All Chapters of Crowned in Moonlight: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

AureliaI didn't have an answer for him, not one that felt big enough for what he had just handed me, so I sat there in the wreckage of the altar room with his words settling over me like a second blanket, warmer than anything I had felt in years, when a soft, deliberate tapping sounded against the window across the chamber.Three taps. A pause… then Two more.I was on my feet before I'd even finished processing what I'd heard, because that pattern belonged to exactly one person in the entire world."Wren," I breathed.Talon was already moving toward the window, his hand hovering near the latch, his eyes flicking to me for confirmation before he touched it. "You're certain?""I'd know that knock in my sleep," I said, crossing the room to stand beside him. "She used it outside my dormitory a hundred times. Open it."He unlatched the iron bars just enough to swing the frame inward, and there she was, clinging to the narrow ledge three stories up with her cloak pulled tight against the w

Aurelia"We have a deal," I said, and I meant it, though some smaller, wearier part of me wondered how many more deals I'd end up striking before this marriage stopped feeling like a battlefield with better furniture, and Corvin actually smiled at that, a real smile, brief and startled, as though he hadn't expected to like the sound of an agreement this much."Then let's not waste the morning standing here admiring each other's bruises," he said, tossing me the cloth he'd been using to wipe his own jaw."Get cleaned up and rest while you still can, because once I send word to my people about your grandfather, Malric Ashgrave becomes the only problem either of us has time to think about."I left him in the training yard and made my way back through the winding stone corridors toward the chamber I'd been given. My body was still aching in places I hadn't noticed during the fight itself, the cloth still damp in my hand, my thoughts tangled somewhere between relief at finally having an al

AureliaKieran didn't say anything for a while after that, content to let me sit with the memory of my sister without filling the silence the way he usually did."You should tell Corvin about the assassin," he said finally, "and Talon too. They'll both want to know Marisol's still a threat, regardless of what she claimed when she made her bargain with you.""I will," I said. "Later. I need a minute first, before I have to explain any of this out loud again."He crouched down beside me, elbows resting on his knees, and for once his expression held none of the mockery, I'd come to expect from him. "You don't have to pretend that memory didn't shake you," he said. "I've seen you fight off an assassin without blinking. This is the first thing tonight that's actually rattled you.""It's strange," I admitted. "I can face a blade coming at my throat and know exactly what to do with it. I have no idea what to do with the idea that my sister might once have loved me.""Maybe that's harder," Ki

Aurelia"Enough," Corvin said again, his voice cutting through the argument like a blade through rope. "This isn't something we decide standing in a war room shouting at each other. It goes before the full council. Today.""The council," Kieran repeated, disgust plain in his voice. "That collection of old men who haven't fought a real battle in a decade and think a formal vote fix everything.""It's tradition," Corvin said. "And tradition is the only thing standing between us and a war we can't win outright. If the council rules on how we answer Ash grave, it carries the weight of the whole pack behind it, not just the three of us arguing in a tower.""Tradition also means she doesn't get a vote," Talon said quietly, nodding toward me. "The council convenes for pack matters. Aurelia isn't pack-born. She won't even be allowed to speak for herself."The unfairness of that landed harder than I expected, given everything I'd already survived in the last two days."I'm the one Ash grave wa

Aurelia"You know her," Kieran said, watching my face with an intensity that had nothing left of the softness from a moment ago."I trained under her," I said. "Three years ago. Ren was the best fighter the Academy had ever produced, and she made sure everyone knew it, especially the omegas she considered beneath her notice.""That's not the same as knowing someone.""No," I admitted. "But I know how she fights. I know she doesn't lose, and I know she doesn't take contracts unless she's certain of the outcome before she ever steps into the ring."Kieran's expression darkened further. "Then Talon needs to know exactly what he's walking into, tonight, not tomorrow morning when it's too late to prepare for it."We found him in the armory, quietly checking the edge of a blade by torchlight, and the moment he saw both our faces, he set the weapon down without being asked."Tell me,” he said.I told him everything I remembered about Ren, the way she fought low and patient, waiting for her o