Sins of Calate: BOOK II OF THE FOUR REALMS SERIES

The Tide of the Moon

**This chapter contains mature content**

She had never been able to choose between the world bathed in the sun's warmth, or the pale silver that came with the chill of the moon. Both existed because of the other, each a side of the same coin.

The garden that she had nurtured to bloom blossomed to life under the eye of day, but by night it dreamed the sweetest of dreams. Dreams of a love which existed beyond the stars, beyond time; of a warrior braver and more honorable than any who had ever lived, and of the woman he loved beyond all measure. His soul brightened by her very existence.

Did Leoth love her thus? More than a sister? As a God loved a Goddess? So much that no force could separate them? There was but one way to know, but she did not know that she could take the rejection should she offer him her heart and have him refuse it.

Lying deep in the fragrant grass of her inner garden, she gazed up at the sky, at the stars which blinked like the rarest of jewels in the deep and endless indigo. She longed to disappear once again inside the dream of the black-eyed warrior who embodied He who owned her heart. She longed to feel the power of his love and devotion running through her veins, the love and devotion which drove him onward toward his cause.

A soft sigh behind her caused her to startle. She sprung up and turned to look over her shoulder; Calate leaned casually against the archway of the rose gate, eyes gleaming as brightly as the stars above. Something in his look reminded her of a viper before it struck, and a tremor of unease moved through her. How long had he been watching her there, silent as an assassin? She pulled her shawl up and over her shoulders.

'Must you always linger in the shadows, brother?' she said, dry.

Calate's mouth curved up into a wintry smile. 'There is a far better view from the shadows, sister. It would surprise you the secrets one reveals when they do not know they are being watched.'

'And which of my secrets have you learned, Calate?' She sighed, bored. She turned from him and a moment later she heard him move toward her across the grass, footsteps light and slow. She felt him crouch behind her before brushing her hair back from her ear.

'All of them,' he whispered, his fingers caressing her hair. She shivered, though whether it was with foreboding or something else, she refused to consider. 'You give much away as you sleep, sister. Did you know that?'

A burn of shame simmered through her, heating her cheeks. She moved to stand. Calate did the same, towering over her as she rounded on him. His eyes shone with amusement.

'If you enter my quarters while I sleep again, I shall summon you before father.' It was an idle threat, and Calate knew it, for what did Father care for the horseplay of his children now? He was far beyond such trivial things. He had all but abandoned them; his work long done.

Calate took a step closer, his voice a thick whisper. 'Tell me, are you more welcoming of our beloved brother when he comes to your bed? Or has he not yet formed the spine to act upon the desires which plague him?' A small laugh. 'He really has always been the weakest of us...'

She glared at him. 'In fact, it seems you see nothing from the shadows, Calate, nothing at all.' Her voice dripped with scorn. She moved past him, but he was quick, reaching out to grab her wrist. He dragged her toward the marble wall which encased the inner garden and pushed her against it. Then he was close, pressing his body into hers, his hips into hers, the heat of his arousal against her. She gasped, and to her horror, felt it awaken that now familiar need which lived inside her.