Guardians of Moonlight: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Guardians of the Fae Book 3)

by Elizabeth Hartwell

  I can’t help it. When I get frustrated, I get snarky.

  I mean that you know where fear comes from. And where it lives.

  “Do you mean the Dark Rider?”

  Your father isn’t the source of fear. He just knows how to use it to his best advantage. Did you see your father or his shadow in any of those visions?

  The voice has me there. “No. So . . . he is my father? I’m . . . I’m really the princess of Hell?”

  A princess. Your father isn’t exactly the most loyal of partners. You are the only one with your unique . . . background.

  “You speak like you know him personally,” I reply, wondering if I might have the chance to ever meet my ‘blood siblings.’ I should probably hope not. “Are you two acquainted?”

  But of course. Beings with the powers like his are not exactly new in the multiverse. It takes time and experience to gather the powers that he has.

  “Then what about me? Everyone seems scared shitless that I’m going to blow up the . . . the multiverse, you called it?”

  They are scared of your potential. You are the atom.

  “The atom?” I ask, and suddenly, the light flashes around me. This is really disconcerting.

  I’m floating in blackness, watching a swirling ball of gas coalesce, spinning faster and faster as it gets tighter until something sparks inside, and suddenly, a great light bursts forth, expanding until it settles . . . and a star is born.

  The atom is the birth of life. Or . . .

  The light flashes again, and I’m in a buzzing airplane. I look around, and surrounding me are men in brown leather jackets and yellow vests, their faces covered in rubber masks to help them breathe at this altitude.

  “How much longer?” one of them asks in a muffled voice to the other.

  His partner, jammed into a control desk smaller than my lap, watches an old-fashioned clock tick. “Three . . . two . . . one . . .”

  A bright light flashes through some side windows, and I look out, shocked at the sight I see. A mushroom-shaped cloud rises into the air, and by the time that I realize where I am, the shockwave shakes us through the air.

  “My God, what have we done?” the man with the clock asks his partner.

  His partner doesn’t look out the window but keeps his eyes on his instruments. “What we had to.”

  The light flashes, and I’m back in this limbo again, surrounded by the blue light.

  And so the atom is the destruction as well.

  “So, what are you saying?” I ask the light, my head starting to ache with the thoughts running around inside it. Well, that and getting jerked around through time and space. Disorienting isn’t even the beginning of what I need to describe it. “That I could be the atomic bomb?”

  Or you could be the sun, which breathes life into the entire solar system. Unlike the atom, however, you have a choice in how you use your power.

  “So, what should I do?”

  There’s no answer, and the light flashes again. I feel a cool pressure on my back but nothing else as darkness starts to take over. I take a deep breath, desperation in my voice. “What should I do?”

  Chapter 21

  Cole

  The evening is cool, with a slight breeze that ruffles Cole’s brow as he walks with Eve and his brothers toward the center of Solaria. For Cole, who grew up in the Vale where summers are short and winters long, the breeze helps. While the Solarian weather is nothing compared to the Central Lowlands and the Southern Kingdom coastline, Cole welcomes the cool embrace of the wind like a long-lost friend.

  “So, where have you been?” Tyler asks as they walk. “I understand if Kaelen was busy, but you were totally out of communication.”

  “Unfortunately, with Kaelen so caught up, I was stuck in my room with nothing but a body servant. All I was allowed to do was read things from the library and try on dresses. By the way, what do you think?”

  Eve pulls away and does a little twirl for them, and Cole has to admit that she’s so beautiful in the dress that it seems to want to blank out everything from his mind.

  But that’s the thing. In the ten minutes they’ve been walking, Eve seems to be constantly trying to distract them. It’s nothing overt, but every time the discussion starts to grow serious, she changes the subject to things that he hasn’t been expecting.

  I didn’t think Eve was into dresses.

  Over their Link, Jacob chuckles. If we lock you in a room with nothing but dresses for three days, I bet you’d come out looking different as well.

  I’m serious, Jacob.

  I know that, Cole. I’m saying relax. We’re all blowing off steam.

