Catching Moonlight (Man Season) Read Free

career on the fast track wasn’t worth
dying for. There had to be more meaning to life than that.
    Toby took a strenuous path through
the goat pastures then strolled slowly for awhile through the olive grove. The
island wasn’t huge but it seemed vast to a city girl used to the vertical
instead of the horizontal. Once she reached the temple she sat down for a rest,
observing the sea as it calmly swayed back and forth. The rhythm was hypnotic,
made her lids heavy. She curled up on a soft mound of earth and drifted easily
to sleep.
    Strange dreams made her restless.
Voices crying out in pain as a scene from some ancient drama unfolded before
her. There was a tall, frowning crone, a cruel glint in her dark eyes, speaking
in thunderous tones to a delicate younger woman. The latter was raven-haired,
very pretty, and pale. She bowed her head as if in the presence of royalty as
the crone assailed her with crude accusations and threats. Once alone, the
younger woman went to a hidden chamber in the temple and brought out a
beautiful boy – he was around nineteen years old, with white skin and sad emerald
eyes, his hair a shock of ebony. The woman cried and said, “Oh Lord Zeus, I can
only pray that you protect my child, your son, from Mother Hera’s wrath.”
    But Zeus did not hear. In his stead,
the angry Hera reappeared and laid down an oath:
“From this day forth that bastard child will be tied to this temple with a rope
of shame! For all eternity he will remain here. He will never age, or marry, or
bear children. He will be alone, forever!”
    “No, you cannot do this!” his mother
wailed. “Curse me, not my child!”
    “It is punishment enough for you to
see your child frozen in time. Maybe it will teach you not to dally with the
husband of a goddess, hum?”
    “Wait, please? I am a goddess, too!
There must be a way to free him! Tell me, and it will be done!”
    “The only hope of freeing him lies in
the heart of one who would love him enough to take his place! And I don’t think
you will find any female quite so foolish as that!”
    With that she disappeared in a blast
of thunder – waking Toby from her dream. It was raining. She rose, tried to
seek shelter from the storm, slipped on the gathering mud and went barreling
towards the cliff. She screamed as she plummeted over the edge.
    A hand reached out, caught her;
pulled her up swiftly. Then pale strong arms lifted her, carried her through
the rain into the temple. When they set her down on a bench she glanced up into
a pair of sad emerald eyes. Her breath stilled in an instant – her rescuer’s
face was the same as the boy in her dream!

 
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    “ Dio !” Toby gasped. “It was you!”
    “How do you know my name?” His voice
was cool and low, sent shivers up her back.
    “ Aella told
me.”
    “Good Aella .
She usually doesn’t mention me to strangers.”
    “I saw you talking to Kosmas, and
asked who you were. But I’m no stranger. Moonsea belongs to me now. I’m Toby Styles.”
    “Are you hurt?”
    “No, I don’t think so. There’s a
little scrape on my elbow but otherwise … Dio , who are you, really? Where did you come from?”
    “I thought you knew.”
    “Well, I only know what Aella and Kosmas told me; that you’re her nephew and you
live a hermit’s life out here behind the temple.”
    “Sure, she’s my aunt. I take care of
the goats and the olive grove for Kosmas.”
    “But there’s more to it than you say,
I can sense it. Dio … what kind of name is that?”
    “It’s short for Dioscuri .”
    “ Dioscuri ?” She whispered the word slowly,
letting it flow through her mind. It was familiar, had something to do with
Zeus and the Gemini. But she couldn’t quite remember what. He was too close,
made clear thinking impossible.
    Toby couldn’t take her gaze off of
him. His face was pale and sorrowful but exquisite, with high cheekbones, a
lean, perfectly aligned nose and a full, sensuous mouth. His eyes seemed on