Summer Cursed

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Red, are you okay?”

Liam asked the question as though he thought I might crumble at any moment. His worry was justified seeing as how I hadn’t stopped laughing since he told me he was the Vinur. That was about five minutes ago, and my abs were on fire, but I couldn’t stop the laughter.

Too much had happened and hearing the Vinur was real, and in the same room as me was the straw that broke the shifter’s back.

“Yeah. No. Maybe. No. I am not okay.” I took a few deep breaths and spun to face him. “Dude, you just told me you’re the mythical king of shifters.”

“Not mythical. Real,” he said, holding out his arms.

“How?”

“As Cybil revealed, I was born under the Vinur Moon. Same as you.”

“H-how… how do you hide it?” Of all the things I could have asked, my brain went with that one. I had tried dying my hair a million times when I was younger, but it never stayed more than a day or two.

“Fae magic.”

“Say what now? The Fae are a thing?”

He chuckled. “Yes, the Fae are a thing. They live in a world within our world and rarely leave it. They say it’s because they hate the stink of humans.”

“How do you talk to them? How did they do the magic?”

“Their magic is a mystery. They have forbidden me to reveal how to contact them, but I will introduce you to Astrid. My family lived with her way back when shifters first came to be.”

“I’m sorry… Are you saying she’s millions of years old? Are you saying the Fae really created us so they could have pets?”

“Yes, and sort of yes. Artemis is the Fae Queen. Being queen is a lonely position at times. The Fae are a contentious bunch, and many had tried to kill her so they could take over. So many, she became scared to leave her home. So, she created the first shifter as a companion. His name was Vinur.”

“Ah,” I muttered. “Vinur was the first shifter. So, you come from that line?”

He nodded.

“Huh. And Artemis is real… and alive?”

He nodded again. “Vinur kept her company as a human and hunted for her as a wolf. There were four others who created most of our kind. They were the Fae in charge of the seasons. Iris for Summer. Demeter for Autumn. Hypnos for Winter. And Persephone for Spring. They each created shifters in their likenesses to help them with their tasks, which is why we are called the Season Shifters packs, and why the Alpha of each pack has a power unique to their season.”

“This is… a lot.”

“Is it? Most of us have believed in them as all-mighty gods and goddesses, isn’t that harder to grasp?”

“I guess so. But fairies? Fairies are real?”

He smiled at me. “Shifters and vampires are, why not fairies.”

“True.”

“Astrid is Artemis’ youngest daughter. She should know more about you. You will more than likely only meet her, and only the one time. I have only seen her once since my father died.”

“Wow. Okay.” I paced the room trying to wrap my head around what just went down. I turned to face him again, half expecting to see him grow horns or wings or something equally ridiculous. “Why do I have the mark?”

“The mark is the mark of the Vinur. Do you remember me saying I was born under the Vinur Moon?” I nodded. “Do you remember me saying you were too?”

“What? No.” But I did remember. He had said ‘same as you’ when he mentioned the moon. “Yeah. I just didn’t catch on, I guess. What the hell is a Vinur Moon anyway? I’ve never found anything about it while researching my mark.”

“It’s a rare Fae moon. To humans it looks normal, but to shifters it’s amber.” He tapped his tattoo for emphasis. “There was one the night I was born. The next one was the night you were born.”