MattI was chopping carrots.That’s it. Just carrots.Normal. Very domestic. Very fine.Rain leaned against the doorway, watching me like I was a science experiment.“You’re going after those carrots.”“Just making dinner.”“You’re making confetti.”I glanced down. Okay, yeah. They were more shredded than sliced. Whatever.“I’m fine,” I said.Rain’s brows lifted. “You said that like someone who hasn’t been fine since the last full moon.”I kept chopping. “Everything’s under control.”“You mean the fire twins are having prophetic nightmares? The sky went purple last night. Or the part where Lia hasn’t slept in two days?”I stopped. Knife in midair. “Pick one.”Rain shrugged. “I vote for the sky. That was new. Also, mildly threatening. Like the universe discovered mood lighting and got carried away.”Silence stretched out. I wanted to say something. Couldn’t.Rain crossed the kitchen and grabbed a baby carrot from the bowl. “You know… sometimes when everything feels like it’s falling ap
LiaIt’s safe to say that I felt like a shitty mom. How the fuck had I forgotten to give my kids a third birthday party?To be fair, around the time of their birthday, we had found ourselves trapped in another world. Not exactly a minor scheduling conflict. We had spent what felt like weeks trying to claw our way back to our reality, even though barely a day passed here. Still, time had stretched, warped, and drained us—and when we finally got home, it was like we’d been spat out of a dream and slammed into chaos.Then, situation after situation kept piling up. The marks. Solen. The screaming. The glowing. Every damn moment added to the weight we were already carrying. Rain brought it up one afternoon, offhandedly mentioning the missing party while we were cleaning spell residue off the living room walls.I had gone pale. Like ghost-pale.He just stared at me. “You forgot, didn’t you?”“Shut up,” I whispered, already spiraling. “Oh my god. I forgot.”So that was it. That was the final
JesseI found her in the hallway, one hand pressed to the wall like she needed it to hold her up.“Lia,” I said, stepping closer. “You good?”She didn’t answer right away. Her eyes weren’t focused on me—more like they were staring through me. Then she whispered, “I’m having a vision.”I froze. “What do you see?”“Fire,” she said. “A forest burning. Everything’s ash. The trees are screaming, Jesse. And above it all... the stars are dying. Going dark. One by one.”I moved to her side, keeping my voice low. “Is it just a vision, or something more?”“I don’t know yet,” she murmured, still not fully here. “But it feels close.”I nodded slowly. “If you want, I can go drag Rain in. He’ll make some terrible jokes and probably trip over his shoelace. That usually makes the world feel a little less doomed.”She let out a soft laugh, small but real. “Thank you.”“You’re welcome.” I hesitated, then added, “You’re not alone in this, Lia.”“I know,” she said, eyes finally meeting mine. “That’s why
ColbyLife was getting complicated not only for the twins but also for me.I had been doing my best to make sure that all the supernatural races, from vampire to witch to dragon and wolf, were able to work together. Having an overall council that oversaw everyone was the thing we needed to do because it’s the best way of keeping everyone safe.The crazy part? It was fucking working.I leaned against the balcony railing, watching the lights flicker across the council building below. “It’s working,” I said, almost to myself.Lia turned toward me, brows raised. “What is?”“The plan,” I said, a little smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. “Getting the packs and covens and the rogue circles to sit down—talk. Work together. We’re building something. A higher council. Real representation.”She blinked, and then her smile bloomed so wide it hit me right in the chest.“I knew you could do it.”I laughed softly. “You sound surer than I ever was.”Leave it to Lia to compliment me during this
MattThe kids were doing their best to focus on their training. They were three years old, so there was only so much training they could do, for the most part, but it was something they were still trying to do.Had to give them some props for that. When I was there age, I was starting to be put into some training because my former pack was fucked up but the training they were going through was beyond crazy.I smelled smoke before I even opened the door.Not cooking smoke. Not candle smoke. Burning smoke.“Seriously?” I muttered, pushing into the den. “You’ve got to be—”Gemma and Rowan were crouched on the floor, a half-burned page smoldering between them, tiny flickers licking up the sides of what looked like—was that a summoning circle drawn in ink?“What the hell,” I snapped, crossing the room in three strides. “Gemma, Rowan—move.”Rowan blinked up at me. “It got ahead of us.”I blinked.These twins never sounded like three-year-old twins. We kept thinking this, but it never failed
RainI swear I was just coming in for a snack.Like a normal person.It was nice to be a normal person.Why couldn’t more of the Moonveil pack be normal?Jesse was scared and could plot world domination, while Matt had a temper to rival an action hero. Then there was Colby, who was kind of like MacGyver and could plan his escape even with nothing more than a string, paper clip, and lighter.When it came to Lia, she was just fucking amazing but also and visions. People who had visions weren’t normal as much as it pained me to admit it. I didn’t want to think it, but I also had to accept that it was the truth. With the twins… well, that was enough said. Just mentioning their names and remembering everything that had been going on with them was more than enough of a warning that no one was normal.See, I was the only normal one! I might be prone to setting fires and breaking into hysterics, but it didn’t make me any less normal.Huffing, I was determined to keep that normal label no matt