come to me under the moonlight in the Whispering Woods, so clear and yet so terrifying. Tonight, I would tell them. My friends. My family. The people who had stood by me without even knowing the full truth. They deserved it now. And I was finally ready. I wiped my hands on a towel, pacing the length of my kitchen, trying to figure out how best to do this. I could call them all at once – a group text maybe? No. That felt too cold. This was personal. Each of them meant something different to me. Each of them had carried me through a storm. So I picked up the phone. *** When I decided to call Grace, I didn’t expect my fingers to tremble this much. It wasn’t like I was telling her about some world altering event – oh wait, I was. My t
SOPHIA'S POVIt was late morning when I reached the edge of the Whispering Woods, the thick fog curling around the base of the trees like a living creature, reluctant to let go of its secrets. A deep breath filled my lungs with the scent of pine, dew, and something ancient. This place always felt alive, as if it remembered every step ever taken in it. And somehow, it always knew mine. “Okay. Maybe I have merely been existing and not living this entire time.” I whispered aloud to myself. Because it felt like this wasn't even a place on earth. I just realised how much has been going on, for me to not even appreciate the beauty of nature.“There's plenty enough time for that now.” My wolf said to me, she too in equal parts longing and awe.“Yes, there is.” I replied to her and continued walking. Up ahead, Elara’s cottage, a winding path away from the denser part of the woods, sat like something out of a fairytale – ivy curling over stone, smoke curling from the chimney, and wooden win
NATHAN'S POVThe ancient records smelled like dust and time, brittle pages flaking at the edges as I gently turned them in the dim candlelight of the Moonstone archives, just a small room where we kept tomes and things we liked to tell the young ones stories about. I hadn’t visited this section in years – maybe even since I was a teenager – but something told me the answers I was looking for wouldn’t be in the usual tomes.Victoria’s mother.The witch who vanished.After the encounter with Victoria and the chaos she nearly brought upon us all, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing from the story. Something deeper. Darker. So I came here – beneath the Moonstone archives, to where the histories were guarded not just with dust, but with vigilance.I knew I could let it go. Not even as Victoria was banished, the twins safe and Lewis in the cells. Something about it just got me thinking, “How did the friend I had growing up turn into this?”My fingers paused over a passag
LOLA'S POV I avoided the west wing of the compound like it was on fire. That happened to be where Hernandez’s office was. Of course. He hadn’t come looking for me yet, which meant one of two things at this rate. He didn’t care – or he was giving me space. Considering how we’d ended things, I was leaning toward the second, but that didn’t make it any easier. I should’ve just let it go. But no. I had to take what was a great moment – no, a perfect moment – and ruin it. He’d said one wrong thing, and I’d shut the door on him like he’d personally set it on fire. “Stop thinking about it.” I muttered to myself, tugging another book from the shelf and pretending like reorganizing my little Moonstone pop up book corner was more important than facing the way my heart had been twisting in my chest since the kiss. Since he. Since us. I didn’t know what terrified me more – how right it had felt, or how quickly I’d thrown it away. My hands froze around the spine of a hardback as his s
HERNANDEZ’S POVThings were going great. Better than great.Lola was sharp, faster than anyone I’d ever worked with, and that mouth of hers? Made for arguments and kisses in equal measure. We’d spent the last three days cooped up in the Moonstone meeting room sorting through Nathan’s insane directive – some joint diplomatic initiative to bring the Silverfang outliers in line with Moonstone’s reforms, amongst other ventures. I’d expected tension, maybe resistance. I hadn’t expected her.And certainly not... whatever the hell had happened last night.My jaw still tingled with the memory of her teeth dragging across it.We hadn’t spoken of it today. Not directly. She’d shown up at dawn, lips painted in a color I knew for a fact was called Rose Stain, hair up in a sharp twist, wearing a blazer like armor. And I... I was an idiot in a Henley shirt trying to pretend he hadn’t lost sleep imagining her laugh.We’d been working for hours, bouncing ideas off each other, bickering over logistics