Page 35 of Claws for Celebration
By the time Lucien returned to the bookstore as dawn was breaking over the mountains, his mind was made up. The conversation with Moira about mate bonds had been a good beginning, but she needed to understand the full scope of what was happening around them.
The shadow creatures, the failing wards, the expectation that she would become Hollow Oak's primary magical defense against threats she couldn't yet imagine. All of it.
And if she chose to accept the mate bond that would amplify her abilities and anchor her to this community permanently, hewanted that choice to be made with eyes wide open to both the benefits and the costs.
His panther purred with anticipation as he let himself into the bookstore, already imagining Moira's response to learning that her quiet research assignment had actually been a cosmic homecoming orchestrated by forces far older and more powerful than academic curiosity.
Soon, very soon, there would be no more secrets between them. For better or worse, she would know everything.
And then they would face whatever came next together, as mates and partners and the supernatural guardians that Hollow Oak desperately needed them to become.
20
MOIRA
The Shadowheart Codex had been calling to Moira since before dawn, its ancient binding humming with urgent energy that made her fingertips tingle even from across the room. She'd woken alone at the inn, finding a note from Lucien explaining that Council business required his attention but that he'd return by morning. The brief message had been signed with a simple "L" that somehow conveyed more affection than flowery endearments could have managed.
Now, settled in her usual chair at the bookstore with steaming coffee and the first rays of sunlight filtering through tall windows, Moira opened the grimoire with the reverent care she'd learned to apply to artifacts that possessed their own consciousness.
The pages fell open to a section she'd never seen before, though she was certain she'd examined every inch of the ancient tome. Elegant script in faded sepia ink told stories that made her blood run cold.
The Binding of Shadows: A History of the Shadowheart Sacrifice
"Sacrifice," she whispered, her hands trembling as she began to read. "What kind of sacrifice?"
The text that followed painted a picture of her family's history that went far darker than anything she'd previously discovered. Her ancestor, Seraphina Shadowheart, hadn't just been a powerful witch who helped establish Hollow Oak's protective barriers. She had been the architect of a magical working so profound and terrible that it had required the willing sacrifice of her own life force to complete.
In the year of our Lord 1847, when the shadow entities first sought to claim our sanctuary, Seraphina Shadowheart made the ultimate choice. To bind the ancient evil that threatened to consume our community, she wove her very essence into the defensive wards, creating barriers that would endure for generations but at the cost of her mortal existence.
Moira's coffee cup clattered against its saucer as her hands began to shake. "She died to create the protective wards. She actually died."
But the grimoire wasn't finished revealing its secrets.
The binding required not just Seraphina's sacrifice, but the promise that her bloodline would continue the work. Each generation of Shadowheart witches would carry the burden of maintaining the wards, feeding them with blood magic until the ancient evil could be permanently banished. Only when the final battle is won can the family line be freed from its inherited obligation.
"Inherited obligation," Moira repeated, the words tasting like ashes on her tongue. "We're bound to this place. Bound to keep fighting whatever Seraphina originally sealed away."
More text appeared, flowing across the page like liquid silver.
Elara Shadowheart, last daughter of the bloodline to walk Hollow Oak's protected paths, chose exile over obligation. In 1923, she fled the sanctuary with her newborn child, believingthat distance could break the ancestral bonds that tied her magic to the town's survival. For nearly a century, her gamble appeared successful.
"But it wasn't," Moira said, understanding beginning to crystallize in her mind. "The bonds weren't broken. They were just... dormant."
Blood calls to blood, especially when the shadows stir once more. The granddaughter returns when the need is greatest, drawn by forces older than conscious will. Destiny cannot be denied indefinitely.
The final entry on the page made Moira's vision blur with unshed tears.
Margaret Shadowheart died never knowing the true reason for her mother's exile. She lived and loved and raised her own daughter in blissful ignorance of the magical heritage that slumbered in her veins. But the granddaughter, ah, the granddaughter carries the full weight of three generations' accumulated power. In her hands lies the choice to either complete Seraphina's work or watch everything our ancestors died to protect crumble into shadow.
"Three generations of accumulated power," Moira whispered, looking down at her hands with new understanding. No wonder her magical abilities had been developing so rapidly. She wasn't just inheriting her own potential, but the dormant magic of her mother and grandmother as well.
The implications were staggering. Every unconscious spell she'd cast, every protective ward she'd woven around the bookstore, every golden thread of magic that had responded to her emotional state—all of it had been powered by inherited abilities that had been building strength for decades.
"So that's why Grandmother never talked about her family," she said aloud, needing to hear the words to make them feel real. "She wasn't just protecting me from knowing about magic.She was trying to protect me from a destiny that would require everything I have to give."
The grimoire's pages rustled softly, drawing her attention to new text that appeared with ethereal beauty.
But destiny freely chosen is different from destiny imposed. The granddaughter who embraces her heritage willingly, who accepts both the power and the responsibility with full knowledge of their cost, can reshape the very nature of the Shadowheart obligation.
