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Luna

I told myself I wasn’t running—I was processing.

Cliff House Inn was finally visible through the carriage window.

The full moon’s light cast a gentle glow across the pines.

I wanted to run into the tree cover, to my cottage.

I let out a sigh of relief at our approach.

“It makes you feel safe,” Vincent said.

I turned to look at him.

He’d been quiet on the ride, giving me space.

While I needed it from my family, I didn’t want it from him.

He and I, no matter the initial bargain we struck, had always been honest with each other about what we wanted.

I hoped to eventually be more honest with him about how much my feelings had changed, about what he meant to me now.

When everything I knew collapsed like a house of cards, Vincent refused to let it fall—his wind would hold every piece in place until I was ready for my next move.

He was solid ground, even as the continent tilted beneath my feet .

Maybe he made me feel safe, too.

“It does,” I said as he hopped out of the carriage and offered me a hand.

I took it, lacing our fingers again as we walked toward the property.

I glanced at the sky and the glowing orb above us.

I fingered the necklace he’d given me.

The phases of the moon meant more to me than I realized.

“I want to show you something.” I tugged him forward, a smile finally breaking across my lips, maybe for the first time since the meal at Pierce House began.

He looked hesitant but let me lead.

“Are you sure you don’t want to be alone?”

I shook my head and pulled.

He didn’t fight me.

“I told you about the moonflowers I’d borrow from the property.”

“Yes,” he said cautiously.

“It was another reason I was convinced you had magic.”

My steps halted, and I turned.

“Because they only bloom in the presence of Norden magic?”

He nodded, then glanced up.

“Norden magic and the light of the moon. Guess we’re in luck.”

“They’ve always bloomed for me. Even when Mom and I visited on our vacations.” The words constricted something in my chest, as saying Mom reminded me of all she’d kept from me.

“They have good taste.” He pulled my hand to his lips.

They were warm against my cold skin.

I shivered as his wind slipped across my hand, encircling it with the touch of his lips.

He laughed.

“I guess I’m my own competition. This is going to take some getting used to.”

I smiled in return.

“Don’t worry, I’m a lot.” I gestured vaguely at everything that had happened since we met.

“You might need the backup. ”

He stepped closer, his wind working to unbraid my hair so it could slide through it.

I was more than a little amazed when it dropped the pins holding my braid in place into Vincent’s pocket, freeing my waves.

“We are eager for anything you choose to give us.”

“I might need you to prove that.”

His wind skimmed my arm and danced across my exposed shoulders.

My body flushed, heat shooting straight to my core.

The smile on his handsome face said he knew precisely the effect he was having on me.

“My wind and I will do so on my knees every day you allow it.” His grin turned feral.

“In any way you require.”

A stilted sound escaped my lips.

The wind was gone in the space of a breath.

I gasped inadvertently at its retreat.

“I was simply illustrating my enthusiasm for the task, Miss Pierce,” he said primly.

His gaze held mine, daring me to contest his dedication.

“Now, about those moonflowers.”

His fae beauty was always on display, but in the moonlight, it was devastating.

His hand still held mine, and I used it to push him back against the nearest tree, bringing my body flush to his.

My face was inches from his, our breaths mingling as I said, “The moonflowers can wait.” His wind wrapped around us both at my words.

I knew there was something I wanted to show him, more I needed to consider about all I’d learned tonight, but none of it seemed important as his lips pressed against mine.

He pulled me closer, and I fell against him, wanting to deepen this growing connection.

His hand slid up my side, gently caressing the curve of my breast.

I couldn’t breathe; I couldn’t think.

I only wanted.

I tilted my head, opening myself to kiss him deeper.

Our tongues tangled as our kiss intensified.

When his hand touched the skin of my neck, I was alight, my body on fire even as a wave of pleasure shot through me .

Light from the full moon snuck through the canopy of trees.

The press of Vincent’s body against mine was a warmth on the chilly night.

Scents of leather and mint wrapped around me.

It felt like home.

Suddenly, I gasped as I made the connection.

I should have known Vincent’s quiet strength would help me locate it.

I pressed my hands against his chest, pushing myself back, and worked to catch my breath.

Our kiss revealed the quiet calm lurking beneath the surface, one I’d been searching for all week.

“Your magic smells like leather and mint.”

He shook his head, coming out of his own daze.

Then, my words must have registered.

“What did you say?”

“I think I found it. The quiet, the calm.”

He ran his hand through his hair.

“You can smell my magic?”

My lips tilted into a smile.

