“You have seen it too?” Naamah said quietly, looking across the small patch of grass that separated the twin sisters. Her golden eyes were narrowed, and her willowy body held in stiff readiness for the slightest hint of betrayal.

Gaeia nodded. A tendril of golden hair had escaped the tightly wrapped braid she wore, and a gentle breeze teased at it until Gaeia tucked it behind her ear. “Aye, that I have,” she said softly, her vivid blue gaze meeting the honey-colored eyes of her twin. “The Red Moon comes.”

Despite the fact they’d been conceived from the same parents and born on the same day, they looked nothing alike, although the twins had always shared an uncanny bond. Perhaps that very fact had fueled their hatred, Gaeia mused. 

“It does,” Naamah said, her unbound midnight black hair fluttering in the early morning breeze. “Sit,” she said, as if giving a command. In the next instant she dropped cross-legged to the ground, looking up at Gaeia, waiting for her to comply.

Gaeia thought about refusing, but with a sigh, she sat. “If we don’t mend the rift between us, the world of Muuroon will be utterly destroyed.”

“Aye.” Naamah said. She had no doubt seen as much in her dreams, as had Gaeia. Oh, they would not die–could not die–as they were goddesses, but Muuroon was home to many, in particular the two factions they loved most. For in their enmity toward one another, they’d  created those that followed them–the Lycans and Vampires.

“Have you found them?” Gaeia asked, pulling a single blade of grass from the ground, and working it between her long, delicate fingers.

Naamah nodded.  “Two sets of twins, no more than three months into this world.”

“How can you be sure they are the ones?” Gaeia queried, her brows pulling together as she watched her sister.

Naamah chuckled softly. “You really need to ask that, sister?”

Gaeia’s smile matched her sister’s broad grin. “No,” she said, her mind drifting back to the childhood the two had shared. They’d been so close as children. Able to all but read the one another’s thoughts, and experience each other’s emotions.

“He wasn’t worth it, you know,” Naamah said, changing the topic abruptly.

Gaeia didn’t need to ask who the “he” was. She knew Naamah spoke of Theodontys. The narcissistic god had stolen both their hearts, and then promptly pitted them against one another. How had they allowed it to go this far? They’d all but wiped out the life forms on this planet, and for what? 

“For a prophecy,” Naamah said softly, reading her sister’s thoughts. Her golden eyes drilled into Gaeia’s blue ones. “It had to be thus,” she continued. “We created the races meant to foster The Four.”

“The Four?” Gaeia queried, although she didn’t need to ask. She already knew of what Naamah spoke.

“Two sets of twins,” Naamah said, turning her face skyward and closing her eyes, letting the breeze waft across her skin, cooling the heated flesh. “Avon and Kaid Stormcloud. Ly’essa and An’Tigeni Rhoslyn.” 

Gaeia nodded, tossing aside the mangled blade of grass she’d been holding. “They’re too young yet.”

“I know,” Naamah said. “I will direct one of my own to locate them–raise them–until the time is right.”

In a heartbeat, Gaeia’s mood shifted. “Why your man?” she demanded, residual anger and distrust resurfacing. 

Naamah sighed. “You know why,” she said, not rising to the bait of her sister’s challenge. “It has to be so. The wheels of discord we’ve set in motion will not slow to a stop overnight. There will be factions on both sides that pull away, intent on eradicating one another. Fighting for power and control. The humans have always been at war with one another, striving for gold and power. It is what it is.”

Gaeia nodded, her gaze shifting to the horizon. “What did we set in motion with our pettiness,” she whispered. “What have we done?”

Naamah shrugged, and though Gaeia was not looking in her direction to see the gesture, she sensed it, none-the-less. “The Great One guides all things,” Naamah said, her words drawing Gaeia’s gaze to her face. “It played out as it was meant to…the only way it could have, given what is to come.”

“The Red Moon.” Gaeia said. It wasn’t a question. They’d both seen the visions.