ログインChapter 18: The North OakThe wardens were easy. That should have worried me.I told them I wanted to check the salt barrels. They bowed and followed me down the back stairs to the kitchens, where Marta had a pot on and six women were peeling roots. I said good morning. I asked about the damp on the north wall. Then I put my hand on Marta’s arm and said, very quietly, “Is the cellar door still unlatched?”She didn’t look up from her knife. “It sticks, Luna. It’ll want a good push.”“Thank you.”“The wardens will be wanting breakfast,” Marta said, to the room. “Rina. Bring the men some bread and eggs.”I went down the cellar steps. I heard two plates hit the table above me. I pushed the door at the bottom, shoulder first, and the cold came in. I was in the herb garden, in the dead stalks and frost. Then over the wall, where the stones were low.The north oak stood alone on a rise a mile past the last field.I’d seen it from my window. A huge old tree, black against the grey sky, with h
Chapter 17: Whose Are YouI didn’t tell him about the ring.I stood at the window until the courtyard emptied. The lantern went out. Behind me, Kael said my name once, quietly, and asked what I was looking at.“Nothing,” I said.He waited. I kept my forehead against the glass. After a while I heard him walk to the bed, and the sound of the mattress taking his weight, and then nothing.I went into the bathing chamber and closed the door.It was a stone room at the back of the Alpha’s rooms, with a sunken floor and a low bench along one wall. A copper basin stood on the bench, with a pitcher beside it. A boiler on the far side kept the water hot all night. I turned the tap and let it run until steam rose and covered the mirror. Then I sat down, took the pins from my hair, and pulled my shift off my shoulders.I picked up the cloth.Her hands had been warm. That was what I couldn’t stop thinking about. When she’d taken mine on the steps, with her rose water and her pink powder, they had
Chapter 16: The Stepmother ArrivesI didn’t ask him about the letters.I meant to. The morning after I found the K, I went looking for him, with the twelfth letter folded in my sleeve. The study was empty. His bed was made. Liora told me the Council had called an emergency session on the Moonborn matter, and the Alpha had been in the Hall of Stones since dawn. He stayed there three days. When he came back, he came back at midnight, and I was waiting in the chair by the fire with the letter in my hand.He crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed to take off his boots. He bent. He didn’t straighten up. His hand dropped away from the laces, and his head went down against the post, and he was asleep sitting up.I stood over him for a while. I took the letter back to the drawer. I took off his boots myself, lifted his legs onto the bed, and pulled the blanket over him.He slept eleven hours. It was the longest I’d ever seen.The next day was market day, and the next there was a bord
Chapter 15: Eleven LettersKael didn’t throw the towel at him. I want to say that first, because I thought he would.He held it out to me over his shoulder without turning around. His body stayed between the tub and the door. His hand was perfectly steady. The only thing moving in the whole room was a drop of water sliding off his wet sleeve and hitting the floor.“Get out,” Kael said.Jason didn’t move.“Now.”“I heard all of it.” Jason’s voice shook. “From the healer on. The door was open. I came to ask if she was hurt, and I stood there, and—“ He stopped. “I’m not leaving.”Kael took one step toward the door.“Kael.” I stood up in the water. I took the towel from his hand and wrapped it around myself, and my fingers were slow on the edge. “Don’t.”“He doesn’t get to stand there and—““Let him say it.”Kael looked at me over his shoulder. His eyes were dark and flat. He looked at the towel, then at my face, then at Jason, and I watched him weigh something I couldn’t see.“You have u
Chapter 14: What the Healer FoundOrrin made me lie flat and take off the coat.It wasn’t Kael’s coat anymore. Somewhere between the Hall of Stones and the Alpha’s rooms, a maid had brought a robe, and I’d put it on with my back to everyone. It was white wool, too long in the sleeves. I rolled one cuff back for the healer and held out my arm.“The other, Luna. Over the heart.”I opened the front. He didn’t look at anything but the place he’d named.Orrin was old. Forty years in Blackwood service, Liora had told me on the stairs, and it showed in his hands. They were thin and brown and quick, with ink under the nails. He’d come straight up from the lower villages with fever salve still on his sleeves. He had a flat leather case. He opened it on the bed beside me, and I counted what was inside. Glass tubes. A small brass lamp. A needle as thin as a hair.Kael stood at the foot of the bed.He hadn’t sat. He hadn’t spoken since he’d carried me through the door. He had his arms folded and
Chapter 13: The Silver TestI folded the cloth back over the gloves. I tied the twine in the same knot, laid the bundle in the exact center of the lid, and pushed the loose corner flat with one finger.“Luna.” Liora’s voice shook. “Please.”I walked out of the study without looking at the desk. I pulled the door to its hand’s width, the way I’d found it.“How long?” I asked.“Minutes. They’re in the east hall. Alpha Kael’s already there.” She was almost running. I walked fast enough that she had to. “Garrick sent me for you. He said not to let you go alone.”“Is Kael angry?”“He’s very quiet.”I smoothed my sleeves. I touched the key under my collar, then the pendant at my throat. My hands were steady. That surprised me.The Hall of Stones was a round room cut into the rock under the north tower, and it was colder than the rest of the castle. Twelve seats stood in a circle, carved from the same grey stone as the walls, and each one held an elder. Old men and women with white hair and







