Kenna
“Stay close, okay?” I shout as the girls hurry ahead of me through the woven, interlocking streets of Moonrise. It’s insane how much things have changed in the last decade. I tuck my phone in my purse; change number one. Yes, Eastonia has cell-phone service after decades of back and forth, but we’ve finally come out of the stone-age and into modernity, which includes change number two.
Brie yanks Maeve out of the way when a car comes barreling down the street, bumping over the cobblestone road. I lift a hand, waving at the careless driver. This area of the city is supposed to be pedestrian only, but not everyone follows the rules.
“Mom, we’re going to be late!” Brie scolds, gripping Maeve’s forearm. “Quit dragging your feet! You’re going to scuff your shoes!”
“Then I’ll get new ones,” eleven-year-old Maeve grins, rolling her sea-green eyes.
The castle rises above us as the girls bicker back and forth. Brie, fifteen and so beautiful it hurts to look at her sometimes, throws me a look every once in a while that drips with annoyance, but I’m honestly not in a hurry. Not at all.
Brie’s dark brown hair tumbles down her back as we walk through the main gate of the castle grounds, which is heavily guarded at all times. With the new road system between Eastonia and Crescent Falls came an influx of visitors and new residents, and while Eastonia remains peaceful, crime has risen in recent years, but that’s to be expected when a city booms in size.
Moonrise is the capital of Eastonia–the gathering place of all magical kinds.
And today, I’m leaving one of my children here for what could be the rest of her life.
I bite back tears as my girls hurry up the steps. Maeve skips every other step, much to Brie’s annoyance. Maeve and Brie are complete opposites. Maeve is playful but tends to fly by the seat of her pants, throwing caution to the wind.
Brie is… a rock. Solid in conviction and sense. She’s the reason Maeve was able to have a childhood in Veiled Valley without needing to worry about her powers getting in the way. She raised Maeve as much as Evander and I did, and I know that right now, she’s hurting as badly as I am…
But Brie isn’t tenderhearted like me. It’s impossible to know what she’s feeling on any given day. Stoic, brave, and unfazed, she leads her little sister into the castle while I follow behind and let her take the lead.
“You’d better start being nice to me,” Maeve teases, wiggling her fingers at Brie. “When I learn magic, the first thing I’m going to do is turn you into a toad!”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Brie shrugs, tucking her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “I can’t braid your hair if I’m a toad, anyway.”
Maeve halts in her tracks, her shoulders going rigid as she turns to me, then back to Brie. “Who’s going to braid my hair now, then?”
“One of the maids,” I say, walking past them up the main stairs. “Or any friends you make at school.”
“You have to be nice to make friends,” Brie adds, following close behind.
Maeve huffs, mumbling under her breath as we climb the stairs and cross into the private wing of the massive castle where I grew up and where the girls have spent so much time during their short lives.
We’ve been living in Veiled Valley exclusively for the past decade. I love it there. I love being the Alpha. I love having a warm home to share with my mate and our family… but our children are growing up. Aris, fourteen, has only another two years at home before he goes to Moonrise for training in the wolf arts. Brie will be graduating school soon and moving onto college in Veiled Valley, where she plans to study history and law.
And Maeve… she’ll be here, training to become queen.
My throat tightens, making it impossible to swallow. The girls dart ahead of me down the hallway when my dad steps out of his office and opens his arms wide to catch them in a hug.
“Is Mom in her office?” I ask in passing, but Dad shakes his head.
“She’s upstairs, the formal sitting room.”
I keep moving while the girls stay behind with my dad. I feel like the world is moving in slow motion as I near the upper quarters of the castle–the rooms we named by the color of their wallpaper. I pass the private apartments where my cousins stay when they visit, and by the time I reach the sitting room bathed in butter yellow with warm cream finishes, my chest is tight, and I’m sure my expression matches the overwhelming feeling that time has moved far more quickly than I’d hoped.
Mom’s sitting on a couch with Amanda, my mother-in-law and the wife of Granger, Ryatt’s Beta. Amanda rushes to me, giving me a quick hug before asking where the girls are and then hurries away to dote on her granddaughters.
“Do you want some tea? It’s the ginger kind from the Deadlands that you like,” Mom asks, motioning toward a tray on the coffee table.
I sit in an armchair across from her and nod, watching as she pours the steaming amber liquid into a dainty tea cup and hands it to me. I pray my hands don’t shake, but they do.
“Where’s Evander?” she asks, looking toward the entrance of the room.
“He’s with Aris at the training ground. Aris wanted a tour of the arena and barracks, of course. He says he can’t possibly wait another two years to start his training.”
“Well, two years will fly by, I’m sure. Starting him early wouldn’t be a problem, you know. He’s more than welcome to stay here, like Maeve.”
