Page 91 of In the Light of the Moon

I couldn’t help but smile at him. My life here was simple and happy. My garden and my home were my safe places, Roz was the best friend I’d never deserved, and Sylvie was the light of my life.

With my mate, though, I felt alive. Complete and whole like my soul was singing. These past few weeks, when my decision became more and morereal, it was a struggle to not let guilt overtake me completely. But seeing him now, I stood even firmer in my choice. He’d found a way, and we would be together. Always.

“I’ve missed you,” I said, and he grinned, sharp teeth like perfect points. This was how he’d been the first time I invited a portal to open in my backyard.Summoning an Elemental Spritin The Book, I’d found, didn’t summon a specific entity but invited whatever curious creature who happened to benearby. In the dead of winter, I spent all my nights studying, and in a thirst for more knowledge, I’d thought I would learn from something otherworldly. When my mate stepped out of the shimmering ripple within my circle, I’d been taken aback, excited, and a little afraid.

My mate ran a finger around the edge of my face and bent down to give a featherlight kiss to my lips. I wrapped my arms around his slim waist, felt the tickle of his long, black and moss-green hair on my cheek. “My sun, how I’ve missed you, too. No more will we be apart,” he gave another kiss to my forehead, and I shuddered with more weeping.

It was in these moments that I wanted nothing more than to have Caley here.

“G-Granna?” I clenched my eyes shut, working up the nerve to turn around. There was no avoiding this anymore. Though Sylvie meeting him had always been a possibility, I… was afraid. For her to see all the ways I’d failed. To see the mistakes and hard decisions I made.

I twisted within his arms, and then we were both looking at my sweet granddaughter. She was crouched over her own mate that was slowly gaining consciousness. When he registered my mate’s attention on them, he curled an arm over Sylvie, protecting her even when he had just been on the brink of death. I smiled at them both. I had been right. He would be here for her.

“Hi, sweetheart,” I winced. Every word felt inadequate with my granddaughter’s wide eyes looking at me and her grandfather with wary confusion. There was so much I had to explain.

“Hello, Sylvie,” my mate greeted. “And hello, again, Snow Pup.” Somehow the boy was able to get even paler, blinking wide at my mate. At one of our visits, my mate spoke of a young white Wolf that he stumbled upon while hunting for us. How the pup had been unafraid but trying to hunt alone.

My own grandmother was a seer, which was how I was able to recognize it in Josie all those years ago, and the older I got, some of my own premonitions popped up. Like dreams during the day. I was delighted to see that as far as my granddaughter and her mate were concerned, they’d been correct.

“Um, Granna… who-who’s this?” By the way she drew out the question, she already had an inkling. But I couldn’t blame her for being hesitant. We’d decided to keep the truth of us for her safety. To keep what happened to Caley from happening to Sylvie and encouraging Michael to take her to live near his family. I couldn’t bring myself to stifle her interests when she came to visit, but the barrier my mate put around the house kept her shielded from those that wanted her.

Apparently, though, it made them resort to soliciting the pack to do their bidding. Graham was a stupid boy, and if he weren’t already dead, I would have slapped him.

After a baleful look where Graham’s body lay next to his ‘god’, I straightened my spine. Sylvie deserved an explanation. “Sweetheart, this… is my mate.”

“You may call me Coill,” he added, and I smiled gratefully up at him. They were the same words he’d greeted me with when we first met. Since then, he’d given me his true name, part of my mating gift and a true show of his trust in me. With it, I could get him to do anything, he’d said. I held the secret close to my heart.

“Your… mate.” Sylvie’s eyes flitted between us, then up and down his body. I probably didn’t want to know some of the questions that were forming in her mind, and thank goddess she didn’t voice any except, “For how long?”

I chewed at my lip and took a breath. “Fifty-five years.”

“I… why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice cracked, and I went to her. Coill stayed where he was, but I felt his support surrounding me.

I sank to my knees in the snow, the cold barely permeating my awareness. Orion sat up and shifted to wrap his arm around Sylvie’s back. I looked into her eyes, the ones she’d inherited from me. So often I’d felt like I was interacting with my younger self.

I prayed that she’d be able to forgive me. Us. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I couldn’t. Things are… dangerous. We feared so much things turning out like they had with your mother.” I took a shaky breath. It was like tearing open a wound each time I spoke of her.

“What are you talking about? She died in a car accident.” Sylvie and Orion bristled, and a tentative crunching of snow rang behind me. I craned my neck to find my mate sinking down to sit beside me. Even with their trepidation, Sylvie and Orion didn’t back away, which made my face hot once again. We didn’t need their approval, but dammit, did I long for it.

Coill ran a hand over my hair, petting the grey strands that used to be almost black. When he spoke to Sylvie, his voice was low, soft, and filled with sorrow, “Your mother did not. She was killed.” We’d both grieved in our own way and together when we could. For me, the years had been long, but with time working so differently between our realms, he’d missed so much. To mate one year, then meet his three-month-old child the next. He was immortal, but the years hadn’t made him immune to emotions. We tried to make the most of our fleeting moments together, but we always made time to talk of her. To look at pictures of Caley and share stories and memories. The sight of a lone tear running down his cheek now made me start crying all over again.

“Why? How?” Though her eye color was like mine, the round, emotive shape was all his. All Coill’s.

He kept running his fingers through my hair, giving me calm even when he was feeling sadness. “It is… frowned upon by many where I am from. Our matehood. My family,” he gesturedtoward the body that was quickly decomposing and becoming a husk of dust, “had been suspicious, but I didn’t think—” he shuddered, and I placed a hand over his thigh. “To keep you away and unaware as much as we could was to keep you safe. Do not be upset with your grandmother. Please.”

Sylvie frowned and glanced at Orion before looking back to Coill. “I’m not upset. Exactly. Just… confused. And hurt.”

He nodded, vines shifting and elk-like horns cutting through the air. “I understand. This has not been easy, but most of all for your grandmother.”

“And… and you are my grandfather?” she whispered and leaned closer into Orion’s bare chest.

Coill smiled warmly and nodded once again. “Yes, Sylvie. I have watched you from afar, but I am so pleased to be speaking with you now.”

Sylvie hesitated for just a moment before reaching out a hand. Coill held out his, and when their palms touched, they both sucked in surprised gasps. Like with like, I could feel magic stirring around them. Cool and alive, it sparkled.

How long had I imagined this? Every time Sylvie asked questions about her grandfather and the answer sat like a rock in my stomach. And when she’d stopped asking all together, it felt even worse.

“So, what now?” Orion whispered, eyes on me. He was perceptive, Sylvie’s mate, and I wanted to laugh if all this hadn’t felt so bittersweet.

---