Page 12 of Lunar Diamonds (Celestial Magic #1)

RILEY

I ran behind Aaron, my heart a dozen drums in my chest. He led us through a series of narrow corridors, the gray stone walls too close, the space too compact. Single lightbulbs hung from wires at various intervals, flickering creepily.

There was barely enough room for us. If we were caught in here…

I didn’t want to think about that .

Hecate, get us through this night.

Gun shots magnified my terror. Soon, my legs would give up, my entire body ready for unconsciousness in a bid to pluck me from this nightmare.

We were under attack. The enemy was already unleashing their crap upon us.

Damn. This was only night one.

“Where are we going?” Isaac asked, panting behind me.

Aaron slowed down to walk, taking a right turn at a T-junction. “We have to fight back.”

Isaac puffed on his inhaler. “With what?”

“Your powers,” he said. “You have to connect to them, embrace them.” He turned to face us. “What do you feel in here?” He tapped the area around his heart.

Terror. “I don’t…I don’t know,” I answered.

Aaron rubbed at his left cheek, his complexion pale with fear. “Focus. Feel the magic inside you. Your new powers should speak to you, according to Erin.”

Two for Isaac, one for me. We never got to the details.

I guess I’d be learning on the job, so to speak.

Okay, focus. Dig deep. Let this new magic speak to me. It already hummed in my bones. A pleasant hum, like a billion little hugs across every inch of marrow.

Can you tell me what you are? I thought at it.

I saw a flash, a huge moon rising on the horizon of some night sky inside my mind. It bathed me in its radiant lunar light, intensifying the hum into a more fervent vibration.

What are you trying to say?

The moon rose higher and higher, its size shrinking the further away it got.

Wait. I knew this. Wasn’t it called moon illusion? An optical illusion where the moon appeared larger on the horizon in contrast to its height in the sky.

Illusion. Yes. The power of illusion—unique to me, able to confuse and terrify in equal measure.

Fabulous.

I blinked myself back into the corridor, feeling more energized, more in sync with the strange new life of mine.

Illusion.

“Did you find anything?” Aaron asked.

“I did.”

“So did I,” Isaac answered.

“Then let’s go.” Aaron wiped sweat from his brow. “There’s a grimoire upstairs we can use to fortify the mansion again.” He started moving again.

“Is that so?”

I jumped at the deep, unsettling voice rolling through the corridor.

Aaron froze, drawing a pistol. “Who’s there?”

A figure in black stepped around the next turn, shadow magic coiled around his fingers. His face was hidden by a mask, a thick hood surrounding it. A grim reaper-like figure, sans scythe, and wearing jeans, not billowing robes.

A big man, muscles straining beneath his puffer jacket.

Goosebumps prickled my skin, every hair standing to attention.

“How convenient.” The man came closer, the shadow magic in his hands slithering like a tangle of snakes. His fingers moved in a steady, rippling rhythm. Preparing. Ready to strike.

I backed away, bumping into Isaac. He grabbed my shoulders, steadying me.

I thought I heard his heart drumming in time with mine.

“Stay back,” Aaron warned, gun trained on the invader.

“Or you’ll kill me? You cannot kill me, lower being. There is nothing you can do to stop me.” He came closer, taking his time with confident steps.

Arsehole.

Illusion…

Aaron shot him in the chest three times, the bullets bouncing off his jacket.

Crap.

Laughter with the power to curdle milk followed. “What did I tell you? Sleep!” He clapped his hands, the magic blasting Aaron in the face.

“Oh…bollocks…” He yawned. “Run…doors…hidden. Look…” He dropped the gun, then fell to his knees. “Run…” He laid down, curling into a ball.

Asleep.

Double crap.

The masked arsehole turned his attention to us. Isaac tightened his grip on me.

“The Sun and The Moon,” the man said, that damn voice adding a second layer of goosebumps to my epidermis.

“Stay away,” I rasped, my throat closing up.

“Come with me.” Magic gathered on his hands again. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

I highly doubted that.

“Do not resist the inventible,” he added. “You will be mine.”

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“Your future,” he replied.

A thought hit me. How could one guy pack such ominous energy? “Marcus Kingwood?”

He laughed. “Possibly.”

Meaning yes. By Hecate. Really? The Marcus Kingwood, here in the flesh? Rhianna was bad enough, but the son of the deadliest witch to ever live? Wow. And not in the good way.

I stayed strong, even if my knees were practically knocking. “We’re not going anywhere with you.”

The shadow witch took another step forward. “Is that so?”

I straightened my back, resisting the squirming fear within me. This arsehole would not have us or this house.

Isaac released my shoulders, pushing his way in front of me. “I’ve heard enough.”

More laughter. “As you say, supermodel.”

My brother snarled and swung his arms out, his hands open. Incredible light filled the room, bursting from his open palms. As bright as the sun, packing some serious heat I only felt for a moment, the temperature transforming into the pleasant warmth of a fine spring day.

Sunlight. Actual sunlight.

Wow.

Marcus roared, an arm over his mask. He stumbled back into the wall.

My eyes were unaffected. A perk of being his brother?

