Cursed of moon

“Why, so he can reject me again?” I grabbed my purse off the table by the door. “His wolf thinks his mate is dead. You know what it’s like for male werewolves once their mate dies. They never love again.”

“But you’re still alive!”

“Try telling his wolf that.”

Her brow furrowed, sympathy clouding her expression. “Why would he stop by to see you last night, and then again this morning, if he didn’t care about you at least a little bit?”

My lip quivered, but I pulled it into my mouth and bit hard, using the pain to distract me so tears wouldn’t form in my eyes. “Didn’t you say that he had all of my bags with him this morning?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Then I think it’s pretty obvious why he came. He wanted to return my stuff.”

Tessa gave a single nod, sadness still evident on her features.

I sighed. “Let’s go. It’s go

She linked arms with me, and I leaned on her. Leaned on her so hard. Because for the first time in my life, I wasn’t the strong one. I was splintering apart inside, my i

She locked the door to our apartment behind us and pocketed her key. I whispered the spell to activate our new ward. True to his promise, Azad—Prisha’s father—had cast iron wards around our apartment’s entire perimeter while I’d been in Ontario.

In my purse, my cell phone buzzed, and I pulled it out to see a text from Prisha.

I’m swinging by as soon as you finish at the SF today. Just let me know when you’re done. I’m there.

My lip trembled again as I replied with a heart emoji. It was the only response I could muster as my soul tore a little bit more. Prisha knew how fragile I felt at the moment. The concern in her eyes, as she and Tessa had hovered around me last night when I’d learned that Kaillen had stopped by, had nearly undone me. I may no longer have a mate, but I had the most fiercely loyal friends and family that a girl could ever hope for, and I loved them so much it hurt.

The ward around our apartment settled into place, and we set out. Halfway down the stairs, Tessa’s phone buzzed. She pulled it out and frowned. “Archie just got in touch.”

My feet made loud stomps on each stair. Without my wolf, I was no longer a silent predator. A deep ache filled me again. My wolf was gone—dead—and I missed her so fucking much.

I shook my head as I tried to snap myself out of my grief. “Who’s Archie?”

“He’s the SF member from my safe house who was going to search in the libraries for me, remember?” She opened his text and began reading it, then stopped, a gasp escaping her. “Tala!”

She grabbed my arm and stopped me halfway down the last flight of stairs. “Read this.” She shoved her phone into my hand.

My brow furrowed as I read Archie’s text.

I have findings to report. I found a spellbook in the libraries that speaks of an ancient spell that can create glowing tattoos on a recipient that allows their magic to be siphoned.

And I also found two documents in the libraries about the Bone Eaters. They weren’t easy to find. I had to enlist the help of a gargoyle scholar, but apparently there are a few ancient documents that speak of a group called by that Bone Eaters name. They’re supposedly from a lost realm, an ancient civilization that once roamed earth yet heralded from a different universe, like the fae realm does. But several thousand years ago that realm was lost and their kind disappeared along with the terrible magic they commanded. Nobody has seen or heard of them since.

I stilled, then read it again. Different universe. Terrible magic. Disappeared.

An uneasy feeling skittered through me, and my heart began to pound.

With a trembling hand, I gave Tessa’s phone back to her. “Come on. We need to go. We’ll think about that later.” I resumed my walk down the stairs but tripped and had to grab the railing to stop myself from falling. But despite holding onto the railing, it felt as though I was plummeting down, down, down.

What the hell do those findings mean?

Once outside, Tessa pulled up her rideshare app. Everything inside me felt numb until we pulled up to the SF’s office.

Shelley showed us to the conference room that we’d spent the past couple days in meeting with Commander Klebus and other SF officials.

Commander Klebus stood when we walked in, her expression haggard. Even though vamps didn’t need sleep, I could tell this investigation was begi

“How are you doing today?” she asked, her tone surprisingly gentle.

I managed a brittle smile. “Just super. You?”

She sighed. “Probably the same as you.”

I gave a short laugh, and she did the same. Yep. This sucked all around for everybody.

We settled onto our chairs and spent the rest of the day going over everything, piece by piece again. They also wanted to conduct more tests on my otherworldly powers as they tried to grasp what exactly it was and where it originated. Throughout it all, I kept thinking about that text from Archie. Different universe. Terrible magic. Disappeared. When I finally told Klebus about it, she cocked her head, looking as perplexed as me but stated she would look into it.

