chapter 6: The Moon Charm

~~~Aurelia POV~~~

I didn't stop running until the castle lights were gone.

The cliff road was empty. Wind tore at my gown and the sea roared somewhere below. I kicked off my shoes and kept going barefoot, one hand over my mouth so I wouldn't sob out loud.

Draven's fingers around my wrist. Cordelia's smile.

They were alive. Both of them. Standing in a warm ballroom like nothing had happened, while I had died in the dark.

No. No. I couldn't let this breath. They needed a taste of their own medicine.

I was given a second chance of life, and clearly, this was the moon's way of saying, go for it.

My palm burned. I looked down. The glove had slipped and the cut had opened again, a thin red line across my skin.

A drop of blood gathered at the edge.

No.

I clenched my fist. That strange hum stirred in my veins, eager, like it was just waiting for someone to point at.

"Not now," I whispered.

It took a long time to go quiet. When it did, I was shaking, and not just from the cold.

I wrapped my hand in the hem of my dress, tucked the silver mask into my bodice and kept walking.

----

The cottage was dark except for one candle in the kitchen window.

Aunt Kathy was sitting at the table in her shawl. She hadn't gone to bed. She hadn't even taken off her shoes.

"Hazel."

"I'm fine."

"You're barefoot."

"My shoes pinched."

She didn't smile. Her eyes moved over my hair, my crumpled gown, and stopped at my wrist.

"Where is it?"

"Where is what?"

"Your bracelet."

I looked down. My sleeve had slipped, and there on my left wrist was a thin band of pale skin, lighter than the rest. I had worn something there for years without even noticing.

A memory that wasn't mine floated up. A small girl holding out her arm while a woman fastened something cold and silver around it. 'Never take it off, my little moon. Not for anyone.'

So that's what snapped.

"I lost it," I voice came low.

"Where?"

I didn't answer fast enough.

"At the castle." Her voice cracked. She gripped the edge of the table. "You lost it at the castle."

"I don't think anyone saw. It just fell."

"Fell where? Into whose hands?"

"I don't know."

The candle flickered. For the first time since I'd woken up in this body, I saw Aunt Kathy truly afraid. And it had to do with a bracelet.

"It's just a bracelet aunty don't get too worked up."

It wasn't even to be called pricy or expensive.

"That charm must never be seen," she said quietly. "Not by anyone. Do you understand?"

Charm?

"What is it?"

"Nothing. A trinket your mother bought at a market." It was the worst lie I'd ever heard. I'd have laughed if she didn't look so frightened. "If anyone asks, that's all it is."

"Aunt Kathy—"

She started to stand, and a cough tore out of her. Not a small one. It bent her over the table and rattled in her chest, and when it finally stopped, she was gray and trembling.

"Aunt Kathy!"

"I'm fine." She waved me off. "Just dizzy. Too much worry and not enough sleep."

I helped her to her room anyway. She weighed almost nothing, and her skin was hot through her sleeve. She lay down without arguing, which scared me more.

"Go to bed, Hazel," she mumbled. "And promise me you'll stay away from trouble."

"I promise."

I just wasn't sure I could keep it.

----

I barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw a wolf mask and a hand reaching for my face.

In the morning I hid the silver mask under a loose floorboard, scrubbed the blood off my glove and put the kettle on for Aunt Kathy's tea. I was still staring at the water when the front door banged open.

"Hazel!"

Daisy. Hair half pinned, cloak crooked, cheeks pink from the wind and grinning like she'd won a prize.

"You will not believe what happened last night."

"Good morning to you too."

"Don't good morning me. You missed everything!" She dropped into a chair and stole bread off my plate. "Okay. Listen. Somebody refused my uncle."

My hand froze on the kettle.

"To his face. In the middle of the ballroom, in front of everyone. He held out his hand and asked her to dance, and she said no."

"Did she?" I said carefully.

"And that's not even the best part! Then she ran away from him. How had I missed that!" Daisy slapped the table, laughing. "Nobody runs from Uncle Ravik. Grown men faint when he looks at them. And this girl just bolted and slammed the doors behind her."

"That sounds reckless."

"It's the funniest thing I've ever heard. I wish I'd seen it." She wiped her eyes. "I only heard about it afterward. Everyone's whispering, but nobody knows who she was. She had a mask on, like everyone."

I turned back to the kettle so she couldn't see my face.

"Uncle didn't think it was funny, though," she went on, a little softer. "He went straight to his study and hasn't said a word since. I went to meet him earlier on and he was just standing at the window. Saying nothing. Everyone are so afraid to go closer that I'd had to deliver his food myself. Not as if he'd eat anything."

I breathed again.

"Anyway." Daisy glanced at me. "Where did you go? I looked everywhere."

"I felt sick. So I went home early."

She placed the back of her hand on my forehead. Her face held a frown.

"You don't seem alright lately. Maybe we should get you checked —"

"No, It's nothing. Just a slight headache I guess. I'm fine now."

She withdrew her hand.

"Oh." Her face fell. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dragged you."

"It's alright."

"It's not. Because..." She winced. "I wasn't really there either. For most of it."

I raised an eyebrow.

She leaned across the table and dropped her voice. "Hazel. If I tell you something, you can't tell anyone. Especially not my uncle."

I almost laughed.

"Yeah sure. Cause I'm practically best Friend's with your uncle."

"I'm serious."

"Fine. Fine. I promise."

She let out a rush of air. "I snuck off to meet someone. A guard. In the castle. Don't make that face!"

"I'm not making a face."

"You are. He's wonderful. He's kind and honest, and he doesn't care who I am or what family I belong to." Her smile wobbled. "But if anyone ever finds out, they'll consider it a shame. And don't let me get started with my uncle. If he ever found out, he wouldn't care how wonderful he is. He'd have his head off before sunset."

Her voice cracked on that last word.

"Why are you telling me this?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Because...." She breath for the first time in-between her sentences. "I feel I own you an apology with an explanation. Also, you're my best friend and I couldn't lie to you. Sorry I kept it for a while. Should have told you sooner."

Best friend. The word lingered in my chest a little longer.

I looked at her. This bright, loud girl who talked like she breathed, now close to tears over someone she couldn't have.

I knew what a secret could do in the wrong hands. I knew exactly.

"I won't tell anyone," I said. "I swear."

Daisy squeezed my hands so hard it hurt. "You're the best, you know that?"

When she left, something warm settled in my chest. Hazel's heart, probably. Or maybe mine, remembering how.

----

Aunt Kathy was still in bed when I came back. Her face was flushed, her breathing shallow. I touched her forehead and it burned.

Seeing her in such a state, made something deep in my chest crack. Was it Hazel's heart or had I became her.

That can't be possible. I believed, I was only feeling her grif because it was her body. Right?

I sat beside aunt Kathy for a long time.

On my wrist, the pale band of skin caught the morning light. A moon charm that must never be seen. Probably worthing a lot more than I had expected.

I had come back to make my enemies pay.

But it was starting to look like Hazel Asher had a few of her own.