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“There’s a vast gray landscape, flat on the banks, with soaring, craggy rocks beyond.

The river is massive like the Mississippi, molten and dense like flowing rock.

Moving within it are shades of pink and gold.

Mostly. But also with streamers of green, purple, and magenta, vibrant blue, and turquoise.

There are these pulses of deep red that burst and seem to shift the other colors in endless patterns.

It’s never-ending, Luminary. From eternity to eternity, as far as the eye can see. ”

Nimue gasps, eyes dazed as if she can see in her mind’s eye exactly what Grayson is describing.

Gideon can’t blame her, as it sounds awe-inspiring and frightening.

Is this what Grayson’s magic draws from? Is this The Plain Nimue had spoken of in the library?

She jolts awake from her trance and goes to a bookshelf along the inside wall of her dwelling. Pulling a folder down that looks like it might be an artist’s portfolio, she withdraws an old parchment.

“This should be in a museum, I know. But I can’t part with it. It belonged to my mentor, and his mentor, and her mentor, and so on. It’s several hundred years old, I think.” She hands it to Grayson, who can’t take his eyes off it. “Is this what you see?”

“Sort of. It’s very close, but…my river…” He shows Gideon and Nix, who are closest to him, and then Finn, who leans into Grayson’s other side.

All three of them press close, and their proximity seems to relax Grayson enough that he can breathe, as if their bonds help ease the strain of Nimue’s magic.

“The Plain,” Nimue prompts.

“The Plain that I see has more vibrant colors; it’s about a mile across, and it’s moving so fast, I can hardly see the individual strands for more than a moment.”

“Holy fucking shit-balls,” Finn says, and he’s taken the words out of Gideon’s brain.

“Mum, you better welcome your newest guests, or we’re going to lose that front door again. ”

“Oh dear, I’d forgotten your Pack Alpha. Don’t go anywhere.”

She gets the door open just in time to see a haggard and fanged-out Jay bracing to kick it down. She blurts out the fastest blessing possible, and he crosses the threshold before she’s even done.

“Jamie!” Nix squeals with glee and jumps into Jay’s arms so he can wrap his legs around their leader’s waist, landing kisses on his face and lips with no care for Jay’s sharp, deadly fangs.

He is almost always this happy to see Jay, and Gideon supposes it’s because, for so many years, he hadn’t had the luxury.

Laying eyes on the rest of his pack makes Gideon feels better, too.

“Grayson’s a Wizard, Jamie. Ro, I almost had to eat without you! Oh, and Finn gave me chocolate earlier because Grayson drained our soul. Sorry about that. And this is Nimue and Emmy.”

Waving a hand, he checks with Gideon to see if he’s missed anything.

He has, but Gideon isn’t sure where to break all that down or where to start building it up again, so he just smiles a little to encourage him.

In the next instant, Gideon has a similar armful of very subdued Luca, who smells like burnt coffee and a forest fire.

He wants to ask why, but Luca just presses his nose in between Gideon’s pecs. He hears a soft, “Later, Sugar.”

“I am Luminary Nimue of The Florida Guild.” She bows her head to Jay. “You are Jay Rhodes, Alpha of the Rhodes Pack.” She tilts her head, as she seems to do when she is using her magical “sight.” “Guardian.”

“Thank you for helping my mates. This is Leo, Luca, and…fuck… Rowan! Get out of the fridge. We haven’t been invited. I am so sorry for him. For all of this, really. You seem nice enough…and I’m sorry about almost breaking down the door, but I…”

Gideon groans at Rowan’s single-minded goal to feed their omega, regardless of social niceties.

“I’ll corral the beast,” Finn sighs, and Emmy follows suit with a shrug.

“It’s a spell to keep lawyers and the mean neighbors away. We should go over there before we go. Tell them to be nice.”

Wrong kind of solicitor, Kitten .

Nix takes a breath and continues unhindered.

“Jamie, you smell terrible. Did something happen?” Nix is running his nose up and down Jay’s throat over his mating bite, heedless of their audience.

He can’t get at the fragrant pine scent he adores and starts licking it instead, sweet vanilla calling to his alpha—and the rest of them.

“Nix, stop now. I…We can talk about it later, okay? Come with me.” Leo opens his arms, and Nix leaps horizontally like a proboscis monkey and takes up his comfort-licking on Leo’s neck instead.

“Nice to meet you, Luminary. I’ll go see if I can help wrangle Rowan. Give you a minute with Grayson.”

“You have quite an interesting family, Warrior. First, your Scholar and Guardian. Your King and his Healer.” She smiles gently at Luca, who squeaks at the attention and hides his face, before turning and crossing his arms.

Such a tough guy. Gideon chuckles and squeezes him from behind to reward his protective bravery.

“That’s us, Baby.”

“I’m a king?”

Nimue chuckles. “No, Luca, you are a healer. You have always brought care and guidance to your family. Thoughtful and wise.”

“I’m wise? Ha! That’s nice, thank you! Can I go tell Finn?”

“I am sure he already knows, Healer,” Nimue says as Luca runs off so Finn can twirl him around the small kitchen with a warm laugh and introduce him to Emmy, who compliments him on his lilac Uggs.

“And Leo, is it? Your counselor. A different kind of wisdom. A pillar of strength and even-keeled in the face of strife, especially, no?” she asks Jay.

“Very.”

“And Nix. A worthy soulmate and a Lunarch.”

“You called him that in the library. I’ve never heard of it before,” Grayson says, and he seems calmer for having the rest of his pack with him. Perhaps there is strength when they are all together like this; it’s as if his previous tension has ebbed away when he shares it with them.

