*Isaac*
Four days earlier…
Cassian crouches on the other side of the fire, balancing on his heels. His pen scribbles over the notepad resting on his knee. He pauses, cursing under his breath,and tears the page free before crumpling it and throwing it in the fire.
“What the fuck am I even supposed to say?” he says to himself, growling low in his throat as he makes a single mark on the page before sinking into a seated position on the hard ground.
Trees choked by moss, their branches long dead, surround us. Behind us, miles of open plains stretch all the way back to Moorn. It took us days to reach this place.
Several dozen camps light up the edge of the forest. Wolves pass back and forth in groups of three or four, and small groups of warriors in their human forms gather around fires just like this one, eating, drinking, and resting.
Or trying to put words down on paper to send back home.
Phones don’t work this far from any settlement.
“Just tell her you're alive,” I mumble, scratching my pen tip against my thigh to get the ink going again. I should have brought those pens Maddy gave to me.
I’m fine. I miss you.
I stare down at the words I mean to send to Maddy knowing it’s not enough. What else could I say?
I’m at a camp in a dense forest that stretches several miles against the base of a mountain range. It feels strange here, like something lurks in the shadows that’s not part of this world. It’s dark all the time in the shadow of the mountains–and cold. Bitter cold, actually, even for this time of year when the rest of our world is warming up.
Cassian rips another page from his notepad and tosses it into the fire while I continue.
We haven’t seen any traces of Kane and his warriors. But I know they are aware that we’re here. Our plan is to push them back against the mountains so they can’t retreat if it comes to battle, but I question how they got here in the first place.
I exhale deeply, thinking of Kane standing in my office weeks ago. I know how he got here, at least, but the others? Do they all have that ability? Surely not. Hopefully not.
A warrior comes up to us, bowing to me. “I’m collecting letters to bring back to Moorn.”
“How long does it take for the messenger wolf to get back to Moorn?” I quickly scribble a few more words and fold up the paper, writing the address to the castle on the front.
“Three days if the good weather holds. There’s been some reports of heavy winds gusting from the east, slowing down some of the patrols in the plains,” the warrior replies.
Cassian reluctantly hands his letter to the warrior, who puts them in a bag on his hip, and moves on.
“Where’s your dad?” Cassian asks, laying back with his hands resting behind his head.
“I don’t know. I saw him an hour ago. I haven't seen him since.” I look around at the crackling, smoking fires that dot the forest's edge. Our camps go on and on for miles. There’s a lot of us, all ready to fight, all waiting for something to happen or confirmation that Kane has seen us and thought better of threatening my kingdom.
For now, we rest.
Tomorrow a small group of my warriors and I are continuing through the forest to the base of the mountains themselves in search of Kane, and I will not return until I’ve found him.
* * *
*Maddy*
“Isaac is such a jackass,” Ella grumbles as she looks over her letter from her brother, which is a single word: Behave. She crumbles it up and tosses it onto the dining room table in a huff, letting us know she’s going to go paint for a while to pass the time.
Isla is standing near the window letting the unrelenting sunshine bake over her four page long letter from Maddox, while Hannah leans against the opposite wall reading a letter from Cassian, her fingers pressed against her lips and her eyes slightly glazed over.
Tomorrow I’m moving with a group of scouts to the base of mountains, to the far edge of the forest. I need to know where his warriors are, where his army is hiding. I feel like we’re being led into a trap and can’t justify leading a fifty-thousand strong army into danger. I don’t know when I’ll be able to write again, but know I’m thinking of you.
No eating in bed.
Isaac
I bite down on my lip as I fold the letter and tuck it in the pocket of my pants. “Hannah?”
“Yes, Luna?” Hannah turns to me.
“How long ago were these written?”
“The messengers said it took them nearly three days to get the letters to Moorn, so four days ago, I believe.”
I exhale, nostrils flaring. Four days? He’s been gone for over a week. What happened during those four days, four days of him journeying through some mystical forest into Goddess knows what kind of danger?
No news is good news. If anything had happened, we likely would have heard about it by now. The hospital is still empty. No injured warriors to tend to.
Everything is fine. It’s fine. He’s fine.
I don’t bother Isla, who's still reading her letter from Maddox, and grab the book the temple attendants had found for me off the dining room table and go up to my room. It’s thick and leather bound with the tiniest text I’ve ever seen, but I was assured it has the content I requested.
The mythology of our people and our world.
Beasts of the Moon Goddess, included.
I’d sent a message to the High Priestess a few days ago asking if she had anything that would satisfy my request, telling her I wanted to read up on the ancient lore to better acquaint myself with my new kingdom and to see how much the teachings of the same subject differed between here and Celestoria.
She hadn’t questioned me at all, but it took some time for her attendants to go through the archives.
I sit in bed and lay the book open on my lap, read a few of the terribly hard to read pages, and promptly fall fast asleep.
I wake several hours later to the sunset streaming through the windows and the book lying limp on the bed beside me. Hungry, and a little dazed, I get out of bed and walk down to the first level of the house.
What do I do here in my free time? I don’t have hobbies. I don’t really have friends other than Hannah, Ella, and Isla. And it seems everyone is busy or out.
