Mag-log inchapter 133 Breakfast AnnouncementCeleste told them over breakfast because there was no gentler time to do it.The dining room was warm with morning light and the low hum of students starting their day, but the table where the core crew sat felt a little quieter than the rest of the hall. Riley noticed it first. Then Thorne. Then Kayo, who always seemed to notice tension before anyone else admitted it existed.Remy sat beside Celeste with his coffee, looking far too pleased with himself for someone who had clearly known what she was about to say.Rowan was the first to glance up from his plate. “You both look like you’ve already made a decision.”Celeste set her cup down carefully. “We have.”That got everyone’s attention.Aki paused halfway through cutting into his food. Riku stopped eating entirely. Remy leaned back slightly, still relaxed but watchful. Kayo’s posture shifted from casual to alert in a single movement.Celeste looked at all of them once, then said, “We’re going to H
Chapter 132 Luna making Pack Plans The request came out before breakfast, which was how Celeste preferred difficult conversations.The dean’s office was still dim when she stepped inside, the mountain light only just beginning to gather at the windows. Remy stayed near the door, hands in his pockets, quietly present without trying to take over the room. Celeste crossed to the desk, set down the folder she had brought, and looked up at the old dean sitting in the guest chair as if he had never fully left it.Dean Stormrider had that same weathered patience he always carried, the kind that made him seem carved out of the academy itself. His staff rested against the arm of the chair. His expression was calm, but not sleepy. Nothing ever quite got past him.Celeste folded her hands on the edge of the desk.“I need you to cover my position.”Stormrider’s brows lifted a fraction. “That direct, is it?”“Yes.”He studied her for a moment. “How long?”Celeste glanced once toward Remy, then ba
Chapter 131. Homesick Luna part 2Celeste pulled on loose jeans and a soft hoodie, then laced up her Vans by the window while the morning light slid across the floorboards in a pale gold strip. The mirror caught her for a second as she straightened, and she looked young in that quiet, effortless way she never seemed to fully notice herself.Remy was still on the bed, propped on one elbow and watching her with the kind of attention that meant he already knew the mood had shifted.Celeste turned from the window and met his eyes.The longing in her expression hit him before she even spoke.“I miss the pack.”Remy went still.She folded her arms loosely across her chest, ruby eyes dark with feeling rather than power. “I’m their Luna,” she said quietly. “And we are never with our people.”Her jaw tightened, not in anger but in the strain of saying it out loud. “I married into your pack, babe, not just to run off and abandon them. I know you left your beta in charge, but still.” Her gaze dr
Chapter 130 Homesick Luna part 1The morning was too bright to stay still.Remy stretched once, then twice, rolling his shoulders with a groan that sounded theatrical enough to earn Celeste’s immediate attention. She was sitting near the window with a cup of tea in hand and that sharp, unreadable look she got whenever she was deciding whether to be amused or suspicious.He braced one hand on the back of the chair and gave her a crooked smile. “I need to stretch my legs.”Celeste’s brows rose faintly. “That sounds like a warning.”“It is a warning.”Then, with the easy confidence of someone who had long ago stopped pretending he was ordinary, Remy shifted.The change rippled through him in a smooth rush of muscle, bone, and living instinct, his human shape folding inward into the sleek, low-slung body of a coyote. Tawny fur caught the morning light, his ears lifted, and his tail flicked once as he tested the floor with quick, silent paws.Celeste’s mouth curved immediately.That grin w
Chapter 129 Forever SixteenThe first light of morning found Celeste still curled against Remy’s chest, her platinum-blonde hair fanned across the pillow and her ruby eyes still closed. Despite everything she carried, she looked impossibly young in sleep, all the sharper edge of her power softened by the quiet grace of her vampire side.Remy woke first.He lay still for a moment, watching her breathe, one hand resting lightly at her back. Even after everything she had become—dean, blood wizard, storm caller, war leader—there were moments like this when she looked sixteen at most, like the world had somehow paused and forgotten to catch up to her face. It was one of the strange gifts of her heritage, and one of the things he loved most about her.Celeste stirred against him, a faint sound in her throat as she began to wake. Her lashes fluttered, then lifted, revealing those vivid ruby eyes still hazy with sleep. For a second she simply looked at him, disoriented in that soft morning wa
Chapter 128 A Much Needed RestBy evening, the academy had finally gone quiet enough to feel human again.Celeste and Remy shared dinner in her private quarters rather than the main hall, where the noise of students, board members, and constant magical logistics would have pulled them back into work the second they sat down. Here, with the lights low and the rain tapping softly at the windows, the room felt suspended outside the rest of the world.Remy had brought the food up himself, claiming he was being “generous” and not “trying to avoid paperwork,” which was obviously a lie. Celeste didn’t call him on it. She was too tired to bother, and too pleased by the fact that he had done it at all.He set the plates down with a grin. “I made sure nobody poisoned it.”Celeste gave him a flat look. “That is an unsettling thing to say before dinner.”“It’s called confidence.”“It’s called paranoia.”He pulled out the chair across from her and sat, still wearing that easy, lazy expression that
CHAPTER 54First Day of ForeverSeptember 1, 2029 – 6:03 a.m., the ridge road down from the mountainThe sun is just clearing the pines when we reach the truck.Remy’s old Chevy (red paint peeling, coyote sticker still crooked on the back glass) sits exactly where we left it last night.The tailgat
CHAPTER 53The Tide’s First WaveJuly 30th, 2029 – Lake Ouachita, 4:47 p.m.The lake betrays us on a perfect summer afternoon.We’re out on the houseboat (rented with Rowan’s endless credit line), sun high and merciless, water the color of melted emeralds.Seras is in the armor, showing off by walk
CHAPTER 51The Oni Want Their Princess BackJuly 4, 2029 – Lake Ouachita, midnightThe sky is bleeding fireworks.Red, gold, violet bursts over the water while half of Hot Springs parties on houseboats and the other half tries to pretend they don’t see the nine-tailed fox doing backflips off the do
CHAPTER 46First Lesson Under WaterSaturday, September 7, 2028 – 11:11 p.m.The quarry is mirror-still when we get there.No wind.No clouds.Just the moon and a sky full of stars reflected so perfectly it looks like we’re standing on the edge of space.I’m in the black one-piece Mom insists is “p







