by C. M. Cevis
Zelda giggled. “What if we planted a baby tree and sprinkled Amie’s ashes on it.”
“That’s perfect,” Liza whispered.
“That is absolutely perfect,” Luna agreed.
“Great! I found the perfect one,” Zelda said, grabbing Luna’s hand and pulling her down the sidewalk in the direction of the plant nursery.
46
Zelda had left a few hours after planting the baby oak and scattering Amie’s ashes over its roots. Zelda hugged Luna for almost five minutes before she’d finally gone to pack her things. And Luna had settled in at the dining room table to wait. She’d take care of everything else once she’d said goodbye.
When she’d finally been able to make it back to the basement, Gideon looked like his old self again, minus the angry red skin under the iron. Luna picked up the restraint he’d arrived with, dropped her box of pain, and motioned for him to follow with a threat that she’d hurt him if he didn’t. He mumbled something about the box being unnecessarily cruel and followed.
When Luna rang the bell on the fae side of the gate this time, the door opened and panic ensued. Once she was able to get the guards to shut up, she asked them to go get the queen, and promised that she’d stay put and so would the prince.
The queen arrived less than two minutes later—much faster than last time. “He can’t be here,” she hissed.
Luna tossed the restraint over the queen’s shoulder and shrugged. “Your little boy brought a dangerous life-sucking faerie witch to my small town, broke out of that useless thing,” she motioned to the leash, “and almost killed several people, including himself. You all are adults here—you take care of the rest of his sentence. I refuse.”
“You can’t do this!”
“Sure I can,” Luna grinned, turning and strolling back towards the gate. “You can keep those iron chains if you want. If not, you know where to return them.”
“Luna! The counsel won’t be happy that his full sentence hasn’t been carried out.”
Luna spun around. “One, I don’t answer to the counsel. Two, you have jails, don’t you? Put him in there for the rest of it.”
“He’s my son,” Maya squealed.
“Then act like it,” Luna snapped. “He is an adult and fully capable of paying the price for his decisions. So are you. Perhaps you two should start acting like it.”
And with that, she stepped through. She made her way out of the room with the gates, slammed her ward gate shut and exhaled.
“Never again,” she said, heading upstairs.
“Now can we go get you checked out? What if you broke a rib?” Liza asked, appearing beside her as she made her way up to the main floor.
Luna gave her sister a look. “I haven’t bled out yet, I’m fine.”
“Lu!” Liza squealed, which just make Luna wince.
“Fine, fine… I’ll go to the hospital. But if I just bruised a rib and they can’t do anything anyway, I’m going to be pissed.”
Liza had a satisfied look on her face as Luna grabbed her bag and keys, heading for the door. “That’s fine, I don’t care,” she sang.
47
~*~
Someone was leering at her from the darkness, just out of sight. She couldn’t explain how she knew he was there, but she did. Her hands trembled just a touch as she brought her gun up and pointed it in the direction she intended to fire.
Nothing moved. It was as if the entire world was waiting to see what she was going to do. Except she wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure of anything in that moment, other than the fact that she’d waited too long.
“Daddy’s little girl has lost her touch?” the voice asked. “Shame. You’re the only one he trusted. Now we have to kill you.”
That was when she woke up.
~*~
The family’s server was just like she’d left it, but Luna surfed through it anyway. She hadn’t heard back from whoever she’d fed that info to yet. She hoped that wasn’t a bad sign.
And then she’d found them.
Files. Loads of files that contained messages back and forth between two people, one of which she was pretty sure was her father. They were talking about finding “the wayward,” saying that they’d seen or heard things here and there, but that they were unable to find anything concrete. It wasn’t until the messages started brainstorming small towns in the far northeast that her heart skipped a beat.
“They found me,” she whispered.
“They almost found you, Lu. The messages stop just before Dad got arrested.”
“What if whoever he was talking to kept looking? What if they’re watching us right now?”
“And if they are? We know how to handle ourselves. Don’t let a panic make you forget who you are.”
Luna looked at her sister and forced herself to take a deep breath. “Right.”
