Page 109 of Moon Cursed

Things were changing so much, the last stop of the around-the-country tour was a mansion within Incepe Din where I picked up my daughter, packed her things, and took her home.

“Have you been using the cream-based diaper cream, because the gel-based doesn’t work?”

“I have,” I gritted.

“And have you been playing the songs I recorded for her?” Lucia asked. “My singing is the only thing that gets her to sleep.”

“So you’ve told me.”

“I hope you’re not singing to her. You’ve got a terrible singing voice. Sounds like a frog being attacked by a tuba.”

My brow twitched. “I will block your number again.”

“And I’ll call from another one again,” she replied, cackling. “Oh, and have you—?”

“Lucia!” I bit my tongue and breathed deep. “I’ve been doing any and everything for my daughter,” I said in as polite a tone as I could force between clenched teeth. “We’ve got this. I promise.”

She sniffed. “We’ll see. I’ll be there to pick her up next week. Mama Lucia is taking her sweet Hope to Paris.” She squealed. “She’s going to look so cute in a little beret, pretending to drink coffee outside a Parisian café.”

“What?! I never agreed—”

“Talk later. Bye.”

The madwoman hung up on me, leaving me gaping at the phone.

Nyx gave me a look over Hope’s head. “If that woman steps a foot past the gates, I’m dumping holy water on her.”

I sighed. Of course his wolf ears picked up the entire conversation. “Lucia is just having some trouble... adjusting... to the new way of things.”

“Trouble adjusting? We brought Hope home two days ago, and the woman’s called fifty-six times since them.”

“Yeahhhh... That’s pretty hard to defend.” I looked down. “I should just throw away my phone, shouldn’t I?”

“I’m surprised you haven’t already.”

Laughing, I came over and joined them on the carpet. Nyx had a mass of toys that he was passing to the baby who was touching them, turning them to pure solid gold, and then giggling herself over on her side—thrilled by her new trick.

“I still can’t believe thousands of forest wolves are going to be able to do this soon,” Nyx whispered, gazing at Hope like the marvel she was. “Our world is going to change, Daze. Not that psycho’s apocalyptic fever dream of a change, but still, nothing is going to be the same.”

“All the forest clans of the world are about to become incredibly wealthy for one,” I muttered. “And water wolves are going to go from laughed at to feared. Who is going to mess with a person who can drain all the water out of your body with one touch?”

He hummed, brows crumpling.

“What?” I asked. “What is it?”

“I... I just don’t understand these powers,” he burst out. “Our elemental powers the way they are now bring us into harmony with nature. They help us in our purpose of protecting it from the mundanes determined to destroy it. Just like the fae believe their purpose is to stop us from disrupting the balance of the world.

“But the powers we’re about to inherit, they’ve got nothing to do with protecting nature. These are the kinds of powers an elemental wolf would want”—he met my eyes—“if they were going to war.”

“What are you saying, Nyx?”

He tossed his head, his eyes hooded beneath his bandana. “I’ve been thinking about your vision, Daciana, and about your theory of a demigod being behind all of this. Trying to orchestrate a world war that’ll leave every other species decimated, and finally free them from Olympia. If the Olympian gods are sending their people prophecies and giving them powers to take over the world, don’t you think there’s a chance ours is too?”

My eyes widened, jaw hanging. “You mean Luame blessed the wolves with these powers not to start a war, but because war is inevitable, and if we don’t change... we’ll lose.”

“Yes,” he rasped. “I think something’s coming, Daze. Something bad. Something big. Right now there’s a very uneasy balance between all the dominions. The mundanes are ignorant. The demigods are trapped. The fae ignore us all. And the werewolves and vampires fight, but never so badly or too much it could set off a war that neither of our sides want.

“It’s a steady kind of peace, but it’s not stable, and it’s not what the Olympian gods want.”

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