Home / Werewolf / The Last True Luna / Chapter 111 - Chapter 119

All Chapters of The Last True Luna: Chapter 111 - Chapter 119

119 Chapters

Chapter 111

Aria's POVMarcus had both arms wrapped around my waist, and he was losing.My boots scraped across the stone. The pull did not drag at my body. It dragged at my wolf, like a hook caught under my ribs with a rope wound tight around it. Every time Seren curled her fingers, my white wolf yelped and slid another step toward the edge."Dad!" I gasped."I have you." My father threw both arms around my legs. His silver gray hair was wild and his violet eyes were wide with fear. "Do not let go of me, Aria. I will not let go of you.""Look at me." Marcus's face was an inch from mine. "Do not use the True Luna power. Cross said it will slam the door shut.""I am not using it!" Sweat ran into my eyes. "She is pulling it out of me."Below the wall, Aldaine watched with his hands folded behind his back, calm as a man waiting for tea. "Slowly, Seren," he called. "One dose only opens the door. Do not tear it off the hinges."A thin line of blood ran from Seren's nose. She did not lower her hand. He

Chapter 112

Aria's POVThe gate was stuck.I dropped to the ground and stared. My weight had dragged the heavy beam crooked in its iron brackets, and it had jammed halfway, tight as a bone in a bad joint. Above me, glassy eyed wolves still pushed at it, but it would not budge. The gap stayed a hand's width wide.It was not wide enough for an army. It was just wide enough for one thin girl with a lantern."You see?" Wren slid sideways through the gap and stepped onto Redwood ground. Her cloak was clean and her braid was neat. "You opened the door, Luna. Aldaine will say so. So will every wolf who watched you hang from that beam.""The beam is jammed," I answered. "I held it shut. You are the one standing inside."Her smile slipped a little. "Creek always said you were the clever one.""Creek is dead.""I heard." She tilted her head. "Foolish of me, but I cried."Beyond the wall, Seren's howl still rolled on. All around us, Redwood wolves stood frozen like statues. This morning I could have felt Wr

Chapter 113

Aria's POV "Nothing yet," Mira said, pressing two fingers to my wrist. "Your pulse is strong. Your wolf is only sleeping."I lay propped on the healing wing bed with a blanket around my shoulders. Outside the high window it was full dark. Rowan slept in the next bed. Cross sat on a stool by the door, polishing his glasses."The tea has done its part," he said. "The door is open. Now she has to choose to walk through it."Sera stood beside Marcus with her gray shawl pulled tight. "Listen, all of you. A thin thread still joins Aria to Seren. The moment Aria's wolf wakes, Seren will feel it, and so will her father. The Circle can hum over that thread and drown it in noise, but we are tired. We can hold it for one hour. We begin at midnight.""And if she wakes before midnight?" I asked.Sera did not answer. She did not need to."Everyone out," Mira said gently. "She needs quiet."My father paused at the door. "When you were small, you never cried when you got hurt," he said. "You went qu

Chapter 114

Aria's POVElena's blade came up. Behind me a dozen Redwood wolves spread across the stone alcove with spears lowered. Nobody dared step closer. The little door hung wide open, black water lapped at the threshold, and forty pairs of eyes glowed in the tunnel beyond."Easy," Aldaine said. "My wolves are patient. But they are very close to your sleeping friends."Dane lay at his feet, still gripping his spear, with four other guards sprawled around him."What did you do to them?" I asked."A little sleeping smoke through the keyhole. They will wake with sore heads. I do not waste lives I can use.""You were in your tent minutes ago. I felt you.""You felt where I wanted to be felt. There is a plank over the stream, built last night. I do not get wet for anyone." He drew a small glass vial from his coat and held it to the lantern. "I wanted you to wake early, Luna. I felt your wolf stir the moment she did. Now she can be put down properly. This is stronger than all three doses together.

