Over the Moon (Gemini Book 6)

by Hailey Edwards

  This show of skill proved he was more like Theo than he must realize. Perhaps it was the last wall between me and them coming down, the fact I held the knowledge of their true gifts locked in my heart, that made him willing to release the chains that had bound his gifts to mediocrity and allowed this unexpected masterpiece to claim his skin.

  More than shock over his transformation was the awe in grasping that every time he chose to be a wolf, he made a conscious decision to mimic me, adding those red highlights to his coat to mark him as mine.

  “I’d kiss you again, but that would just be weird.” The disconnect between Tibs’s and Isaac’s appearances was the only thing that gave me the courage to step back toward that tree. “Grub, take care of them.”

  “I’ll protect your mate with my life,” he vowed, understanding that I was helpless to place higher value on any life than Isaac’s. “I’ll keep an eye on these two scrappers too.”

  “Be safe, all of you.” My fingers pressed into the wood. “I’ll return with help as soon as I can.”

  I didn’t wait for them to leave. I left first. It was the only way delegation was going to happen as opposed to me locking Isaac in Cord’s office until the worst was over, but our success hinged on his performance, and I had to put my faith in him if I expected to deserve his trust.

  “You are injured,” the tree warbled. “May I be of assistance?”

  I didn’t have a scratch on me minus the crack bisecting my heart. Guess the root of our bond stretched deeper than I had realized. “I’m worried about my mate.”

  The wood around me groaned in thoughtful contemplation. “The best seeds are made from the strongest trees.”

  The urge to laugh struck me, but I couldn’t find the energy to follow through. Fixing a mental picture of Theo in my head, careful to keep in mind the differences between him and Isaac, I asked, “Can you take me to him?”

  A curious static charge of sensation caressed me, lingering on my pocket where the seeds traveled. “Of course.”

  The sand under my boot was my first clue something was wrong. This wasn’t the exact tree I’d entered earlier, but I could see it from this vantage, and this view wasn’t one I had anticipated.

  I stood on a rise that overlooked the lake. Two thick pines framed the royal viewing platform, so close from up here I had no trouble making out the three-dozen feathered fae spiraling downward from the skies before swooping over the water to catch fish. A few more drifted with purpose—sentries, I’d bet. And still more huddled on the shore and stared up at the spectacle unfolding before them.

  Alyona and Tanet each gripped one of Fake Tiberius’s elbows as they hauled him up to face his aunt’s wrath. They flew so close his wings were tucked secure against his back to avoid tangling all three sets together. Behind him, and much lower, the three Stoners dangled from the arms of their escorts.

  Isaac and Theo were twins. Maybe the tree had gotten confused and…

  “Enjoying the view?” a silky voice purred from the darkness to my right. “Pity if someone sounded the alarm and all those lovely wolves got dropped into the lake on accident. From that height—”

  “I’ll well aware,” I cut off the Morrigan. “What do you want?”

  A sultry laugh preceded her. “What makes you think I want anything?”

  A tall woman in her mid-twenties strode forward into a sliver of moonlight that caressed miles of pale, bare skin covered by a confection of inky ribbons that left nothing to the imagination. This was not the child we’d discovered in Faerie, and it wasn’t the teen we’d crossed in Texas. This incarnation of the Morrigan was all sleek curves and seduction, and I wasn’t comfortable with her aiming either in my direction. While I had no problem admiring a beautiful woman, and she was that in the way most fae were the epitome of deadly loveliness, it was the teeth—stained pink from a recent meal—that edged her predatory interest from needs of the flesh to just plain ol’ hunger.

  “You haven’t captured me, killed me or called out for someone else to do your dirty work, so what gives?”

  “I want to make a bargain.” She toyed with the bow that met between her full breasts. “I want freedom to hunt in this realm, and in exchange, I will perform a task of equal value.”

  “A single task,” I murmured. “Is this like the old fairy tales where I ask you to bring me Isaac, and you wait until after Rilla or your darling son slits his throat to bring me his corpse because I didn’t specify that he should be alive and whole?”

