Chapter 13: What the Moon Read

I handed Lark to Rowan and walked to the dais.

The memory-keeper lifted the charm-caster off her knee.

It was a flat disk of moon-glass, and it was already humming.

"Bare shoulders," the senior elder said. "Left side, both of you."

I pulled my sweater down off my shoulder.

Six years of hiding that mark under collars, and now the whole hall could see it.

Across the aisle, Bram's Betas peeled his coat back.

His shoulder was thin and gray, and the mark on it was the twin of mine.

The elder set the moon-glass between us on the rail.

"Stand where the glass can see you both," she said.

Bram came three steps closer. His breath rasped.

He did not look at me.

The glass lit white, and the hall went quiet.

Then the mark on my shoulder turned silver.

It did not hurt. It felt like something in my chest opening wide.

A thread of light slid out of my skin and crossed the gap in the air.

It ran straight into Bram's shoulder.

His head snapped up and his eyes flooded gold.

His back straightened, and his Betas let go of him because he no longer needed holding.

Every wolf in the gallery saw it.

The silver ran from me to him, thick and steady.

"Mother Moon," someone whispered in the third row.

"She's feeding him," said another voice.

"For six years," the second elder said, very low. "Look how worn the thread is. It has run since the day of the mark."