Chapter 19: The Dark Moon

The Moon Stone stands on the highest shoulder of Stonebrook Ridge.

It is a flat gray slab the height of a table, and on the dark moon there is no light on it at all.

We climbed up in a line, with the Council's witness in front carrying a lantern.

The three Alphas came after her, and Hazel walked behind them with her medical bag.

Ronan walked beside me and said nothing.

Every few steps his hand came close to mine and stopped.

I let it.

At the top, the witness set the lantern on the ground and opened her book.

"Ivy Danforth, Luna of Stonebrook," she said. "Thirty days ago you claimed the Moon Right, and you have stood every one of them."

"The cooling period is done. Do you still ask to be unbound?"

The wind came across the ridge and tugged my braid.

I felt the bond in my chest, warm and heavy, as it had been every day for two years.

I looked at the man beside me.

His face was pale in the lantern light, and his jaw was set.

He was not going to say a word to stop me.

"I do," I said.

"Then put your hand on the stone."

I took the little knife the coast Alpha held out.

I laid my left palm on the cold slab and drew the blade across it.

Blood ran down into the cracks of the stone.

"Alpha Ronan Hargrove," the witness said. "The Alpha's blood can seal the cut. Will you give it?"

Ronan stepped forward.

His hand was already at the knife.

"No," I said.

He stopped.

"Only mine," I said. "I don't want it said that you did this to me, or that you let me go. I'm doing it."

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