Todos os capítulos de THE REJECTED LUNA: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 28

Retreat is not a word Council uses.In Wolf Creek, when Harlan says retreat, his men run. When Council says retreat, it means something else. It means they will come back with more silver, more nets, more collars, more trucks, more law written on paper that says Whites belong to Council.But for now, on this frozen lake under northern lights that were green and pink and white and moving like slow rivers in sky, retreat meant Mordecai lifted his pale watery eyes from binoculars, said one word into radio, and his six trucks started backing up, lights still off, moving slow off ice edge onto snow bank, away from white wolves howling and Guardian running and half anointed White with burned palms that healed as fast as they burned.Harlan did not retreat. Harlan never learned when to retreat.He fell back into his own truck bed when I howled white howl, scrambled over my mother who was now free of rope and tape and gasping, over Kaden who was sitting with bleeding neck, over Lena who was h

I had never anointed anything before.I poured light over my head inside the Old Oak and that made my hair go all white and my eyes go white and my claws come out up to elbows. I gave light to Jax through a bite on his neck and that stopped his bleeding and made his four lines glow steady instead of bleeding light. But anointing ice was new. White wolf inside me howled the words and my hands knew before my mind knew and now my palms were flat on cracking ice island that was shrinking under me and Jax and light was spreading.Not bright light like moon mark on neck. Thin white light, like watery milk, running across ice in veins, following cracks, filling cracks, freezing cracks shut again.Where white light touched black smoke that sank from Old Oak fire branch on far bank, smoke hissed and pulled back a little, like it did not like light that came from anointing instead of from burning.On far bank, Elder Selene in white cloth council coat, white hair cut short like Council, not long

Mara in water reflection smiled but her eyes were sad.She knew what it cost to anoint fire white. She had anointed ice once to save baby Eliza when Silas Guardian died holding black flame off with his body. She had become empty White after, Baba told me by fire when she thought I was asleep. Empty White who cannot anoint again for long time, who cannot make White ice, who cannot heal burned palms fast, who is just White with white hair and white eyes but no First Mother light inside chest.Empty White can still be loved. But empty White cannot save village and lake and Guardian whose wolf is going quiet because moon is gone.I knelt at edge of White ice island where my palms were in white smoke that had turned black smoke white, where White ice under knees melted a little into glowing blue water that smelled like snow and moon and Mara hands, where reflection showed young Mara twenty five years ago with Silas behind her.Behind me, Jax four lines dimmed to almost nothing, yellow eyes

Fourth branch was not a branch.When black tarp was pulled off flat bed trailer on far bank by silver gloved fire keepers who had run from Under Lake white claws and glowing blue water and three white flames warm that gave heat and melted White ice a little, what lay on trailer was not dead black wood like first branch and second branch and third branch that smoked black smoke that sank even before lit and burned black cold flame that drinks light and then white warm flame that gives heat after I anointed fire white through White ice and root water and Under Lake guard.What lay on trailer was heart.Old Oak heart wood is blacker than dead body wood, Baba had whispered once by fire when she thought I was asleep, blacker than dead body wood because dead body wood is branch that died, heart wood is heart that still beats even after tree was cut into pieces by Council in White War to make fire that kills Whites, heart that still beats under snow somewhere deep where Oak roots go deepest