Page 3 of Moon Cursed

“Don’t be a hypocrite, Badr.” My eyes snapped open to glare at him. “I doubt you told your brother every single detail of your sex life. There are some things a person is allowed to keep private. And the things that will get you and your loved ones killed are at the top of the list.”

Badr clenched his teeth, jaw ticcing, but he didn’t argue that point. “You still haven’t told me why the fuck you would kill a man you were madly in love with?”

I stared at him, gaze steady. “Do you really want to know, Badr? Because I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything right here, right now, and rip away everything you thought you knew about the world and the people you love.

“This moment will mark the end for you,” I said. “The end of blissful ignorance. When it’s gone, you’ll never get it back, but you’ll always wish you could.”

“What the fuck are you blathering about!” He kicked more dirt in the hole. “Tell me why you killed my brother!”

“Because he asked me to!”

“What?” Badr rocked back. Feet slipping on the loose dirt, he dropped flat on his ass. “What did you say?”

“You heard me. I killed Castor because he asked me to. He begged me to,” I shouted, wetness leaking from my eyes. “Even though he knew it would tear me apart. That I would break into a million pieces and never be the same again—he made me promise to do the worst thing I’ve ever done, and for that, I will hate him... and myself... for the rest of my life.”

“No. No, no, no,” he cried, tearing at his hair. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would Castor make you do that?”

“Badr, you think you want to know the whole truth, but believe me, you’re better off—”

“TELL ME!”

The bellow resounded in my chest, blowing my ears back.You don’t have a choice anymore. He needs to know. They all need to know. You can’t protect them from this anymore.

“Okay, Badr. Okay.” I dropped my aching head back on the dirt wall, breathing deep. “Castor asked me to kill him because he was already dying. Because he’d already been... murdered.”

“What? What does that—?”

I held up a hand, and shockingly Badr went quiet. This would be hard enough to get out without him interrupting me.

Lips parting, I began, “Two years ago, Luame sent me a vision. She’d never done that before. She hadn’t done it in centuries, but what’s coming was so bad, she needed me to see.”

“See what?” he rasped when I lapsed into silence.

I smiled mirthlessly. “She needed me to see the Golden Age of Wolves. Because it happens, Badr. Everything that was prophesied and dreamed of when I was born with her mark on my stomach. When I make history and mate with two sun wolves, an earth wolf, a water wolf, a fire wolf, and a wind wolf. The new generations and the powers they’ll have will be... astounding.

“The wolves born from moon and wind—me and Edric—will have the power of invisibility. Not on one night of the month like me, but every day and anytime. The moon and water wolves will have the power of drought. They’ll be able to suck the water out of anything—oceans, plants, people—and leave them nothing but a dried-up, desiccated husk.”

Badr’s eyes widened with every word.

“The moon and fire wolves will move through fire.”

“Move through fire?”

“Like teleporting,” I explained, “but through flames. It’s an amazing power, Badr, because there’s always a flame burning somewhere. With a thought, they’ll travel across an ocean and appear in the glow of an enemy’s candlelight.

“Although, the moon and earth wolves will have amazing power too,” I cried. “Transmutation. The power to turn one element into another. Stone into water. Water into fire. Lead into gold.”

“Gold?” He shook his head roughly. “No. No! What you’re saying is impossible—”

“And I’m not even finished,” I broke in. “Because I haven’t gotten to the moon and sun wolves. The one who’ll have the power of solar energy absorption. As long as the sun shines on them, they’re unstoppable. Stronger, faster—fucking hell, probably taller too. The sun is their fuel.”

“Okay,” he drew out. “But even if all of that is true, how does that lead to my brother murdered?”

“Because the vision wasn’t done yet. Want to know what’s even better than wolves having those powers?”

He frowned. “What? I don’t know. Nothing.”

“Something,” I whispered. “What’s better than having one of those powers... is having all of them.”

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