“She will be.” He reaches for a mauve journal sitting on the table between us, and something about it niggles at me to pay attention, but I’m too worried about the well-being of my lady.

“What happened?”

“There was an incident, but I’m handling it.”

“What kind of incident?” The vague run-around I’m getting from both Landon and Faye has me on the edge of crazy.

Faye clears her throat. “She wants to tell you herself.”

I move to rise, and Landon stays me with a raised hand. “She’s not here, my queen.”

“Where is she?” I shout, hands fisted against the arms of my seat.

“She’s returning to Zodiac Island this evening and will tell you everything then.” Landon leans forward, expression drawn in tension. It’s a foreign look on him, because he’s normally open and carefree, eyes glinting like emeralds.

Now those eyes are jaded, shrouded in concern over whatever information he’s withholding in my lady’s honor.

“You really won’t tell me anything?”

“Elise asked me not to.” Clearing his throat, he holds out the journal. “But we need to discuss this.”

The book is bound in leather, its ribbon keeping the jacket closed to shut out prying eyes. I’ve seen many of its kind because my mother had a whole collection.

“What about it?” I take the journal from Landon, and as soon as my thumb glides over the front cover and the handwritten initials there, a memory explodes in my mind. A shocked breath catches in my throat, rendering speech impossible, yet I force the question out anyway.

“Where did you get this?”

Landon and Faye exchange a heavy glance.

“It belonged to your mother,” he says, the confirmation pinning me to the chair in a state of frozen disbelief. “We have a lot to talk about, my queen.”

GEMINI

BOOK THREE

1

MAY 21ST

We have a lot to talk about, my queen. As Landon’s words reverberate through my head, I trace the familiar inscribed letters on the journal. My fingers move in a hypnotic way as the breath stalls in my lungs. Because it’s one of my mother’s diaries, and even if he hadn’t told me it belonged to her, I’d recognize it by those initials written in elegant calligraphy.

“How did you get this?” My voice is sharp and brazen—the kind of tone that would earn me a session in the dungeon if I were still under the rule of Heath Bordeaux.

Landon glances at my lady. “Faye, will you give us a few minutes?” With a cooperative nod, she gets up to leave, and the fact that she’s not fighting him surprises me as much as the familiar way in which he addressed her.

After the door shuts upon her exit, he leans forward, hands clasped between his knees. “What do you know about your mother’s journals?”