The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 520

Avery’s POV

By the time I got back to the greenhouse, I had mostly talked myself out of what I had seen—or thought I had seen—in the forest. It was probably just my brain playing tricks on me, turning a knot in a tree into something that didn’t exist at all after months of stress and a mostly-sleepless night.

Definitely not a witch. Or a hag. Or whatever kind of fae creatures I read about to Bjorn in storybooks when he was younger.

Back in the greenhouse, I carefully unpacked my collecting bag and got to work propagating the plants I had collected.

The pale-stemmed plant went into a shallow tray of water first with the roots intact. It was already looking a little wilted from the journey, but I knew it would perk up by the next morning. The broad-leafed one was in better shape. I trimmed the lower leaves, placed a cutting into a propagation tube, and wrote the date on a label that I stuck to the glass.

By the time everything was unpacked and logged, the image of the face had mostly receded from my mind, chalked up to a mere trick of the eyes. I pulled out my notebook and uncapped my pen, starting to sketch a rough diagram of the formula structure for the perfume when I heard the door open.

I looked up to see one of hte household staff poking his head through the door.

“Miss Avery?” he asked. “Your mother is here.”

I lowered my hand onto the table. “She’s what?” She wasn’t supposed to be here for another couple of days, but the servant just shrugged, told me she had just pulled up with Tegan, and left.

I quickly cleaned my hands, wiping my face with a towel I kept on my worktable, and smoothed down my hair as I hurried around to the front of the house. Not that it mattered how I looked because I knew my mother wouldn’t care, but I cared about looking presentable for the woman I hadn’t seen in what felt like too long—even though it was only a couple of weeks.

My mother was standing in the foyer surrounded by more luggage than I expected. Seven bags at least were stacked in a semicircle around her feet, and she was standing in the middle of it all while Tegan directed staff to carry them inside.

She turned when she heard me coming.

“You said two days,” I said, laughing and spreading my arms wide. “Not two hours.”

My mother smiled and walked into my arms, embracing me tightly. I buried my face in her shoulder, breathing in her familiar scent. “Why does it feel like it’s been so long?” I murmured, voice muffled by her hair.

She rubbed her hand across my back. “Felt like longer for me, all alone in that big house.” she pulled back enough to look at me, bracing my upper arms with both hands. “That’s why I came so quickly. Tegan arrived this morning, and well…” She shrugged. “I had already begun packing last night.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here. Gideon is out right now, but I’m sure he’ll be happy, too.”

She nodded, and then her eyes dropped to my throat.

“What’s that?”

I looked down. The crescent pendant was sitting against the hollow of my throat. I frowned.

I hadn’t put it on. I was almost certain I hadn’t put it on this morning; or at least, I didn’t recall putting it on.

“I keep forgetting to leave it off,” I said, reaching back to unclasp it. “I’m allergic to the metal. Sebastian gave it to me at the ceremony as an apology.” I dropped it into my palm. The skin beneath had gone pink again. “I don’t even remember putting it on today.”

My mother held out her hand. I dropped it into her palm.

She turned it over slowly, tilting it toward the light coming through the hall windows. The little crescent caught the light, glinting merrily in the sun.

“Hm,” she said.

“What?”

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