MariannaI get dressed, and then we’re ushered down to the basement of the castle in short order. Soren doesn’t set Skye down until we reach the web of hallways leading to what I thought were storage rooms but end up being an intricate, absolutely unreal, training facility built levels below the main floor of the castle. There, we enter a small arena of sorts, where several guards are already waiting for us, as well as… Sydney. Blake and I haven’t married yet, but Sydney is as close as he can be to a father-in-law at this point in time, and that’s written clearly on his face when Skye runs into his waiting arms, but his eyes remain on mine. Silent. Hollow with both grief and startling understanding. There’s no room for anything else, but I… I feel nothing but anger. Soren’s talking, but I barely register a word he says as I stare back at Sydney, my hands curling into fists at my side. I want to say what’s on my heart–that he should have known that Blake would become this, that he co
BlakeMoonlight plays over Marianna’s naked skin. She’s like a painting–flawless, almost airbrushed. Ethereal and all-consuming even at rest. The moon is full and high in the sky as I trace my fingertips over the curve of her breasts and down to her navel, then lower, where I flatten my hand between her hips, closing my eyes against the anguish soaring through my body, through my wolf. Even the stars go silent, giving me space to grieve the life I tried and failed to give her–them. Marianna, Skye, and… the two boys currently nestled deep in her womb. Boys she won’t know about for weeks still. Maybe this knowledge is a gift from the Goddess, a little snippet of the lives that will move on without me if I fail. I’ve made promises I’m not sure I can keep. I’ve sworn vows in silence, betting my life on an outcome that I already know is out of reach, but I have no choice but to try to save my family and my kingdom from a war we would never recover from. I was too young to remember my gre
MariannaI wake up alone in the haze of another bright, sunny day. Summer heat pours over Moonrise as I slide out of bed and pull on a thin, silken robe over the tank top and shorts I fell asleep in late last night, after putting Skye to bed and rejoining Blake. He hadn’t woken up since I forced him to sleep yesterday, sometime in the early afternoon, but he’s gone now.. I blink back fatigue still clogging my eyesight and open our bedroom door, where soft voices drift toward me, carried on a warm breeze scented like maple syrup and freshly brewed coffee. Skye kneels beside the coffee table in the living room, a plate of half-eaten pancakes resting beside her. She looks up at me with a sugary grin before her gaze locks back onto the chessboard on the table. Blake turns his head and follows my progress across the room to where a breakfast spread has been laid out–pancakes, eggs, fruit, and an assortment of juices, but I reach for the carafe of steaming coffee, trying to will my hands
BlakeI wake to full darkness, a nearly full moon painting the bedroom in strips of silver. Moonlight illuminates Marianna and Skye, the latter stretched out like a starfish between us, one fist resting against Marianna’s cheek while the other clutches my wrinkled shirt in a death grip. My body feels heavy, and my brain takes several seconds to register the room around us. I’ve been asleep most of the day, and well into the night, which hasn’t happened in many years. I’m still not fully awake as I untangle Skye’s fingers from my shirt. She opens her eyes to slits but quickly succumbs to a deep slumber again before I’ve loosened her fingers enough to slip free. Everything that happened in the last day or so barrels back to me the second my feet touch the floor. I slump on the edge of the mattress, hanging my head in my hands as the visions I saw ripple through my head. The stars are now quiet, like they’ve done their job and can now rest, just like I have. Bastards. I change my clo
MariannaSoren meets my eyes through what I can only describe as a haze. The room looks and feels distorted, but that might be my mind trying to shield me from what I just heard and saw. Blake remains in the center of the room while Maeve backs away, her eyes wet with tears and her gaze darting from me to Soren, who looks livid as he tells his mate, “We’re done here. Come with me.”Maeve jerks into sudden awareness and turns her back on Blake. She leaves the room first, tearing into the hallway, her rapid footsteps the only sound in the vacuum of silence spreading through Blake’s office. But Soren turns to look at Blake over his shoulder with a rough sigh. “We’re going to talk this through. Don’t do anything stupid until we do.”I wait for the door to click shut. Blake doesn’t move from his spot in the center of the office, but… I have to do something. I have to say something. He beats me to it. “How much did you hear?”“It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t supposed to hear any of it, was I?
BlakeIt’s quiet in my office. The air is still and empty, scented with coffee and fresh ink. I move from my printer and sit at my desk, fanning through the papers I’ve just printed, which are still warm. The door leading to my suite opens with a squeak, revealing Marianna, who peeks her head in and says, “She’s asleep.”I can’t do more than nod. “Will you let me know when she wakes up?”“I will. Um… the moonstone sphere? I put it on her bedside table. Is that where it needs to be? Or, like, under her pillow?”For the first time in days, I feel a single slice of calm pierce the roiling mess of emotions currently taking up all the space in my mind. It’s simply because of her, the image of her clutching the door, her dark hair swishing around her shoulders and her eyes… so blue. The perfect blue. I don’t deserve this. I never have. “That’s just fine.”Marianna’s gaze holds mine, scanning, deeply inspecting, but I’ve trained my entire life to keep people at arm’s length. Including her.