*Maddy*
I watch as Isaac leans over his desk to grab another stack of papers from a banker’s box on the far edge. He sighs as he flips through the papers and sets them down, reaching for a pair of manilla folders instead, and sits back down.
I turn my head back to the window and watch the rain fall in dizzying sheets of silver, the entire back garden cast in shadow and glistening with dampness. My hand rests on the swell of my belly. Our son kicks me softly, and I smile to myself, tapping my fingers as if to say, “Hello, little one.”
“Is he kicking again?” Isaac asks as he leans back in his office chair and places a large, warm hand on my stomach.
I adjust the position of his hand and lay my hand over his, waiting. Our son is still so small, but his movements have become more noticeable the last few days. A featherlight movement brushes over Isaac’s hand. I watch my mate’s face as he feels his son kick for the first time. “That’s incredible,” he says, meeting my eyes. “Does it bother you?”
“No, not at all,” I grin, my heart swelling with happiness that cuts through the sharp aching grief we’ve all been feeling for the last several days. “I’ve noticed that he perks up whenever I drink something hot and sweet.” I motion to the empty tea cup on his desk.
“He’s strong,” Isaac says so gently I almost miss it. He runs his hand over the curve of my belly.
“He is,” I agree, but that blossoming happiness fades into something duller, replaced by that sadness I’ve been trying to shake ever since the ball.
Isaac notices my shift in expression and stands, placing a hand on the small of my back as we turn to face the window together. “One day, I’ll be able to look out this window and watch him playing in the back garden like I used to do as a boy. Ella and I–” His voice wobbles, but he continues, “we used to throw rocks at this window to get my Dad’s attention before running away and hiding behind the hedges, thinking he wouldn’t see us, or wouldn’t think it was us.”
Ella. Isaac hasn’t said her name in days. The castle is dark and empty, like she’d taken a piece of it with her when she left.
Ella left. She wasn’t taken. She wasn’t dragged from the castle against her will. She decided to leave and did so.
It’s a truth some of us aren’t willing to accept yet, but we must. What we can’t accept, however, is that Hannah blindly followed her into the black abyss she and Ryatt created in the ballroom less than a week ago.
“Has Cassian returned?” I ask, turning toward Isaac and laying a hand on his chest. I toy with the buttons on his shirt as he sighs, and shakes his head.
“No, he has not.”
I nod, my throat tightening painfully. Cassian is losing his mind, that’s clear enough. Separated from his mate, he’s done nothing but search for a way past those mountains to Eastonia. Within an hour of Hannah disappearing, Cassian left the castle with a small group of warriors and headed toward Moorn. Now, he’s scouring the base of the mountains, looking for something Isaac found during the war.
“I spoke to him two days ago,” Isaac says, his eyes still locked on the back garden.
“What exactly is he looking for, Isaac?”
Isaac heaves a breath and looks down at me, gently weaving one of my soft, red curls around his fingers. “During my time in the mountains, I found a spring. A natural spring, and the water was heated by some force deep underground. My group watched it for several hours. Any enemies that went into the water didn’t come back out. But…” he trails off and looks back outside, his brow furrowed, “new warriors came out of the water. Walked right out of it, refreshed, ready for battle. It sounds insane, but I was sure that was how King Kane’s army was getting into our kingdom. I gave Cassian the exact coordinates to it, but it’s not there anymore.”
I lean away and look up at him, searching his eyes for understanding. “What do you mean it’s not there anymore?”
“I don’t know. The reports I’ve gotten back from Cassian and his men say they haven’t found it.”
“The waterfall on Maatua,” I begin, tracing a finger over one of the buttons on his shirt. “Is it…”
Isaac chuckles, but it’s a strained sound. “No, it’s not a portal to another kingdom, as far as I know. And without access to the springs at the base of the mountain, we have nothing to compare the two.”
A knock sounds on the door, and we turn to see Isla stepping inside. Dark circles sit beneath her eyes, but they’re still a clear, crystal blue that matches the color of her turtleneck sweater. Her golden blonde hair is tied neatly in a bun at the nape of her neck. “Am I interrupting?”
“No,” I say, smiling at her as she closes the door to Isaac’s office behind her. “We were just talking about–about Cassian.”
She nods, a far off look in her eyes for a split second before she looks between us and says, “We’re leaving tonight. Your father and I have to return to Maatua as planned.” She steps further into the room. “I have meetings with the priestesses from both KiloKilo and Maatua. I’m hoping I can gain some new insight on how to bring Hannah back.”
