Page 27

27

Luna

W e finally get Luna into our home.

The words felt like a brand on my skin.

I didn’t know who to look at or what to think.

Vincent’s hand squeezed my thigh gently under the table, returning the support I’d recently shown him.

My gaze met his, and those deep brown eyes were my calm in the storm.

I knew he was trying to communicate with me.

Did I need him to jump in?

Distract?

Press?

No, this question had plagued me for as long as I could remember.

I put my hand on top of his where it rested.

All I needed was his support.

“What do you mean? You finally get me into your home?”

Eloise, my grandmother, turned her fierce gaze on me.

“Precisely what I said.”

A scent flowed into the room with her, like the sea before a storm.

I was sure many would find it intimidating, but it evoked a sense of calm in me .

“Mother…” Darius started.

Thankfully, the meal was brought out at that moment.

As Darius indicated, the staff had been waiting for Eloise, and all at once, a roasted meat dish and bowls of vegetables were served.

A quiet moment passed among us before whatever truths Darius and Eloise would unleash.

As soon as the staff disappeared behind the kitchen doors, Darius and Eloise held each other’s gaze in a wordless battle.

“We’d love to get to know you and celebrate your name day,” Darius said, still not looking at me.

It appeared he was waiting to ensure Eloise agreed.

“Fine,” Eloise said, picking up her fork and moving toward the filled plate.

I looked down at my own plate, wondering if I should let this go.

Vincent’s hand had left my leg, as it was needed to tend to the utensils and food on the table, but his wind wrapped around the same spot his hand had been.

The slight pressure was comforting.

Darius’s nostrils flared, and I had no doubt he realized Vincent was using his magic.

The scent of magic was noticeable to other fae.

I found it interesting that I could scent Eloise’s magic, and Darius’s when he’d rescued me, but I hadn’t grasped the scent of Vincent’s yet.

Maybe it was a half-fae thing.

Darius opened his mouth like he would say something, maybe tell Vincent off for using his magic in Pierce House.

It wasn’t exactly polite.

But the support of his wind emboldened me, so I jumped in, interrupting whatever Darius would say.

“I’d like to know. I’ve believed you wanted nothing to do with me since you came to our village and tried to test me for magic.”

The pressure around my leg strengthened as if the increased weight was Vincent’s way of saying he was with me.

“I told you,” Eloise said primly, glaring at her son.

Darius took a long sip of his wine.

He put the goblet down completely before holding my gaze.

“I’m sorry, Luna. I never wanted that.” He sighed, his hand coming to his temple as he seemed to be working through some internal decision.

“Your mother didn’t like it here.” He glanced around, then gestured.

“Here, like…Pierce House?”

“Yes, but also fae society in general.” He paused.

“I don’t blame her. We did everything we could.” He glanced at Eloise.

“We even banished Klein, my father, but I’m afraid it was too late. Your mother realized the uphill battle that being human in fae society would bring.”

“I thought Klein was studying some unique properties of Norden magic that are only available in the north,” Vincent said.

“Sure,” Eloise said, glaring at him.

“He could be doing that. We didn’t care. He held views much like your parents’, so we wanted him gone.” Her tone was sharp, but Vincent didn’t flinch at the comment.

I’d only met his parents once and agreed the impression they made was less than stellar, but Darius and Eloise seemed very against them.

Maybe even more than fae court rivalry dictated.

“You banished your husband to try and make Mom more comfortable? But she still left? Why not let him return?” I directed the question to Eloise.

“Please understand, ours was a union of power. Many with magic make matches based on strengthening elemental lines. When I realized the type of male he was, I did all I could to distance us. Some could argue it took me longer than it should have to realize.” She dabbed her mouth with her napkin.

“His opinions have no place here, dear. Even though your mother took you away, we always treated this home as yours. Anyone who would not welcome you was not someone we welcomed.”

My throat tightened, and something prickled at the corners of my eyes.

Even the constant pressure of Vincent’s wind on my thigh was not enough to calm the swell of emotions rushing inside me.

I could all too clearly imagine Mom having a bad experience here.

Every angry word she’d said about the fae was likely based on some fact.

They’d been too passionate not to be.

She’d been tricked, harassed, and threatened.

I knew she’d believed this was not a safe place to raise me, but with how Darius and Eloise expressed themselves now, it didn’t seem like such a permanent separation had been required.

“When did he leave?” I asked, my throat constricting around the words.

“Too late,” Darius replied.

“Maybe weeks before you did.”

They’d sent him away when she was still here.

Any excuses I’d made that they weren’t listening to her, that she hadn’t given them a chance, crumbled.

It still may have been too late for Darius and Mom, as he said, but if they’d proved willing to change the situation for us, why deprive me of a father?

“I need a moment.” I excused myself from the table.

A chair beside me scooted across the floor, and I knew Vincent was rising with me.

He stopped briefly to accept directions to a private room from Eloise and Darius while I wandered aimlessly ahead.

When his hand was on my back a moment later, he guided me into a set of closed double doors.

“Eloise said this was private.”

