*Maddy*
I sigh as I look down at the tangled mess of wood and screws littering our bedroom floor. Isaac leans against the wall, his hair standing on end and his eyes narrowed on the instruction pamphlet for what should be the cribs for our twins.
I rub my hands together, arching my brow at my mate, who looks more flustered than I’ve ever seen him before.
“I want the head of whoever wrote this fucking thing,” he growls, turning it upside down. “I want them hanging from my gate!”
“Just use your powers, for the love of the Goddess!”
He turns vengeful eyes to me. “I’ve been to war, Maddy. I can put together a crib!”
“Do it, then,” I say, planting my hands on my hips and giving him an expectant look. “Go ahead.”
He glowers at me and slides down the wall into a seated position, looking like a surly teenager who just got scolded by his mother rather than the Alpha King.
“I could help,” I suggest, but his glower deepens.
“You’re supposed to be in bed, Maddy.”
“I’ve been in bed since we got home!” I throw my hands in the air. “I’m sick of lying around. I’m sick of being pregnant. The sooner this is over, the better. So, you better get to work, my King. Otherwise, you’ll be the one hanging from the front gates!”
He raises his brows as I whirl, ungracefully, and stalk back to the bed. I have nowhere else to go, honestly. I’ve been put on bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy, however long that’ll be. I have another two months, they think.
I hear Isaac walking toward me, but I pull the sheets up over my head to hide the tears starting to well in the corners of my eyes.
I cry all the time for no reason. I just can’t help it. Dinner could taste wrong, my shower could feel too hot, or even just right, and I’ll burst into tears. I saw a bird in the back garden this morning looking for food, but there’s still so much snow and ice on the ground. Then, I remembered what it was like to not have any food myself and melted into a puddle of raw emotion I could barely explain.
Isaac gently lowers the sheets. I cover my face with my hands. “P-please go away.”
“Maddy,” he says, doing his absolute best not to laugh at me. I’d laugh if I were him. “Everything is going to be fine.”
“It doesn’t feel fine!”
He smooths his hand over my back, which constantly aches, and then my stomach, where our sons are currently beating the absolute wits out of each other, apparently. “I’m going to go make you some tea, myself. I know just how you like it.”
“I do like it better when you make it,” I sniff. I’m sure I look absolutely ridiculous, but Isaac’s deep blue eyes crease at the corners as he smiles down at me.
“You’ve never been more beautiful. I’d keep you pregnant forever if I could.”
“Take that back,” I whimper, and his beautiful smile widens with his laugh.
“We’re done after this, all right? Two is plenty.”
“You don’t want any daughters?”
“I’d love a daughter if the Goddess blessed us with one, of course, but I’d rather have my mate back.” He presses a kiss to my temple, saying, “I know you’re miserable. I hate this for you. I’d do anything to make this easier, but putting the cribs together isn’t going to happen.”
I bite back a laugh, but he notices the shift in my emotions and sighs with relief.
“I’ll have a few of the more dexterous warriors come up tomorrow to put them together.” He sits on the edge of the bed. “In the meantime, I just heard from my mom. She’s going to be here in two weeks, and she’s going to stay through the spring and summer if you’re all right with it.”
I burst into tears in earnest, but there’s nothing but relief in my voice as I cry, “Thank the Goddess.”
“I’m going to go make that tea,” Isaac smiles. “Try to rest, sweetheart.”
* * *
One of the worst things about this entire situation is that I find it impossible to sleep. Not because I lay in bed all day, dozing on and off. No, I barely sleep at all these days. And when night falls, I find it impossible to relax, and so do the twins. They’re running out of room with each passing second, and the only way to rock them back to sleep is to walk around the castle at night, alone, nothing but the darkened hallways to keep me company.
I like this place at night. Occasionally, I go down to the kitchen and rummage for a snack, but tonight I find solace in the cool, blue-hued alcoves and staircases cast in the light of an incredibly clear full moon.
The moon has me itching to shift. It’s been months, but I've been told I'm much too pregnant to do so safely, especially carrying twins.
I follow the moonlight up a narrow set of stairs and end up on the spare fifth level of the castle, which is mostly used for storage. Isaac has rooms full of books up here, most of which have to do with astronomy or engineering, the two things he loves as much as he loves me.
He’s fast asleep right now. He didn’t even stir when I practically rolled out of bed and spent a good two minutes trying to get to my feet.
Just a few more weeks of this, that’s all. Isla will be here soon, too. She always makes me feel better.
Lost in thought, I don’t notice where I am until a creaky set of spiral stairs appears before me. I look up at the single door hidden in the shadows while resting my hands on my stomach and sighing. Ella’s studio looms above. It’s been empty for months and locked by some kind of magic even Isaac can’t break through.
“What are you doing up here, Luna?”
