Chapter 15

"You're distracted."

Luna threw a training pad at Aria's face. It bounced off her forehead.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You've been staring into space for ten minutes. We're supposed to be preparing for the wisdom trial, and you're off in dreamland." Luna dropped onto the grass beside her. "Talk to me."

They were in the gardens, far enough from the training grounds that no one could overhear. The afternoon sun was warm, and the air smelled like roses and cut grass.

"I'm just thinking."

"About your two secret mates who happen to be the kings?"

Aria winced. "Keep your voice down."

"There's nobody here." Luna scooted closer. "Aria, you've barely talked to me in a week. Every night you disappear. Every morning you come back looking like you've been—well, you know. And don't tell me it's training because training doesn't leave that kind of mark behind your ear."

Aria slapped her hand to her neck. "I thought I covered that."

"You did. It shifted when you bent over."

Aria groaned. If Luna could see the marks, who else could?

"Cade already suspects," she admitted. "He confronted me in the library."

"What did you tell him?"

"That it's none of his business."

"And?"

"And he didn't buy it." Aria pulled her knees to her chest. "Luna, I'm drowning. The competition, the kings, the curse, Knox asking about my bloodline, my father threatening me—it's too much. I feel like I'm juggling fire and eventually I'm going to drop everything and burn."

Luna was quiet for a moment. "Then stop trying to juggle alone."

"What?"

"You keep everything bottled up. You always have. Even before we came here, you carried the whole world on your shoulders and never asked for help." Luna took her hand. "I'm your best friend. Let me carry something."

Aria looked at her. Luna's brown eyes were warm and steady. She'd been the one constant in Aria's life—the one person who never looked at her with pity or anger or disappointment.

"It's dangerous," Aria said. "If people find out what I know—"

"Then I'll be dangerous with you."

Something tight in Aria's chest loosened. Just a fraction. But it was enough.

She told Luna about Knox. About the questions, about Blake's suspicions, about Darius doubling the watch. Luna listened with her mouth pressed into a thin line.

"So Knox might know about the curse," Luna said.

"Or he's trying to figure it out."

"And Vivian?"

"His attack dog. She's watching me constantly. Today during training, she stood behind me for twenty minutes pretending to stretch. She was looking at my neck."

"We need to be more careful with the marks."

"I know."

"I mean it, Aria. One visible love bite, and Vivian will start asking questions you can't answer."

Aria nodded. She knew. But being careful was hard when Orion kissed like the world was ending and Darius held her like she was the only thing keeping him human.

The afternoon bell rang, calling them back for the group session. As they walked toward the main building, Aria caught something from the corner of her eye.

A figure on the second-floor balcony. Vivian. Watching them cross the courtyard with a look that was too focused to be casual.

Aria turned away and kept walking.

That night, the kings didn't come through the passage. Instead, a note appeared under her door—Darius's handwriting, sharp and precise.

"Meeting with the council tonight. Can't come. Orion says he misses you. I do too. Be safe."

She read it three times, then burned it in the candle flame. No evidence. That was the rule.

She should have slept. Instead, she stood at her window and looked out at the castle grounds. The moon was nearly full, silver light spilling across the stone walls and gardens below.

Six months until the blood moon. Less now. Time was moving, and with every day, the pressure built.

Her wolf stirred inside her. A low rumble, not a growl. More like a hum.

"I know," Aria whispered. "I feel it too."

The bond was getting stronger. Not just with the kings—though that grew every day until she could feel them like extensions of her own body. But something else too. Something deeper and older, rooted in her blood.

The First Luna's power. Seraphina said it would awaken as the blood moon approached. That Aria would feel things she couldn't explain, see things she shouldn't be able to see, know things no one had told her.

It scared her. Everything about this scared her.

But fear hadn't stopped her yet.

A soft knock at her door made her jump. Not the passage. The actual door.

She opened it carefully.

Cade stood in the hallway, his face tight with worry.

"Can I come in?"

"It's late, Cade."

"I know. But I saw something, and I need to tell you."

She stepped back and let him in. He moved to the center of the room, checking the corners like a soldier clearing a space.

"I was coming back from the east wing," he said. "Late patrol. And I saw Knox leaving through a side entrance. He was meeting someone outside the castle walls."

"Who?"

"I couldn't see clearly. It was dark. But they weren't from any pack I recognized. They wore gray—no insignia, no markings. Three of them."

Aria's skin prickled. "Gray cloaks? No markings?"

"You know who they are?"

She didn't. But something about the description made her uneasy in a way she couldn't name.

"When was this?" she asked.

"An hour ago. Maybe less." Cade studied her. "Aria, what's going on? And don't tell me nothing. Knox has been acting strange, Vivian's following you around like a shadow, and you've got claw marks on your arms. Something is happening, and I'm tired of being left out."

She wanted to tell him. She really did. But every person who knew was another potential leak, another vulnerability.

"I'll look into it," she said. "Thank you for telling me."

"That's not enough."

"It has to be. For now."

He stood there for a long moment, frustration written all over his face. Then he nodded, once, and left.

Aria locked the door behind him. She went to the bookshelf and pressed the hidden panel. The passage opened.

She'd never gone through it alone before. The kings always came to her. But right now she needed to tell Darius what Cade had seen, and she couldn't wait until tomorrow.

The passage was narrow and dark, lit by torches that flickered in a draft she couldn't feel. She counted her steps. Left turn. Right turn. Stairs going up. Another left.

She emerged through a panel in a room she'd never seen before. A study, larger than Blake's, lined with maps and books and weapons mounted on the walls.

Darius's private study.

But it was empty.

She was about to turn back when she heard voices from behind a door at the far end. Darius. And someone else. Someone she didn't recognize.

"—accelerating the timeline. The blood moon—"

"I'm aware of the blood moon." Darius's voice. Cold. Controlled. "What I want to know is who else is aware."

"My sources say Knox has been in contact with the remnants of the old coven. Morgana's followers. They want the curse to succeed, not be broken."

"Morgana's been dead for three hundred years."

"Dead, yes. But her followers aren't. And they've been waiting for this. For a descendant of the First Luna to appear."

Silence. Long and heavy.

"Then we have enemies we didn't know about," Darius said. "And they know about Aria."

Aria pressed her hand over her mouth to keep from making a sound. Her heart was pounding so hard she was sure they could hear it.

Enemies. Looking for her. Wanting the curse to destroy everything.

She backed away from the door. One step. Two. Then she turned and fled back through the passage, her footsteps echoing in the dark.

By the time she reached her room, she was shaking.

It wasn't just Knox. It wasn't just Vivian. There was something bigger out there. Something old and dark and patient.

And it was coming for her.