“Lunarch translates as Moon Ruler. They are of myth and legend. They are born of the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth, all at once. I can still see the human in him. Just a little. It’s part of what makes him absolutely stunning, magically speaking. An aura like the sun. A sort of magic of its own.”

“I’m still a little bit human?” Nix pops up beside Grayson, folding one of his hands inside Grayson’s and the other in Jay’s. “That sounds nice. I was human for a long time, and now I’m Were. It’s good that I am still a bit of both, you know?”

“I think so,” Nimue nods.

“What does it all mean, though, how can you ‘see’ anything? Is it something Grayson will be able to do?” Nix asks, gently taking Nimue’s arm to lead her toward the table. The little stinker’s tummy is rumbling, and he’s making sure their host is seated first.

She just pats his hand and chuckles. “Alright, Nix. I’m coming. Let’s eat, and I can tell you a bit about what my magic looks like and what we can do to help your mate.”

Turns out, Nimue is talented in the kitchen in much the same way she is in the arts of magic. The soup is delicious, and she shares that she’d woken early to harvest the vegetables from the garden this morning and to make a huge batch of biscuits as well.

All the while not knowing she’d even have guests. It’s a little like precognition, but nothing concrete or manipulable. It’s not officially an Affinity or her Talent. Even regular humans will tap into something like that without knowing why or what it is and call it intuition.

Talents are learned skills, and not every magic user has the same skill set. Nimue is an expert at practicing nature-oriented and location spells, plus several others.

But it’s the Affinity that is at the core of the magic user’s power. Affinities are exactly what they sound like, and usually, magic users have a single one. Fire Affinities harness flame, where Water Affinities make aquatic magic second nature.

Nimue has two; the first is an Air Affinity.

It’s quite common amongst magic users, unlike Earth or Time, which are the rarest of all.

She explains further that an Affinity is a natural-born relationship to The Plain—easily accessible and therefore more easily trained.

She creates a burst of air and opens the back door.

She then uses her fingers to snap a bit of lightning into play so she can make it dance, much to Leo’s delight.

Her second Affinity is what elevates her to the rank of Luminary—a master within the Florida Guild which oversees most sanctioned magical education in the state.

She is the only one of her kind in the United States and one of just three in the world.

This rare gift grants her the ability to perceive a person’s past, present, and future as though all three exist at once.

“We call it Temporal Overlay. I draw on The Plain so I can see some aspects of who you are or have been. Sometimes, even who you will be. Sometimes all at once.”

“Are we always the same in every…er…time?” Luca asks. “How can you tell who we are by how we look?”

“Good question. Most people are different. It’s difficult to explain as they aren’t just periods of history, but sometimes timelines. I call it a weave, although my instructors preferred a spider web analogy.”

“Mom hates spiders,” Emmy whispers.

“I respect them if they respect me, young lady,” Nimue smiles but points to her daughter with her spoon. “Time isn’t linear, it’s true. For example, Emmy is my daughter in this present, but has been a cobbler and a—”

“A pirate! Argh!” Emmy blurts out, brandishing her butter knife like a saber, causing Rowan to growl.

“Quiet down, Anne Bonny,” Nimue admonishes her daughter.

“That’s part of my Affinity, Luca, and hard to explain.

I see with more than my eyes…Does that make sense?

For example, I can see that the eight of you are incredibly special.

Across the weave of time, I see the same faces, just at different times and places, always the same roles to play.

Sometimes the King is a shepherd or revolutionary.

” She meets Gideon’s eyes and whispers, “But always one who can turn the tide.”

Turn the tide? That’s the ability to shift the course of events toward good, toward victory.

Gideon sincerely doubts Nimue’s words about his character, but sees the truth when she speaks about his mates.

Gideon won’t be turning any tides alone, but hopes that the strength they have as eight can triumph over whatever life throws their way.

“So cool,” Rowan says as he wraps two extra biscuits in a lovely hand-embroidered cloth napkin. “Was I a pirate, too? Were we pirates? Because that would be awesome.”

Emmy gets up, fetches a plastic bag, and offers it to him instead.

He offers her a blinding, dimpled grin. “Thanks, Em.” As usual, it’s unclear whether he’s being friendly or causing shit with Nix.

Gideon groans because where Nix had thought Emmy was the GOAT before, he’s now glaring at her. “Down, Kitten. He’s yours, remember? You like Emmy.”

“I really, really do. I’d hate to have to remind her that Rowan is taken, you know?” he whispers.

Emmy’s eyes go wide, and then she laughs. “I’m gay. No worries.”

Nix grins. “Me too!” he exclaims as if it weren’t obvious, and offers her a fist bump in solidarity.

“I am so glad to hear that,” Jay mutters, only half listening. He looks haggard and his bowl is still half-full.

Unusually, Jay would be charming and engaging. An extrovert who loves new people, it is out of character to see him so silent and distracted during the entire meal. It has to be big for Jay to not have a list of questions a mile long about magic in general and the risks to Grayson in particular.

“But, no, not a pirate.” Nimue picks up her story again. “You are the Wolf.”

Gideon isn’t the only one who misunderstands because his mates are confused as he is. “We are Were. We’re all wolves, no?”

“Yes, of course. As the Goddess intended, Were are her children. Created in the image of her beloved wolves. But Rowan is still a Wolf. He has always been instinctual, dominant, protective, wily, and… the Wolf. ” She shrugs like she can’t explain it any more clearly.

Leo freezes, clearly having been listening, with his spoon halfway to his mouth. “Are you saying that Rowan was a Wolf? Like a furry, four-legged wolf?”

“He could shift? ” Finn asks in disbelief.

Well, that explains a lot.