Page 4 of Moon Cursed

“All right, sure, that would be better but that’s impossible—”

“Impossible,” I said at the same time as him. “Badr, it’s really going to help you out if for the rest of this conversation, you let go of your idea of what’s possible and what’s impossible.”

His frown deepened, but slowly, he nodded. “So you’re saying we create a clan that has the power of all six of us.”

“Sure, we create them. We give birth to them.”

Badr’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.

“It won’t matter who the biological father is. The bonds between us will be so strong, so powerful, that in every way that matters, our children will be born from all of us. And they’ll haveallof our power.”

“My gods,” he breathed. If he wasn’t already sitting, he’d have fallen over. “How? There’s a reason we all—wolves and demigods—only have one. So much power in one person, they couldn’t survive.”

“And our children wouldn’t have survived either, except for one more gift given to them by Luame—immortality.”

“Immortality?” he cried.

“Yes.”

“Immortals?!”

“Yes.”

“No!” He shot up. “Now I know you’re lying! Immortality is a curse on those dead leeches,” he said, speaking of the vampires. “It’s not a gift from a god.”

“Badr, we haven’t gotten to the part where you’re going to want to jump around shouting and cursing, so save this reaction for when it counts!”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that all of these amazing powers will be great for our kids—for every wolf’s future child—but you know who benefits shit-all? All of us who’ve already been born.”

“Yeah?” he cried, throwing up his hands. “So?”

“Think about it, Badr.Think!”

“Think about what? If you’ve got something to say, just say it.”

I blew out a hard breath, clenching my fists. It wasn’t him I was frustrated with. I just didn’t want to speak this vision. I never wanted to talk about it again, because the last time I did, I lost everything.

“But you have to know,” I whispered. “You have to know that in the vision there was a shadow. A person—dark and dangerous—who’ll lurk on the edges of this war, pulling the strings of our destruction. A person that I can’t see. That I don’t think even Luame can see. And that person is the one who’ll do it.

“They’re the ones who’ll steal our babies’ powers and give them to the highest bidders.”

Thud!

See? I knew the words would drop him on his ass.

“What?” he hissed. “What the fuck did you just say?”

“A soul stealer,” I whispered, barely hearing him. “That’s what Luame called them. Born with an awful curse, they’re wrong in every way. But they’re just as powerful.

“Badr, our sun, moon, and elemental powers come from the tiny piece of Luame living in our souls. Take our souls, and you take our power.”

“And then we die!”

“Yeah,” I replied, voice dead. “We fucking die. They know that, Badr. The council knows exactly what’ll happen to every child given up to Project Destiny, but they don’t care.”

“Project Destiny.” He circled the hole, moving closer to me. “What is that? The message left by the lunch lady said that.Destiny is known. Destiny is dead.”

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