Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

Del and Ainsley watched Nyall’s golden wolf disappear into the forest.

“I am so sorry, Ainsley.” Del held Ainsley who clung on to her.

Burnished golden eyes denied her guilt. Her pale freckled hands fluttered. We did not know.

Nodding Del, looked in the direction Nyall had disappeared. Her soul felt like it was tearing apart, like the afternoon she held Luca in her arms when he died. He blamed her for Moire’s death. He rejected her because she failed to understand the visions she was given. She wiped her tears and stood, sliding her bruised body up the wall. “Come on, Ainsley. There is no point in staying.”

You’re bleeding. We should stay, he’ll come back. I know he loves you.

Del turned her arm to look at the place where Nyall’s claws had pierced them. She wished he had pierced her heart instead. Tears leaked down her cheeks. “No, Ains. Nyall is meant to find a shewolf who can be his new queen. I’m just an oracle.” She swallowed her pride and pain, silently accepting that she wasn’t meant to have a mate anymore, she had never felt potential with anyone except Luca and Nyall. Inside she sat quietly as Ainsley wrapped her arms, dressing her injuries. Del’s face had swollen but nothing could be done to hide it. Together, they packed up Mamó’s tools and books. Ainsley looked around the house one last time before locking the door and putting the key on the hook under the porch so Nyall could get in and get his pack, and the note she left. Looking at the half-moon, Ainsley said a silent prayer that Nyall would come back.

As they made the long drive toward Montreal territory, Ainsley noticed how many times Del wiped her eyes. When they drove past a book shop having a sale and Del didn’t stop, Ainsley knew Nyall had broken Delilah’s heart. Leon was waiting for them. As Delilah slept, Ainsley told him what had happened in swirling letters. He was shaking when she showed him a drawing of Luca holding Moire’s hand with Delilah walking away in the distance.

“So, she will always be alone? Even when she goes to the Fields?” Leon sounded horrified.

Ainsley nodded.

“Oh Goddess, why would Luca agree? He loved Delilah more than his own life.”

Ainsley wrote, Because she asked him too. She didn’t want Moire to be alone, and she didn’t want Luca to be alone if the Sunwolf kills Del and consumes her soul.

Leon shook his head, then he asked, “What happened to Del’s cheek?”

Ainsley blinked at Leon then wrote, Nyall overreacted when we learned what killed Moire.

“You figured it out?” Leon gasped. The healers of the temples had struggled with the mystery for years before her death.

Changing the subject, Ainsley scribbled, Too late to change anything. But now we need to eat and go. Do you have any frozen custard?

Leon laughed, “It’s breakfast time, mom petit renard (my little fox).”

But Ainsley was already digging in his refrigerator’s freezer drawer, she pointed at the ingredients of a frozen custard carton, tapping Milk, Cream, and Eggs with a grin.

Leon chuckled again, “I wish you could have met Luca; you and he would have been meilleurs amis (best friends).”

Ainsley nodded, but she did not tell Leon she had met Luca many times across the Tides.

Petitioners’ Coordinator Louis Dolbeau was looking for Delilah because the Alphas of Des Rues were here to see the Delphi to negotiate a treaty. Louis arranged the meeting under a false petition. The Alphas were waiting for him to call them to come to the island and he wanted to have Delilah alone. They were here to discuss a truce between the temples and the royals until the problem of the apostates was solved. He heard a laugh and turned down a blind hall with a meditation area overlooking the lake as the sun set over the edge of the crater. Rounding the corner, he saw Del talking to Ketsu, she was shaking her head then she put a cigarette in her mouth.

He pressed his back against the wall unseen, eavesdropping on the false Delphi that he realized was Essie. Del had traveled from the temple without telling him and wondered if Essie really went with the Wemyss wolves or had lingered behind to switch with Del.

“So, they arrived at Leon’s without Nyall?” Essie asked.

“Leon said Ainsley wrote that he was quite upset to learn she and the Delphi had visions that apiece of the arrow that wounded the Queen-to-be was still in her body.” Ketsu was saying. “Kaiyou worries that Nyall will reject Delilah and use his boon to find another true mate, leaving her forever alone after she gave up Luca for Moire.”

Louis’s gut twisted at the thought of Nyall MacGeal getting a chance to be with Delilah before him. He knew he could not compete with the Protector Servant. Nyall and Delilah had become close after she had taken his sister-by-mating as her personal acolyte.

“Leon drove them to the Gate, they arrived earlier this afternoon,” Ketsu revealed, “But there was no sign that Nyall followed.”

Suddenly desperate, Louis felt he needed to get to the Moon’s Gate before Nyall returned. He went quickly to his room and packed an overnight bag then went to the Ferry and rode across to where he was to meet the Des Rues Alphas.

Louis greeted them with a lie, “I am so sorry, Alpha Des Rues. The Delphi was called to the Moon’s Gate suddenly and flew out this morning, I apologize that I wasn’t able to contact you before now.”

“But she was seen just a while ago,” Charlemagne responded. “She…”

“That was her twin,” Louis interrupted, “She is standing in for the true Delphi. If you would like, I will go with you to the Moon’s Gate and make the introduction.”

Helios looked at his father and brother, they spoke through their family link for only a moment before he spoke, “Petitioner Coordinator Louis, please take my father and brother to meet the Delphi. We came with a contingent of warriors because of our worry that the temple was soon to be attacked after your call. I will give you my seat and stay her to wait for more warriors to help defend this temple.”

Louis brightened, “The Delphi saw the same thing, she worried it was coming after the eclipse.”

Alpha Charles tucked his chin, folding his arms as if contemplating. “We must protect the real Delphi. Helios, do what you must to secure this temple and the Delphi’s sister. Come, Charlemagne, we will take Coordinator Dolbeau to the other temple and offer our aid to the Delphi.”