  Crimson gleamed in her eyes. “You’ve been learning our ways, little wolf. Impressive.”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere with me.” I plucked at the front of my shirt. “And neither will the seductress routine. I’m mated, which you know.”

  “For now,” she allowed, sounding every bit as smug as the Huntsman. “Circumstances have a way of…changing where Gemini are concerned.”

  “Look, as much as I appreciate the offer, I can’t help you.” I patted the pendant hidden under my shirt. “I’m guessing since your son collared you the same way he did me, that the only way either of us will get rid of our jewelry is by asking him nicely.”

  “What does yours do?” Curiosity had her fingers curling for a touch. “Is it for protection? Is it for control? Is it for…something else altogether?”

  A chill rippled up my spine at the avarice in her eyes. “It’s a tracker.”

  “Interesting.” Her fingers tickled over the chain around her neck. “What if I offered you another trade?”

  This would not end well. “I’m listening.”

  “Word has reached me that my daughter, Branwen, is leading this half-blood rebellion.” A quirk in her lips conveyed how much that concerned her. “I haven’t seen my darling child in ages. Facilitate a meeting between us, and I will owe you a favor.”

  “You booted Branwen out of Faerie when she hooked up with Dónal O’Leary.” I cocked my head to one side to better see around her and check on Isaac. “You don’t strike me as the live and let live type.” I didn’t have to think long to isolate the root of her interest. “You want Branwen as a hostage. She’s the one thing you could use as leverage to get Rook to pop off your collar instead of your head.”

  A soft laugh escaped her. “Heads grow back.”

  “Um, I hate to contradict you—” or draw her attention to my own mortality, “—but that’s not how it works for normal folks.”

  “Normal,” she echoed. “What is normal? None of us here are normal, not by human standards. But that will change soon enough. We will be the new normal, and humans will learn their place is, and always has been, at the bottom of any food chain.”

  “I’m good with the old normal.” A state of being we could never return to now that humans had had their eyes pried wide open. “I’m sure fae overlords are nice and all, but I can’t help you make that dream a reality.”

  “A pity.” A quiver in the air around her ankles rose to shiver up her thighs. “Fair is only fair.” Black feathers sprouted over every inch of exposed flesh until she resembled the Aves. Each breath inflated her until she became the fierce crow Theo had imitated. A disembodied voice poured from her parted beak. “Do remember that I tried to be your friend.”

  “What are you going to do?” I demanded, gaze darting to Isaac and then back to her.

  “Watch and see,” she cackled, hopping to the edge of the bank and then leaping for the sky.

  “Wait.”

  She heard me, of that I had no doubt, but she chose to ignore me.

  I stood there exposed on the bank, staring after her, feeling my heart climb into my throat. I was searching for a weapon, debating a quick trip back to the park to grab a blade or a gun, when a purplish blur slammed into the Morrigan and knocked her careening toward the lake’s placid surface.

  “Bea,” I breathed.

  Where there was a thunderbird there was…

  Lightning raked furrows across the sky, piercing the giant crow like the tines of an electrified
fork. She hit the lake with a gratifying sizzle, and Bea adjusted her course, aiming straight for me.

  Of course the featherbrain would single me out. It’s not like there was a whole army of targets for her to choose from.

  I braced my feet apart, expecting her to slam into me, but she bulleted past with a battle cry. Spinning on the ball of my foot, I followed her trajectory until she landed on Tibs’s outstretched arm. His hair was hacked short and uneven, choppy like someone had done the job with a plastic shaving razor. His clothes were scorched and filthy, but his smile was radiant.

  For a second I wondered if he’d lost his marbles. There was no way he ought to be grinning at me.

  “Hey, Tibs.” I tried for casual, which was laughable considering the circumstances. “I wasn’t sure we’d see you again.” I hesitated. “Are you…okay?”

  Pride swelled his chest. “Leandra and I are mated.”

