Emerald Luna
Chapter 18

Esme

It had been a few days since we got back and luckily it has been uneventful. I sit back in my office and just let out a sigh. I think about all that’s happened so far in just a few months I’ve been here. I let out a sigh at how much I’ve changed and the people I’ve met. My hand automatically goes to my necklace and how I’ve guarded this with my life. Warg on the loose I haven’t gone back to the mountain where I found the necklace and talked to Tora/Artemis. I was also wondering what Warg was up to. He had been quiet since we’ve been home and I don’t like it. I’m so caught up in my thoughts that I didn’t notice Alarick and Koa come into my office.

“Earth to Esme come back!” Koa jokes with me and I snap out of my thoughts.

“Sorry just lost in thoughts.” I shyly smile at them and they laugh at me.

“Yeah, we can tell. What’s on your mind?” Koa asks me still half laughing at me.

“Haven’t been back to the mountain to visit Artemis. Maybe she could offer some help?” I let out a sigh. I’m so confused and I don’t want to worry my guys.

“She could, but right now we have training. Violet is waiting for us in the gym.” We all head towards the gym with water bottles in hand. My mind was elsewhere. I’m not into it today and my training reflected it.

“I’m sorry guys that I’m half-heartedly doing this but I got things on my mind. I think I need to go on a hike to clear my mind.” I sit on the bench near me and let out a sigh.

“We can go with you. With Warg out there we don’t want either of you ladies going anywhere alone.” Alarick wraps his arm around my waist and while I’m happy to cuddle with him but maybe I just need to do something. Maybe dad could help with my fairy powers… I let out a sigh in frustration not knowing what to do. I knew I had to do something I just didn’t know what. I went to the backyard where there was a nice garden with the stream nearby and just sat on the ground to clear my head and figure out what I’m going to do. I sat on the grass trying to regain what’s left of my sanity when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around to see a woman with light brown shoulder-length, straight hair pulled back with a headband, a Greek tunic on that had a golden corset-like thing around her waist, a bow, and an arrow on her back, Greek-style sandals with shin guards. Artemis was back.

“What are you doing here?! I thought you stayed in the mountain,” I ask her in shock that she’d actually come to me.

“I can come out once in a while, but I figured you needed some help.” She sits down next to me and tries to calm me down.

“What am I going to do? I have a crazy loon of an ex-boyfriend on the loose, my beta female is scared to leave the pack grounds, my mate doesn’t want me to leave, I have powers that I have no idea what they are or how to control them.” I let my stresses out and she lays me on her shoulder trying to comfort me.

“My dear it’s going to be alright; you will discover your fairy powers and the powers of the necklace in due time. These things don’t happen overnight, plus what you did for Violet was a good thing. She needed to get away from him, and she wasn’t able to do it herself. She may have had wrong reasons for coming to you when you found her, but she fixed them thanks to you. She realized he was the bad guy, not you.” Her advice seemed fair, and I’m proud of Violet for what she did.

“Yeah, she does seem happy now. I’m glad she’s made a new life for herself.” I smile to myself knowing that my new friends are happy.

“Everything will work out in due time. Your loon won’t bother you for now, but he will eventually.” She puts her comforting hand on my shoulder, and then in a flash, she disappears. I felt a little better after our little chat. I walk around in the gardens to relax and debated on whether to try some of my fairy magic. I remembered dad saying that we could help with gardening. It didn’t seem like much but it helped me distract myself from all that was going on. With a wave of my hands, I could see the water from the pond moving towards the flowers as I told it to. They were getting a little dry anyway and this just gave me an excuse to put my training to practice. I could feel someone behind me and I turn around in a small panic before smiling at Alarick and my dad smiling at me.

“What? Never saw someone do some gardening?” I smirked at them as I kept tending to the flowers.

“Yeah of course but not that way.” Alarick looked surprised and always seemed to when I practiced my fairy magic.

“I couldn’t be prouder. You’re doing so well. Who knows, maybe you could be a garden fairy but we’ll see what else you can do. You’re doing well with controlling that water.” He had an enormous smile on his face as I was controlling the water over the flowers.

