All Chapters of Forbidden Under the Blood Moon: Chapter 321 - Chapter 330

POV: KADE ASHBORN"My son is nine years old, my lord. Hang me if the charter says I must, but do not make him wait in the dark one more night."Ilsa stood in the middle of the great hall with her hands tied loosely in front of her, because I had refused to let the guards use chains. Her grey hair was braided, her apron was gone, and she looked smaller than I had ever seen her. Ten councillors sat in a half circle. Stroud had his arms folded. Tamsin watched Ilsa with open sorrow. Garrick Voss stared at the ceiling, plainly wishing he were anywhere else.Wren sat beside me on the dais with the baby asleep on her lap. She had slept for two hours. It showed in her eyes, bright and strained."The charter says proof before punishment," I said. "It also says mercy where there is cause. Ilsa came to me before I found her. She told me everything. She gave the names of no one, because she did not know any. I propose that she stay under watch in the herb room, and that this council spend its ene

POV: KADE ASHBORN"Grey sealing wax, my lord? Ten blocks went out this autumn. Selene signed for six, Ronan for three, and the last went to Lady Maelis for the nursery candles."The armoury keeper, a bent old man named Fenwick, ran a crooked finger down his ledger. The armoury smelled of oil and cold iron. Racks of spears rose into the dark above us, and my lantern made the blades glitter like fish in a net. I had come alone, because I did not want any witness to my face."Each one signed by hand?" I asked."Every one, my lord. No exceptions. Your father's rule.""And the blocks that came back?""Back?" He chuckled. "Nothing comes back, my lord. Wax is for burning."I thanked him and walked out into the cold, with the ledger heavy in my mind. Selene. Ronan. Maelis. And somewhere behind the three names, the fourth person Wren had named for me in a whisper last night. Maren, who had come south after thirty years of silence. Maren, who had caught my daughter with her own hands.I did not

POV: KADE ASHBORN"He did not choose to turn, Kade. He was standing in the barracks eating soup, and then he screamed, and now three men have fangs and no words."Cody stood in my study doorway with torn sleeves and a long scratch down his neck. His chest heaved. Behind him, the corridor was full of running feet and shouting. Moonlight poured through the high window and lay across my desk in a pool of cold silver.I was on my feet before he finished. "Where?""The east barracks. Garrick Voss is the worst. He broke a door with his shoulder.""Is anyone dead?""Not yet."We ran.It had been twenty nine nights since my daughter was born, and every night had felt like a held breath. The valley had made its peace with fear in small ways. The guards doubled. The children were kept near the hearths. The council met each evening, and Stroud kept his month of patience without complaint. Wren had spent most of those days in the archive with the old Vane elder, and I had spent them on the walls.

POV: KADE ASHBORN"Somebody has been feeding this circle for years, Kade. The stones are clean, the offerings are fresh, and every candle has been lit within the last three nights."Ronan crouched at the edge of a ring of standing stones high in the Vane burial hills, with his hand on the frost. The wind keened across the heather. Behind him, the grey stones rose like old teeth, each one carved with the same pale crescent. A cold sun hung low over the ridge, and our breath rose in white clouds.Selene stood at my other side, her cloak pulled tight. Four of our best scouts waited behind us on the slope. I had brought no one else. Whatever lay in this circle, I did not want it in a report."Years?" I asked."Look at the moss." Ronan pointed at the base of the nearest stone. "It has been scraped back, again and again, in the same shape. Somebody kneels here. And there." He lifted a small bowl of dried herbs from a niche. "Wolfsbane, moonwort, silver bark. These are not for decoration.""

POV: KADE ASHBORN"Say my name again, little one. Say it slowly. I am old, and I would like to hear exactly what the moon thinks I have done."Maren stood in the north tower doorway with her grey braid over one shoulder and her knitting still in her hand. She had come running, because the whole castle had felt the hum. Her face was the colour of old paper. She was looking at my daughter, and my daughter was looking back with eyes that were no longer a baby's.The glow had faded from the small hand on my cheek. The deep echoing voice was gone. Now the child only blinked, yawned, and dropped her head against Wren's shoulder, asleep in the space of a breath. The wind stopped. The stones went quiet.Nobody spoke."She said your name," Wren whispered. "I did not ask her to.""I heard it from the stairs." Maren took one step into the room. Her knuckles were white on the needles. "I heard it from the courtyard. I think the whole valley did.""Maren, I need to ask you something.""Ask it."Wr