It was only near the end of the day, when I was so tired I felt as though I could fall asleep standing up, that they finally dismissed me.

“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Commander Klebus said as she walked me to the door.

“How much longer will she need to do this?” Tessa asked as she linked arms with me.

“Only another day or two. If we can’t make any headway on answering our questions about that portal, we’ll try a different route that doesn’t involve your sister.”

In other words, they’d begin investing more time in Jakub’s warehouse, even though nobody wanted to go near the actual portal. I didn’t know exactly what the SF was doing with it, but I knew that it was guarded twenty-four seven by a dozen SF members. If anything came through it, they would know.

Tessa and I walked down the hall, almost reaching the front, when a familiar figure stepped out of a room.

“Tala, how are you?” Carlos gave me a small smile, then reached for my hand.

His fingers enclosed around mine, his werewolf’s nature to touch and show affection so apparent that my throat tightened. My ex-boyfriend had shown no hesitation in touching me even though I’d changed, yet Kaillen . . .

I managed to smile, and then squeezed his hand in return.

“Another long day?” he said quietly.

“Very.”

He squeezed my hand again. “Can I do anything for you?”

I quickly shook my head. I still hadn’t had that conversation with him. The one in which I firmly told him that we didn’t have a future together. Quite frankly, even the thought of expending any kind of energy in something that emotional made me want to curl up into a ball and sleep forever, but I knew sooner or later I’d have to. Just not today.

“No, I’m okay. Thanks though.” I squeezed his hand again, then let go.

As Tessa led me toward the front, I felt Carlos’s gaze on me linger.

In the entryway, Shelley bid us goodnight before we stepped out the door to wait for our ride. I pulled my phone out to let Prish know I’d be home soon, just as a blazing yellow portal swirled in front of me.

I dropped my phone, the sound of it clattering to the ground filling the air around us.

Kaillen stepped out of the portal, his hair tousled, three days’ worth of beard coating his cheeks. I quickly stepped to the side and awkwardly picked up my phone. I kept my attention on the ground, though, so I wouldn’t have to see him enter the SF office to meet with Klebus or whoever he was here for.

But he didn’t move. His feet stayed planted to the spot as his portal disappeared behind him. “Tala?”

The sound of his deep voice made tears prick my eyes, so I blinked rapidly.

He stepped closer, the energy off him soaring when I continued to gaze at my feet.

“Tala,” he said more gruffly. “Please look at me.”

Tessa mumbled something about forgetting her purse inside, even though her purse was hanging from her shoulder, before she disappeared back through the front door, leaving me alone on the sidewalk with the hunter.

“Tala,” he growled, the sound pained.

I finally did as he asked, raising my eyes to his.

His breath sucked in when our gazes locked. I could only imagine the plethora of exploding stars and power shining from my irises.

But this was who I was now, perhaps had always been. I couldn’t hide it or stop it.

To his credit, he didn’t look away. He held eye contact, not backing down.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he finally said. His jaw locked, his expression impossible to read.

I scoffed softly. “I think it’s actually the other way around.”

He tore a hand through his hair, his chest rising in unsteady breaths. “I know. I’m sorry about how I was initially. It’s been a weird few days.”

“No shit.” Bitterness crept into my tone.

Pain flitted across his expression. “My wolf thinks his mate died.”

“As I’m aware.”

“It’s been affecting me.”

Pain needled my heart. “As I’m also aware.”

He took a step closer, then reached forward until his fingers touched mine.

My breath stopped.

“I . . . don’t know how to act, with a wolf howling forlornly nonstop in me, but I—” His throat bobbed. “I know that I don’t want this. I don’t want to never see you again.”

It felt as though my throat were closing in, but I managed to swallow and reply hoarsely, “But your wolf doesn’t want me anymore. You can’t fight that.”

A low growl rumbled in his chest. “No, he doesn’t not want you. He’s simply very confused. He still recognizes your scent, but he also knows the wolf inside you died. He’s—” He took a deep breath. “He’s pretty fucked up right now, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want you, even if he’s confused.”

My heart stopped. “What?”

“I said that I still want you.”

Surely, I’d heard him wrong. Grief was obviously making me hallucinate. “But male wolves don’t ever want another when their mate dies—”

“Fuck all of that.” He lifted his hand to cup my cheek, his eyes blazing crimson. “I meant it when I said that you intrigued me from the begi