“I just needed to do something to distract myself and figured I needed to practice. So, I thought doing some simple gardening would be a good start.” I sat back down on the bench and dropped the water on a bush. I couldn’t hold it anymore and I was getting tired.

“No, it’s a good start. Don’t overwork yourself but if you keep working on it you won’t get as tired.” Dad sat down next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

“So, what does the necklace do? I’ve tried reading the book but there’s not much. Just old stories from the past users and the pranks they did.” I had been curious about what it does and the pranks while fascinating didn’t really help.

“Oh, I thought you knew. It can protect you, grant the person a blessing or curse depending on if they do something good or bad, and it can summon anyone in a time of trouble. It can also allow you to talk to animals, transform into anything (mermaid, dryad, any animal whatever you need in times of trouble so you may need to work on that), you can shrink and come back to normal size, invisibility, telepathy, super strength, cryokinesis (fire and ice), and amplify your fairy abilities.” I listen intently to the necklace’s powers and I was so fascinated, but I also had to be careful.

“So, all the pranks, what did it do to the person pranking people?” I was hesitant to ask, but I needed to know.

“They had their fun but eventually they’d get punished somehow and the next family member would get it. Unfortunately, they’d do the same as the last family member and Artemis kept on trying to replace it. That is until it got to my grandmother, your great grandmother, Lumiona. She had also heard about the necklace and somehow in the family history, it went to the mountain. Why there I have no idea maybe they thought it’d be safe. Anyway, she used it for good and tried to help people with it. When she was dying, she handed it down to my father, your grandfather. She told him to put it back in the cave and he did.” Dad seemed thrilled to talk about the family history. It was like he never told it to anyone before.

“Just like the legend said…” I remembered reading the legend with Alarick before replaceing my parents.

“The same. She was a sweet lady. Shame she never got to meet you.” He gave me a brief hug, and I gave him one back.

“Not to interrupt a touching family moment, but we have alpha training.” Alarick snaps us from our moment and I smile at dad and I walk to Alarick for more training. We get to the gym and just the need to punch the punching bag was overwhelming. So, I did… I punched it as hard as I could. Letting out all the anger that I had for Warg out in my punches… for so long I’ve been angry at him for ruining my life, Violet’s life…I was tired of constantly looking over my shoulder. I kept punching… punching at it until my knuckles were bleeding.

“Hey, hey, hey easy there Rocky… your hands are bleeding. What’s wrong?” He let go of the bag, grabbed my hands gently, and lead me to a nearby bathroom to wash up. I had never acted like this before, but surprisingly it felt good to punch that bag. “Esme… come on talk to me… what’s wrong?” He looked at me with worry and care. It always made me smile when he did. He’s been like that since the beginning.

“Just tired of him looming over me… I want to take him out now! I just want to live life without looking over my shoulder anymore!” I sobbed into his chest and let the dam of tears I had been holding back for a long time finally break… he wrapped his arms around me surprised by my outburst, and just held me for as long as I needed. I didn’t realize how long I had been holding this in… the weeks since we’ve been home from Violet’s former pack? The months I’ve been here? The past year since I graduated early? The past two-and-a-half years since I’ve met him? Who knows…? We probably sat on the ground in the gym for hours… I didn’t even know I had that many tears to shed to be perfectly honest. My eyes probably looked so swollen, but I didn’t care. He caressed my back and hair for as long as I needed…

“It’s ok… I know all this is a lot. Between being a luna, figuring out your family, figuring out your powers, a crazy ex that doesn’t want to leave us alone… I’d fall apart too. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner to be honest with you.” He cups my cheeks with his rough hands and I just lean into them.

“I’m tired of the nightmares… having to move out of my college dorm early because he wouldn’t leave me the frick alone! Having to graduate early because I couldn’t focus on my schoolwork…all I could focus on was whether he was going to come and get me…but ever since you’ve been in my life…I know what it’s like to be loved… to have someone care for me… to feel protected… to have more than two friends…to have a real man in my life, not just someone pretending to be one.” The flood gates opened again and I sobbed into his chest. After a while, my hands were fine like I hadn’t just punched them into oblivion… I eventually got off the floor and continued training but it felt so good to get that off my chest.