Page 1 of Dark Night Golden Dawn
ChapterOne
Harlow Krane was doing her best not to check her phone. Her fingers itched with the desire to scroll through her socials, and the gossip sites, just to make herself miserable. It was six months ago all over again, when she and Mark broke up. Everyone was talking. Only now, they were talking because Mark had moved on—and she hadn’t.
Since she and Mark separated, the gossips had declared Mark the wronged and she the wrong-doer. It made sense in many ways. The gossips were mostly run by humans, unlike the papers, which were all owned by the Illuminated. Ofcoursethey’d favor Mark’s side of things. He was human—a human who’dsoclearly moved on from his sorcière ex.
The texts Harlow received last night from her sisters had been unbearable. She shifted on the brass ladder she was perched on to take out her phone and read them again:
Thea:We’ll manage this tomorrow.
So it was something to manage.
Meline:Stay off your socials.
She’d done so thus far, but now she desperately wanted to look.
Indigo, quickly following her twin:Mark is out with a vampire princess. DON’T look at what they’re saying about you.
She knew it was indulging in some minor masochism, but she wanted to see. Wanted to feel the ache of knowing just how much of a loser everyone thought she’d become. Why was she like this?
Larkin:I love you. Tell me if you’re not okay? Okay?
This was the only text she’d responded to, promising her youngest sister that she was all right, not checking her socials, and asking Larkin to tell the twins to mind their own business. Except social mediawastheir business. They’d built a small social empire that had taken the bookstore, and all of Antiquity Row, from being an “Orders only” nook in Nuva Troi to being alifestyle—a desirable destination for humans and immortals alike, with its charming cafes and old buildings.
And of course, the twins made their parents’ bookstore, the Monas, the star of the show, the centerpiece of the cultural world of the Order of Mysteries, thereby making Harlow an object of interest to the gossips and socials alike. She’d never agreed to play such a role, but the twins’ success had meant the success of their Order, and in a world ruled by the Illuminated, you took whatever success you could eke out,andwhatever terrible side effects ensued as a result.
Harlow’s disastrous love life being the talk of the town, and maybe even the country, was just one of those side effects. If she’d had her preference, she’d have spent her life in complete obscurity. She had no desire for anyone to know who she was or what she did with her life, and she certainly didn’t want to think about what to do when she was the center of attention for all the wrong reasons.
She’d come into the bookstore early to avoid the inevitable barrage of strategizing that was coming as soon as Meline and Indigo scanned through the most important of the gossip apps, Section Seven, over their coffee. Her phone began to buzz again, just as Mother entered the shop from the back office. Her sisters were up.
Aurelia Krane was looking at her own phone, as she floated a tea tray above her other hand, effortlessly using magic to keep it steady and aloft. “Your sisters are quite worried about you, the twins particularly so.”
Harlow sighed from atop the brass ladder, slipping her phone back into her pocket and the last of the books she’d been shelving into place, and stepped down. Aurelia looked up as she guided the tea tray down onto the glass coffee table at the center of the shop’s main floor showroom. This was the heart of the Monas, the place where Harlow and her four sisters grew up, the magic they would inherit. A world of esoteric knowledge, a legacy of books.
The two green velvet chesterfields that flanked the brass-rimmed glass coffee table hosted a variety of jewel toned cushions. Harlow pulled one down to sit on, onto the plush antique rug that bridged the two couches. She watched Aurelia carefully for signs that she would bring up the news about her on Section Seven, the twins’ worries, anything about Mark. Instead, Aurelia was suspiciously placid, her bobbed silver hair shining in the weak springtime sunlight.
“A rare sunny day in Nuva Troi,” Aurelia commented, setting her phone down.
“It’s going to rain at ten,” Harlow muttered as she poured the tea. Aurelia never beat around the bush unless she was uncomfortable. “Just say what you have to say, Mother.”
Aurelia smiled, serene and wise, as always. “Iamsorry about Mark, my darling. Are you holding up all right?”
Harlow sighed, taking a long sip of the Duke and Duchess tea her mother had brewed, the sharp scents of bergamot and lavender softening into rose and vanilla. It was perfect, as always. She looked around the shop, at the warm white bookcases that stretched to the full height of the fifteen-foot ceilings, the grand staircase that took customers upstairs to the second and third floors, the ceiling, painted in rich oils and gold leaf to represent the heavens and Okairos’ twin moons.
The Monas was her happy place, her true home, and she didn’t want to talk about what happened with Mark here. Especially not after the nearly three years of turmoil her relationship with a human caused her family. It was the last of a long line of mistakes she’d been making for the past seven years, and Harlow’s soul was brittle and fatigued.
She’d been back on solid ground with her family for the past few months and she wanted to keep it that way. This development with Mark threatened to put her back in a vulnerable spot, one she feared. Every time she felt like she was pulling things together, something unraveled her progress, and out of her small flock of sisters, she was the one who was always struggling, always lost. It was like her internal compass was missing and she couldn’t find her place in the world.
“Of course,” she said simply. “I’m always all right. You know that.”
Aurelia raised her eyebrows, skeptically. “My dear girl, it’s just us. Thea isn’t in yet, and your Mama won’t be down for a half-hour at least. She was running a bath when I left her.”
Harlow wrinkled her nose at Aurelia. Mention of morning baths meant her parents spent the wee hours making love and it always made her want to scold Aurelia for telling.
“Don’t wrinkle your nose at me, little bunny. You should be happy your mother and I still make enough of a ruckus that the neighbors text to ask if we might keep things down. Your mother had an orgasm so powerful…”
“Do not finish that sentence.Please. I beg you. I am happy you and Mama still have all the sex. But as someone who grew up listening to it, could you justnot?”
Aurelia rolled her eyes. “Such a prude. Someday you’ll meet someone who makes your toes curl so hard you’ll think you’ll explode when they look at you.”
