Mag-log inSydney
The sun hasn’t risen yet when a peel of anguished cries thunders down the hallway. Brie’s image flashes in my mind–Brie being held to that altar while Gabriel taunts me, taunts her–and I’m out of bed in a second.
My heart hammers against my ribs to the point I find it hard to fill my lungs with air. The entire room spins, and I can barely get my bearings.
But then I remember where I am. The deep navy wallpaper and d
SkyeAbby catches me from across the length of the hallway. Her dark eyes widen, her platinum hair pulled back from her flushed face as she rises from a crouch and shoves her way in my direction. I have only a handful of seconds to collect myself before we collide. She wraps her arms around my waist and squeezes so tight I lose the ability to breathe for a moment. “What are you doing here?” she says into my coat, her voice muffled by the fabric. “I thought you were in Moonrise for another week?”“Tell me everything.”“Everyone needs to move now!” someone shouts at the end of the hallway, and I realize it’s Toby directing traffic as lab assistants and postdocs lift themselves up from the floor where they’ve been trying to catch their breath. Abby pulls me to the side so we’re flush against the wall, and people can pass by. There’re more people than usual, I think, especially for this time of night. Toby notices me, and his expression shatters. I realize in that moment, based on the g
Alex“Well, shit,” Mark, the engineering department head grumbles, crouching to get a better view. He braces his hands on his hips while huddled around the same screen I’m sharing with Toby. He’s been knocking his head on the ceiling of this tunnel all evening, but that has more to do with his height and less to do with the already overly cramped quarters we’re sharing. He’s from the Deadlands and built like it. Burly and broad, he stands several inches taller than me, and I’m taller than most men on campus, but he has at least sixty pounds or more on me, and it shows. They breed them big in the Deadlands, supposedly. Toby’s words; not mine. “Shit,” Toby parrots, shaking his head as the drill several hundred feet below us whirls and kicks up liquid sediment. “I wasn’t expecting a water pocket.” I curse under my breath, rolling my neck to try to alleviate some of the tension. We’ve been at it all day long. Drilling, drilling, and drilling some more–trying to secure a perimeter around
SkyeI’ve been in the southern Allied Kingdoms–mostly Moonrise–for a little over a week but haven’t faced my father yet. I anticipated that. I knew he’d be busy helping make arrangements for Isaac and Maddy with my grandpa Sydney. What I didn’t anticipate is this. Ryatt stares at me from across the coffee table in the castle in Crescent Falls. He’s dressed in his usual black but looks like a modern man in a finely fitted black suit and tie compared to his cape and rugged dark ensembles I’m used to seeing him wear in Eastonia. He hasn’t blinked in what I’m sure is several minutes. His acute, quicksilver stare bores holes in my reserve, but I refuse to be the one to fold and start the conversation he wants to have. After several days of travel on the royal train, forced to witness the epic fights between Fallon, Naomi, and Maeve, I could sit here in silence and play this game with him for hours. Family members, both closely and distantly related, filter in and out of the room, but no
Alex Skye has been gone for four days when I knock on the door to President Alloway’s office. Her voice is pinched when she mutters, “Come in,” but her eyes light up the second I open the door and step inside. “Dr. Scarlett. I wasn’t expecting you, but I’m happy to see you.” She rises and motions for me to sit in one of the armchairs in front of her desk. I shake my head. “I won’t be here long.”“I’ve been meaning to reach out,” she says, easing back into her chair while I lean a shoulder on her office door to close it, remaining there, taking in the slate gray walls dappled with diplomas, certifications, and pictures. She tucks her bright white, stick straight hair behind her ears and clears her throat, closing her laptop. “Dean Kanten hasn’t been responding thoroughly to my inquiries into the biology department and how he plans to move forward, safety-wise, after Laney’s death.”“That does not surprise me.”She blinks and then motions again for me to sit down. This time, I accept
SkyeFallon closes her bedroom door with a soft click and glides across the room to shut the curtains. She moves with the practiced grace of the princess she is–Maeve’s heir who will one day be Queen of Eastonia–and she looks like it, walks, and talks like it as well. But I know Fallon better than most. She’s an enigma–soft and stoic on the outside, but on the inside?She’s the most animated, opinionated woman I’ve ever known. “You cannot tell that bitch Naomi I’m telling you this.”“Your sister Naomi?” I arch a brow, chuckling, and she rolls her eyes to the gilded ceiling. “We’ve been on the outs recently.”“Over what?” I sink onto the edge of her rather regal bed. I’ve always liked Fallon. She’s six years younger than me but an old soul at heart, and for a while, it was just the three of us–her, Kieran, and me. We also grew up in Moonrise together, and that gave us a rather close bond. She was incredibly angry when I announced I’d be staying in Lunaria for the foreseeable future.
SkyeAn hour later, in the hazy, blue glow of morning, the stars are still on full display like always, but at their dimmest now. Alex follows me across the hallway to my condo. The university is at a standstill, and the tension pours through the thick concrete walls. I’m used to silence, but this is something else entirely. “Can you water my plants while I’m gone?” I ask with a touch of hesitation, looking up at him through my lashes while he leads the way to the loft where I mentioned I keep a suitcase. I watch his shoulder shrug through his soft gray shirt. His hair is mussed from lying in bed with me for the better part of an hour, and he radiates a new kind of warmth that’s hard to put into words. Alex is perplexing, but I knew that. Now, however? After being in the throes of passion with him? Having him touch me? It’s almost like his mind is split into factions all the time–hyper-focused on preservation. Now, he’s not wearing his usual masks. He’s looser, freer, and shockingl
BrieI can’t be your friend. I lean my forehead against the railing, closing my eyes as I dangle my legs through the rails. What feels like fathoms below me, the ocean stretches toward the milky light of the last minutes of what had been the most spectacular sunset I’d ever seen in my life. Stars
BrieI wake in the early hours of the morning to soft sunlight brushing over my cheeks. I’m sure I cried myself to sleep last night. I forgot where I was, but only briefly, reality rushing in, reminding me that I made it to Emberfyll alone. I roll in the furs, letting the warm, morning sunlight pl
LoganRyatt and Evander walk out of sight across the bridge connecting the barracks to the main streets of the city. I look out of my old bedroom window at the sunny glare casting shadows over the valley. The shadows move as the clouds dart across the sky toward the castle, toward my wife, who I’d
MaeveKieran, my two-year-old nephew, is a strange creature. I’m not sure if all toddlers are this way, or just him, but I find it hard to believe that any parent would live through this and decide to have another–and another. It must be hard having so much feral energy packed into such a tiny body







