All Chapters of Bound by the Cursed Moon: Chapter 621 - Chapter 630

Point of View: Kieran (Male Lead)“Nobody leave. If I open this alone, I will lie to myself about what it says. I need witnesses, and I need them to promise they will not look at me with pity.”I am Kieran, and I watched a boy ask strangers to hold his courage for him, and I knew exactly how he felt.Dawn came gray and cold. Frost lay on the grass like spilled salt. I had finished my watch in the cellar with a stiff neck and a heart full of Maren’s boots, and I came up the steps to find the kitchen full of people. Rhen sat by the stove with a blanket around her shoulders. Briar was pouring tea with careful hands. Dorian stood in the doorway holding a book he was not reading. And Perrin sat at the table with eight drawings laid out in front of him, not touching any of them.Hesper Voss stood across from him. She had come over the ridge at first light. Under one arm she carried something wrapped in oilcloth.“This came last autumn,” she said. “A carrier left it on my step. It has Maren’

Point of View: Kieran (Male Lead)“Do not tell her, Kieran. Not the signed book, not Isolde, not the T. Let her sleep one honest week. If you tell her, she will stand up and carry it.”I am Kieran, and I heard my wife ask me to repeat the sin that had killed an old woman’s hope.We were standing behind the barn, in the thin gray light after supper. The wind smelled of wet straw and distant snow. Rhen had her blue shawl wrapped twice around her shoulders and her arms crossed hard over her chest, as if she were holding something shut.“No,” I said.“Kieran.”“No, Rhen. I am saying it plainly, because you taught me that plain is kind. We do not hide this from her.”“She is held together with string. You have seen her hands.”“I have seen her hands for thirty eight years. I held them first.” I kept my voice low. “I know exactly how fragile she is. That is why I will not lie.”“It is not lying. It is waiting.”“Maren waited. She wrote do not tell him on every drawing. Do you remember? Eigh

Point of View: Kieran (Male Lead)“Rhen. You taught me to carry a fragment in a sock. And now you will stand there and tell me I should not say yes to a Warden?”I am Kieran, and I watched my wife be loved too much by a friend who had stopped being able to hold on.They came on the thirteenth day. Four wagons, rolling slowly down the overgrown valley path, bumping over roots and old ruts. Four lines, each with its elder, its clerk and a handful of weary supporters. They carried baskets of bread and jars of honey and bundles of warm blankets. They were the kindest faced people I had ever seen.I stood on the front step and felt something cold slide down my spine.“Marisol,” I said, very quietly.She had come out beside me. Her hands were folded. She looked pale and drawn, and for the first time since I had known her, she looked frightened of her own good idea.“I did not ask them to come,” she said.“I believe you.”“I wrote to say we were considering a temporary arrangement. I did not

Point of View: Kieran (Male Lead)“I opened it, Kieran. I opened the cabinet, and I could not close it. I am so sorry. Please do not tell Briar I left the Chair’s ledger open to the wind.”I am Kieran, and I watched an honest man confess to the smallest, oldest, most human failure there is.It was past midnight. The camp had gone quiet at last. Lanterns burned low beside the wagons, and the soft sounds of sleeping people drifted across the yard like breathing. I had left the cellar steps for a moment to stretch my back and stood at the kitchen window, listening to the hum.Then I heard a sound from the front room. A small, dry, wooden click. And a long, apologetic sigh.The front room smelled of cold beeswax and old dust. A moth bumped against the window glass, over and over. I found Dorian standing in front of Maren’s cabinet with his hands pressed flat against the open door. His shoulders were stiff. His long fingers trembled. Sweat shone on his forehead.“Dorian?”“Shh.” He did not

Point of View: Kieran (Male Lead)“I am the one who wrote it. And I will not take it back, Perrin, even if you tear the page out in front of me.”I am Kieran, and I watched my daughter stand in a doorway and refuse to be ashamed of a kindness.The kitchen had gone so quiet I could hear the lantern hiss. Perrin stood in the doorway with the ledger open in his fist and his pack slung on one shoulder. His face was a mask of fury, and under the fury, something much more fragile.Briar had not moved. She stood by the stove with her hands at her sides. She did not flinch from his eyes.“You wrote it,” said Perrin.“Yes.”“You had no right.”“None at all. And I would do it again.”“She was my grandmother. Not yours. Not the Concord’s. Not some line on a roll you could sign off with a form.” His voice cracked. “She spent forty years alone in this house. And you think you can end it with five little words, because it makes you feel better?”“No,” said Briar. “It does not make me feel better. I