“Come with me.”

Only those with magic could smell the scent of another’s.

With how much Vincent’s wind had lavished attention on me, I’d yet to know its signature scent.

But out here, under the light of the moon, in the safety of Vincent’s arms, I finally understood.

I took his hand, pulled him behind me, and we ran toward the inn.

The bed of moonflowers, tucked against the southern side of the building, bloomed with our approach.

I paused, not wanting to disturb them.

Vincent’s hands rested on my hips as he stood behind me.

“I think they know you’re here.” His lips pressed against my neck.

I reached inside for that quiet place.

The moonflowers always bloomed for me, but there was also a lingering warmth beneath my skin as they did.

I felt it now, so I stepped away from Vincent and fell to my knees before the flowerbed.

My fingers pressed into the dirt, which, as I was beginning to suspect, was damp.

“I think I water them without realizing it. ”

Vincent’s head tilted to the side when I glanced over my shoulder.

“You used magic?”

“I think so,” I said hesitantly.

“Maybe unconsciously.”

He fell to his knees beside me, his hand reaching for the soil.

He sniffed the air.

“Yes, of course. Moonflower and juniper is the scent of your magic.” He searched the area around us as if it would give us clues as to what provoked the scent.

I glanced up.

My fingers found their way to the pendant he’d given me—the moon’s phases.

Then, I met his gaze.

“I know what it is.”

I felt his eyes on me even as my face lifted to the moon’s light—the caveat to my magic.

“I love being out at night. As a child, it was always my favorite to stay out late enough for the moon and stars to shine. Here, it’s one of my favorite times of the day.” I hesitated.

“I only have one negative memory in the moonlight. The night Darius saved me from drowning.” I canted my head in thought.

Like so many with my father, that memory needed to be re-examined in a new light.

It had never made sense to me why he’d been on that beach.

It had also been the only night I’d stayed at the inn.

I feared what else I would learn from the memory holding the door shut.

“On one of my last trips here with my mom, we went to the water late at night. The current was strong,” I recounted.

“It pulled me from her. I only remember waking in the center of the cyclone near the beach I first took you to.”

Recognition flashed in his gaze.

“I suspected that beach meant something to you. Sorry, I didn’t know.”

I shook my head.

“It was important for me to remember. Darius pulled me from the water. I always assumed I’d gotten lucky, that his water magic had saved me. Now I wonder...if I saved myself.”

“Maybe we should go check it out?” Vincent suggested.

I shook my head.

“No. Let’s go to the locked room. ”

He took my hand and followed me to the door that stood between me and saving the property I loved.

After our visit to Pierce House tonight, I knew my father would give me more time for the inn if needed.

We hadn’t had time to discuss it, but something had triggered him to try and establish our relationship now.

Mom had been gone for a few years.

I didn’t know why he chose now—maybe because Byrd had quit—but I knew if I told him my progress, he’d give me the time I needed to fix the inn.

But I felt so close.

I wanted to do it now.

I knelt before the locked door with the moonlight streaming in through the window at the end of the hallway.

Vincent stood a step away to let me work.

The calm was there—quiet and comforting.

It rumbled to a low roar at my command, like a rushing wave ready to crash over the shore.

I pushed away the fears.

Tonight, I’d learned so much and hadn’t let the weight of it crush me.

Whatever the memory, I could face it.

My water magic surged.

I wrapped my hand around the doorknob and twisted.

I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, exactly.

Like many others I’d cleaned over the last few weeks, the room was just a room.

What confused me the most was that my parents stood in it.

They looked muted, toned down from the vibrancy of life.

This was a memory.

I wasn’t yet sure whose.

“Why did you bring her here?” Mom asked, hands on her hips.

She was soaking wet and spitting mad.

The plummeting feeling in my stomach told me I could no longer avoid admitting that I knew exactly when this was.

My gaze raked the room, and I noticed a figure shifting under the covers.

She was small and tucked in tight like someone had taken the time to swaddle her in as many blankets as they could find, but her blond streaks were visible from here.

It was me.

asleep in the large bed.

“I didn’t know where you were. My priority was getting her dry and making her feel safe,” Darius whisper-hissed at Mom.

“When were you going to tell me, by the way,” he asked sardonically, “that she has magic?”

Mom stepped back, eyes widening at his words.

“She doesn’t.”

“I think she does, Meredith,” he said pointedly.

“And it saved her life.”

“Don’t say things like that,” Mom hissed.

Darius leaned into her space.

