Page 42 of Lunar Diamonds (Celestial Magic #1)

RILEY

T he crack of the gun and a terrible pain dragged me from unconsciousness.

I screamed, quickly understanding what’d happened, that I’d felt those bullets myself. The white-hot pain muddled my reactions, weakening my body.

Drake’s pain is mine…

Crap!

“Drake!” I crawled over to him.

So much blood…

“You’ll be okay,” I said. “You have to be okay.”

“You’re awake already?” Uncle Jonathon complained in a scratchy voice. “Pity. We’ll do this the painful way.”

Uncle. Jonathon.

I looked up, my heart racing a billion miles a minute.

All this time, he’d been hiding as Erin Lovell. Possibly. I wasn’t sure, my brain was throbbing.

“Drake…”

My uncle clapped magic from his hands. “Disarm!”

I hit the floor, crippled by searing pain in my stomach. It spread to my extremities, my limbs concrete, spasming to stillness.

The painful way…

What the hell was going on?

He worked quickly for an old man, lighting candles in the hallway, painting red swirls on the walls. Blood.

Blood from Drake and April, both still alive.

Tears leaked down my cheeks, this helplessness devastating. A poisonous magic crackled in my veins, cutting my will off from my body. I pulled on the new moon’s energy, but our connection was interrupted.

Nausea attacked, acidic bubbles popping in the back of my throat.

Jonathon loomed above me with a knife, blood dripping from its tip. “I wanted to do this in a more sophisticated manner.” His voice grated in my ears—old, weak, pathetic, and full of arrogance. “But people always get in the way.”

I blinked, my chest heaving. “What… Where are…” Damn. My throat burned as if an infection manifested inside it.

Magic. Disgusting, filthy magic.

“Don’t worry about it, nephew,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about anything anymore.” He gave me what I assumed he considered to be a sympathetic smile. “If only things were different. Alas, they’re not. You slithered from my dear sister like a disease, and I’m here with the antidote.”

The Rubberskin hadn’t worked this time thanks to the invading magic inside me disarming everything.

He bent and sliced my arm with the knife. The slicing stung a little, most of it dimmed by the louder pain inside me.

“I…” My throat closed up, cutting off all speech.

Jonathon cut open his palm and closed it over my wound. “Blood of The Moon for The Moon.” He ran his hand over his face, smearing our joined blood over his skin.

Oh. My. God.

“I’ve been waiting for the new moon,” he said, eyes on me. “It’s a time for renewal, for change. And I’m changing things, Riley. I’m taking back what’s mine.”

The blue orb. He really was the blue orb.

He pulled out a necklace from beneath his shirt. A silver chain with two diamond-like charms dangling from it.

Wait. No. They weren’t… No way.

“Lunar diamonds,” he confirmed.

I gagged, my head screaming with pain.

No. No. No. This made no sense.

He checked his watch, then cast another spell. “Drain!”

His clap boomed in my ears.

The spell hit me like a slap to the face, my veins thumping.

“We have ten minutes until the spell does its work,” he said. “So I might as well explain myself. Or should I?” He stroked his chin. “What I can tell you is I’ve been watching. This house has always been my playground. Nothing ever passes me by.”

I gagged again, bile stinging the back of my throat. Spying? With what? Cameras? Magic?

“My illusion for you and that scrying cunt was my best work,” he added. “Playing with your fears. Such genius.”

I tried moving, getting nowhere.

He checked his watch again. “Soon none of this will matter. The spell on you will drain your essence from your body and transfer it into me. Blood and power from one Moon to another.” He chuckled.

This couldn’t be happening.

Come on, limbs. Work!

But my power malfunctioned, the shadow magic doing a serious number on me, switching everything off.

Shadow magic and celestial power. He’d given us the answer, hiding in plain sight as Erin. Playing games. For how long? Had the real Erin ever eaten my cookies and calmly welcomed me into the mansion?

“Two minutes to go,” he said. “The power you stole will be mine again.” He laughed hoarsely as he shook his head. “Yes, I know you didn’t ask to be born. But you were. You weakened me, driving me to find power in the shadows. To taint myself, to allow corruption to swim inside me, to murder five innocents in their beds.”

My blood went cold. Five innocents. The family murdered the same night I was attacked.

By Hecate. No.

I retched, vomit bubbling up my throat. But I choked, unable to bring it up. I swallowed, barely catching my breath.

He’d murdered that poor family…

“I quite like it now,” he added. “An enhancement of Hecate’s blessing, even. The possibilities are fascinating. You could call me Shadow Moon.”

He laughed again before his features contorted with hate.

“That slut of a sister,” he growled. “Not only did she bow to the High Coven when I told her to fight, show them we could eradicate the shades and prove ourselves, but she went and got pregnant. Passed on our birthright. Bitch. Because of her, we lost Janet.”

A shade killed the previous Star.

“But I showed her,” he rambled on. “I showed you all. Faked my death, hid the diamonds so well not even a scrying witch could find them. I’m unsure of their purpose now, but we’ll see.”

Drake…

I’ll fix this, Drake… For you. For everyone.

“And now here we are, at the end and the beginning.” Jonathon looked at his watch again. “Get ready, nephew.”

There had to be something inside me to stop him.

Magic curled up his arms, spreading around his body like vines. Black and silver, tinged with red.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the bloody swirls glow. Move like red snakes in constant rotation.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven…” he said.