Chapter 115

Aria's POVMira knelt over Aldaine for two breaths. Her fingers pressed his neck, then his wrist."Dead," she said, already running. "Now where is the Alpha?"I tried to follow, and my knees folded. Elena caught one arm and my father caught the other. My wolf lay silent in the dark behind her shut door, and the world felt thin and far away."I can walk," I said."You can lean," my father said roughly. "I have waited a long time to be leaned on."Elena had two spearmen lift Aldaine's body onto a wooden shield. "Every wolf on that wall needs to see him," she said. "Fast, before more of ours die."We crossed the courtyard slowly. At the foot of the stairs, Bram met us with a Circle wolf on either side. He took one look at the shield and his face went hard. Then he took the front end himself and climbed.The north wall looked like a field after a storm. Arrows stuck out of the stones. Bodies lay below the gate, some moving, some not. A hundred wolves still pressed against the wood in a da

Chapter 116

Aria's POV I did not leave without seeing Wren.They had put her in the smallest cell in the cell block, far from Croft and Rook, her wrists and ankles bound with silver cord. She sat against the wall with her braid undone, looking almost peaceful."Luna," she said. "Come to gloat?""I came for one answer." I stopped outside the bars. Elena stood behind me. "You said I only rang a bell. What did you mean?"Wren smiled. "Every Redwood wolf drops what he is doing when that bell rings. Three short, one long. I stood under Mira's window for months and listened to your drills. I told Aldaine what the bell meant. When you rang it at dusk, his scouts were listening beyond the wall. They watched which posts emptied and how long your wolves took to reach the inner line." Her eyes glittered. "His map was built on what I taught them.""The water gate," I said slowly. "You showed them how thin we would be.""Four guards and one tired father with a spear. You gave me those numbers yourself."It h

Chapter 117

Aria's POVA gray shape hit me from the side.Teeth caught the back of my cloak, and I was yanked through the smoke with the little girl clamped to my chest. The beam crashed down where I had been standing. Sparks burst across the floor.We slid out the door onto the frozen ground, coughing. The wolf let go and stood over us, panting. Her coat was the color of dry grass. Her brown eyes were wide."Seren," I wheezed.She shifted back, shaking, her cloak hanging off one shoulder. "I changed in the middle of a step," she whispered. "I did not decide. I just ran.""That is how deciding feels," I told her.A woman snatched the girl out of my arms and hugged her so hard I thought they would both break.The fight was ending. Dane's wolves had Brask flat on his belly with a knee in his back. Elena stood over three guards who had dropped their spears. Seren walked into the middle of the ring holding the broken band."Your Alpha is dead," she said. "Put your weapons down. Please."One by one, t

Chapter 118

Aria's POV Cross held a candle an inch from my eyes and frowned like the flame had insulted him."The door is open wider," he said. "Not all the way. But wider than three more cups of tea could have managed. Whatever happened last night, it helped.""Marcus," I said.He cleared his throat and glanced at Mira, who was hiding a smile badly. "The bond. Yes. A wolf listens to what she is reaching for. By this afternoon the door should be fully open, and one shift will not close it again.""That is good news.""It is." Cross looked at the floor, then up. "My daughter walked through the gate at dawn. Marcus's wolves brought her out of hiding in the night. She is alive and whole." His voice shook. "I wanted someone to know."I squeezed his hand. "I am glad."Across the room, Marcus had one boot on and was fighting with the other. Mira planted herself in front of him."You are not going to Moonridge.""I am.""The draught pulled out most of the silver from the knife. Most." She held up a fin

Chapter 119

Aria's POV"Nobody touch him," Mira said, ripping open her herb pouch. "Aria, you stay where he can feel you."I dropped to my knees on the frozen ground and took his hand. His skin was cold. The wolves on the ridge had formed a ring around us, silent, their lanterns low.Mira drew a thin blade from her pouch and held it over a lantern flame. "The fleck is close to his heart. I will have to cut straight to it. If he moves, I will miss.""He will not move," I said."How can you be sure?"I closed my eyes and reached down the bright cord between us. It was still unfinished, still waiting, but it was strong enough to carry a thought. Now my white wolf did what Sera had told me a True Luna could do, without any call and without any power that could hurt him. She only held still, steady as stone, and let him lean on her.Marcus's breathing slowed. His hand tightened around mine. Mira made one clean cut, and I heard a tiny click, like a seed dropping into a bowl. She held a blackened sliver

PREV

...

NEXT

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP

DMCA.com Protection Status