Chapter 439: Chapter 439

Chapter 439

Xander We moved through the human town, all of us tense and alert, but nobody there gave us any trouble.

The port town attracted a lot of tourists, so even a small pack of supernaturals didn’t seem out of place. None of us even turned a head as we stopped in a cafe to pick up some breakfast.

“I’m ready to eat the table. Isn’t there some kind of magic Stella can cast to stop us from being hungry?” I growled under my breath to Lanie as she and I waited to pick up our order.

“She could feed us, but it would only be an illusion. Better to wait for real food, love.”

Lanie laughed, but her voice sounded a little strained. Her eyes kept finding our daughter, who was waiting to the side with her other fathers. I could see the worry etching lines in Lanie’s face, and I wanted to ask her what she and Stella had talked about earlier. It would have to wait until we were alone.

The server showed up with our paper bags of food. Stella stepped up and mimed swiping a credit card through the machine at the cash register. Even though I’d seen her doing amazing things, I was still not sure this was going to work…until it did.

“Wow,” the server said, blinking. Her grin spread across her entire face. “Thanks for the tip.”

We bustled out of there with our food, all of us eagerly tearing open the foil around our breakfast burritos and gobbling while we walked toward the docks where we’d board the yacht.

“Human towns smell…different,” Stella said, wrinkling her nose. She’d only nibbled at her burrito.

I scented the air, letting my wolf rise a bit. “I smell grease and breakfast meat. And coffee. And yeah. Humans. The smell kind of stale, like they could use a good, hard, run. How are we doing on time?”

“We’ll be there on time,” she said, barely pausing even though her vision went that weird cloudy gray that looked like it should make it hard for her to see where she was going.

I took the last bite of my burrito and crumpled the foil to toss into a nearby garbage can. I could see the water ahead of us.

Stella handed me her burrito. “I don’t want this. Will you eat it?”

“You need to eat something,” I scolded her, but didn’t push it. I took the burrito and bit into it.

Ahead of us, Lanie walked between Zane and Mason. Stella had assured us the human town offered us no dangers, but we weren’t taking any chances. We wanted to get through here as fast as we could without attracting attention.

“Anything from the High Council?” I kept my voice pitched low.

Stella nodded. “They figured out the tunnel block was an illusion. They’ve taken some time to mount their forces. They’re calling in everyone who wasn’t with them already. It will take them some time to catch up to us.”

“But they will,” I said.

“We’ll be at Fallen Crest with time to prepare for them. But, Daddy…we will have to fight.”

“I know that, sweetheart.” I finished the last of the burrito and tossed the garbage in another nearby can. We’d reached the edge of town. The sidewalk led beyond the row of shops and restaurants toward the docks.

She looked at me. “There will be so many of them.”

Leaving Lanie, Zane, and Mason to keep walking ahead of us, I stopped and tugged Stella’s sleeve to make her pause. “Are you seeing something bad? Something you should tell us?”

She hesitated. “There are so many branches, Daddy. And we don’t win at the end of every one of them. I’m doing my best to keep us on the paths that lead to our victory, but…everything we do could change the future. I mean, everything and anything.”

I wasn’t really sure I understood what that meant. I didn’t have visions. I’d never been touched by the Moon Goddess in that way. For me, reality was what I could touch. Punch. Kick. What I could fight with my fists, not with my mind.

“Look. There’s the yacht.” Stella pointed. I was happy to see the grin spread across her cheeks. “It’s called The Eclipse. That’s why I booked this one. It was the only one that had a moon name.”

“Great,” I said, but my enthusiasm didn’t match hers.

I watched her as she ran up ahead to push herself between Zane and Lanie, so she could link arms with her mother. They bent their heads together, laughing as Stella pointed out the yacht. I could hear her telling Lanie about the name, too.

I wasn’t as excited. It might have been the only boat that had a moon name, but that didn’t seem to me like the good omen my daughter obviously thought it was.

After all, an eclipse is when one celestial body blocks the light of another one and makes it go dark.