Chapter 8 – Strife
Juniper
“What?” Ariel asks, grinning up at Jackson. But her face falls when she sees that he is not happy to see her. At all. “No seriously, what? Midnight said it was a false alarm, that it wasn’t dangerous -”
“You were supposed to stay with Marigold!”
“Yeah, I did stay with her – she’s right here!” Ariel says, gesturing to the baby now up in Jackson’s arms, the little girl’s tired face pressed to his chest. “Problem solved!”
“That was not the plan, Ariel,” Jackson says, clenching his jaw and glaring down at his mate.
“We’re going to talk about this later, Jacks,” Ariel snaps, glaring up at him with equal ire. Then she turns to me. “Hi!” she says, forcing cheer into her voice as she steps away from Jackson, I think wanting some space. “So, everything’s okay!?”
I laugh a little as Ariel opens her arms and wraps me in a big hug. “Yeah, we’re okay! Thank you for coming!”
“You should be thanking me!” Midnight calls from across the room. “I did all the work!”
I glance over to see Jesse escorting Daphne over to where Orion and Midnight stand, introducing her to the Prince of the Underworld. Daphne’s eyes go very wide as she shakes his hand.
But I turn back to my sister, trying to concentrate on what’s important in all of this chaos. “Um,” I say, dropping my voice low as I glance at Jackson, who speaks softly to Marigold while stroking her back. “I’m sorry if I caused a lot of trouble.”
“Oh, it’s not you,” she says, grimacing slightly and looking between Anton and me as she presses a hand to her stomach. “We’re still negotiating this whole pregnancy thing. Jackson is struggling with feeling overprotective. But we’ll figure it out!”
She beams at us but I can tell that it’s a bit forced.
“So!” Ariel says, clapping her hands together. “You’re coming home!?”
“Yup!” Anton says, grinning down at his bestie. “Ready to dig up my grave!?”
Ariel’s face falls in horror as she looks up into Anton’s face and sees that he is dead serious.
Ariel
I mostly just stare at Tony in shock as he fills me in on the insane news they learned a few days ago at the Temple of Life.
Which, I mean, I didn’t even know existed.
Juniper, bored with the story she already knows, moves into her gigantic closet and packs an absurd, Ella-level amount of luggage – huge suitcases and boxes that she conjures up out of thin air. The others circle around to listen and Jackson moves to my side as Tony speaks, slipping an arm around my waist as Marigold falls back asleep against his shoulder. I lean against him even as I send a complicated set of emotions down our bond, letting him know that we’re good now, but we’re having a talk when we get back to the house.
He sends a pulse of emotions back, letting me know that he feels precisely the same.
“So, yeah,” Tony says, shrugging and giving us his sly half-smile as he looks between us. “My absent mother is a Goddess. My body…is just hanging out bloodless and half-dead in the graveyard outside your house. And Juniper has claimed the whole planet as her sovereign territory. But other than that not much is going on.”
“It pleases me that you are powerful, Tony,” Midnight says, hands on her hips, her little knife tucked back into her belt loop. “This will be useful to me. Plus, you are nicer than others,” she sends a glare towards Juniper’s closet. “So, I’ve always liked you.”
Tony narrows his eyes at her. “Weren’t you the one who spied on us and told Perry Gibson where Ariel was on the day that he cut my throat?”
Midnight flushes bright red. “No!”
Jesse gasps and spins to her. “Midnight!”
“Well, Darkness told me to!” she bites back, glaring up at Jesse as Daphne grimaces at her. “Don’t be mad at me, be mad at him!”
“You owe Tony an apology,” Jesse says, pointing at Tony, a little smile betraying the fact that he’s enjoying this a great deal.
“No, I don’t, he’s not really dead!” Midnight bites out, pissed and embarrassed.
“I think I’d like that apology,” Tony murmurs, grinning and crossing his arms, looking down at her.
Midnight nearly turns purple in her rage. “I already gave one apology today and that is enough!”
“Okay, okay!” Juniper says, striding out of the closet. My eyes widen when I see her luggage floating in the air behind her and coming to settle on the ground to our left. “Don’t piss off our transport, Anton.”
“I’m not just a transport!” Midnight snap, turning her anger on June now. I grin, kind of delighted by this weird rivalry between Mids and June.