  Maybe that’s it. Exhaustion and mental stress has him on edge, and nearly coming to blows with Connor in the courtyard certainly hasn’t helped matters. “So, what did you read about, Eve?”

  Eve stops, waving her hand airily. “Not much, really. I mean, the library here is huge, but so much of it was dry. They didn’t bring me a lot, a bunch on spells, some histories . . . nothing that could eat up the hours. But I tried.”

  Cole’s brow knits, remembering Noah’s stories about how voracious Eve was about learning about magic in the Vale library and how intent she was about learning as much about magic as she could in order to gain better control of her powers. Even with her bracers on, she could be committing spells and theory to memory, ready to use when she’s able. Before he can say anything, she grabs his hand. “Come on, silly, we’re supposed to be on a date. So let’s go have some fun, sing some songs, maybe sample the local brew, and dance the night away.”

  Cole nods, but as they walk, his sense of disquiet about Eve keeps growing. The whole time they’ve known her, she’s been straightforward in public. Whether they were in New Haven and out on the one day they had as a ‘vacation’ before Lysette’s attack, or even around the Vale, she was ‘sweet.’

  Cale chuckles at the word, because it’s one that he knows Eve often uses for describing Tyler, but in public, that matches her so well. She would often hold hands with her Guardians, and hugs were abundant, but the burning passion and naughtiness that is so pure it can never be called ‘dirty’ is something she’s reserved for private moments.

  But tonight, she’s different. “Noah, you’re looking buff!” Eve says, running her hand over Noah’s arm. “Make sure you save some of that for me!”

  Noah lifts an eyebrow, and Eve giggles, running her hand over Noah’s chest and down his stomach. Before she can reach his waistline, Noah pulls back, confused. “Princess, we’re in public.”

  “Oh, worried that you’ll disappoint me?” Eve taunts before giggling. “Come on, guys, I’m having fun! Spoil me, please?”

  They keep going, but as they reach the square, Cole feels the sense of disquiet inside himself grow instead of subside. Eve just isn’t herself, and her comments are strange.

  “Tyler, we need to put some meat on those bones. Aren’t they feeding you enough in the barracks?” she asks, smacking his butt. “Seriously, my love, you’re looking scrawny!”

  Tyler jumps, his eyebrows knitting as Eve laughs and enters the fair. Cole lets Jacob and Noah keep up with her as he falls a few steps back with Tyler, who’s looking hurt. “You okay?”

  “Yes,” Tyler says softly. “Just . . . I remember telling Eve about those types of jokes.”

  Cole nods. While Tyler isn’t a bean pole by any stretch of the imagination, he always was the slenderest of the Guardians, and when they were going through training for the Queen’s Guard, he would sometimes be harassed for it. One instructor, a particularly ignorant fool, had even given Tyler a nickname, Javelin.

  Tyler had on more than one occasion proven himself, though, to Cole and to his brothers, but most importantly, to Eve. Despite his shoulders being half the size of Noah’s, he’s a strong, fierce, capable warrior. If there’s any word to describe Tyler’s strength, it’s wiry, the sort of tireless strength that might not pick up a tree but will draw the bow with sureness and steadiness for
hours if that’s what’s needed. Still, he doesn’t like being reminded of those old jokes.

  “I’m sure Eve just forgot,” Cole says, not so sure though. Something about her was just . . . off. “Tyler, let me ask you, can you detect if someone is . . . under the influence?”

  “Depends on what you’re asking me to detect,” Tyler says curiously. “If you mean drunk, or a potion, or a drug, of course. There are physical signs. But if someone were enchanted, that’s totally different. Why?”

  “I’m not sure,” Cole says quietly. “Just . . . keep your wits about you. I do not care for this cavalier attitude about attending a festival while there are those trying to kill us.”

  “Agreed. What I wouldn’t give for a backup blade,” Tyler murmurs, his eyes darting around. “But I’m more worried about Eve.”

  “As am I.”

  “Guys, come on!” Eve calls from inside the festival, and Cole hurries to catch up, seeing Eve standing at one of the games that line the midway of the festival leading up to the main square.