A servant tells me that Isla left a bit ago on another walkabout the tent city with Trinity, Rosie, and Ben and Emery’s children to visit the Obsidian Temple pack. Hannah is working somewhere in the castle, and Ella is painting.
I decide the best use of my time is not to be spent inside feeling sorry for myself and go outside, walking through the front garden, before rounding the castle and exploring the back garden in full. The stress is getting to me. I’ve been finding it hard to rest, let alone sleep.
I should shift. That’s exactly what I should be doing with my downtime, but it’s been so long, and part of me is a little fearful of the physical transformation. Will it hurt a bit, like the first time? Will I forget how to change back? Will I lose control of myself and jump over the garden wall and run far away, toward wherever Isaac is?
“Oh,” I say, startled as I round the corner of the castle. “Hello.”
A man stands in the shadow of the castle. His back is to me, and his dark, silken black hair dances as he turns his head to look in my direction. He turns his body to face me and bows low, his eyes–the color of polished iron–holding my gaze. “Luna,” he says. “It’s a fine day for a walk, is it not?”
I shake my head, laughing at myself for being so startled by his presence. The guards often take their breaks in the gardens, lounging in the shade like he must have been before I came up on him, lost in thought.
“It’s rather hot,” I admit, my brow prickling with sweat.
“Not used to summers here yet?”
“It’s my first.”
He smiles softly, one cheek dimpling. He’s exceedingly handsome and roughly Isaac’s age, maybe a little older. His skin is a golden tan like he spends a good deal of time in the sun. And, I realize with a start, that he looks awfully familiar.
“Have we met?”
“No.” He stares at me for a moment, tilting his head ever so slightly. “But it is an honor.”
Something icy prickles up my spine. Something about this doesn’t feel right. My heart is beating erratically for some reason, and my skin feels hot to the touch. “Are you a warrior?”
“I am.”
“From what pack?”
He says nothing, his hands tucked behind his back. I examine his outfit–all black, with the same style of fighting leather as Isaac wears but stained a deep, inky obsidian that blends with the shadow the castle casts over him. The pack Obsidian Temple, maybe?
“Excuse me, Your Highness. I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time.” He bows low at the waist, but raises up to his full height and looks at something over my shoulder, his eyes narrowed.
I turn my head to see whatever he’s looking at, but when I turn back to him, he’s gone.
My heart leaps into my throat as the chill that had once been snaking up my spine spreads over my body like a million icy needles, cutting through the stifling heat suffocating my skin.
“Hello?” I say, taking a few steps forward, wondering if he’d simply walked around the front side of the castle.
A commotion from above catches my attention, and I look up at the tower, where the once shuttered windows have been thrown wide open to let in what cool air is there to be had.
“Who were you talking to?” Ella snorts from four stories above my head. Her face appears in one of the narrow windows, her cheek smeared with paint.
I gape up at her, then shift my gaze to where I’d just seen that man standing, which is directly beneath the tower.
“I’m not sure,” I admit to myself. I look back up at her. “Did you see anyone out here just a few seconds ago?”
“I rarely look out of these windows,” she shouts down to me. “Too high. It makes my stomach hurt. But it’s too damn hot to keep them shuttered. Come up here, Maddy. Keep me company, I have something to show you!”
“What is it?” I shout back, but the words are strained with a feeling that something is amiss.
“Paintings, of course. More dreams. Come on!”
She disappears from the window into the shadowed depths of her tower, and my stomach twists around a sudden memory of a dream I’d had several weeks ago.
“My mother knew your family, Princess Ella. I received an invitation like the rest.”
“I don’t dance with strangers who haven’t even told me their names.”
“Dance with me, and I’ll tell you.”
The vision of Ella at Isaac’s ball three years ago flashes through my mind. The man, tall and handsome with dark gray eyes and black hair stands beside her, smiling, his eyes alight as he watches her mouth move as she speaks.
I place my hand over my heart, which feels like it’s about to burst through my chest.
He is the same man I just saw standing here, looking up at the tower.
I run into the castle, my sandals thundering on each step as I dart up an impossible amount of stairs to reach the tower. I open the door, expecting Ella to be missing, to have been taken, the studio in shambles and covered in her blood.
“Ella?” I rasp, holding the door for dear life as my legs threaten to give out.
Ella turns her head to me, her brows knitted and cheeks speckled with blue and green paint. “Did you run all the way up here?”
I almost sink to my knees in relief and stagger to a stool, plopping down as I pant, drawing in several deep breaths. I’m losing my mind. I haven’t slept in days. I’m worried sick over Isaac and letting the stress of it all get to me.
“I think–I think the heat–” Sweat drips down my temples as my vision begins to blur around the edges. Ella jumps into action, thrusting an ice cold water bottle into grateful hands.
“I’ve heard it snows in Celestoria in the summer,” she muses, settling back down on her own stool and picking up her brushes. “How long were you walking around outside? You could get heat stroke if you’re not careful.”
“That’s it,” I breathe, ignoring everything I’ve just seen. I imagined it all. There wasn’t a man lingering below her window. He hadn’t been there at all. I’d made it up.
Right?