Chapter Three - The Luna Pendant

Chapter Three

Getting out of bed took longer than it should have.

Evelyn  hovered the entire time – hands half-raised, ready to catch her – while Gianna moved carefully, testing each step like she was walking on ice. The lump on her skull had softened slightly overnight but the unpleasant headache behind her eyes was still there.

She made it to the vanity without incident and sat down.

Evelyn  set to work on her hair in silence.

Gianna looked at her own reflection.

She was genuinely beautiful and she was stuck.

Stuck in a house with a husband who'd shoved her down a flight of stairs and then sat beside her bed the next morning like he was the one with grievances. 

"Evelyn ," Gianna said.

"Yes, Luna?"

"Why won't Cyrus divorce me?" She watched Evelyn 's hands stop moving in the mirror. 

"Legally. What's actually stopping it?"

Evelyn  set the comb down very slowly.

"Luna." She chose her words with visible care. "You don't remember – but the marriage wasn't just between you and Alpha Cyrus. It went through the Lycan King. Cyrus divorcing you would be... it would be the same as defying a royal order."

Gianna stared at her reflection.

"And how did it get to the Lycan King?"

Evelyn 's eyes dropped. "You saw Cyrus at the inter-pack gathering three years ago. You came home and told your father you wanted to marry him." She paused. "When Alpha Alexandra said no, you – you refused to eat, Luna. For four days. Until he agreed to find a way." 

She paused again. "Alpha Alexandra went to the Lycan King personally. He called in years worth of favors. The King intervened on your behalf, and Cyrus had to accept the match."

The room was very quiet.

Gianna looked at herself in the mirror for a long moment.

"I really did that," she said.

"Yes, Luna."

Gianna exhaled through her nose.

"I dug my own grave," she said flatly. "And then I climbed in and pulled the dirt over myself."

Evelyn  said nothing. There was nothing useful to say.

Gianna took her time getting ready.

Not to spite Cyrus – she genuinely didn't care enough about him for spite. She took her time because she was about to meet the Lycan King, and she was not walking into a royal palace looking like a woman who'd spent the last day unconscious on a stone floor.

She did her makeup carefully and precisely, 

She looked at herself when she was done.

Good, she thought. That's better.

Then she opened the jewelry box for the Luna pendant.

A blood-red gemstone on a silver chain, the official mark of Valemont's Luna. She'd need it. You didn't walk into a royal banquet without your rank showing.

She moved things aside and checked every compartment.

Empty.

"Evelyn ." Gianna kept her voice even. "Where's the Luna pendant?"

Evelyn  crossed to her immediately and looked into the empty jewelry box. The color left her face.

"It was here yesterday morning," Evelyn  said. "I saw it myself, I –" She started pulling drawers open. "It has to be here, it couldn't have just –"

"Stop." Gianna closed the jewelry box. "It's fine."

"Luna, it's not fine, that pendant is the symbol of your position, if you show up to the palace without it people will –"

"The King is going to be dealing with an entire kingdom tonight," Gianna said. "He's not going to be counting my jewelry." She stood up and smoothed the front of her dress. "Let's go."

Cyrus was waiting at the front door.

He looked up when he heard her on the stairs and immediately looked back down at his watch. 

"An hour," he said. "I said one hour. It's been –"

"I'm ready now," Gianna said. "Shall we go?"

Cyrus looked up.

He looked at her the way he'd looked at her in the bedroom – assessing. His eyes moved from her face to the dress to the rubies at her neckline and back up.

"All that time," he said, "and this is what you do with it. Stand in front of a mirror and admire yourself."

Gianna opened her mouth.

Then she saw Pietra.

She was standing just behind Cyrus's left shoulder — slightly back, slightly sideways, positioned in that particular way that she could not easily be seen. She was wearing a simple dress. Her hair was down.

And around her neck, catching the light from the entryway chandelier, was a blood-red gemstone on a silver chain.

Gianna's Luna pendant.

Pietra met her eyes and gave her a small, malicious smile which was gone in under a second, replaced immediately by the wide, gentle expression she wore for Cyrus.

Gianna felt a coldness within her. She walked forward.

"Cyrus." Her voice was pleasant. "I was looking for my Luna pendant this morning. Couldn't find it anywhere." She stopped in front of Pietra. "Funny. It looks exactly like the one around Pietra's neck right now."

Pietra's smile didn't waver. "Luna, I –"

"Strange thing to go missing," Gianna said. She tilted her head, studying the pendant with polite curiosity. "Even stranger place for it to end up." She looked directly at Pietra. "Did you take it?"

Pietra's eyes filled with tears and her face crumpled. She turned and walked the two steps into Cyrus's chest, pressing her face against his shoulder, and making broken sounds. 

Cyrus's arms came up around her without hesitation. 

"I gave her the pendant." His voice was low and furious, "I gave it to her. It had nothing to do with Pietra." He kept one hand rubbing slow circles on Pietra's back. "You are unbelievable. Your own jealousy is rotting you from the inside and you're standing here trying to make her cry about it." He reached out with his free hand toward Gianna's shoulder giving her the same dismissive shove as yesterday "Move. We're leaving –"

Gianna stepped sideways. She was out of his reach before he touched her. Cyrus's arm swung through empty air.

He blinked.

Gianna was already walking. She stepped past him, past Pietra, reached out as she passed and took the pendant off Pietra's neck in one smooth motion and kept walking toward the carriage without breaking stride.

"I'm still Valemont's Luna," she said, without turning around. She fastened the pendant around her own neck as she walked. "Keep your lover close, Cyrus. That's your job tonight." She reached the carriage and stepped up. "Mine is representing this pack in front of the King."

She sat down and looked out the window.