Page 49 of Lunar Desires (Celestial Magic #2)

RILEY

I didn’t sleep much that night.

Although the events of what happened when Dad attacked were blurry, they still kept me up until four in the morning. I mean, I’d died. I’d died and come back because of a Rainbow Stone.

Aaron canceled the quarry burial for the time being.

Okay, so the fae woman had helped, but there would be a price for this at some point. Probably my blood or some crap. After all, she wanted me alive.

Ugh. Damn these villains.

Dad killed me. He’d been resisting the conditions of his curse, only to give in. It stung like bees and wasps teaming up to launch an attack against me, stinger after stinger sticking me in an endless assault.

He’d fled the house in Broomstick Gardens, as had Mum and Peter. When Drake searched for them, he found Mum and my stepdad in Great Yarmouth, holed up in a hotel.

As for Dad, he kept moving away from the city. Drake’s last search found him in New Forest. There wasn’t a plan in for place how we’d deal with him yet, or Mum and Peter. But I wanted to see him again. As him. To see if he harbored any regret.

I believed he did.

But I kept that desire to myself, tensions running too hot for anyone to consider anything other than kicking his arse.

Drake didn’t say it, but I knew he was out for blood.

Isaac didn’t stand on ceremony when it came to his anger.

“He won’t get away with this,” he’d seethed earlier today. “What sort of fuckhead kills his own son?”

But I missed Dad. I just wanted to understand, to hear his side of the story.

Maybe I was just a sentimental idiot, holding onto something that wasn’t there. A father/son bond lost in the past.

Damn. That would suck.

At some point, I’d have to deal with everything.

Process the details, come to terms with it all.

The aftershock of what went down in my childhood home left my chest tight, as if there was an infection in there.

Every time I tried to contemplate a few seconds of any of it, a searing pain in my temples smacked me down.

Especially when I replayed what I’d done to Peter.

By Hecate, I had a lot of soul-searching to do. I couldn’t be losing my sense of right and wrong, even with my stepdad being a reformed shadow witch seriously blurring the lines.

Whatever. My sacred blood didn’t give me the right to play God. That only ripped the moral staircase away, leaving behind a slippery slope into, well, Kingwood territory.

Never. Not in any lifetime.

As Juliet said, I didn’t have to lose myself to this. But I did have to forge a better way forward.

God, all this drama on top of the Preston thing. Talk about a loaded plate.

But it could all wait, if only for a day. We’d all been through the wringer, and it was high time we took a day off.

As the rain fell on a gray Friday in February, I sat on the big recreation room sofa, my head in Drake’s lap, Isaac beside me with a huge bowl of popcorn. The Brambles were there too, the six of us enjoying the movie Red, White, & Royal Blue playing on the massive TV screen.

“Taylor Zakhar Perez needs to declare his undying love for me immediately,” Isaac said with his mouth full.

“Amen,” Alice and Aaron agreed at the same time.

They clinked their glasses of cola in a cheers.

Ah, the joy of a movie day and the bliss of distraction. None of us on this sofa were trying to dodge the severity of our reality. But we’d sure as hell sidestep it for a bit.

After all, who knew how many movie days lay ahead of us?

Drake stroked my hair. He’d clung to me all night, checking on me, crying a lot. The poor guy’s eyes were red-raw come morning.

“I never want to lose you,” he’d told me again and again.

He wouldn’t. My heels were already dug in, determined to enjoy every single moment of our time together.

We’d dodged a serious bullet with me dying, so every second counted.

Isaac hugged me a lot too, my hair ruffled so much I worried it might fall out.

“Don’t ever die on me again,” he’d warned me.

“Erm, I’ll try.”

“You better.”

How fabulous to be so treasured by a supermodel.

Drake looked down at me as the prince and the president’s son snogged on screen, flashing the smile that’d enchanted me from our very first meeting.

“Alright?”

I poked his chin, nodding.

He made me feel so wanted, so special. So damn sparkly. And I’d make sure to send it straight back to him—a man worthy of so much happiness.

“Forever,” I whispered at him.

He took my hand, nuzzling it against his stubbled cheek.

With him by my side, I’d face every shade, every monster, every danger. Whatever came next, at least I’d be able to fight it wrapped up in love.

By Hecate, how lucky was I?

Up next, Isaac takes his turn in the spotlight!

Get ready for…

Solar Shadows

(Celestial Magic 3)