“How could I not?” Diana replied with a smile as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. Miri’s touching gift softened whatever hard feelings Diana may have been harboring. “I can’t think of a better sendoff, Miri.” Diana pulled the Alma into another warm embrace. “Thank you.”
After Darien closed the door, he and Diana sat on the sofa in the parlor. Standing before the dancing flames burning within the stone fireplace, Andrew held the mandolin as he masterfully played the beautiful song that Miri had written, while the shrine maiden elegantly danced and pirouetted around Diana and Darien, blessing the two lovers in the way of her people.
When her enchanting dance came to an end, Miri stood before them and placed a hand on each of their heads.
“May Madaera and Elberon bless your love, and may the Powers watch over you and your child. May your lives be sanctified by the Way of the Powers, so that you may always walk in the light in the midst of the darkness, bringing balance to your souls, to each other, and to the Great Mother. Go in love and peace; into this world, through the Veil, and unto the Golden Land Beyond.” Her prayer finished, Miri immediately wrapped herself around their necks in a loving embrace as tears began streaming down her cheeks. “I will miss you both so much. Please be safe.”
They could not have asked for a better farewell from Darien’s pseudo-family. As emotional as the experience had been, Diana knew the next stop along their farewell journey was going to be much harder. She was going to have to say goodbye to Lani—the closest thing she’d ever had to a sister.
When they arrived at her dorm room, Diana found Lani an anxious mess on her bed as she sat with a pizza, waiting for Diana’s safe arrival.
Seeing the pizza box and the nearby DVD case of Roman Holiday, Diana’s heart ached. She’d forgotten about Lani’s promise of Pizza with Audrey Night. It had been their particular ritual since the first weeks of school. For a while, due to their busy schedules, Pizza with Audrey had been the only time Diana had gotten to spend with Lani. It had kept them close. Would they ever get to share that simple pleasure together again?
Unable to hold back the quickly forming tears, Diana swiftly rushed to where Lani sat on the bed and held onto her tightly.
“What’s wrong?” Lani asked with a great deal of worry in her voice. “Did that bitch do something to you? I’ll rip her hair out.”
Diana shook her head, trying her hardest to stop crying.
“Diana handled my sister rather well, actually,” Darien declared with a wide grin. “I was very proud of her.”
“Well, look who finally decided to show up,” Lani said to Darien in anger.
“It’s okay, Lani,” Diana said, getting a hold herself. “He had to take care of some things.”
It was then that Lani noticed Darien’s suitcase. Quickly looking back to Diana, knowing exactly what it meant, Lani latched onto her just as tightly as Diana had a moment ago.
“No; you don’t have to run,” she pleaded. “No matter how that woman threatened you; you can make it on your own!”
Diana shook her head. “I wish I could explain everything, Lani, I really do, but this is something we have to do. You have to believe me when I say that if we stay, our lives will be in danger—yours and Eric’s as well. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to the only sister I’ve ever known.”
Diana’s tears flowed anew and this time, Lani cried along with her as they continued to hold each other.
“I don’t care about any of it,” Lani said through her weeping. “Whatever it is, you promise me we’ll see each other again, okay?”
Her lips quivering, Diana nodded as best she could.
“Promise me,” Lani demanded again.
“I promise,” Diana said with resolve. “I can’t have my baby growing up never knowing its Godmother, now can I?”
Lani hugged Diana tightly again, refusing to let go.
“If it’s a girl, you’re naming her Audrey!” Lani ordered.
“It’s definitely on the list,” Diana said with a nod.
Darien put a hand on Diana’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry, my love, but we must hurry. Time is not on our side.”
Diana nodded, quickly being brought back to the reality of the situation. With a sigh empowered by hours of emotional ups and downs, she began to pack. The somber task was lightened the moment Diana noticed the trunk which held her elven dresses sitting at the foot of her bed. Darien must have wanted to surprise her with them when he returned to campus, but instead, he found Diana lying in a mysterious unconscious state. Unable to part with them again, Diana laid her emerald gown alongside the other dresses, and then packed her favorite pieces of human clothing into Flinders’ smaller trunk. The rest of her clothes she bequeathed to Lani, who accepted them under one condition—that she get to return them as soon as Diana came back.
Knowing that the Naphalei would most likely employ human thralls to track them, Diana had to leave her computer and cell phone behind. The notion pained Diana at first, but she had to admit that she’d gotten rather used to not using technology over the course of their journey to Qir’Aflonas.