There’s obvious pain in Isla’s voice. I know she wants to say Ella’s name, to say that Ella will be coming back too, but we all know Ella made this choice for herself.
Hannah, on the other hand, likely had no idea what she was getting into.
“Have you been able to get in contact with Kane–I mean, Ryatt?” She clears her throat.
“No,” Isaac says with finality.
This doesn’t surprise me. For decades, Isaac’s parents had tried to get in contact with Eastonia to no avail. It wasn’t until we learned of the legends surrounding the shrouded kingdom that we learned it was entirely cut off, impassable, even for correspondence.
Isla is resigned to nodding. My heart aches for her. There is truly nothing we can do but wait.
“Hannah is safe with Ella,” I say before I can stop the words from leaving my lips. “She would do anything to protect her. Hannah is safe as long as they’re together.”
“I know,” Isla replies, but the words are heavy and laced with unimaginable grief. “I just wish she would have told us, and allowed us to help her, to do this… diplomatically, and allow doors to open between our kingdoms.”
“I don’t think that was an option, Mom,” Isaac says. His hand roves up my spine and back down again, like he’s seeking comfort in just touching me. “Ryatt wasn’t our enemy from the beginning. I failed to see that until it was too late. His father, the true Alpha King, is pulling the strings. Whatever is happening on the other side of those mountains is out of our control, and it’s something Ella needed to handle on her own.”
I can feel how much it pains him to say it. There’s been so many unanswered questions these past few days. Like how Ella was able to hide her tremendous powers from everyone in her family, how she was able to call Ryatt here to bring her back to his homeland, and why she went the way she did.
“Isaac,” Isla says after a moment of heavy silence drifts between us, settling like a wet blanket across the room, “if Cassian doesn’t return, you know what you must do.”
Isaac stiffens beside me, but he nods all the same. Isla exhales and turns to go, saying over her shoulder, “We leave after dinner tonight.”
The door shuts behind her with a soft click.
I let out my breath, resting my hands on my stomach. “Does she mean you’ll need to find a new Beta if this continues?”
“If he’s unable to do his job, yes,” Isaac says with obvious irritation. He steps away from me and runs his fingers through his hair. “I understand his desire to rip the world apart to find his mate, trust me, but this is fruitless. I’m doing everything I can to get in contact with Ryatt, but I still don’t understand how any of this works.”
“Her paintings,” I offer, stepping toward him. “If she can step through them, so could you–”
“We’d have to find a way to get into the tower first. She sealed it off before she left. Even my powers don’t allow me to break through whatever spells she locked it with.”
We’d tried, several times, thinking the paintings were the key to finding her and Hannah, and giving Hannah a chance to come back. But I have a strange feeling about the paintings themselves. Why didn’t she use them to travel to Eastonia in the first place? Could she not cross whatever veil separated the two kingdoms on her own?
Isaac exhales deeply and sits down. I lean against the desk, crossing my arms under my breasts as I look down at my mate. Goddess, the last few days have been hell. Isaac has been gone all day and sometimes late into the night. We’re pretending everything is all right, pretending we have a grip on the situation with Eastonia and that that kingdom is no longer a threat.
But we don’t know that for sure. How could we? Not when we believed the wrong king was our enemy.
Ryatt is our kingdom’s only hope. Whatever he and Ella are doing beyond those mountains is meant to keep us safe.
I edge closer to Isaac and kneel before him, resting my hands on his thighs. “I love you.”
He caresses my cheek. I lean into his touch, closing my eyes. I feel him bend forward, and he brushes his lips over mine. “I love you, too.”
“We’ll get through this. Everything will be clear, one day.”
“One day,” he repeats, then deepens the kiss.
When was the last time we kissed like this?
“I missed you, Maddy,” he says softly and helps guide me to my feet. I sit on his lap and wrap my arms around his neck, resting my forehead against his. “I have no obligations for the rest of the day.”
“Then your only obligation is to me, isn’t it?” I tease, and the lighthearted words chip through the grief shared between us.
“Yes,” he rasps and meets my mouth again in a hungry kiss.
I pull away after a moment. Unfortunately, I, as the Luna, still have obligations today, including overseeing the planning of a mating ball being held shortly before we’re supposed to join Isla and Maddox in Maatua for Winter Solstice. “I have to go to the temple for a little while.”
He groans, leaning his head back as I slide off his lap and brush the wrinkles out of my pants.
“I’ll be back for dinner.”
“Good, I imagine it’s not going to be a very lively event, like usual.”
I take his face between my hands and kiss him deeply once more before saying, “We’re all going to be fine. Ella knew what she was doing.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I hope, and pray, that I’m right.