Everyone gathered at the edge of Moonlake.The Blue Moon hung at its height, full and cold and vast, turning the water into a sheet of reflected light. Along the shore the Alpha families and the Council elders knelt in ordered ranks.Elder Faustino’s voice carried first across the water.“By the Blue Moon’s light, we kneel.”A hundred voices answered as one.“By the Blue Moon’s light, we kneel.”“We call Your name, Mother of tides and truth.”“Bless the packs that keep faith. Guide the hands that seek justice. Turn Your face from those who stain Your rites with greed.”The chant rolled on in steady waves, call and return, older than any Council seat, older than the houses ranked along the bank. Liliana knelt with her parents and spoke the lines with the rest until the trance took her.It came without warning: a pull behind the sternum, a hush inside the next refrain, as if the lake and the moon had found the mark on her brow and answered it.
Baca selengkapnya