Soon after Diana finished packing, Eric arrived to make his own goodbyes to Diana and Darien, and to give them Andrew’s precious gift—a domineering black muscle-car. When she first laid eyes on it, Diana couldn’t help but think it suited Andrew’s personality. If she had to venture at a guess, she’d say it was an early 70’s model. What the make was, Diana couldn’t say, but she liked the hood ornament—a red and silver knight’s helmet
Once he saw the group walking his way, Eric quickly closed the distance and slipped his arm his behind Lani’s back. When he saw the grief in Lani’s eyes, he kissed her lightly on the forehead.
Diana smiled at how much her two friends loved each other.
“I wish you two the world,” she said through tear-filled eyes and then embraced them both. “Make the most of your time together, and always show each other every love and respect.”
“You act like this is the last time we’ll ever see you, Diana,” Eric replied with a confused yet reassuring smile. “Once you guys have everything sorted out, you’ll be back.”
Diana forced a nod, desperately wishing that Eric’s words held some truth in them, but she doubted it. She had no way of knowing that Eric and Lani would even live to see tomorrow, once the Shadowstalker came looking for her.
Once Darien had packed their belongings into the trunk of the car, he opened the driver’s door and held out his hand to Diana.
“We need to be on our way,” he said with fear and regret in his eyes, wishing he could give Diana more time with her friends.
Diana nodded and then gave Eric and Lani one last tear-filled goodbye before easing in behind the wheel of the car.
As Diana cautiously drove down the street, she gazed in the rear-view mirror to take one last look at Flinders University. The falling snow had given the campus the extra bit of the elegance that Foxwell’s legacy deserved. Diana’s gaze lingered on the library—her sanctuary; her refuge in times of loneliness and uncertainty.
Thank you Foxwell, for giving me the second home I never thought I’d have.
Her time here had been precious. At first, she had wanted nothing more than to go back home to Indiana; now, she wanted nothing more than to stay. Destiny had dealt Diana and Darien an unforeseen and troublesome hand and there were still so many unanswered questions, both old and new.
As they drove away down the road to uncertainty, not knowing if they would even live to see another sunrise, next to the sadness that Diana felt in her heart at what she was giving up, burned that terribly dangerous notion that could turn the very world upside down—Hope.
—
Diana and Darien's story continues in Book Two of the Moonshadow Legacy, Shadowstalker.
Epilogue
The stone pavement cracked and lifted as the intensity of her quaking rage rippled from the very tips of her feet and into the pathway t
hat she walked upon. The path of destruction had followed Edea Stoneheart since the moment her foot had touched the ground once she’d stepped from the coach. The sharifons had practically flow for their lives. The encounter with Endymion and his Moonshadow harlot had left the Lady Raven in such a state that all who saw her fled from her path. When she arrived at the stables, there had been quite a queue, but it quickly dissolved, giving Edea the courtesy of riding alone to Lay’Volas.
The silent flight had done little to calm Edea, however, with the horrid scene still very fresh in her mind's eye. For Endymion’s sake, she had given the Moonshadow a choice. Edea could feel how much her brother loved the human the moment she had met her at Zen’Naphalia. By the Dark Depts, she’d actually found herself enjoying the girl’s company as well. The memory only served to fuel Edea’s anger further. The little she-demon certainly knew how to wield her powers of deception with cunning.
If only the Moonshadow had taken the olive branch Edea had extended. Destroy the child and live a normal life—it was definitely more than she would have gotten a millennium ago. The insolence! Not only had she chosen to willfully bring further desolation to the Mother, but she was damning Endymion, and the entire Stoneheart clan, along with her.
I almost stopped it—with mother's necklace, I almost prevented it all.
Consumed with rage and frustration, Edea screamed out to the Stone.
The abject audacity of Endymion giving Mother's necklace to a human. No; not just a human—a Moonshadow!
When she opened her eyes, Edea found the street corner empty of people and many of the stone edifices and pillars cracked and marred from the intensity of her emotional state. If she did not calm herself, she was going to cause irreparable damage to the city. If only Endymion had not returned when he did, she could have choked the life out of the wretched girl, ending the threat of the insolent creature and her child for good.
A Moonshadow... How was such a thing even possible? One their kind had not appeared in over a thousand years. Not even the oldest of the Revered Elders had been alive when the last of their kind had been hunted down and put to death. The threat had been neutralized, hadn’t it? There had not been even a whisper of a Moonshadow since those days; not even a hearth tale. Why had one appeared after so long? Had the bloodline not been destroyed? Had the black legacy somehow been passed on through the ages of man, lying dormant, only to appear now? Was this Moonshadow a herald of a new Age of Death and Darkness to come? And to think, the Lady Raven’s own brother had been the one to succumb to the Moonshadow's dark seduction. Her own flesh and blood, Endymion had called the abomination. The thought sent shivers of disgust throughout her entire being.