“I found her in the water on the other side of the cliff. She had created a whirlpool and set herself at its center.” He held her gaze.

“I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if she hadn’t.” He ran his hand through his hair.

“What were you thinking?”

Mom exploded.

“I won’t have you questioning my parenting. You wouldn’t survive one full day with her on your own?—”

“You never gave me the chance!” Darius cut in.

“I will happily take as many as I can have!”

“That’s not the point,” Mom said.

“She doesn’t belong with you. She belongs with me.”

“That was your argument when you said she had no magic. I didn’t believe it then. I certainly don’t believe it now.”

“This is all irrelevant. I’m taking my daughter and going back to the cottage. We’ll leave in the morning.”

“Our daughter, Meredith.” He breathed heavily from the heat of the argument.

“And I think it’s time she got another chance to know her father.” He glanced around the room.

“I want to give her the inn.”

Mom looked confused.

“Give her the inn?”

“Yes.” He waved his hands around.

“This would all be hers. She could run it eventually. Not now,” he added as Mom opened her mouth to protest.

“When she’s ready.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why? She loves it here. You said it yourself.”

Mom shook her head.

I was surprised smoke wasn’t pouring from her ears.

“Loving an annual vacation to the city and living here are very different.” Her head was still shaking as she continued.

“I won’t even get into the layers of what you owning the property and lording it over her would be like.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. It would be hers free and clear. Whether she wants to see me or not.”

“You can’t buy her affection!”

“I wouldn’t have to try if you’d let me see her.”

He sounded so tired.

So did Mom.

I found it hard to believe they had ever been a couple.

They were talking past each other at every point.

Mom seemed ready to assume the worst of Darius, and the worst part was that I didn’t know why.

He’d said her time at Pierce House had been bad, and the fae had been cruel.

Was all of this to protect me from the same experience?

“This isn’t happening,” Mom said.

“We’ll be gone in the morning.” She moved to where I was in the bed, ready to scoop me into her arms and carry me back to the cottage.

“Don’t disturb her. You two can have this room tonight.”

Mom nodded.

Darius stood at the door.

“I know I hurt you, Meredith, but you’re hurting her. She needs me in her life, especially if she has magic. If not me, she needs someone to train with to understand it.”

“She does not have magic.” Mom bit out every word.

Darius shook his head.

He’d been holding a flower stem in his hand.

A moonflower.

He laid it on the desk in the room as he walked toward the door.

“That bloomed for her tonight.” He pointed to the flower.

“I’ve walked this property a hundred times, and they’ve never flowered for me.” He shook his head again.

“She has magic, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. It will make itself known eventually.” He left, letting the door shut behind him.

The memory continued, and I feared I had my answer about whose it was.

Mom dried herself off and got into bed next to me, her hand stroking my hair gently.

“You’re not one of them, sweetie. You could never be as evil as the fae,” she whispered.

She reached for something in her trouser pocket.

It was a vial of liquid, and it was deep red.

As she tipped it side to side, the slow viscosity with which it moved made me realize it was blood.

“We’ll see if this was worth what I paid for it. He won’t give you the inn if it fails.”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Mom hated magic but was ready to wield purchased blood magic.

It didn’t make any sense…

yet it made perfect sense.

Blood magic was something humans could wield—it didn’t have the legacy of snobbery existing with fae elements.

If Klein and other fae had dismissed her in her time at Pierce House, it would only make sense she was ready to fight fire with fire now.

She unstopped the bottle and let the drops fall to the floor.

The wood soaked them up immediately, and the room began to glow.

Suddenly, I lurched back, no longer watching the scene unfold.

Strong arms wrapped around me.

“Luna, are you alright?” Vincent was with me.

I was in the present.

The door was open.

The moonflower Vincent had found last time was still lying on the desk, preserved like it had been the day Darius left it there in the memory.

Somehow, I knew what I had to do.

The moon was still bright.

Power flooded me as I moved into the light it cast through the window.

Water flowed from my hands with little thought.

“You can wait outside,” I whispered to Vincent.

His only response was to wrap his arms around me more tightly.

“I’m with you. ”

The water rushed over every surface, cleansing Mom’s thoughtless blood magic from the space.

It scrubbed and dried as it went.

There was no way I could have accomplished the removal by simple cleaning.

My element penetrated the deep layer of blood magic in the space.

I felt the moment the magic lost hold, the moment my water broke through.

The how of it didn’t make sense—there was so much about my magic that I didn’t understand—but in the quiet calm within me, I knew the inn was free.