Half Claimed novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Bell Log

Idris let go of me.

He stepped back one pace, then two, until his shoulders hit the shelf by the door.

A ledger slid off and landed between us.

"Mother," he said.

"It is the Gap, Idris," Verity said. "The Moot granted it in front of the Alphas this morning."

"I walked down the lane."

"You walked into a library. Go to your rooms."

He went.

He did not look at me, and the bond pulled in my chest.

Verity stayed where she was, tall in her grey gown.

Her eyes went over my crooked dress and the red mark on my neck.

"You are a clever girl," she said. "Your mother was clever too."

"Don't."

"He is the Alpha of Silverpine. You are an archivist with a bite in her neck."

"If you care for him at all, you will let the Moot do what it does."

"What does it do?" I asked.

She smiled and didn't answer.

"Good night, Miss Colter," she said, and her heels clicked away down the corridor.

I stood there with my pulse trying to climb out of my wrists.

Then I picked up the black ledger and opened it.

The Ridge Bell's watch log is written by a bell-boy, a different child every year, with a stub of pencil and bad spelling.

He lists what he saw from the tower, in order, by candle marks.

I found the night of the claiming and read it with my finger.

Third mark after dusk: the Luna's steward came up the stairs with a sealed note.

The note said to ring the border bell the moment the beacon lit at Stag Ford.

Fourth mark: beacon lit at Stag Ford. Rang the bell, as told.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Half Claimed from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.