CHAPTER 40: WHITNEY HOUSTON - I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU

"No, I haven’t lost my mind!" she stood, defiant despite the tears already forming in her eyes. "You have no idea what I had to deal with, Magnus! You don’t know how it feels when every whisper feels like a dagger in your womb! When people look at you like a failed queen. They blamed me...me!...For not being able to give you an heir. I was drowning in shame. I did what I had to do. And yes, damn it, I’d do it again."

Magnus rubbed his hands down his face like he was trying to erase the moment. "Morvarkar... of all creatures in the realm, that was your solution? Not prayer?"

Ravena stepped forward. "It worked, didn’t it? I got pregnant. We had Luna. And everything was fine until now. Now our daughter is mated to a vampire!"

Magnus’s pacing faltered.

She pressed on, "And..." She hesitated, like the next words had thorns. "And... Alpha Kyllian."

Magnus stopped cold. "Two mates," he whispered. "She... she cannot survive that. Her soul will be torn apart."

"Yeah," Ravena whispered, the truth like acid on her tongue.

He finally turned to her, eyes wide with dawning realization. "And I’m guessing... Kyllian’s bond is the recessive one, isn’t it? It’s weaker."

Ravena nodded, her shoulders falling as though her spine could no longer bear the weight of secrets.

Magnus ran a hand through his hair and collapsed into a nearby armchair, suddenly looking ten years older. "How... how do you know this?"

"Kyllian and Damien have been trying to figure it out," Ravena said quietly, her voice tight with the weight of too many years of silence. "Kyllian came to me today. He thought I had an affair. He thought Luna... isn’t yours."

Magnus’ eyebrows rose so far up his forehead that for a moment he looked like a very handsome, very confused owl. "Kyllian and Damien are working together?" he asked.

Ravena nodded, lips pursed. "Of course. When it comes to a mate, everything else takes a back seat. Their rivalry, their jealousy."

Magnus made a strange, wheezy sound. "So... two alpha mates are working together in the name of love. Great. Fantastic. Love really is the world’s most terrifying weapon." He stood and started pacing like a man trying to outrun a migraine.

A part of him, perhaps the part that still remembered holding Luna as a newborn, the moment her little hand curled around his pinky, felt oddly comforted. His daughter had two powerful beings watching over her. But another part of him, worried deeply. If the boys did find a solution... would it only make things harder for her?

"She’s going to be torn," he muttered. "Two mates. Two entirely different lives. If there’s a way to fix the bond imbalance, what then? She chooses one? And what happens to the other? Heartbreak?"

"I know," Ravena said softly, sitting back on the bed and wringing her fingers like she was trying to squeeze out the guilt. "I have been thinking about that too."

Magnus turned to face her again. "But how could you, Ravena? You went to Morvarkar. You had to know there’d be a price."

"I did," she shot back, standing now, anger flickering under her grief. "But all he wanted was money. Just money. I gave him everything he asked for."

"Did it never occur to you that if all Morvarkar wanted was money, it probably wasn’t all he took?"

"I... I honestly thought... I thought I got away with it. I was so desperate. And when I got pregnant, I thanked the Moon Goddess and moved on."

Magnus inhaled deeply, dragging his hands down his face. "You don’t just move on from Morvarkar."

They both fell silent.

Ravena whispered, "Do you think he... did something to Luna? Made her this way?"

Magnus sat heavily on the edge of the bed. "I don’t know. But if he tampered with her, we might need more than just Kyllian and Damien to fix this."

"Maybe we should just go see Morvarkar again," Ravena said tentatively.

Magnus looked at her like she’d grown horns. "That’s your solution? Just drop by the House of Eternal Nightmares? Want me to bring cookies too?"

"Magnus..."

Magnus picked up the shirt he had just removed and yanked it back over his head with violent frustration. His fingers fumbled for a moment like the shirt was his sworn enemy.

"Where... where are you going?" Ravena asked, startled.

"Out," Magnus snapped. Just one word, sharp and clipped, spat like it burned his tongue.

He didn’t look back. The door slammed a little too loudly behind him as he exited, leaving Ravena staring at it like it had just punched her.

*****

Damien’s eyes raked over Luna’s body as if he was seeing her for the first time. She wore a fitted dress that stopped just above the knee, paired with ankle boots that made her legs look like temptation. Her curls were pulled back in a lazy twist, and her makeup was minimal, just enough to highlight her eyes.

"Luna, we’re just going to the Royal Empire," Damien said, his tone part turned-on. "I’m going to work..."

"Is it too much?" she asked, genuinely unsure. "I didn’t really pack anything ’work-suitable.’"

"It’s not too much," Damien admitted. "It’s just... distracting."

Luna smirked, tilting her head playfully. "Pervert."

"Guilty," he said without an ounce of shame. He offered her his hand with a flourish. "Shall we?"

The small smile she gave him could’ve melted a thousand hearts. She took his hand, letting him help her into the sleek black car with tinted windows.

A few minutes later, they pulled up to the imposing gates of the Royal Empire headquarters. The building was a blend of gothic architecture and modern glasswork.

Damien’s assistant, a perfectly composed vampire named Selene with the posture of a ballerina approached immediately.

"Your father sends his regrets, my lord," she said. "He will not be in today. You, however, have quite the full schedule."