I scream, then quickly clap my hands to my mouth as Cassian walks out of the shadows.
“Goddess above, Cassian! You scared me to death!”
He rubs his ears, cringing. “I think you just burst my eardrums—”
I swat him on the shoulder. “Don’t sneak up on me like that again. I could go into labor!” I pause, pursing my lips. Maybe this isn’t a totally bad thing. “What are you doing up here, anyway?”
Cassian shifts his weight and crosses his arms, his metal arm gleaming in the moonlight. “I thought I heard something. Apparently, it was just you creeping around after dark.”
“I wasn’t creeping around—”
“Maddy, Cassian—” Isaac sprints toward us then skids to a stop, two warriors following closely behind in their wolf forms.
I jump, my heart racing. Isaac looks between us, brows raised and eyes heavy with sleep. “What’s going on? I heard a scream. I heard you scream.” Isaac pants as he looks from me to Cassian.
“Cassian scared me.”
“Not on purpose,” he grumbles.
Isaac heaves a breath and looks over his shoulder at the warriors, who lower their heads and back into the shadows, disappearing from sight.
“Maddy, we talked about this. I don’t like you walking around at night alone. What if you fall? Or your water breaks? And you—” He points a finger at Cassian, “What the hell are you doing up here?”
I turn to Cassian with an expectant look, arching my brow.
“I heard the Luna taking a walk and followed her to make sure she was all right. I have the same concerns, Alpha.”
“Drop the formalities, Cassian,” Isaac says with obvious annoyance. “Both of you, downstairs, now—”
A crash comes from above us, and the three of us look up at the door to Ella’s studio. Unease ripples through my body, my fingertips tingling with adrenaline.
Isaac looks toward Cassian, probably talking to him over the mind-link, which is confirmed when Cassian immediately moves toward the stairs and begins to climb.
“But—No, Cassian, the spell on the door—”
“It’s probably just a bird,” Isaac says as we watch him climb.
“I’m going up.”
“No—”
Cassian reaches for the doorknob, and the air is stolen from my lungs when he clutches it and stands perfectly still. I wait for the magic to ignite like it did the last time we did this, months ago now. Isaac had walked away with blisters covering his hand. It’d been awful.
But a soft click, then a creak, sounds as Cassian pulls the door open and looks down at us.
“Stay here,” Isaac says breathlessly, but I shake my head and walk toward the stairs.
I follow them into the room. Ribbons of canvas cover the floor. Some of the canvases have been burned, others destroyed past the point of recognition. My heart is in my throat as I look around the room, a thick layer of dust covering every surface.
Cassian silently moves around inspecting the carnage while Isaac and I stand in the center of the room. He was right about the bird. I watch it frantically flutter across the rafters, disturbing the moonlit cobwebs.
“She destroyed everything,” I whisper, my chest tightening painfully. “All of her paintings…. Everything’s gone.”
Isaac says nothing as he looks around, his eyes glossy in the moonlight streaming from the open window above our head.
“Why would she do this?” I whisper, distressed.
“I don’t know. I don’t think any of us truly knew Ella.” Isaac’s voice is totally void of emotion, and it hurts to hear. He rarely talks about her. The night we heard her voice at the falls in Maatua was the only time he’d let even a hint of emotion of losing his sister show, and even then, he’s been acting like it never happened.
Something falls over, and dust rushes toward us as Cassian pulls an old sheet free from a pile of burned and shredded canvases. A large, looming field of black painted on canvas swallows the room and takes my breath away.
“It’s one of her nightmares,” I say, mostly to myself. I’m beyond words as my eyes roam over each stroke, each dark color she blended into the sucking, depthless black at the center. A figure is barely visible, standing with their head slightly turned to look over one shoulder, but no facial features or details shine through the creeping darkness that oozes from the painting.
Isaac’s nostrils flare as he says, “Cover it up.”
But Cassian is transfixed, his eyes gleaming with sudden fury. “That’s him, isn’t it? Ella’s mate? The guy who took Hannah—”
“Cover it up, Cassian,” Isaac growls, stepping forward. “Now.”
Cassian shakes his head and looks back at the painting. His metal hand gleams as he reaches for it. Isaac leaps forward, trying to stop Cassian from tearing into the painting, but stumbles over the debris scattered throughout the room. Isaac catches himself, his hands pressed against the canvas, which erupts in ripples of white light.
“Isaac!” I screech, grabbing his arm and pulling him back as the painting pulsates with power—his power.
“How—“ he stammers, looking down at his hands, then at me. “How did I—”
But Cassian turns to us, his teeth bared in a menacing smile.
I can’t do more than scream Cassian’s name, but it’s lost on him as he reaches into the portal Isaac just created and says, “I’m going to kill him,” before vanishing in a blur of white light.