Page 58 of Luna Rising
Her water magic was cool and refreshing, like a dip in the falls at the first hint of spring. The lights in the room dimmed, as a three-dimensional image of the scene in the mirror lit up the space in the center of the semicircle.
My father, who had always been the strongest shifter I knew, looked shell-shocked, like his mind couldn’t process the fact he’d been wrong about something. Mom appeared almost smug. Had she believed the eternals and their protectors were real the entire time?
Zach wore a neutral-verging-on-constipated expression, which I knew as his anxiety-face. My heart broke for him, and I felt more than a little guilty for not being there to ease his worry. Brooke slipped her small hand in his and whispered too softly to hear in his ear. Whatever she said made my brother smile. She was the ideal alpha’s mate, with her gentle touch and soothing words. I wanted to be that for Ewan.
“Are you certain we shouldn’t take a larger entourage, Merrick?” Mom asked as she smoothed the shoulders of his long, fur-trimmed robe.
“We don’t want to appear hostile or like we are opposing the Zodiac Council. The four of us are a show of respect,” my father said.
Mom simply smiled and refrained from further argument. I admired her restraint and wondered how often she held her tongue when she desperately wanted to unleash it. I had always been a daddy’s girl, while my mother and I often clashed. Now that she and I were both mated to an alpha, I understood her a little better. I respected her more, too.
My family climbed in a waiting SUV, which drove them out of pack lands and to a small town halfway between Arcane Landing and Arcane Falls. From there, they went to a bar, where the owner directed them to a door with a static portal that transported them to the council's meeting spot.
They stepped out into a large meadow. Small clusters of fae and shifters were spread throughout the clearing. Like my family, many wore ceremonial robes. Most fae rulers had donned their crowns in a show of superiority that made me dislike them immediately.
Across the clearing, another magical doorway opened, and Essie stepped through. I was pretty sure I gasped. She planned to oppose the councils, so I hadn’t expected her to appear in person. While Winter was on Team Surprised, both Colleen and Mrs. Wynn looked like they’d expected it.
“What will they do to her?” Winter asked her mother.
“Essie knows what she’s doing,” Colleen replied, which was not an answer.
Representatives from nearly every faction, fae and shifters, gathered in that clearing. I recognized a few, including the Aquarius alpha’s daughter, who’d nearly become my sister-in-law. Liam and his sister Sasha stood with their father Jonah, the Virgo alpha, and glared at my family. Their longstanding feud made the situation feel oddly more normal.
The Leo Fae were not in attendance, which both surprised me and didn’t. As far as I knew, Hayden was still King Evander’s heir apparent. The Ophiuchus wolves had no obligation to attend, so I wasn’t at all shocked that they didn’t. Their fae counterparts weren’t there either, and I was less sure if that was normal. Neither the Taurus wolves nor fae sent parties, nor did the Capricorn wolves, as promised. The Capricorn Fae had representatives, though. Lots of them. My father wasn’t wrong about such a large entourage appearing as a show of force.
A portal opened in the center of the clearing. Thirteen fae filed through the golden light, followed by thirteen shifters. They all wore gilded cloaks lined with white fur that made my wolf twitchy. Each of the twenty-six Zodiac Council members wore an identical gold crown of thorns holding four stones, which represented the elements.
A fae who looked older than Essie cleared his throat loudly, as if to capture everyone’s attention. The clearing had fallen silent when the councils arrived.
“This is a grave day for all of us,” the man said, his voice shockingly deep and steady, given the tremble in his hands. “Sacrificing one of our own is never an easy choice, but we must weed out the rotten apples before they destroy the entire harvest. They may seem harmless now, merely your friends, your children, your mates. Should we allow them to continue on in this life, they will rise and destroy our world.”
The alphas all made a low rumbling sound that echoed through the clearing and then howled as one. If it weren’t so creepy and cult-like, I might have thought the harmony of the moment beautiful.
The fae elder waited for the noise to die out before continuing. “Our ancestors had the best of intentions when they created their warriors and wolf protectors. Unfortunately, they were short-sighted. In their desperation to protect themselves from the humans, they made thirteen eternal warriors who could only die by their own hand. They didn’t understand that the immortality spell would allow for reincarnation. While this loophole has allowed the eternals to be born again and again, it has also provided us with a chance to right the mistakes of our forefathers.”
This was a less biased version of the eternals’ origin story than I had expected from the fae. Unlike King Orrin, this man didn’t speak of soulmates or place the blame on Nicasia and Ambrose like they were single-handedly responsible for all the wrongs of the supernatural world.
Starting with the fae, the old man called each faction forward and demanded the surrender of any suspected eternals. The first few interactions were uneventful, which I’d anticipated. All the eternals, save Winter and Archer, were missing in action. They called for the Geminis last.
Out of habit, I sucked in air and blew out a long breath as Essie and the other Gemini fae stepped forward. The tension in the living room ratcheted up several notches. Colleen vibrated so badly that the images projecting from the mirror glitched. Winter was on the edge of her seat, literally. Even Mrs. Wynn pursed her lips and clasped her hands in her lap, as if waiting for bad news. Only Kiernan reacted, but he also didn’t grasp the magnitude of the proceedings.
Why was the teenager who helped poison me here? It wasn’t the first time I’d wondered, but with everything else happening, I had yet to ask.
“Elder Sable, we have spoken of this matter at length. It has now come to our attention that the Gemini Fae have two eternals. A pair. The pair. Unless circumstances have changed—and I hope for your sake they have not—they are both still mortal.”
“There are no eternals in Arcane Landing, Ilyod,” Essie said, using the man’s given name instead of his title.
I silently cheered her subtle defiance. No matter how this ended, Essie Sable was a legend. I saw my feelings reflected in Colleen’s watery eyes. She was proud of her grandmother.
This clearly annoyed Ilyod, yet he kept his opinions on the matter to himself. “Semantics, Essie,” he said, dropping her title as well. I had a feeling these two had history.
“It’s the truth, all the same.” Essie stood a little straighter, a challenge in her keen gaze.
I wasn’t familiar with fae politics since I paid little attention in the classes where I might have learned more about their ceremonial customs and laws.
“Your great-granddaughter is one of these vile creatures, Essie. Your bloodline is tainted.”
“You have no proof,” Essie said calmly.