“Right,” Liza repeated. “We’re fine. We can protect ourselves.”
Luna nodded. “I think I’d feel better if we were better armed.”
Liza chuckled. “We could be better armed.”
“Yeah. Guns.” Luna grabbed her bag. She had a therapist appointment to go to.
~*~
“Luna, wonderful to see you,” Jacob said, meeting her in the lobby like always.
“You too,” Luna replied, smiling and following him back into his office. “Still no new receptionist?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Jacob sighed. “If you know anyone, please send them my way.”
Luna’s eyes traveled towards the corner of the room, the one that made her uncomfortable, and she hesitated. “Sure.”
“So, how have things been since the last time we spoke?”
“Pretty normal. Had a guest leave, one I was sad to see go.”
“Oh? Why is that?” Jacob asked, beginning to write in his notebook like he always did.
“She was just really nice. I liked talking to her.”
“Mmhm.”
“And she was strong, but at a weak point in her life after having lost someone important to her.” Luna hesitated. “Her being at a weak point wasn’t a good thing, but for me, seeing other strong people have those moments makes me feel like it’s alright for me to take a moment too.”
Jacob nodded. “And if that means that you close the B&B, unplug from social media, and take a few days for yourself, you should not feel bad about it. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s completely healthy.”
Luna thought about that. “I’ve always been taught that it was selfish.”
“A lot of us have, and it’s contributed to this constantly on-the-go society that we have. That crazy, unhealthy drive is killing us, Luna. We are human; we need time, breaks, peace. And it’s okay to demand those things for yourself.”
Luna nodded. “I guess I should work on being okay with that.”
Jacob glanced up at her with friendly eyes. “Yes, you should. I know it’s hard. No one gets there overnight. Maybe start with something simple. What is something that brings you joy but that you put off doing?”
She chuckled. “Working in my backyard! Almost no one sees it, so it’s always at the bottom of my to-do list, but that’s where I grow what I like.”
He nodded, writing as he spoke. “Great. I’d recommend closing up shop for a day, and spending that time in your backyard. Maybe go into town to get decorations, like lights or seating, or flowers to plant around the new tree. Whatever feels good to you.”
Luna blinked at Jacob. “What?”
“What?” he repeated, still writing as if what he’d just said was normal.
“Nothing,” Luna replied softly. She cleared her throat and checked her watch, though she knew it had only been a few minutes since she’d arrived. “I actually have to cut today short. I’m sorry, doc. I didn’t want to not come because I really like being able to talk to you, but I’ve got a bit of an emergency to deal with.” She stood and tossed her bag over her shoulder.
“Oh,” Jacob said, standing with her and looking confused. “That’s
a shame, but I understand. Do you want to set up your next appointment?”
She tried to smile. “Sure, next week, same time and day should work. And I’ll take what you said and spend a day in my backyard.” She led the way out into the lobby, waved, and left the office.
She didn’t have an emergency to deal with and hadn’t needed to cut her session short, but she wasn’t going to be able to concentrate or open up to him anymore that day. Not until she was able to figure out how he’d known about a tree she’d just planted a day and a half ago in her fenced in backyard.
48
The gate in the middle emitted a different, darker light than the gate that led to faerie. The light reached with tendrils that seemed ready to snatch you up. When they encountered Luna’s barrier, they curled around it, splaying across the floor and the air as if they’d simply given up and lay there twitching.
There was a flash, and a man’s head appeared through the gate. His wide, bloodshot eyes looked around the room, quickly taking everything in before settling on the door before him. He seemed to sense that he couldn’t pass through and made an annoyed grunt before retreating to his side.
Liza watched wide eyed from where she sat, shocked at what she’d seen and thankful he couldn’t see her like the fae had been able to. Then she blinked and materialized beside her sister in the kitchen.
Luna looked at her for only a moment before she realized something was wrong. “What is it, Liza?”
Liza’s one word answer made Luna’s blood run cold.
“Vampires.”
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Take a look at some of my other series:
Book 1 in the Rime & Pyre series: Rejected Royalty
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Book 1 in the Civil Origins series: Civil Seer
