Todos os capítulos de THE ALPHA'S FORBIDDEN LUNA: Capítulo 191 - Capítulo 200

POV: Lyra Thorne"You came alone, and you are shaking. Good. Frightened people lie badly. Sit by the well, Thorne girl, and ask me anything you like. I owe you nine years of answers, and I mean to pay some of them today."The voice came from behind a curtain of dead ivy that hung across a broken stone arch. I could not see a face. I could see only a hand, thin and scarred, holding the tin lantern steady in the gray light. Frost crunched under my boots. My breath hung in front of me like a ghost.Behind me, eighty steps away, a Kaelan sized shadow stood very still among the bare apple trees. I did not look at him. I sat on the mossy edge of the well and tried to slow my heart."Tobin is dead," I said."I know." The hand tightened on the lantern. "I saw it from the woodshed roof. I was too far away. I will carry that boy for the rest of my life.""Did you kill him?""No.""Did you poison the jug?""No. Child, if I wanted the prisoner dead, I would have let him drink it." A dry breath of

POV: Lyra Thorne"You cannot go into the vault alone, Heir. It is not safe, and it is not proper. Allow an old man to carry the lamp and walk beside you. I insist, and I insist kindly."Elder Vale stood at the head of the vault stair with his hands folded in his sleeves and his warm smile in place. I had never noticed before how much of that smile was his whole face. It was like a shutter someone had painted onto a wall.Beside him, Wynne held the great iron key. Behind me stood Rhea, a head shorter than I was and twice as stubborn. Briar waited at the top of the steps with her arms folded, glaring at the elder as though she planned to bite him.It was six nights until the bond moon, and my stomach felt as tight as a drum. For nine years I had been told where to stand, what to carry, and how low to bow. Now an elder spoke to me in a voice full of gentle concern, and I felt the old habit rise in me like a tide. Say yes. Be small. Be good."Thank you, Elder," I said. My voice shook. "Yo

POV: Lyra Thorne"Do not look at me like that, Kaelan. I am not angry that you told me. I am angry that a small, ugly part of me feels grateful to a man who gave the order that killed my mother."He stood in the doorway of the scullery with his hands open at his sides, like a man approaching a frightened horse. Behind him, the winter dark pressed against the window. Four nights remained until the bond moon, and I had been standing at the flour bin for an hour, kneading dough that did not need kneading."I did not know how else to say it," he said."There was no good way.""The Keeper's daughter lives. That was the line." His voice was careful. "My father believes someone kept you on purpose.""Kept me." I pressed the heel of my hand into the dough until it flattened. "Like a coin in a drawer. Like a seed in a jar. For nine years I thought I had survived by luck, Kaelan. I thought I was small enough to slip through. I was proud of that, in a crooked way.""You survived because you are

POV: Lyra Thorne"Ardel was a smith, Thorne girl, and a kind one. I will tell you what he did to your mother, but first you must promise to listen without hating me for the whole of it."Titus's voice came out dry and quiet in the lamplit dark of the lower cells. It was the night before the bond moon. I had spent the afternoon in Rhea's rooms being measured, powdered, and fussed over, and now I stood in front of the man who had held the gate with a sash still pinned to my arm.Kaelan stood two steps behind me, silent as a wall. Marcus guarded the stair. On the other side of the aisle, Damon lay on his cot with his back to us, asleep or pretending to be.Before I came down, Rhea had pressed a thin bundle into my hands. It was my mother's wedding sash, faded blue, with tiny crescents stitched at the hem. "She wore it the night she married your father," Rhea had said. "She asked me to keep it until you had something worth wearing it to." I had held it against my face and smelled flour an

POV: Lyra Thorne"Whatever happens when you touch it, Lyra, I am beside you. I will not let go. Not for the council, not for the moon, not for any stone in the world."Kaelan's voice was warm against my ear. I held his hand so hard that my knuckles ached. The pack had returned to its seats, and the hall had gone as silent as a held breath. On the dais, Vale stood before us with a tray of dark velvet in his hands. On the tray lay the Thorne seal.I had seen it once, when I was small. A disc of iron and pale stone, as wide as a man's palm, with a crescent moon cut deep into its face. It was older than the Ashwood name. It was older than the council. It looked like something dug out of a riverbed."Heir." Vale's voice was soft with reverence. "Forgive an old man's ceremony. The smiths have cleaned it, and the council agrees it should be returned to your hand at the hour of your bond. A seal of such weight should wake only for its rightful bearer.""Wake?" I said."A figure of speech, my