Moon's Flower (Kingdom, #6)

The air quivered and then suddenly it was like a giant had clasped onto Calanthe’s side, holding her fast and she screamed as the pressure increased.

Jericho’s eyes grew wide. “Calanthe,” he cried, trying to grab her back to him, but his hand could not faze through the bands, he could not rip her away from the collective power of the council.

Turning her eyes to him, tears streaming from her eyes, she poured all the love in her heart into them, hoping he understood, that he could see it.

He nodded. “I love you, Calanthe. I love you too.”

Her spine snapped in half and she was flung to the ground. The bones inside her body shifted and reformed, the skin melted off, and her brain screamed as the fire consumed.

And then the world shrunk and her soul was condensing, spiraling, and gathering into a tight ball and just when she thought she would die from the pain… it was over.

And the impossible horror of her situation finally dawned on her. Jericho fell to his knees, his beautiful mouth frowning and his eyes disbelieving as he traced the soft curves of her petals.

“My beautiful, Calanthe, what have they done to you?”

And he stayed with her all through the night, even after the others had left. And they both knew it was over. After tonight Jericho would never again be able to visit her, come to her, because he’d been banished to his castle for the next three hundred years, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because Calanthe had turned into the flower she’d fallen in love with all those moons ago.

She was the moon’s flower in truth now and if petals could cry, the land would be soaked with her tears…





Chapter 8


“Now off to bed.”

“Ahhh, Dani, surely there’s more,” the little tiger lily wheedled. “It cannot just end that way. The lover’s separated forever, Siria getting to keep Jericho, and Calanthe broken hearted and transformed. That cannot be all.”

Her face was so earnest and pleading, and it broke Danika’s heart, because as much as she wished it wasn’t so. Sometimes real life didn’t come with the happily ever after of their stories.

Mouth tipping just slightly, she spread her arms. “Come give me a hug, little one.”

The child moved into her arms. Her words were muffled as she spoke against Danika’s chest. “That story was awful.”

Most of the fairy children had flown back to the glen by the time the two separated, but a few remained behind, eyes mournful and tearing, staring up at the moon with a whole new appreciation.

“But underneath it all,” Danika rubbed her hair, “remember that it was a story of love. I know Calanthe could never regret her time spent with her love, and Jericho, I am sure, did not.”

“How can you know that?” The tiger lily pulled away, her amber eyes pleading for Danika to make this right.

“Because, child, true love is rare and once felt, it marks your soul forever.” She tapped her heart. “Though apart, the two love each other madly, even to this day. Now…” she clapped her hands and cleared her throat. “It really is time for bed. I’ve kept you all up much too late.”

“Genevieve,” she glanced at the sprite who was still mopping up tears from the corners of her eyes.

“What?” Her lips tugged downwards.

“Please take the child home. You two can hug it out for all I care. But truly.” She handed the girl off to the sprite and frowned, never expecting that the others would take it quite so much to heart. None of them had even wanted to hear the story of Calanthe and her Romeo in the beginning.

But now little feet were slow to get up and fly off. As if they hated the thought of leaving the lovers to the fate they’d shared three hundred years ago.

In moments the woods were finally cleared and she heaved a weary sigh. Perhaps storytelling was not her forte after all.

“My word, what a dreadfully sad story, Danika.”

Danika whirled at the sound of the melodious voice drifting from on high. Heart thumping wildly in her chest, she beamed at Esmerelda. The Green was smiling down at her with a cat-ate-the-canary grin.

“Too bad it was so full of half-truths.”

She laughed. “Esmerelda. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Danika held out her hands as she waited for the new Green to drift down from the tree limb. Her bright green eyes gleamed like beacons in the night. “You never were really good at telling the whole truth, were you, dear?”

She shrugged and stared at her clipped nails. “I do not know what you mean.”

Giant butterfly wings flapped behind The Green’s ivy cloaked body. Glints of moonlight stole across her pale form, making her almost appear to shimmer as she moved.

Knowing eyes glinted with the knowledge that Danika had kept hidden from the children. Knowledge that made her squirm from foot to foot.

“Though I do believe the tiger lily finally figured out Calanthe was really you.”