“Should we call Montreal?” Louis worried.

“No. The Montreal Alpha would stop us before we got there, and since the Temples have their own warriors, they won’t send extra. Let us do this, Louis. We need to prove to the Delphi we are not her enemy,” Charlemagne insisted.

The Alphas of Des Rues took him to their private jet, they would be in Canada in six hours, then they would have to drive for several hours to the temple.

The next evening…

Dressed in her gown and cloak, Delilah walked through the empty halls of the Moon’s Gate Temple. Only a dozen wolves remained on the island. Two young wolves traveled through the cold of late January to ask for a boon.

“Delphi, this is Kameron and Kandice Burnson.” Kaiyou introduced them.

She smiled at them, “I am the Delphi, do you seek a boon?”

“Yes, Delphi. Our parents disappeared and our alpha gave us permission to come and ask for a vision to find them.” The young male wolf named Kameron sounded sad.

His sister Kandice nodded, “Please, Delphi, you’re our last hope.”

“Do you have any idea what happened to them?” Delilah asked.

“No, they just disappeared one day.” Kameron revealed, holding out a picture.

Delilah’s brow furrowed as she nodded, “I will ask the Moon. Please enjoy the hospitality of our guest rooms.”

“Delphi, where is everyone?” the young shewolf asked. “I thought hundreds lived at the temples.”

Delilah laughed, “Not usually, and definitely not in the winner.” She turned, “Kaiyou, please take our guests to a room.” She watched him lead them away. Going up to her scrying room, Del filled her obsidian bowl and put a drop of oil in it. The candle flickered as Del settled herself. She could feel the pull of the Tides, but they seemed turbulent. She focused on seeking the parents of the two young wolves in the guest rooms. She was barely on the Tides a few moments when Lanea appeared out of the shadow.

“Delilah! What are you doing? You must flee. The burning ones are there, they are coming.” Lanea looked panicked.

“There’s no one at the temple except for my acolytes, a dozen warriors, and a pair of young wolves seeking their parents,” Del declared in surprise.

Lanea held out her hand, shadows swirled and turned into a family of four, the two smaller wolves caught fire. A larger burning wolf walked around the two older wolves who collapsed and disintegrated. “Those two young wolves turned their parents over to the Sunwolf. You have to go back, Del… Del, why are you fading?”

Creeping yellow smoke swirled around Delilah, she looked up at Lanea. “It’s witchcraft. Lanea, tell Larson to get Ainsley away. I told him where to go. Lanea… Lanea.”

Jerked back into her body, she writhed as her wolf retreated. She lay on the floor convulsing and knocked her bowl over. Panting, she pushed herself up to her feet and staggered to the door, clinging to the frame for support. Louis was just turning the corner, but she didn’t look at him as she stared at the smirking Alpha Charles of Des Rues standing just behind him. Her eyes looked back to her petitioner coordinator in horror.

“Louis, what have you done?”

Two days later, Nyall returned to the farmhouse at sunset. A storm was coming in by morning. The key was hanging under the porch. Everything had been cleaned and boarded up. On the table where he had once eaten meals with Moire, and last time with Del, there was a note in Ainsley’s curly script.

Nyall,

I am very mad at you, big brother. Very, very mad!

You had no right to yell at Del or wound her or hit her.

She loves you. She tried very hard to save Moire.

If you are going to blame her, then blame me too because I drew it.

The Goddess kept trying to tell us and we didn’t understand,

none of us. Not Del, nor Essie, nor Mamó, nor I. We are sorry.

Del senses a storm coming, something bad on the horizon.

We left to go back to Moon’s Gate. Come or don’t, but know this,

YOU belong to the Moon and if you do not choose to be her champion,

HE will become a consuming fire and destroy all.

This will happen and war will come...

Keep your promise. Do your duty!

Ainsley”

On the second sheet was a drawing that terrified him. The picture was horrifyingly detailed, almost like a drawing from a photograph. A mountain built out of the skulls and bones of thousands of dead wolves. A golden-haired king wrapped in a burning wolf-skin cloak striped in blood. On one side a monstrous wolf that looked like it was made of lava burned. On the floor by the king’s feet, a reclining pregnant female, Essie, in an oracle’s gown, wearing a strange layered necklace of flames. Her eyes had been blinded white, mouth open and gums dripping blood, in her cupped hands she held her teeth and tongue. She was surrounded by and birthing deranged-looking miniature flaming wolves. Opposite the throne, a flat stone altar. Delilah lay there in her wolf, her left shoulder with the Moon’s Mark faced the sky. Chest torn open, she was dead, as was a golden juvenile pup next to her. He stared at the pup, it had to be his. Their hearts burning in a flat dish. A stream of blood flowed from her wounds to the base of the altar then down the steps and away. It horrified him to see her so brutally slain, his heart actually hurt. Even more terrifying was that the altar was the one of his nightmares, the ones where he mated with her and then tore out her heart himself.

Nyall rushed upstairs to find his extra travel bag packed and waiting on his bed. He could smell Ainsley. He shoved the note and the drawing in it. He was going to Moon’s Gate, to try to make things right with Ainsley, with Delilah, with the Moon. He regretted the two days he spent waring with his wolf. His wolf wanted to return to Del immediately, it already considered her his mate but Nyall’s skin side wanted to hold on to his anguish. It was something he had become used to feeling. He could not let Ainsley’s vision happen, he would not let them both be murdered while Essie was enslaved and tortured.

He locked the door behind him and clipped his pack on. If he went as his wolf, he could just catch the bus to the mainland then rent a car. It was a twenty-hour drive by car to the ring lake of the Moon’s Gate and another six by boat. By tomorrow, he would be on his knees begging Del’s forgiveness for his outburst and asking her to be his mate.