Edea’s anger started to subside once she finally approached the outskirts of Lay'Volas, where her personal air vessel awaited within the dock of the Raven Throne. When Edea stepped into the darkness of the dock, the pilot sensed her return and called on his fire to give life to the vessel’s engines, quickly bathing the shadows in a warm orange glow. Before she boarded her ship to return home, however, the Lady Raven had one last piece of unfortunate business to attend to.
“It is as I feared,” Edea said with remorse, speaking to the shadows to her left.
At her words a flame appeared within in the darkness, giving off just enough light to reveal the visage of the fire mage that held it in his palm. As usual, he wore black from head to toe, with a hooded cloak hiding his masked face. Pulling back the hood and removing the mask revealed his short auburn hair, which was moist and slick with perspiration. He quickly nodded to the Lady Raven with a bowed head of respect.
“The girl is indeed a Moonshadow,” Edea began. “And she has snared my brother with her enchantments.” She could feel the anger begin to rise anew. “Endymion has forsaken everything to serve her and their unholy abomination already grows within the demon's womb.” As Edea turned and started walking to her ship, the shadowy fire mage followed close behind her.
“Zeltair,” she continued. “I asked for you, not only because you are one of the most decorated Shadowstalkers of the last Age, but because your honor and duty to the Naphalei, to the Three Thrones, and to the Temple, is without question.” She reached the door to the vessel and stopped, turning to face Zeltair with sincere pain and regret.
“If anyone can redeem Endymion from the Moonshadow's clutches, it would be you—one of our oldest and dearest friends. Ever since we were children, Zel, only you have been able to make Endo come to his senses.” Edea would have liked to spare Zeltair any more pain from the present situation, but she had to inform him of the rest.
“Your sister has also betrayed us and has thrown her lot in with the Moonshadow.”
If there was any emotional turmoil behind Zeltair's eyes at hearing that Terraiyah had forsaken her honor and duty, he hid it well. Even so, Edea knew how much he loved and cared for his twin. “If the time comes that you must strike down your sister to end the Moonshadow threat, can you bring yourself to do it?”
“If Terra has done as you say, then she has shamed clan Dawnbringer like none other before her. Only her death can restore our honor.”
Edea nodded in reply, having expected as much. Before all others, Zeltair's first duty had always been to the honor of clan Dawnbringer.
“Then go,” she commanded. “Hunt down and destroy the Moonshadow. Annihilate any who would stand beside her and doom our people to desolation.”
“As my Lady Raven commands,” Zeltair replied with a bow of the head and an upraised fist to his chest. He then pulled his black hood over his head and put his mask in place. A moment later, the fire in his hand went out, and the Shadowstalker slipped back into the darkness.
Elberon, did it really have to come to this? Edea shed another tear for her beloved brother. If Zeltair failed to make him Endo see reason, all that awaited him was the endless terror of the Nightmare.
She brought her hand to her cheek, softly caressing the spot where the she-demon had had the daring to strike her. Edea recalled the feeling of pain and smiled. In the midst of sorrow, she had hope in her heart. Very soon, Zeltair would rain down fire from the heavens and consumed the insolent Moonshadow.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost I would like to thank my wife, Jennifer. Without her inspiration and encouragement, this would never have been possible. Moonshadow has been, and always will be, her story.
Secondly, I would like to thank my amazing beta readers, Courtney, Shanaed, and Alex, who ignored our friendship long enough to forget about my feelings and give me the valuable input I needed to mold this story into something I can be proud of. Jenn Estep, my editor, has been a blessed woman of valor as she sat alongside me and helped mold my chaotic thoughts filled with mythology ( both real and the ones I make up), epic poetry, language theory, and the teachings of Jung and Joseph Campell, into a story that normal people might actually enjoy reading. And a special thanks to my sister, Annie, who passed along a few nuggets of gold as well.
I would also like to thank Opal, Audrey, Cady, Sam, and Andy for being my first group of beta readers when I finished my first draft of Moonshadow all those years go. Without your valuable input I probably wouldn’t have gotten very far.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Greg and Marie, who always encouraged me to follow my dreams, and Bill, Penny, and Emmitt for their love and support and for being the best second family I guy could ask for, and for never just treating me like the boy that married their baby girl.
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