Page 8 of Moonstriker (The Summertide Chronicles #4)

Chapter 8

Aubrey

Aunt Titania was more cheerful than I’d ever seen her before while she was getting ready for dinner. Getting ready for her date, really. She took a curling iron to her hair, which I didn’t understand at all, since her hair was naturally a riot of red curls. Did she need it more curly?

Me, I’d have given anything to remove the curls from my hair. They were inconvenient, and made it look messy even right after I combed it, sticking up in all directions, and it only got worse the shorter I got it cut. I’d tried one of those military cuts back when I was in high school, and went around looking like I’d stuck my finger in a light socket for a month till it grew out.

“Should I wear green or blue?” she asked me, poking her head out of the bedroom, curling iron held next to her head, the curls that framed the left side of her face wrapped around it.

I didn’t want to say that they both looked fine and were essentially the same outfit, so I considered for a moment, then nodded. “The blue. It goes with your eyes.”

She nodded seriously, darting back into the bedroom.

It was maybe the cutest thing I’d ever witnessed in my entire life. I wished my mother had ever gone on a date. I wished—but no, it was too late for that. There was nothing left that I could do for Mom other than fulfill her last request to me, and “be happy,” which it turned out was more complicated than I’d initially thought.

It would make me happy, I decided, if Aunt Titania was happy. She’d been through as much awfulness in her life as Mom, and never once put herself first, which I thought made her a rarity among the rich and privileged. Hopefully Ember Moonstriker would be a good match for that, and she’d want to lift Aunt Titania up as much as I did.

I suspected they would forget I was there in five minutes flat, and I could just claim a headache and go to bed early, leaving the two of them to spend the whole rest of the evening together.

When Aunt Titania seemed well and truly distracted with readying herself, I ducked into my own room. I didn’t exactly have a wardrobe to “dress for dinner,” but I felt like people would notice if I wore the same thing to two meals in a row, so I rooted through my bag for one of my two button-down shirts. Frankly, it was a bit ridiculous that I even had two, since I’d only ever needed one, just for special occasions. But Mother had insisted I needed a new one a few years ago, because the first was getting a little tight.

I’d kept both, of course, even if the older one strained at the seams a bit when I wore it.

I grabbed the first one I found in my bag and dropped it onto my bed. Hopefully it wasn’t too wrinkled from being in a bag for...well, for a while. It wasn’t like I’d unpacked my things at Gloombringer Castle. I pulled off the T-shirt I was wearing and tossed it on a nearby chair, reaching for the shirt.

Sound drifted in the open window, which...why was it open? The main room of the suite had glass from floor to ceiling, which didn’t open or close, but my bedroom had one glass wall and one wooden wall with a window laid into it. For reasons I didn’t understand, that window was open.

I went over to close it, and my attention was grabbed by an annoyed feminine voice. “I’m just saying, we should start choosing a surrogate right now. I’m not rushing, but these things take time. You have to find just the right person.”

“We’re thinking of adopting,” a male voice said, and I’d have recognized Adair Courtwright’s sweet tenor anywhere. He was the first rich person I’d ever known, and still one of the kindest.

The woman, whoever she was, was apparently scandalized. “You couldn’t! Children of the Moonstriker line?—”

“Like Ember?” Another man asked. I made it to the window and looked out to find Rain Moonstriker, Adair, and a woman. I wanted to say she was an older woman since she had white hair, but with all the Moonstrikers around, it was hard to say if that meant anything.

Rain and the woman were wearing those incredibly formal outfits like he’d dressed in back at Gloombringer Castle, coats with high collars and fancy embroidery, but Adair looked...well, he was wearing just what I planned to wear to dinner. Pants and a button-down shirt. His sleeves were even rolled up, and he looked so much more comfortable than any other time I’d seen him. He was looking at Rain like he’d hung the moon, and it was absolutely adorable.

The woman seemed none too thrilled with whatever Rain meant by asking about Ember, and she went quiet, sighing and turning away. “Where’s the house staff?” she demanded after a moment. “They’re supposed to be here to greet us. These bags aren’t going to carry themselves.”

Rain dropped his head and shook it, looking defeated, but Adair smiled gamely and walked up next to her at the back of their white SUV. “No, they’re not. That’s why it’s our job to carry our own bags like the adults we are.”

I loved that guy.

There was a soft knock on my bedroom door behind me, and I quietly finished closing the window before turning away. “Come in. I’m just putting on a shirt for dinner.”

Aunt Titania poked her head in. “I just heard one of the staff in the hallway, apparently the last party just arrived.”

I nodded and motioned to the window. “Rain Moonstriker and Adair Courtwright, with an unhappy woman.”

Titania let out a laugh that chimed like a bell. “That’d be Rain’s mother Delta. She’s a nightmare, just like Oberon was. I’d avoid her if I were you.”

“Is she also Ember’s mother?” I asked. I was still trying to figure out all the family relationships.

Titania leaned her head one way then the other. “Kinda. Ember is adopted.”

Ahh. Suddenly it all made sense. Delta wanted blood-related grandchildren, and Rain wasn’t interested in pandering to her leaving his sister out. That seemed very like the Rain I’d met before.

Aunt Titania shook off her interest in the arrivals and did a twirl in front of me, bright blue silk swirling through the air. “How do I look?”

“Stunning.” I quickly buttoned my shirt the rest of the way and tucked it into my pants, then held out my elbow to her. “Am I an acceptable escort?”

She beamed at me. “You’re a perfect everything, Aubrey.” She reached out and grabbed my elbow, leaning on me. “I’m so glad Adair found you and brought you home, even if I’m sorry you ever had to meet Oberon.”