  Are implied a far more pleasant end than what we’d all assumed. It might also confirm he was delusional. He wouldn’t be the first to break after losing his mate. “That’s wonderful news. Congratulations.”

  “You don’t believe me.” Even his laughter came lighter, freer. “She mated me, Dell. She chose me.”

  Duh. That was hardly breaking news. The pair had fled Faerie to be together. She had risked her life to be with the boy—the man—she loved. “The stone house—”

  “I got her out hours before the attack. She’s somewhere safe.” He ducked his gaze. “I hope you don’t mind having a guest.”

  There was no way he’d busted through the wards and gotten to my pop-up RV. Not that it was safe considering the magical protections were down. That left one place. “You stashed her in my cave.”

  “There were supplies, and it was safe. Isolated. We’ve been there for days.”

  “How is that possible?” I hated to press him in case pressure on the wrong fissure snapped him back to reality. “Did you transplant her from the stone house to the cave?”

  “Bean-tighe don’t often mate young.” He gentled his voice like I was the one in danger of having a psychotic break, which, with my mate confronting Rilla as we spoke, was a distinct possibility. “They’re rarely strong enough to leave their home for the first ninety or so years. After that, they can roam small distances. They mate and move into their partner’s home, or they procreate and return to their respective homes.”

  I’d be the first to admit I hadn’t put much thought into bean-tighe mating rituals, but that…actually made a lot of sense.

  “The reason Leandra survived the transfer from the Torquatus lands to the stone house was her attachment to me. We thought she needed the stone house to cement her ties to this realm and heal, but as our bond grew, so did her strength.”

  Bonds required time to strengthen, which begged the question, “How long have you suspected she could leave the house safely?”

  “I left her with instructions on how to find the cave before we went in search of Branwen.” Chin up, he was pure defiance, begging me to take issue with his decision while leaving me no doubt he would make the same call every time. “I’d scouted the area and determined it was the most viable option for us.”

  “Kid, I don’t care that you used my cave. That’s not the issue.” I raked hands through my tangle of hair. “The issue is not telling us where to find you, not letting us know you’re okay. We thought we’d lost her, lost both of you.”

  Tibs jerked his chin toward the platform. “I can see exactly how concerned you were with my wellbeing.”

  The evidence was damning, but that didn’t stop me from trying to explain. “A couple of Stoners cooked up the bright idea to capture you. They wanted to turn you over to your aunt in exchange for immunity. We caught wind of the scheme and decided to capitalize on their plan.” His lips flattened into a hard line as I kept rolling. “We selected a team of our own to infiltrate the platform. Isaac volunteered to go with them, to wear your aspect, and yes, I signed off on the strategy.”

  “I don’t understand.” A small wrinkle puckered his brow. “Why would you send him instead of…?” A cold light glinted in his eyes when he got it. “You never meant to turn me over to her. You wanted me close so I could take her down.”

  “Tibs, no offense, but that woman is a psycho. I would never return you to her.”

  “She’s my aunt,” he whispered, voice raw. “You thought I would execute her because she came after Leandra.”

  “Yes.” Tibs siding with his murderous relative had never crossed my mind. “I did.”

  Reminding him she had leveled the fortress where the pair had fallen in love or that she had decimated the stone house they had claimed as their own might have won me points, but I wasn’t going to set the kid up for an honor killing when the thirst for vengeance I’d expected to parch his throat had already been quenched by protecting his mate.

  Bea tucked her head under his chin while Tibs knuckled the skin over his heart. “She won’t stop until Leandra is dead, will she?”

  He sounded so young, so uncertain in that moment, I wanted to gather him in my arms and squeeze until the hurt purged from his body, but the truth was sometimes family wounded us most of all. And it wasn’t our fault. That was the hardest lesson to learn.

  It. Wasn’t. Our. Fault.

  “No, kiddo, she won’t.” I sighed. “She’s got tunnel vision. All she sees is you on that throne, and she doesn’t care who it hurts or what it costs to get you there.”