It was Darius’s study, and my mind instantly fled from the weight of what I’d been considering—the choices Mom had made on my behalf.

“This is his study?” I asked, looking around.

“Luna,” Vincent warned.

“Don’t you want to talk about?—”

I was behind his desk, looking at the sprawl of papers before Vincent had time to finish his sentence.

“I don’t think now is the best time for this,” he tried.

“I’d rather search these papers than think about what Mom let me believe for over twenty years.”

She’d taken so much from me.

I was sure her experiences had been terrible.

Eloise and Darius had admitted as much, but hadn’t they done something about the problem?

Part of why I’d been so surprised about Vincent’s apartment was because old fae families didn’t leave these estates.

Kicking Klein out was no small thing.

Mom and Darius hadn’t needed to remain together for me to have a place here.

I shook my head, wanting desperately to discuss Mom’s choices with her but knowing it was impossible.

Something wet hit my cheek.

Vincent’s lips pursed in thought, and then he came around the desk to help, brushing the tear from my cheek as he did.

“I’m here to talk when you’re ready.”

I squeezed his hand before my gaze skimmed the desk—all the papers of running an estate, everything I needed to distract me from what I’d learned.

Financials and correspondence, all splayed out for me to peruse.

I almost wondered if he’d sent us here on purpose.

That didn’t seem like him, at least what I was coming to know of him, but it did sound like Eloise.

They couldn’t have known my original plan, though.

The warm palm pressing against my back drew my gaze to Vincent’s.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk while we search?”

I shook my head.

“Do you mind if I talk to you?”

I glanced up at him.

“Now?” I splayed my hands.

His lip tipped into an irresistible smile.

“I won’t slow us down, I promise.”

I knew this would be an attempt to pry my feelings free, feelings I was determined to avoid, but he looked so earnest, and I wanted so badly to know what he would share.

“Please, go ahead.”

“I’d like to talk about my parents,” he started.

I gave him a sideways glance.

“You think talking about your family will make me talk about mine?”

He smirked but shook his head.

“To be fair, your father brought them up, so I have an excuse to discuss them. You had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting my parents. I feel you got a good glimpse of who they are, but I’d like to tell you more.”

I stopped my search and turned to face him.

“I don’t lump you along with them like Darius. You don’t have to do this.”

His smile was devastating in its own way.

“I’d like to all the same.”

My nod was brief, and then I returned to searching, letting him share what he would.

“They are as prejudiced as he says. It’s not even bound to half-fae or human, honestly. It even applies to fae who don’t have what they consider to be the right amount of magic for a pureblood family.” His hands stopped searching.

I was sure they were running through his hair, though I didn’t look up.

“I didn’t tell you how I learned to call my magic.”

“It didn’t escape my notice that Ambrose jumped in.” I shuffled a few papers as I skimmed them.

“You don’t have to share anything you’re uncomfortable with.”

His wind wrapped around my wrist and glided up my arm.

It sent a chill down my spine, and I shivered in delight.

“It wouldn’t have been helpful in that situation. The way I learned wasn’t one I’d wish on anyone else.” He swallowed.

“Finding my magic was never calm like you described. It was always a storm. My parents wanted to ensure my magic was strong. An old fae belief said that the more your magic is tested—truly tested—by elders, the stronger it will become. So, it was never a quiet stillness in which I learned.”

My throat tightened again, this time for what I was sure would come next from Vincent’s lips.

I paused and turned to look at him.

“Please, keep searching,” he said.

“They used their wind on you to draw yours out?”

I didn’t return to searching the papers, and he kept talking, holding my gaze.

“They sent their wind at me at every opportunity, hoping mine would rise to defend me. I guess I was never really in danger from it.” He paused.

“But it made for an unpleasant association with my magic.” He laughed without mirth.

“It also led to my wind acting out in odd ways as I aged.”

My hands were on his arms, squeezing in reassurance the same way his wind had.

His wind swept along my cheek, clearing away more tears I didn’t realize had fallen.

This information made me cherish his wind’s attention even more.

“Unfortunately, their methods worked. One day, my wind sprang forth and pushed them both away in a display they’ve not forgotten. I’m stronger than the two combined, and they credit themselves for that.”

It made me sick to my stomach.

“I’m sorry they did that to you.”

He shrugged.

“I just want you to know that anything Darius says about my parents is probably true.”

“I’m not trying to build a relationship with your parents,” I said pointedly.

“I’m trying to build one with you.”

His smile was small.

His wind pushed our hands together, wrapping around where they joined.

“As we sat at the table, I was thinking of everything I wanted to tell you—to make sure you knew. It all fled my mind.”

“I assure you, we have time. You can tell me when the thoughts return.”

He gestured back to the desk.

“Let’s keep looking.” He opened a few drawers and rifled through each.

“I think I found something.” He handed me a piece of paper that looked well-aged.

It had been folded and refolded many times.

The paper was thin with wear.

Unfortunately, I knew who it was from before I read the contents.

The handwriting was as familiar to me as my own.

This was a letter from Mom.