“Mmhmm, sure, yes Midnight,” Juniper says, giving Midnight a long, slow nod like she’s placating a little kid. Midnight makes a strangled little noise of rage but Junie ignores it, turning to grin at the rest of us. “We ready?”
“Looks like you’re all set.”
We all turn to where Orion and Laila stand at the balcony door, Orion looking grim with his hands in his pockets. Laila looks at us anxiously, her hands clasped beneath her chin, her pretty blue-green hair floating around her shoulders.
“What?” June asks, frowning at the Prince. She looks around. “Where…where are your bags!?”
He shrugs. “You know I can’t go, June.”
She gasps, striding over for him. Tony sighs, giving me a look and then following her.
I frown after him, wondering what that glance was about. I frown up at Jackson, asking silently through the bond if he saw it too. He nods and we both turn to watch as Tony stands behind Junie as she looks up at Orion, devastated.
“Orion, you have to come!” she says, her voice tight. “Why – why didn’t you say anything before?”
“Why would I have said anything?” Orion murmurs, reaching out to softly stroke her hair, lovingly tucking a strand of it behind her ear. My eyebrows fly up at that. “Why did you think I was going?”
“Because we – we’re a group!” Juniper says, spinning in her frantic attempt to look at Tony and Laila and Orion all at once. “We’re in this together! And the curse that Death put on you about losing your position in this world if you go to ours is broken –“
“Yeah, but your grandmother’s ban isn’t,” Orion says, shaking his head. Junie goes still and pales as the two lock eyes, gazing at each other like they can’t stand the prospect of being apart.
“Is it just me, or…” Jesse murmurs, leaning closer to me and Jacks.
“Nope,” Daphne whispers, shaking her head, watching the group as raptly as if it’s the season finale of her favorite TV drama. “It is not just you.”
“What? What’s happening?” Midnight huffs, staring around at the rest of us, confused. “I don’t get it. Tell me!”
“I’m staying here, June,” Orion murmurs, staring down into her face like he’s memorizing it. “Someone has to keep Darkness at bay, after all.” He nods towards the window where the darkness swells.
I look at it again, a shiver running through me as Juniper and Orion’s voices drop low, exchanging goodbyes too private for us to hear.
I glance up at Jackson and do a double-take to see him not looking at Orion and Juniper’s weird drama, like the rest of us, but higher – at the sky beyond the balcony. “What are you looking at?” I nudge him with my elbow.
He glances down at me and then out at the sky again. “Nothing. I just…like that moon,” he murmurs, lifting his chin towards the huge full moon that looms outside the window.
I grin up at him, forgetting our quarrel for a moment, and shake my head, interested in this rather sentimental turn in my mate. He looks down at me and smiles too. I press a kiss to his arm, the closest part to me. “Yeah. It’s a good moon.”
Our attention turns back to Junie’s drama as she gives Orion a lingering hug. Tony clasps Orion close to him for a moment as well before my sister and her boyfriend turn back to our group of travelers. Tony stops halfway, though, turning back to the Selkie Princess. “Laila?” he asks, soft. “Are you coming?”
Juniper gasps and spins back towards her friend “Laila, you too!?”
“Um!” the Princess hums, clearly anxious and torn, looking back and forth between Orion and Juniper.
“Go,” Orion says, stepping towards the girl and slipping an arm around her waist, pulling her flush against him. My eyes go wide when he strokes a hand over her hair, gazing down into her eyes this time. “I know that you want to, Laila. You should take this adventure.”
“But – you’ll be all alone!” She cups his cheek in her palm.
Orion smirks at her, looking like the heartthrob on the cover of a paperback romance. “It won’t be forever. Just a little trip. Besides, someone needs to keep Junie in line when Anton’s all ghosty.”
To my shock Prince Orion leans forward then, planting one hell of a kiss on Laila’s mouth. She wraps her arms around his neck and I blush, looking away to find Daphne’s eyes already on me.
“Um,” she whispers, glancing anxiously back at my little sister and her weird-ass group of friends. “Are they like…all dating? Each other?”
I shrug and shake my head – because I honestly don’t know. What the hell has our little Junepiper been getting up to down here!?