Page 90 of In the Light of the Moon

When they’d swallowed every morsel, and the one at their feet ceased breathing, the tree-skinned monster lifted their gaze to me, and instead of the golden reflection that my sweet mate’s eyes sometimes gave, this being’s glittered between their bright white sclera and large, pitch black pupil.

This time, in deeply accented English, the monster spoke to me. Blood dripped in thick drops from their mouth, but they didn’t bother to wipe it away. “Your mate is almost gone?—”

There was no reason for me to believe they could, but the words blurted out of my mouth before I thought it through, “Can you save him? Please.” Because whatever the fuck these things were, maybe… maybe they knew how to help.

Instead of hunger or disdain or predatory wrath, the monster’s round eyes softened along with the rest of their face. They glanced at Graham who lay a few feet away, still staring up at the sky. They pointed a long, twisted finger, “That one barely hangs on. A life for a life. If you wish.”

I didn’t need to think about it. “Yes. Please. Do it now.”

A set of growls reached my ears, but the being just raised their hand, and I watched Jasper, Ana, and Dr. Vanders all fall to their sides. I flinched, and witnessing their still-breathing chests only made me feel marginally less horrified.

It may have been my raw, swollen eyes, but I thought for a moment that I saw the monster give a slight, gentle smile before starting towards Orion and I. Though they’d just killed the other one—their cousin, apparently—and knocked out the other Wolves with just a wave of their hand, my body didn’t even stiffen at their approach.

They stopped between where I hovered over Orion, whose breaths were barely there, and where Graham lay in a similar condition. They spoke no words, said no spell, but my head became light with the rush of energy that circled around us like a tornado. My chest heaved, feeling at once like there was too much air and not enough—like I could disappear on its current—and I watched through heavy eyes as it pulled something from Graham’s open mouth.

It wasn’t a physical thing, just a shimmering tawny light that once removed, left a pale, cold body.

The being turned toward Orion and me, and like a wet pebble tumbling out of one’s hand, they crouched over us and let the ball of light fall.

Uncaring that I was still covering half of his body, the light found and landed just between Orion’s unblinking eyes and disappeared.

I held my breath as I felt—something. An energetic stirring under his skin that preceded a heavier thump of his heart, and instead of the shallow pants he’d been taking, my mate’s chest swelled with a larger breath.

And then another. And another, and then his spring green eye met mine again, saw me, and he gave a raspy cough.

I tightened my arms over Orion, sending all the love and comfort and rest I could until my head throbbed and my muscles trembled. But it was helping, he was breathing even deeper, and I could hear his heartbeat strengthen and even out.

I whimpered into his fur that was slowly shrinking into smooth skin. Where paws and claws had once been, I felt his warm, strong hands grasping at my arms. He was here, he was alive, it was okay?—

“Sylvana.”

I froze. No one ever used my real name. To avoid confusion, my family had called me Sylvie from the day I was born, and there was no mistaking what the being said in that deep, smooth voice. How did it know my name?

I looked up at the monster that’d saved me and Josie and my mate, but they weren’t looking at us. I followed their gaze, where they were grinning with blood dripping out of their mouth.

At Granna.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Sylvana

“Sylvana.”

That voice was like honey, and sudden tears fell from my eyes. Another year had passed, but he look the same as he always did.

There was blood dripping from his hands, his grinning mouth, and he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. His hair hung long and loose like vines, and tall, proud antlers extended from his temples. His deep brown skin was textured like bark. Otherworldly.

Mine.

I went forward, boots falling through the snow and chaos frozen around us, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. He was here, and no matter how difficult today already was, I felt as light and young as the first time we met.

My granddaughter and her Wolf kept their eyes on him. Which was smart, since he was strong enough to easily dispose of the creature that lay lifeless in the snow. Over the fifty-five years he’d been visiting me, some creatures from his realm wereable to slip through the portal. Especially those whose powers relished the night and cold like his.

I stepped around the body of a Wolf, poor thing, and he met me. He pulled me into his bare chest, and it smelled like pine needles and cold nights and hearth fires. His fingers, long and thin, twined in my hair. Cozy warmth, calm, spread throughout my body, and the rest of my nerves settled.

“My mate,” he spoke over me, and I began to weep, like I did every time we were reunited. It was like I saved up my tears all year for them to spill at the first glimpse of him. Fifty-five years with only a long, beautiful night between the other three-hundred and sixty-four.

I craned my head to look up at him, so tall that I barely reached the middle of his chest when he was in this form. The blood was smeared on his lower face and neck, and his teeth were stained with it. Gold, shimmering eyes gazed down at me like I was the most precious thing in the world. Even wrinkled and old, I believed it when he told me every time.

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