I chew my lower lip before taking a sip of tea to calm my nerves. “He’s been training his Shadowsynger gifts with me, and that’s been fine. He could use the two years to hone those gifts before moving onto his wolf powers.”
Mom’s jade green eyes meet mine, scanning for any cracks in my dismal emotional armor. Unlike my eldest daughter, I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I’ve never been able to hide what I feel. It’s my greatest weakness.
“Kenna,” she breathes. “It’s going to be okay. The fact we made it eleven years without Maeve accidentally killing someone is a miracle.”
“I know,” I reply, on the verge of breaking down completely. A decade ago, I’d been heavily considering leaving Maeve with my parents here in Moonrise full time. Maeve’s powers were enormous–too much for her little body to handle, especially as a baby.
She’s been learning how to contain her powers her entire life… but now she’s going to learn to use them, and I am terrified she’ll get hurt–or hurt someone else.
“You’re doing the right thing for her,” Mom says softly, giving me a weak smile. “You’ve always done the right thing for her.”
“I’ve done my best,” I whisper, taking another sip of tea. “I really have. Maeve is… she’s a lot. Not just her powers, but her personality. She’s the opposite of Brie, and Brie has been so–so good all her life.”
“How is Brie doing with this?”
I sigh, setting my cup done. “She’s fine. You know Brie is always fine. She’ll never say she’s not.”
“Maeve and Brie are very close,” Mom cuts in, shaking her head. “When Maeve ascends my throne, it might be in her best interest to have Brie as–as perhaps a second in command, an advisor.”
“She’s already planning on it,” I admit, turning my cup in a circle just to do something with my hands. “She plans on studying history and law, like I’ve said before. I just wish–I wish she’d tell me if it’s truly what she wanted to do. I feel like everything she does is to make us happy, and I–gods, Mom–I wish she’d act out. Sneak out, kiss boys, steal wine from the kitchen, you know.”
“You never did those things.” Mom laughs, but I cut her a look.
“You did.”
“Well, I was a very different kind of person, and I also grew up in Crescent Falls, so there’s that.” She pours me another cup of tea, the strange scars on her hairline a glossy white against her skin. Her eyes meet mine, soft and understanding. “You’ve done an amazing job with these kids, Kenna. Maeve is going to be fine. Aris will calm down and grow up; it takes boys longer to do that. Your father didn’t start maturing until his forties, honestly.”
I smile despite the ache in my chest.
“And Brie will find herself.”
I shake my head, biting back my own guilt at the mention of her name. “She knows she’s not like us. She knows she’s adopted, of course. We never kept that from her, but… she doesn’t have powers like we do. Even Evander is advanced when it comes to shifting–can shift into multiple forms–but Brie is a shifter, through and through. This shift in our family dynamic with Maeve leaving for school and Aris on the cusp of his own journey… Brie has been different. Quieter than usual. More serious.”
Mom watches me, her smile fading.
“Brie actually mentioned,” I begin, taking a sharp breath, “the need to start… looking into possible matches for marriage.”
Mom laughs, “She’s fifteen!”
“I know,” I sigh, shaking my head. “But her argument is honestly quite sound, if you think about it. She’s a princess. She’s the eldest daughter of the Alpha of Veiled Valley and the granddaughter of the Queen of Eastonia. She says she has to find a match in someone with similar rank–an Alpha, for sure, or the heir of one. I told her it didn’t matter to me, but she argued against it.”
“Because she feels like her worth is in her rank?”
“It’s an outdated notion, but yes. She doesn’t have powers like us. I think she feels like she doesn’t fit in with our family, and I hate that.”
“She’ll grow out of that feeling,” Mom tries to say, but I don’t believe it.
“She does everything she can to prove her worth to us even though we’ve never asked that of her. Evander is in pieces about it. He’d rather her go into a convent and be a priestess than marrying someone just because she feels the need to be matched with an Alpha. I can’t take it, Mom. These kids are… killing me.”
“Well, that’s motherhood.”
“When you were growing up,” I interrupt, leaning forward, “did Grandpa and Grandma expect you to marry an Alpha just because you were a princess?”
“Grandpa? Yes, probably. But I think they were just shocked I survived my teenage years,” she says with a smirk. “Isaac was actually the one who demanded that of me when he rose to the throne, and our parents moved to Maatua. It’s a reputation thing. I was the sister of the king–who I ended up with was a direct reflection on our family.”
“Exactly. That’s how Brie feels about it, and I can’t convince her otherwise.”
“Then what will you do when the time comes? When she’s grown and looking for a mate?”
“Support her? I don’t know.”
“And if her mate is a low-born soldier?” she asks.
I meet my mom’s eyes. “She’d reject him. She’d reject him because, in her mind, she’s only worthy of having us as a family if she contributes… even if that means marrying someone she doesn’t like only for his title. How do I change her mind, Mom?”
“I don’t think you can,” Mom replies honestly. “But maybe, one day, her mate can.”