I smiled down at her and realized the truth even as I said the words, “I’m glad he found me too. It’s fine about Oberon. I’d rather know the truth than feel like I missed something by not meeting him. But I also know I would be missing out if I didn’t spend time with you.”

She sniffled, burying her face in my shoulder for a moment, and then muttered, “You’re not allowed to be sweet like that. I’ll ruin my makeup.”

“And you’ll still be gorgeous, and I think she knows that. Why else agree to have dinner with you? If the woman in the driveway just now is her adopted mother, I’m pretty sure she’s going to catch trouble for not coming to dinner with everyone else, so she’s agreed to get in trouble in order to spend more time with you.”

Aunt Titania gasped, looking up at me, her blue eyes luminous and damp. “Do you think so? That does sound like Delta. Maybe...maybe I should ask if she wants to do dinner a different time.”

I leaned down and kissed the top of her fluffy hair. “Nope. I’m absolutely certain she’d rather have dinner with you than that woman.”

Maybe Ember hadn’t heard the conversation in the drive just now—or maybe she had—but regardless, when a person had an attitude like that, it had a way of coming across whether they intended it or not. I didn’t doubt that Ember Moonstriker knew her value alongside her siblings was considered relative, at least by the woman who’d apparently raised her.

Kit was doubly lucky, I thought, to be her nephew and not her son.

Except...well, he’d implied he had been raised as her son, hadn’t he? Which meant that in her mind, he was probably in a similar situation to Ember. Not her real child, and therefore lesser.

Dammit, I hadn’t wanted to feel bad for him.

“Shall we get down to dinner?” I asked Aunt Titania, desperate to distract myself from the whole train of thought.

“Yes, good idea,” she agreed, taking a bracing breath and then practically tugging me toward the door.

We got out to the terrace, and Ember Moonstriker was already waiting there, looking beautiful in black pants and a bright blue shirt that almost exactly matched Aunt Titania’s loose, flowing clothes. The same color as Aunt Titania’s Duskbringer eyes.

The way Ember’s eyes caught on Aunt Titania and held, skimming her and then racing back up to meet her avid gaze, biting her lip like she was trying to hold back gushing commentary?

Oh yeah, this thing was in the bag.

Well, except for one monkey wrench in the works.

Kit Moonstriker was sitting at the table next to Ember.

How the heck was I supposed to leave them alone to get to know each other better if he was there?

I was sure I scowled at him, and his return smirk was just as infuriating as every other thing about him. It was like he did it on purpose.

“Ahh, I do love a dinner companion with a ferocious scowl,” he said lightly as we arrived at the table. Fortunately, Aunt Titania and Ember didn’t even seem to notice.

Instead, they were in the middle of the all too familiar “oh my gods I’m so lucky” stare.

“You look beautiful,” Ember said, her voice breathy. Oddly enough, she moved so fast to pull out a chair for Titania that she almost seemed to flicker. Moonstrikers were supposed to have time powers, though, weren’t they?

Aunt Titania sank into the chair without glancing at it, staring up at Ember and smiling. “I love your hair. It looks so much less unruly than this mess.” She motioned to her own curls.

I personally suspected they had similar amounts of trouble with their very curly hair, but it was adorable to watch them argue the point.

“Oh no, it’s beautiful,” Ember said. “Like a sunset.” Then she gave a nervous giggle. “Duskbringer, I guess.”

Aunt Titania giggled as well, and leaned forward onto the table.

I took the remaining seat, not wanting to speak up and break the moment for them.

Finally, Ember sighed and leaned back, adjusting her position in her chair and trying to compose herself. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought my brother. I already talked to the staff to make sure there’d be enough food for everyone.”

“I’m sure I can keep him out of your hair,” I told her, trying to bolster Aunt Titania as much as anything. She had brought me not to come between them, but as a buffer to make sure things weren’t weird. She didn’t need to be worrying about entertaining Kit Moonstriker.

He lifted one of those obnoxious white eyebrows of his at me, unimpressed as ever. “Really, I can’t imagine how much attention you need. It was...Aubrey, right?”

How was it even possible to be as much of an insufferable ass as he was? I wanted to reach out and slug him, and I wasn’t by nature a violent person.

How much attention did I need?

I wasn’t the one who’d come to dinner uninvited. The one who was trying to take attention away from where it belonged.

He also clearly hadn’t worried about changing for dinner, wearing the same ridiculously tight red duelist costume. The one that showed off every freaking line on his body, from his narrow waist to his long, muscular torso, to... nope, he was sitting down. I was not going to think about his ass as we’d followed him to the suite.

“Yes, it was Aubrey,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your name.”

He leaned forward, grinning, planting his elbow on the table and his chin on his fist. “Kit. But that’s okay. Most people just call me ‘you there’ or ‘boy.’ I’m sure you’ll fit right in.”

The unmitigated gall of this . . . this asshole .

I ought to?—

My breath stuttered, and only when I struggled to draw in another did I realize it was happening again. Like in the car. The shaking. My whole body was shaking, starting from the inside and flowing out into my extremities. I could barely lift my hands, they were flapping around so badly.

That was when the noise started in my head, just like the noise at a movie theater before the movie started, the ad from the sound company, only it didn’t start low and ramp up, it was just suddenly there, and loud, so loud that I couldn’t hear anything else.

The others were talking. They rushed around, Kit leaping up and practically jumping over the table to get to me. Aunt Titania looked panicked, and I could see her mouthing out my name, but all I could hear was that deafening noise .

Everything went black.