No. No. No. I wouldn’t let him win.

“…five, four?—”

Sunlight hands cupped my face. Not quite here, but also definitely here.

“Riley,” Isaac said, his body transparent, shimmering with golden light. “Take this.”

Strength from my brother. A surge of power within seconds, giving me that burst of energy to break my uncle’s spell and jump to my feet.

“No!” Jonathon screamed, his countdown stopping at one. He came at me with the knife, taking a swing.

I cracked him with an uppercut Alice taught me. Pow! His chin crunched under my fists, his scrawny body soaring upwards in an arc.

“My blood!” he wailed before he hit the floor, his head smacking the carpet.

The arsehole went still.

Shadow magic poured from my nose as black liquid oozed down my chin, spilling down my clothes.

“I’m coming,” Isaac said, fading away. “Hold on.”

I looked back at Drake and April. Still breathing.

My heart lurched, an iron fist closing around it. I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t lose them. But Drake… We were…

“It’ll be okay,” I said. “Everything will be okay.”

Jonathon sprang to his feet.

I hit him with a “Trip!”

Thank Hecate for the witch bangle.

“Riley!” he bellowed, tumbling. He grabbed at the wall for purchase, dropping his knife as he fell to his knees. He slumped forward onto his hands. “Don’t do this. I’m The Moon. It was meant for me.”

“It’s called passing on the torch!” I snapped, alien rage rising.

Anger. Pure, unfiltered anger consumed me.

His knife sat by my foot. I picked it up, pointing it at him.

He sat on his heels, his shirt bunched up in his right hand. “I am The Moon. Not you.”

“Shut up. You’re done here.” The knife trembled in my hand. “Why…” I spun inside, a ball of emotions—confused, betrayed, even though I didn’t know this man. A whole gauntlet of feelings attacking me. “You could?—”

“Could have been your uncle?” He chortled, so much hatred in the sound. “You and your brother are nothing but parasites. I don’t wish you well, I wish you death. Like this city after it turned its back on me. I want to see it burn, for everyone to scream for my mercy.”

I steeled myself against his vitriol, which did nothing for my shaking. “That’s all you want?”

He pulled the diamonds out again, letting them rest against his shirt. “The lunar power is mine. New. Evolved. If you weren’t about to lose your life, I’d say stick around to see what I’ll achieve.”

He sounded just like Rhianna. “Lose my life?”

“This changes nothing.” He moved quickly for a skeleton. I barely had time to react.

He swung a punch, missing me as I darted to the side. His fist connected with the wall with a crunch.

Jonathon yowled, clutching his injured hand, blood pouring from his knuckles. “You vermin. You parasite. I’ll kill you. I’ll take?—”

I lost my head, the entire crimson mist descending like a curtain. Anger never shared so much space within me as it did in this moment. So hot, so violent.

This creature, this thing having the audacity to call himself a man, corrupted this house. A blot on my bloodline, an immoral menace who killed for power, who hurt my friends. A vile scumbag who couldn’t accept his time had passed.

A liar. A fraud. A killer.

No uncle of mine.

No blood of mine.

I lunged at him, no buffers to stop me, and buried the knife hilt-deep into his guts. I twisted the blade, never breaking eye contact.

He coughed up blood, spraying my face.

I delighted in his horror.

“You lose, uncle,” I said, my voice loaded with darkness.

I’m the one changing…

I yanked the knife free, stabbing him in the side of the neck. Three times, to be sure this creature died right here before the real deal.

I am The Moon.

He went back to his knees again, losing blood rapidly. I grabbed his head and shoved him backward. He went down like a doll, his head bouncing on the carpet. Choking, thrashing as his life left him.

He died within a minute, a pathetic lump on the floor. Like twisted branches in a felled forest clawing for the sun to save them. Or the moon in this case.

“I’m the fucking Moon!” I cried.

I dropped the knife, silent tears suddenly streaming down my face. The rage dissipated, leaving me raw to process what I’d just done.

Blood on my hands…

“I killed him…” I whispered.

I heard the front doors crash open, the footsteps pounding up the stairs.

“Riley!” Isaac called.

I held up my hands, covered in blood. They blurred around the edges, not really my hands. No, they couldn’t be mine. They weren’t built for killing. They leafed through books, shelved them at the library. Soft hands waiting for a prince to come along and kiss them before he led me into the sunset and the sunrise.

Like Drake. He’d kissed my hand and now he lay there dying.

“Drake…”

Isaac appeared, barreling down the hallway, a long white coat billowing behind him.

“Fuck me!” he yelled, skidding to a stop, his eyes darting around the scene.

“Drake… April…” I managed.

You killed a man…

My brother didn’t need telling twice, getting on with healing them. Only, there was a problem with Drake.

“I need your help,” he said.

I looked down. Drake had lost all his color.

“He’s crossed that line,” my brother added.

Immediately snapping to my senses, I lent him my strength. It worked, the relief sending me to the floor.

“The others!” April cried, back on her feet. “They’re hurt.”

Isaac followed her to go help them.

The scent of mint enveloped me. “Riley?”

Slowly, I faced him, a sob tearing from my throat. “You’re okay. You’re okay and I killed him and you’re okay and I had to… I had to… I had to…”

I collapsed onto my side. Drake came down with me, holding me, allowing me to howl uncontrollably into the crook of his neck.

“I’m so sorry,” he soothed, tightening his grip on me.

I didn’t stop crying for an hour.