Chapter 3

A few minutes after we left the council hall, the wolfsbane surged from my heart toward my throat. I covered my mouth and coughed dark blood onto the snow.

Elias’s voice sounded far away. “Aria? Aria, stay with me.”

I wanted to tell him not to cry, but I couldn’t lift my hand. The last thing I saw was a faint moon above the clouds, like the Moon Goddess had finally come for me.

When I opened my eyes again, Elias was on his knees on the healing center floor, crying so hard his shoulders shook.

I wanted to touch his shoulder. My hand passed through him. I froze, then slowly turned around and saw my own body lying on the bed.

So I was dead.

My soul didn’t leave right away. Some unfinished obsession tied me here, and I could only follow Elias as he arranged my funeral.

Elias looked as if the color had been drained from him overnight. In a few days, he lost visible weight, and the shadows under his eyes stayed.

Three days before the funeral, he sat beside my ashes with a ruined voice. “Aria, I don’t know if I should tell Damon. Can you give me an answer?”

Of course I couldn’t. I hoped he wouldn’t tell him. I was afraid Damon would hear that I was dead, remember the blood on the council floor, and still tell Serena, “She finally stopped acting.”

As long as I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I could still lie to myself that he won’t be that cruel.

The phone on the table rang. Damon’s name lit the screen.

Elias stared at my urn for a few seconds, then answered.

Damon’s voice came through the speaker, steady and almost bored. “In three days, Serena and I will hold the Luna vow ceremony. I’ll send the location. You’re my friend. Don’t miss it.”

I was dead, and somehow I still felt like I couldn’t breathe.

Elias’s face went pale. “Why that day?”

Damon sounded impatient. “What’s wrong with that day?”

“Nothing.” Elias closed his eyes. “I’ll be there on time.”

After the call ended, Elias looked at my urn and laughed once. Tears fell onto the back of his hand.

“Did you hear that, Aria? He chose that day for his Luna vows.”

“But that day is your funeral.”

Three days later, Elias put on a black suit and pinned a white moon-orchid to his lapel. Then he went to the Silver Ridge ceremonial hall with no expression on his face.

I wanted to stop him, but my soul couldn’t touch anything. I could only follow him into the ceremony Damon and Serena had prepared.

Silver-white branches covered the hall, and the Elders sat in the front row. Serena waited beneath the platform in the white dress prepared for a Luna.

Damon stood beside her in a white Alpha robe, but he didn’t look like a groom on the happiest day of his life. His thumb kept touching the blank screen of his phone, and when he saw Elias dressed in mourning black, his expression darkened. “You came to my vow ceremony dressed like that?”

Serena frowned too. Her soft voice carried offense. “Elias, this joke is too much.”

Elias looked at them calmly. “I’m not joking. After your ceremony, I have to go to Aria’s funeral. I don’t have time to change.”