The Nameless Luna novel · Chapter 4 of 32

Chapter 4: The Blank Line

I opened my mouth.

Nothing was in it.

Somewhere near the back, a man laughed through his nose.

The roll keeper waited with her pen above the page.

At the Tennant table my mother looked down at her plate.

My father was still standing, his glass still halfway up, and he said nothing at all.

Annalise had a hand pressed flat against her collarbone.

She was waiting to see if I'd say it.

I wouldn't.

It was hers now. I'd heard her cry over it too many times.

Elden stood up at the High table and buttoned his jacket.

"Roll keeper," he said, pleasantly. "May I?"

She didn't answer, so he took it as yes.

"Coldfoot has come to its third Gathering without a Luna," he said to the room.

"It's brought a pilot. A Tennant pilot who walked out on her family yesterday at the airport. Half of you heard."

Some of them had. I saw it on their faces.

"A Luna with no name is no Luna," Elden said. "What do we write on the line? 'You'?"

The laugh that time was bigger.

"I move that Coldfoot's seat is void and its land passes into the High seat's trust tonight."

Warrick's arm went hard under my hand.

"She's beside me," he said. "That's the rule. Seated beside me."

"Seated beside you is nobody, Holloran. Literally."

Elden spread his hands.

I looked at the roll on the stand.

Coldfoot's page was old, the paper soft as cloth.

Holloran, Holloran, Holloran, going back a hundred years in ink of different colors.

Every Luna had a line beside her Alpha.

The roll keeper hadn't moved.

She turned the book over on its stand, carefully, and opened the back cover.

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