  “Sorry, I had a question about something for Tyler,” Cole says, taking in the atmosphere of the festival. Everywhere he looks, lights and decorations fill Solaria’s central square, and the number nine, of course, features prominently. Every price at the booths is of course some ‘nine,’ and artistic nines are woven into everything.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Eve asks, looking at one of the big murals that adorns one of the obelisks in the square. “Nine brothers, the sun, the moon . . . it’s just beautiful.”

  Cole nods in agreement, thinking that of the little he’d been able to learn about Solarian culture and the festival, it was a great chance to experience a rare occurrence. Most festivals celebrated harvests or great kings, which usually meant monarchs who had done a lot of killing. The celebrations tended to be boring, parades and stock fairs, pie contests, and solemn memorials to the dead. But the Nine Brothers? In the end, it boiled down to love, and that’s better than dead kings by a landslide. Especially when the entire organization seems to be based on foolish love and looks like a giant street party crossed with an amusement park. “Have you been to festivals like this before?”

  “Not really. I mean, nothing on Earth could match this. This makes Earth look like a horse stall.”

  Cole lifts his eyebrows again. He’d never heard Eve speak so poorly about her realm before. Hard things about Old Haven? Of course. She was honest, and there were things in old Haven that made the slums of Lunare look civilized. She also often heaped praise on the Fae realm for its beauty in a way that had made him re-evaluate his own views about his homeland.

  But she’d never been so crude or harsh about the human realm before.

  “Come on, guys, I want to play some games,” Eve says suddenly, grabbing Jacob by the front of his shirt and pulling him toward the booths. Cole follows, his disquiet growing until Eve stops at one of the booths which would be very like her, dart throwing. “Skills!”

  Jacob, who’s an expert with all manner of thrown weapons, grins. “Lassie, if you wanted me to win you a prize, you just had to ask.”

  Eve giggles, biting her lip as she passes over a silver coin to the booth operator, who hands back some copper change along with three darts. Eve takes aim, squinting one eye shut before she throws at the game’s target, spinning circles on a large wheel. She hits with two of the darts, but the third, she misses. “Poop stain!” she growls, turning to Jacob. “Your turn!”

  Jacob, of course, hits all three targets. Cole’s pretty sure he and Tyler could hit the targets over their shoulders with their eyes closed. As Jacob takes his prize, he chuckles. Not rigged, but near.

  What do you mean? Cole asks. The darts?

  Aye. They’re sharp enough, but two of them were imbalanced and the fins are tweaked in such a way as to make them even more. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could miss the broadside of a barn with those.

  They each have a turn, Cole and Noah missing badly while Tyler also manages to hit the targets. Seeing that Eve’s still interested, the carny running the booth launches into another pitch. “Well, we’ve got a few lucky players here. Who’d like to up the skill level?”

  “What do you mean?” Eve asks, and the carny shows them a larger board next to his booth. It’s easily eight feet across, and the circles even bigger, but when Cole sees the ‘darts,’ he nearly chokes on his own spit.

  “Now these will take some skill,” the carny says, holding up one of the glittering darts about the size of Cole’s forearm. “And power. For not only do you need to hit the circle, but you need to put the tip out the back to spill life.”

  “Spill life?” Eve asks eagerly, and the carny nods. He turns, and with a quick flip of his wrist that would make even a Guardsman proud, he embeds his dart in the middle of one of the circles. From the hole, a clear liquid starts to pour, dripping to the ground.

  “Not real life, but water,” the carny says. “The game’s called Ball Buster. One of you lads step up to the board, and there are three darts. If you still have your balls and if one of the darts is in a circle, you get the big prize, two dozen gold coins. That’s a month’s worth of wages for the average man, you know.”

  Cole nods, checking out the board. He can see the ‘fix’ in the game as the restraints would put anyone on the board over most of the open circles, and the remaining ones would be so close that only the bravest would dare throw hard for them. Unless you can somehow convince your greatest enemy to step up there, most people would hesitate, and that would doom their efforts from the start. “I see, but—”

  “Let’s do it,” Eve says, grinning. “Cole, get on up there!”

