From Ashes to Their Luna novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Not Mine to Take

The window had been painted shut years ago, and it did not give.

I put my shoulder to the frame and shoved until the paint cracked.

Below me on the lawn, Garson and Dalton stood with rifles.

Garson looked up and lifted his barrel. The shells in his belt were the pale, dull grey of silver shot.

I let go of the frame.

"They'll use it," Anson said behind me. "Go on and try the glass."

My father coughed into a cloth. It came away spotted.

Nobody went to him.

"Sit down, Nessa," Anson said. "Read it. Sign it. Then you can go back to your Alpha."

He laid three pages on the table beside the white cup and put a pen on top.

I did not sit. I picked up the first page and read it standing.

It gave the Hollow Creek land trust to Anson Aldercott, in full, until he named a successor.

I read every line, slowly, while he breathed through his nose over my shoulder.

"I read what I sign," I said.

"You never did before."

"Nobody ever put anything in front of me before."

He caught my right wrist and slapped my hand flat on the page.

"Then read faster."

I looked at his hand on mine. In fourteen years he had never once left a mark on my hand.

"No," I said.

His other hand came up, open.

"Anson." Margot had turned from the window at last. "Not her face. Not her hands. Father said."

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