First Eclipse

Fauna nibbled on the pastry. She didn't know what it was, but she'd never had anything like it before. She sat in a corner, trying to stay out of the way. In a few short minutes, the 'discussion' went from informative to loud. The women were not happy with what they'd been told, and honestly, she didn't blame them.

"So-" Daxx held up her arms in a long dramatic shrug. "-they have a few pictures of us." She snorted. "We've been taking them out for months; of course, they know who is doing it."

Jeri made her way along the back of the room and came over to sit with her. She didn't say anything, just kept her eyes on the king and queen, getting in each other's faces.

"Daxx, it's not that simple."

Daxx turned and looked at Trendan. her eyes narrowed. "You saw pictures of all of us, right? No plans or charts, just some photos."

Trendan looked at her for a moment and then at King Troy. "Not of everyone."

"See." Daxx's hands slapped against her legs. "What is the big deal?"

"You should have taken a photo of them to help explain this, Trendan," Leone said from where he stood by the food table.

Trendan nodded. "I didn't want to linger too long."

"I did." Bastian got up and walked toward the king. He was smiling. Fauna honestly understood why some of her sisters called him prince crazy. There was this wild look in his eyes all the time. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out photos. "I took some, making sure they weren't the only ones, so they wouldn't be noticed missing." He handed them to the king.

King Chase, Victor, and Michael came over and looked around the large man's shoulders to see them. Troy sighed a long, deep sigh. When he looked up, he held the stare of his mate.

Daxx's forehead was creased with lines as she held out her hand. Fauna could see the reluctance on the man's face as he handed them to her.

"This is going to get ugly." Prince Michael said quietly.

"Mmm." Was all the scary Victor replied.

Daxx flipped through the pictures so fast, only pausing once to look at one a bit longer. When she was done, she looked over at Alona and then turned and looked at the table where Paisley, Kinsley, and Beth sat. They all sent her suspicious looks. Turning around, she briefly looked at a few of the others and then stopped when her gaze connected with Fauna.

Fauna moved just her eyes and looked at Jeri, and then she saw it. The fear in her friend's eyes. Had her mate already told her Daxx moved between the tables and came over and dropped the photos in front of Fauna.

With slow moves, Fauna turned the pictures and looked at the top one. It was one of Flora and Ava outside the garage. She pushed it aside. The next one was with Nova and Liri standing outside the garage with Karma and Sparx. She glanced up to see Jeri's expression. It was a shock. She hadn't seen them either. Her heart felt like it stopped inside her chest as she moved it out of the way and looked at the other one. It was one of her sitting on her bike after coming back from a ride. She turned and looked over to where Tim and the guards stood. She didn't know why she sought him out, but she did.

"What she's looking at are photos of all the women from the Gemini League," Prince Victor said in a loud, clear voice, "along with Nova, Liri, and a few of our princesses."

The sound of chairs scraping on the floor in unison silenced any conversation. Fauna shoved the ones she'd looked at to the edge of the table and picked up the rest. She flipped through them quickly. All of her family were in the ones left. The only ones not were Fade and Vex, and that was because they rarely left their rooms. When she reached the last one, she looked at Jeri as she lowered it. The photo was of Capri; her hair was in full flight, and the image caught their friend and mentor in full swing of doing some magic. Fauna set the photo down and hugged her waist. She looked over to see Tim asking with just a look if she needed him closer. She looked away because she wanted him to come sand here and make her feel safe, even though the photos were clearly illustrating that she wasn't going to be anywhere.

Paisley dropped the pictures on the table and turned around. "Is that what those men were doing with her? To find us?"

"Want to find out?" Arius cocked his head to the side and held her gaze. "Let's find out." His tone was low and without emotion.

Fauna looked from him to Paisley. "How are you going to find out?"

Paisley turned back and looked at her, and then she smiled an evil, revenge-kind of smile. "By seeing their reaction when they see you. When the ones we captured see you, we'll know." She nodded. "Most of us-" she motioned to Bethany and Daxx, "—are unobtainable now with our mate bonds, but you and your friends are not."

Jeri stood up. "I'm going to call Capri."

Trendan came over and put his arm around her. "I'll let Bohdi know what's going on and that we'll be late to the meeting."

Daxx stood there looking at Fauna. She couldn't make out what she was thinking, but she looked angry. "Tim." Daxx jerked her head around and looked where the guards stood. "Make sure Fauna gets to the cells. I'm going to go pay a visit to Elder Faran."

King Troy stopped what he was saying to his brother, Quinton, and looked at her. "For what reason?"

"Because" She waved her hand around."—someone should have seen this coming." She pointed to Crissy. "Criss has been working like a dog for months trying to sort out what she sees, you'd think someone that was two thousand years old would know what was going to be thrown at us."

Troy came over quickly, put his hands on her shoulders and leaned down so they were face to face. "We're going to get them, Daxx." He nodded. "All of the women are safe." Daxx was breathing quickly. "They better be..."

Just a heads up: FindNovel.net is the only place to read the complete version of this book for free. Don't miss out on the next chapter-visit us now and continue your journey! "They are." He nodded and then straightened up and put his arm around her. "Michael. Go check in with Autumn and fill her in." He glanced at his twin. "Chase, more guards." Chase nodded and then vanished.

Fauna stood up slowly and watched as the royals disappeared, a few at a time.

"I'll see you in the cells," Jeri said quietly, with her hand over the phone.

Fauna nodded and then watched her walk away.

Tim came over to the table, and, with one large finger, he shoved the photos around and then stopped when the one on her bike was visible.

Hugging her waist, she looked up to see a nerve twitching in his jaw. "I don't understand any of this, Tim. Why me?" She asked, motioning to the photos. "Why us?"

He shook his head and lifted his eyes to look at her. They were red and for whatever reason, she took that as a good sign. How, she didn't understand, but he'd said when his emotions were high, it happened. Clearly, he was as angry about this as the others were. "Let's go to the cells." He leaned down and pushed all the photos into a pile and then stuffed them into his jacket. "I can port us to the underground chamber, but we'll have to walk the rest of the way."

She didn't even know what the underground chamber was, but she wanted to go to the cells and see if the prisoners recognized her. She blew out a breath and looked at him. "Ava is going to go all avenging angel." She thought of some of the others. "Karma and Sparx are going to turn into vigilantes."

Tim scoffed. "Good. The more to kick their asses, the faster we'll get it done." He held out his hand. "I won't let anything happen to you."

Something clicked inside her, and she knew he meant it. More so, she knew he'd do anything he could to make it true. "I know," she said softly, putting her hand in his large one.