"Um, no." I couldn't help but smile at her. "What do you use the money for?"
"Me? I buy books. I would go crazy without them. We don't have TV here, so as you can imagine it gets pretty boring at times. I read every genre, but romance novels are my favorite. I need my daily fix of trashy romance, or I'll die.” She paused as if realizing she had said too much. “Do you like to read?”
“Sure, but I'm mostly into photography. Most of the books I read are to help me be better at it.” I glanced around at the market with a pang, remembering the camera Kaden got me. I sighed and said, "I wish I had my camera now so I could take photos of this town. I bet I would get some really interesting shots in the half-light."
Larkin perked up. "I'd love to see some of your photos from Earth. Do you have any with you?"
"No, I didn't exactly get to pack a suitcase before being dragged here against my will."
"Oh, right."
I sighed as we headed toward an area with knitted sweaters and scarves. "So if time stays still here, do you always go to the same day on Earth? Celeste said she could send me back to the moment I left."
"No, we go to the current day on Earth, even though time is frozen here in this realm. It's sort of like looking through a window at the world outside. You can see storms gather and rain begin to fall, and if you go outside you'll get wet, but while inside you're sheltered from it. The same is true here of time. At least that's how it was explained to me. But sometimes, with strong magic and a lot of prayers to Selene, we can perform miracles. Like sending you back to the moment you arrived here."
"It's hard to believe." I gestured around at the different stalls. "All of this."
"I bet. I'm happy to answer all your questions though, so fire away."
I sucked in a breath, trying to figure out what to ask first because my brain was just screaming WTF? over and over. I settled on a pretty basic question. "I don't see many men here. Why is that?"
"Ah, so you've figured out the other reason we need romance novels here," she said with a grin. "We do have some male Moon Witches, but they're rare and usually not as powerful as the women. Many of the men here are simply humans who fell in love with a Moon Witch and decided to come here."
"And no children..." I said slowly, realizing how lonely a life many of these people lived.
"No... We had many people who wanted children and went back to Earth, but they were all killed off. A few of them managed to live long enough to bring their families back here as adults. But it's mostly us single people or couples like Elsa and Kena. They have dozens of cats instead of children, and every time they go to Earth they come back with another one. Since the cats never age, well...let's just say their house does not smell great."
I laughed at her story but felt a pang of sadness too as I began to truly understand how these people lived. They had a great community where everyone cared for each other, that was clear, but they were in hiding too, unable to have children or find partners. They were frozen in time just as much as Larkin was in her child's body. All because of the Sun Witches.
"I've never seen a male Sun Witch either," I said.
"No?" She tilted her head. "That's odd. There used to be many powerful male Sun Witches, since the sun god Helios has a masculine energy. They were even ruled by a High Priest back in the day. I wonder what changed.”
I had no answer to that, but I also couldn't envision Evanora, the High Priestess of the Sun Witches, sharing her power with anyone.
A thin woman with brown curls streaked with white came up to us with a big smile and thrust a purple scarf in my hand. "It's so nice to have you here, Ayla. I'm your mother's third cousin, and I thought you could use this since it does get chilly here. Oh, although you're half wolf aren't you? Maybe you don't get chilly!"
"This is Mariel," Larkin explained.
"Thank you," I said, wrapping the knit scarf around myself. "That's kind of you."
Other women seemed emboldened by Mariel's actions and came up to me too, introducing themselves and handing me gifts. I tried to remember everyone's name but it quickly became overwhelming, and my hands got so full of candles, soaps, and other trinkets that Larkin got me a carrying bag.
"Give her some space, she's only just arrived," a man said with a crisp English accent.
I turned and met the cool gray eyes of a man who was so handsome I stopped breathing for a second. He looked too perfect to be real, his face too smooth, his black hair too shiny, his movements too effortlessly graceful. It was...unnatural. But I couldn't look away.
"I'm Killian," he said, extending his hand. When our fingers touched, his skin was ice cold, and I jerked my hand back. He smiled in response, and I saw…fangs? "A pleasure to meet you. It's been so long since we've welcomed someone new to our town."
I took a step back, while my wolf woke inside me and wanted to bare her canines too. Vampire, she whispered. Must kill.
"Killian is our resident vampire," Larkin explained, while I mentally told my wolf to chill the fuck out. "Don't worry, he's harmless."
"So they say." He gave her an amused smirk that only made him better looking, then turned back to me. "I simply wanted to introduce myself and welcome you to Crescent Cove. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask."
He flashed me a charming smile and then turned away, continuing his stroll down the road until he turned a corner and disappeared. Larkin used the opportunity to drag me away from the crowd, and I followed while carrying the many items the townspeople had kindly gifted me.
"I thought vampires were the enemies," I said to Larkin once we were walking down a quieter street. "But you have one living here?"
"Killian married a Moon Witch decades ago and now is an outcast of his kind. Even though his wife is gone, he decided to stay here with us. He's currently mayor of Crescent Cove, actually. Don't worry, he's a good guy."
I nodded, but unease turned my stomach. Shifters and vampires had never been friends, and I didn't know what to think about seeing one here. My wolf had some kind of instinctual urge to fight him like it recognized his kind as an age-old enemy. I didn't need to add to my troubles by getting into fights here, so I had to keep her in check. I just hoped he didn't feel that same instinctual hostility toward me at the scent of my wolf.
"I'm going to head home," Larkin said, breaking me out of my thoughts. "But I'll see you soon, I hope. I asked Celeste if I can help with your training."
"I'd like that. Thanks."
She hesitated, moving toward me like she was going to hug me, but then reached out and patted my shoulder instead. "It's good you're here. Celeste has missed you so much. We all have. But now you're home."
Home.
As she turned away, I bit back my response—that this would never, could never, be my home. Home was Kaden and the Ophiuchus pack, not this strange place with a night that never ended. I headed back to the beach, away from the village full of well-meaning strangers who somehow only made me feel worse.
I walked for some time along the sand until my legs gave out on me and the weight of my emotions knocked me down. I curled up into a ball as tears streamed down my face, but instead of fighting the pain or pushing it down, I let it wash through me. I allowed myself to cry and feel everything—despair, guilt, anger, resentment, and all the things that didn't have a name but somehow consumed me. I cried until it was hard to breathe, mourning Kaden's death, raging at Celeste, and grieving what might have been. I wanted to scream to the moon that it was too much, to ask Selene why she'd allowed all this to happen to me, but I knew she wouldn't answer.