  “What?” Cole asks, looking into Eve’s eyes. Pulling her aside, he lowers his voice. “My love, I enjoy sport as much as the next man, but—”

  “But you seem to have had your balls busted even before we started the evening,” Eve hisses back. “Come on, Cole, they’re unenchanted darts. You know you’ll recover if I miss.”

  “I still don’t want a shaft through my balls,” he replies. Even with unenchanted darts, he’d only trust Jacob to throw hard for the game. But Eve seems determined to be the player. “And to let you know, I’m not totally invulnerable to unenchanted weapons.”

  “I know, but I’m not going to be aiming for your balls, silly. I like them just how they are. Please?” Eve asks, running a finger over his chest. “Do this for me and later, I’ll let you have anything you want. And I mean anything.”

  Cole swallows, his cock surging in his trousers at the implication, and he nods. He might be over five hundred, he might have more wisdom than most, but Eve is his Declared, and he feels deep in his heart that he must trust her. “Fine. But all I want is you.”

  Eve giggles and kisses him on the cheek, bouncing up and down as she hands another silver coin to the booth operator. As he passes them, Noah gives him a wary look. Are you sure?

  It’ll be okay, he replies. She’s having fun, and that’s what’s important. Who knows what the past few days have been like for her?

  Cole allows himself to be strapped to the wheel and swallows back his gorge as it starts to spin. He’s not the acrobat Jacob is. This sort of spatial spinning is hard for him to handle. In battle, he lets his sword do the deft movements while his body is more direct. Eve takes the darts, five of them, he sees, and with a cock of her arm, the first one thunks into the wood near his right leg.

  “Oops . . . missed,” Eve says coquettishly, flipping another dart in her hand before her hand whips forward again, this one embedding itself a hand’s breadth from his head.

  “Eve, I’m not sure this is a good—” Tyler says hesitantly before Eve throws again, and this time, Cole has to jerk his head to the side or else he would have lost an earlobe. Tyler gasps. “Eve!”

  “Oh, hush, Skinny,” Eve replies. “The best targets are there.”

  “Eve, you really should—” Noah says, but Eve’s hand is in motion again, and Cole can feel th
e dart catch on his hair before embedding itself in the wood again. That one was too close.

  “Tree’s cunt!” Jacob roars. “Eve, what are you doing?”

  “Having fun, you pussy,” Eve taunts. “Last one.”

  She gives no warning, and it’s only Cole’s quick reflexes that save him from getting a dart through the throat. His neck’s aching when the board comes to a stop and the carny lets him free. He can feel the sweat dripping down his face and back despite the evening chill, and he glares at Eve as he’s helped down. “What was that?”

  “What?” Eve asks innocently. “I told you, the best targets were there, and I already promised you that I wouldn’t put one near your balls. Not too many options after that.”

  “You were a little heavy-handed and risky with them, weren’t you?” I ask, wiping my face. “You could have put that last one in my jugular.”

  “Oh, come on, you big baby. You’re being hysterical,” Eve says, slapping his chest. “Come on, I put two in the circles. We got forty-eight gold coins for that. Let’s go have some fun. You do know how, right?”

  She prances away down the row, and Cole looks at Tyler, Noah, and Jacob, who all look back at him with worry. Jacob nods, lifting an eyebrow. That last one looked intentional.

  I hope not . . . but it felt intentional.

  Chapter 22

  Eve

  I don’t know how long I’m out this time, but when I come to again, I sit up, me head throbbing like I just had a decent bender with my old friend Jack Daniels. Kaelen’s already sitting up, looking thoughtful but still energized. “How do you feel?”

  I rub at my temples, nodding slowly. I’m still trying to process the scenes that the blue light showed me of my life and the images it showed me about the atom. It’s a warning, obviously . . . but if the Moonstone is trying to help me figure out what to do, it’s not working. I’m still confused. “Physically? Not too bad.”