Luna Lola: The Moon Wolf novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Yes

Wynne's POV

I went out by the side door while the whole hall was shouting, and I walked to the Black Fir bridge in my bare feet.

The planks were frosted over, and the water ran black underneath.

This was where it had started, with a stranger holding a lantern, and he had said: Mine.

I had thought of that word as a threat.

I stood in the middle of the bridge and listened to myself.

Nobody was holding my hand.

Nobody was telling me what I was for.

The law had decided I was a queen, and a dying king had decided I wasn't.

I had heard every word Caelen said before I slipped out.

Now it was my turn to say something in front of everyone.

I laughed once, out loud, alone on the bridge.

Then I turned around and walked back up the hill.

The guards at the hall doors tried to stop me, and then they saw my face and stepped aside.

The council was still shouting.

I walked the length of the hall with my wrists bandaged and my feet black with road dust.

The noise fell away in rows around me.

The old woman had broken her gavel.

Caelen stood at the foot of the dais with a piece of vellum in his fist, and he saw me, and he went white.

"Yes," I said.

It rang off the rafters.

"I'm the Moon Wolf, and I'll sit in the chair. I'm saying it with my own mouth, so write it down."

"And I'm taking him with me, because he's mine, and we're done for tonight."

I took Caelen's hand and I walked him out.

No one tried to stop us.

His room was at the top of the north stair, and he got the door shut behind us, and then he put me up against it.

"Say it again," he said, rough, against my mouth.

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