“Get out of here, prick!” Isaac yelled, keeping his sunlight up.

Marcus grunted. “I will have you.” He took off, his thunderous footsteps quickly fading away.

That was some seriously handy sunlight.

Isaac crouched beside Aaron. “I’m not sure if I can help.” The sunlight changed into a dimmer, rippling wave of golden light. It curled around his arms in pulsing rings, his hands sparkling like the sun on the surface of a lake. He touched Aaron’s chest, then swept his hands up and down the fae’s body.

Nothing happened. If anything, Aaron snored louder.

“Fuck,” Isaac cursed. “I thought that might work.”

What were his powers?

He looked at me. “We should go find help. Didn’t Aaron mention the doors were hidden?”

“He did. I think.”

But where? Here? Deeper? I hopped from foot to foot, considering my options, feeling as useful as an electric toothbrush in the ocean.

No, no. The Moon, not useless. “I’ll take a look around.”

Isaac nodded, firing up his power again. “I’ll try this on Aaron again.”

Was it some kind of healing or spell-breaking ability?

“We can do this,” he added.

Those words carried so much weight. I wasn’t sure why, but they lit a fire under my backside, driving up my adrenaline and sharpening my focus.

I am The Moon.

The vibrations in my bones responded in agreement. There was strength inside of me, and a load of potential. I might not be at full capacity, but a lunar flame burned inside of me already and wielded the power of illusion.

I can do this.

Okay, if I were a hidden door, where might I be?

I examined the walls, looking for any hints of a door, like a join or a special knob. I spotted nothing, so got to feeling things out and running my hands across the stone, moving deeper into the network of corridors. Checking every inch, alert to every sound, my adrenaline keeping the panic attacks at bay.

Particles of dust sprinkled from the ceiling as footsteps stomped overhead. Voices called out, muffled by the stone. If they found me, I’d be ready to unleash an illusion on their arses.

I can do this.

Up ahead, at another T-junction, I spotted an anomaly in the wall. Those were definitely cracks in the shape of a door. If I hadn’t been looking for them, I’d have easily missed it.

But where was the handle?

Chewing the merry hell out of my bottom lip, I felt for it, my fingers finding it on the left side, halfway down.

I waited, listening for any movement beyond it.

Nothing.

Gingerly, I pressed it down. The door opened with a soft click, revealing a large kitchen of steel-and-white décor. A huge panoramic window stretched behind a long marble countertop and sink, everything immaculate. The bright overhead lights reflected in the window, hiding any signs of life outside.

My flat would fit into this space a few times over.

Two shadow witches with magic in their hands appeared from the other side of the kitchen, taking a pause by the window. They craned their masked heads in my direction but didn’t appear to see me.

“Where are they?” one of them said.

Yeah. Definitely hadn’t clocked me.

Okay. Maybe this wasn’t the right hidden door. I slowly began to close it when the shouting began.

“Freeze! Just fucking freeze!” a woman bellowed.

Crap!

I jumped back, my spine colliding with the wall behind me. I slapped a hand over my mouth to swallow the yelp, the door staying open a crack.

The wall didn’t hurt my vertebrae like it should.

“You won’t survive the night!” the same woman roared.

A figure darted past the door into the kitchen, letting out a, “Shit!”

Drake?

I moved to the gap for a look. The witches dropped into battle stances, Drake’s hands in the air.

“Easy now,” he tried. “Let’s talk about this.”

“You’re done talking.” Another witch appeared from the direction Drake came. “Time to freeze.”

I don’t think so!

A harder shot of adrenaline had me flinging the door open, my powers rising like an angry tide.

Moon. Tides. Yeah, don’t mess with the tide of Riley.

I strode into the action. “Isn’t it me you want?”

Amazing how easily bravado fit like a glove, especially when your bones hummed harder with power. It did wonders for my courage, too.

These damn shadow witches wouldn’t be hurting Drake on my watch. Yeah, he wasn’t on my good list right now, but he remained at the top of my curious one.

We are only just getting started…

The woman tilted her head, her anonymous, masked face creepy as hell. Jason Voorhees’s hockey mask seemed friendly by comparison. Drake’s eyes widened, angry flashes in those dark and stormy pools.

Was he imploring me to run?

“Well, well, well,” the woman drawled. “There he is. The Moon. I love your hair.”

How tempting to sing that line from Ariana Grande’s ‘7 Rings.’ But I hadn’t recently purchased my locks, and the silver streak was all me.

“Who are you?” I demanded instead, my body alive with powerful tremors.

I felt embraced by the moon, its arms open wide for me, for us. Together we walked hand in hand, every part of me entwined with its force.

Two more shadow witches arrived, surrounding me, which only emboldened my strength, throwing fuel to my fire.

The woman tossed an overconfident chuckle my way.

Ugh. Arrogance always got my back up.

Silver-laced, blue magical energy licked across my hands, curling between my fingers like pretty ribbons.

The woman seemed unbothered. “End of the line, Moon.” Her tone oozed with superciliousness. “Seize him.”

I clasped my hands together as if in prayer, closing my eyes to flex my new power.

Get ready for this…