Lahat ng Kabanata ng Rebirth Of The Broken Luna: A Second Chance at Luna's Heart : Kabanata 481 - Kabanata 490

Chapter 482SOPHIAThe next morning, I tried again. I always tried again.I hadn't slept. None of us had. After Xenois carried Ollie upstairs, he went back down to the basement and stayed there for an hour. I heard his voice through the floor, low and hard, and Lazarus's voice answering, calm. I couldn't hear the words. When Xenois finally came to bed, he lay on his back with his eyes open and didn't say anything. I put my hand on his chest. He didn't move it away. But he didn't hold it either.At six, he got up and went to his study. He took the little wooden box with him. He didn't think I saw.I made hot chocolate. It was the only thing I could think to do.I knocked on Ollie's door at seven. The real kind of hot chocolate, with milk, not water, with the little marshmallows he liked when he was three."Ollie? Can I come in?"He didn't answer. I opened the door anyway.He was sitting on his bed, fully dressed, staring at the wall. Xenois had taken the lock off his door last night. T

Chapter 484SHAWNThe date was at a café called The Copper Kettle, and I was not ready for it.I changed my shirt three times before I left. Then I changed back into the first one. Then I stood in front of the mirror and told myself I looked fine, and my reflection didn't believe me either.I almost didn't go. Not because of the date. Because of Ollie.I promised him I'd check the notebook. I promised him I'd go down to the basement, not him. And then Xenois caught me in Ollie's room with the cookies and said *he's your kid* back at me like a slap, and I walked out, and I didn't go down that night. Or the next night. I told myself I was waiting for the right time.Then Ollie went himself. And got caught. And now Lazarus was gone, and Ollie's door had no lock, and every time I walked past it I felt sick.I hadn't kept my promise. Not really. I'd just kept the bag packed in my head and stayed out of the way.Kamsi said it wasn't really a date. Just the Underground, hanging out, the way

Chapter 486SILVIAI found out about the dungeon from my grandson.Not Ollie. Lake. Sweet Lake, who couldn't keep a secret if you glued his mouth shut. He called me on Sophia's old tablet on Saturday morning. He told me in a whisper, like it was something terrible, that Ollie got caught talking to Mr. Lazarus at three in the morning and Daddy carried him upstairs and Ollie screamed and Riley cried and now Mr. Lazarus was in a vault and Ollie's room had no lock and no books."And Grandma," he whispered, "I saw him go down. And I didn't tell. Am I in trouble?""No, my darling," I said. "You're not in trouble. You were being a good brother.""Riley told.""Riley was being a good brother too. In a different way." I closed my eyes. "Lake, is Ollie eating?"A long pause."Not really," he said.I hung up and drove straight over. Samuel came with me, mostly to stop me from doing something I'd regret."You're going to say something you can't take back," he said in the car."Probably.""Silvia.

Chapter 488SHAWN"Nothing," Ollie said, which is what everyone says when they're doing something.I didn't know what woke me up. Not a sound. More like a feeling, the way you wake up a second before your alarm goes off. I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, and my plasma was sparking on my fingertips for no reason at all, little blue pops in the dark. And then I just knew. I didn't think. I got up and walked straight to his room.Now he was sitting on the windowsill with one leg over the porch roof and his backpack strapped on so tight the straps were digging into his shoulders."Come inside first," I said. "It's cold. You're letting all the heat out."He looked at me. He looked at the roof. He looked at the big tree, its branch moving in the wind.Then, slowly, he brought his leg back in.I closed the window. I didn't lock it. I wanted him to see that I wasn't going to trap him.I sat down on the floor with my back against his bed. Not too close. I didn't take the bag. After a minute

Chapter 490SOPHIAI found out from the news. The pack bulletin, actually. Somebody posted it before breakfast.COALITION TO REVIEW DEATH OF BOULDER CREEK ALPHA HEIR. BLACKWOOD LUNA NAMED.There was a picture underneath. Not of me. Of Marcus. Young and smiling, with his arm around his little brother at some pack event, both of them squinting into the sun. I had never seen that picture before.Below it, forty-two comments already. I didn't read them. I didn't need to.I read the headline three times on my phone, standing in the kitchen in my robe. My coffee went cold in my hand.Xenois came in with grass on his feet and red eyes. He saw my face. He came straight to me and took the phone and put it face down on the counter."It's nothing," he said. "Kingston has hated us for years. He's grabbing at anything. It'll go nowhere.""He's saying I killed him.""He's saying he wants answers. He doesn't have any proof.""He has Lynn.""Lynn has a theory. That's all." He held my face in his hand