Chapter 33 - Luna
Two things happen at the same moment when I open my eyes again to watch the strange man stride my way with his sword pointed at me.
Hands grab my shoulders from behind and there’s an incredibly bright flash of white light that blanks out my sight.
When I blink away the spots in my eyes, the buildings, cars, the street in front of me - are all back where they belong.
The strange man has stopped moving but is still staring intently at me.
The hands on my shoulders drag me backward toward the restaurant door but I can’t take my eyes off of the man who’s now standing at the edge of the parking lot.
His sword dips down to point at the ground as his other hand comes up in a fist that he thumps against his chest. His eyes are still just as intense but his expression softens slightly as he nods his head in a gesture that’s almost like a bow. I have no idea what the fuck it means.
Maria drags me back into the restaurant as my chest heaves and I try to catch my breath.
She’s rambling in Italian and crossing herself, I think she’s praying.
We both move to one of the big windows and stare through it at the fractured moon hanging in our sky.
Whatever happened to make it break and move closer to us seems to have stopped because it’s no longer getting any closer.
I drop my gaze to the parking lot but whoever that strange man was, he’s gone, so I lift my eyes back up.
We stand there with the other customers and waitstaff in complete disbelief - unable to look away from something that should not be possible.
The sound of my phone going off in my hand breaks me from my horrified daze. I stab my finger to accept the call and Gigi’s voice grounds me back to myself.
“Luna! Luna, where are you?”
I have to swallow twice to make my voice work. “I… I’m at work. Gigi, the moon. The moon is broken.” I whisper, like if I say it quietly it won’t actually be true.
“I know, I know, Peach. I need you to come get me. I need you to leave work and come get me right now.”
A hand lands on my shoulder. I look back at Maria who is still staring up at the moon in shock.
“Maria? I…I have to go. I have to go get Gigi. She says I have to go get her.”
My boss looks over to me with a dazed expression and slowly nods her head.
“Yes, go. Go, Luna. Go get your grandmother and then get home.”
I try to move away from her but she yanks me hard against her in a crushing hug. When she pulls back, her eyes are full of tears.
“Go, Luna. Go be with your family.”
She pushes me away so I turn to the back of the restaurant.
Everything is a blur as I rush to grab my purse and car keys.
I don’t even realize that I still have my phone pressed against my ear until it rings again, causing me to jump and flinch away from it.
I glance at the screen and see it’s Torrin calling and a half sob flows past my lips as I answer it.
“Luna! Luna, are you there?”
“Tor, the moon!”
“I know, love. I’m…”
There's a blast of static from the phone and then nothing but dead silence so I pull it away from my ear to see that the call has cut out. I try to dial him back but the no service symbol is staring at me instead of the four bars that I usually have. I stuff my phone into my purse with a frustrated cry and race out of the restaurant to my Jeep, dropping my keys twice as my hands shake. When I finally get behind the wheel, I squeeze my eyes closed so I can’t see the monster in the sky that looks like it’s going to fall on all our heads.
Breathe in, breathe out, get Gigi, get Penny.
Breathe in, breathe out, get Gigi, get Penny.
I focus on that for a minute until I feel somewhat steadier.
I need to get to Gigi, and I need to do it safely because if I’m going to die, it will be with the only family I have left, not in a stupid car accident.
I take one more deep breath and then start the Jeep and slowly pull out of the parking lot.
Thankfully, Gigi’s condo is in the opposite direction from the car accident blocking the intersection, but as I drive, I see more and more accidents as well as people everywhere looking up at the moon.
I refuse to look again. If it’s going to hit us, I don’t want to see it coming.
My brain tracks everyone’s location as I drive.
Gage is on a flight somewhere over northern Alberta.
Torrin is in Winnipeg, two provinces away, and Julian and Reid are in Vancouver on the other side of the mountains.
My knuckles whiten as I squeeze the steering wheel.
Not one of them is within a thousand kilometers of home right now and I might never see them again.
A humming whine escapes from my throat at that thought and I silently beg the universe to not let that happen.
I’ve already lost so much. I don’t know if I can survive losing them, too.
When I pull into the parking lot at Gigi’s condo building, I see people on almost every balcony staring up at the moon but I keep my head tucked down and race to the door that’s been propped open with a brick.
On a normal day, I'd look like a crazy person trying to get the elevator to come quicker by hitting the button over and over as fast as I can – but today everyone's attention is elsewhere. The door finally opens and I’m practically vibrating with anxiety as it slowly climbs the floors with the piped-in Muzak butchers a Katy Perry song.
