Page 73 of Simon

My mouth gaped. “Are there more?”

The woman shook her head, but I guessed there was another by the way her lips tilted at the edge of her mouth.

“What is the other?” My eyes widened.

“Curious you are, and I will tell you for your sake of your curiosity and respect for nature, but you are never to go there. It is wild and untamed; dark magic runs rampant, and if that comes here…” She pressed her lips together in a thin line. “It would destroy all the realms.”

I nodded enthusiastically. I wanted to know all the things.

“When you enter Bergarian, it is instructed you to stay on the path from Earth to Bergarian. You are not to fall off that path, otherwise you would be lost in a sea of darkness. Beyond that darkness is a realm called The Moving Province.”

My eyes widened, and I clutched my skirt. I wished I had my notebook.

The woman hummed and leaned back on a rock. “And that is all I can say about that.”

With that great new information to write later, I let out an enormous sigh. What she said made sense about magic. What made even more sense was the Earth had magic as well. Except I, and so many others, were too blind to see it and take it in for what it was.

“What about the gods?” I added. “What of them?”

The woman smirked and nudged me. “That is a bit strange, isn’t it?” She tapped her finger on her nose. “The same gods that are in the Earth Realm are here, too. Do you think there is a connection?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re mocking me.”

“Am I just?” She fiddled with the guard on her arm. “I just told you there was an Underworld and a Celestial Kingdom, and you believed me so easily, yet you still ask about the gods? You aren’t that dense.”

My shoulders slumped. Did I already believe it?

“And the bond? The Moon Goddess, soulmates, are they real?”

The woman shrugged her shoulders, and the tiny lights that were once a butterfly turned into a crescent moon. “I don’t know, are they?”

Rustling from the bushes gave me pause, and I jerked my head to see Simon breathing heavily. “Lucy, I’ve hunted for you! Why did you not answer my voice?” His body was full of sweat, dirt, and grime. I stood up, away from the woman, and walked toward Simon.

“I’m sorry, I got distracted, but here, let me introduce you to—” I turned, and when I looked back, the woman was no longer there.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Simon

Lucyturnedandthrewher hands up in the air. “She was right here, I swear it! There was a woman; she had horns and a bow with some arrows on her back!” My mate grunted and stomped her foot. “I’m not crazy!”

She certainly well looked crazy.

I stepped forward and put my hand on her shoulder while her back was turned. She jumped and placed her hand over her heart when she faced me. “I swear there was—”

I kissed her, my furred upper lip tingling with the smoothness of her skin. “I believe you. I never said I didn’t.” Of course, there would be something—someone there. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a goddess. I’ve heard the orcs being visited by the Moon Goddess before.

As our bodies pressed together, a wave of relaxation washed over her, causing her muscles to loosen. Her weight eased against mine, her body molding perfectly into the contours of my own. I let my fingertips glide along the smooth expanse of her sides, relishing in her warm, bare skin.

I made the best clothing.

I gripped the back of her head and tugged Lucy by her hair. “What did she say?” I whispered into her lips.

If it was a goddess or a witch, I needed to know if they were helpful in my endeavor to take this female and make her mine.

Lucy licked her lips, tasting me upon them. “That I have always been around magic, even on Earth. Bumblebees… bumblebees are pixies! They aren’t just some unresolved scientific phenomenon.” She let out a manic laugh. “It’s everywhere. It’s this place, it’s even you.”

I did not know what she spoke of, about these bumblebees. All I knew was that she believed in the things she could not explain.

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