  “Leandra is bound to me,” he said in a quiet voice. “She will die when I do.”

  I rubbed my hands over my face, hating the position this put him in while the wolf was quick to remind me our mate was out there, and he was in far more danger than Leandra at this point. If the bond went both ways, Rilla wouldn’t dare harm Leandra and risk killing her golden ticket, assuming Leandra was smart enough to play that card to save her own neck. That didn’t mean Rilla wouldn’t make the girl’s life miserable to maintain control over her nephew, but at least she would be alive long enough for the quick-thinking prince to rescue his damsel once again.

  Or maybe I was looking at their relationship wrong. After all, her love had saved him.

  “Isaac is wearing your face, and Bea’s stunt only cements the perception that he’s you.” I ought to be thanking him for that since Rilla would have eventually questioned Bea’s absence. This appearance sold Isaac’s performance as the prince. “You can turn and leave if you want, and no one will have to know you were ever here.”

  “Leandra has me but…she needs a home.” His tone softened. “She can’t ignore her nature forever.”

  “Tibs…”

  His wings snapped out at his sides, and Bea took flight. He thrust downward, blasting straight into the sky after her.

  Alone on the overhang, all I could do was watch as the fate of my world was decided.

  Chapter 17

  I didn’t have long to feel sorry for myself before the trees bent in the wake of enormous wings, and a crow four times my size landed six feet to my right, sinking its talons into the dirt to keep from sliding down the embankment into the lake.

  Its black eyes blinked at me. “Are you going to stand there sulking all night, or do you want a lift?”

  “Theo.” I rushed toward him. “How did you know to come?”

  “Please, I know my brother, and I know you.” He chuckled. “All I had to do was ask myself where I’d go if I had a death wish, and here you are.”

  I anchored my fists on my hips. “We have a plan.”

  “Yeah, well, so do I.” He twisted his head until it should have popped off then clacked his beak. “Looks like you’ve already set it in motion. I figured if anyone could light a fire under the prince, it would be you.”

  I rocked back on my heels. “You’re the one who found Tibs?”

  “Did you think I was hiding in a broom closet somewhere while you guys rushed out to save the world?” He swished his tail feathers. “Hell no. You wanted the princ
e, and I got him for you.”

  Affection swelled my chest as I grinned at him. Maybe having a real brother wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  “I guess it doesn’t matter at this point if you give Rilla double vision since Tibs is gunning for her.” Soon she would realize that one of these things was not like the other. Two in fact. One Tibs was a plant, and one Morrigan was a fake. “So what’s the plan?”

  Following someone else’s lead was oddly comforting after making all the hard choices on my own.

  “We get our asses up there and extract Isaac and the others before Rilla realizes she’s been tricked.”

  “Simple but effective. I like it.”

  “Hop on.” He extended one wing to make climbing onto his back easier. “Hold on tight.”

  With that meager warning, he leapt for the water, snapping out his wings at the last minute to capture air currents that lifted us higher and higher. The Stoners and Fake Tiberius stood on the platform, surrounded by their escorts. The real Tibs was nowhere in sight. Bea was also MIA. Rilla’s mouth was moving, but Rook wasn’t listening. He was staring right at us. The Morrigan was nowhere in sight, but the man would recognize his own mother.

  “Here goes nothing,” Theo murmured as he banked hard left and lit on the dais with a series of tiny hops that covered his inexperience with tight landings.

  The meeting ground to a halt as all heads swung toward us.

  “Mother,” Rook greeted Theo with an amused grin. “I see you brought us a straggler.”

  “I found her watching from the trees,” Theo agreed in a voice pitched to match the last version of the Morrigan we had encountered. “I thought she might provide leverage with the alphas.”

  “Dell,” Rook crooned. “Such a pleasure to see you again.”

  “Wish I could say the same.” I didn’t even have to fake the edge of meanness in my tone.

  “We’re winning this war,” Rilla snapped. “We don’t need leverage.”