My overwhelmed brain hums along to it until I finally reach her floor and then I run down the hall and bang on her door.
Gigi swings the door open and then I’m in her arms, trying to hold the sobs back as I clutch her thin frame against mine with my face buried in her cherry red hair.
I’m not ready to let go when she pulls away and grasps my arms. Her eyes, that perfectly match mine, are scanning me from head to toe like she’s reassuring herself I’m still in one piece.
“Alright, Peach, alright. We’re going to be okay. I need you to help me pack the rest of this stuff up.”
I frown and shake my head. “Pack? Pack what? Gigi, the moon…”
She cuts me off. “Yes, the moon is broken. I saw it. That’s why we need to get my stuff packed and get to your place.”
I shake my head. I don’t think she understands. I clutch her arms hard and give them a small shake.
“Gigi! The moon is going to crash into us and we are all going to die!”
She drags me over to the balcony door and pulls me out onto it.
“Look! It’s not coming any closer. We might die, sweet girl, but it won’t be today. Now help me get packed up.”
She leaves me there and I force myself to study the moon for the first time since I ran out of the restaurant to come here.
It looks so freaking huge and so… broken, just hanging there.
But Gigi’s right, it hasn’t gotten any closer or bigger that I can tell.
I mean, I think? She calls my name from inside so I break my gaze from it and go back in.
I find her in her bedroom with suitcases open on her bed and four more waiting on the floor.
She doesn’t look up as she throws clothes into one of them and tells me, “Start filling suitcases with food from the fridge and pantry.”
My mouth opens to ask a hundred different questions but she stops the flood by snapping, “Now, Luna!” So, I close my mouth, nod, and drag two of the empty cases out and get to work.
My hands grab everything in the cupboards while my mind works overtime to try and process what this could mean.
The moon, what could have done that? What will it being closer to earth mean?
Weather! The moon could affect the weather and…
and the tides… and gravity? Damn it! I’m either not smart enough or just brain-dead right now because I can’t think!
When both suitcases are packed to bursting, I grab some of Gigi’s canvas grocery bags and start emptying the fridge and freezer as well and stack everything by her front door.
When I’m done, I rush back to her bedroom.
She has two suitcases filled and ready to go with clothes and two still on the bed open that are heaped with…
“Holy crap, Gigi! How many cartons of cigarettes do you have in there?”
She scoffs as she comes from the bathroom ensuite with her arms full of bottles.
“Not nearly enough, I’d guess!”
I roll my eyes because that has got to be enough smokes to last for at least six months or more. My eyes bounce over to the other suitcase and I stare at the contents in disbelief. I swear there’s the entire contents of a Sephora in it.
“Do you really think you’ll need that many beauty products?”
She cocks a hip and stares down her nose at me with a raised cherry eyebrow.
“Do you really think I paid tens of thousands of dollars to look this damn good and NOW, at the end of the world, I’m going to let myself slide? Really, darling, do you not know me at all?”
I shrug one shoulder and nod because, yeah, that tracks for her.
Gigi, aka Elenor Cowen, New York Times bestselling romance author, is never without her ‘face’ as she calls her makeup.
My grandmother may be in her sixties but she could easily pass for mid-forties.
They say smoking ages a person but I swear those damn cigarettes of hers act like a preserving agent.
It’s either that or she made a deal with the devil at some point.
Nah, the Devil would have run screaming from Gigi if she had ever met him.
The woman is a force to be reckoned with.
I stand there studying my last remaining blood relative.
Her perfect cherry-tinted, shoulder-length bobbed hair swings as she sorts and packs and a calming wave rushes through me.
I think it will be okay. If anyone can survive the moon falling on us, it would be Gigi.
“I’m almost done. Why don’t you take the first bags down to the car?”
I step closer to her and wrap my arms around her and rest my head on top of hers for a moment.
“I love you, Gigi,”
“I love you too, sweet girl. Now go on and get those bags down to the car. We can have Gage with his delicious muscles carry them all into the house when we get there.”
A hot ball of worry lodges in my throat at the reminder.
“He’s not here. I took him to the airport earlier. He got called back to work.”
Her face pales hearing that, and for the first time since I got here, I might see a touch of fear in her eyes. It’s gone so fast though I can't be sure.
“Well, that’s fine, then. I’m sure with what’s happening, all your boys will be heading home as fast as possible. We’ll just have to manage things on our own until they get back.”
I blink back the tears that are threatening to form, nod, and then rush out of the room to start dragging bags to the elevator. She’s right, they’ll all be heading home now. They have to be, because I don’t know how I’ll make it without them.