Chapter 5: The Moon Stone

The Moon Stone stood in a ring of bare birches on a hill between the two territories.

It was a slab of grey rock taller than a man, scarred with the marks of a hundred old claims.

By noon, both packs had climbed to it and stood in two lines on either side of the snow.

I stood at the bottom of the hill in a dress Hester had found for me, deep green and plain, with a belt that fit.

My hands were cold, and my stomach was worse.

"You can still walk away," Bram said beside me.

"And go back to Garrick?"

"To anywhere you like. I'll find another way to keep the seat."

"You said that like it costs you nothing."

"It costs me the seat," he said. "But I'd rather lose it than have you do this for me and hate it."

I looked up at him.

His grey eyes were steady, and he meant it.

"I signed a contract," I said. "I'm not going to hide behind a line in it."

I walked up the hill.

The snow squeaked under my boots, and every face turned to follow me.

Garrick stood at the head of the Ashfall line with his arms crossed.

Imogen stood a step behind his shoulder, in black.

He was smiling. He expected me to turn and go to him.

I walked past him and stopped in front of the Stone, where Bram was already waiting.

The air hummed faintly.

I put my left hand on the rock to steady myself.

It was warm.

Not warm like stone in the sun. Warm like a hand.

I frowned, and glanced at Bram, and saw that he had noticed too.

His eyebrows moved a fraction. Then it was gone.

"Before both packs," he said, in a voice that carried down the hill. "Cora Wexley, will you be Luna of Blackwater?"

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