Unmarked: My Mate Refused, The Alpha King Didn't novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Stone Reads

The Moon Stone came down to the great hall on a litter carried by four guards.

It was a pale slab the height of my waist, worn smooth by a thousand hands, with a shallow hollow in the top for a palm.

Every pack in Highmark packed the tiers.

Jasper sat on the Stanmore bench with his wrist in splints and Lavinia beside him under guard, her curls pinned and her eyes huge.

My father stood against the far wall between two of the King's men.

The Keeper limped to the Stone on Pippa's arm, with her cloak hem clutched in one fist.

"Elders of the Moot," she said, and her thin voice carried to the rafters. "Eight months ago I read the bond of Elspeth Marrow at the Stanmore hall. Today I'll read it again, before you all."

The presiding elder rapped her stick.

"Let it be done."

"Lady Stanmore first."

I walked up to the Stone and laid my palm in the hollow.

The cold of it ran up my arm.

Nothing happened.

"Now the husband," the Keeper said.

Jasper rose with a smile that said he'd done this before.

He came down the steps, and put his good hand over mine on the stone.

It stayed dark.

I felt nothing at all, only the cool rock and his clammy fingers.

For the first time I understood what that nothing was.

Jasper's smile slipped.

"It's the lighting," he said. "The candles."

"The candles were fine eight months ago," the Keeper said. "Majesty."

Thane stepped down from the dais.

He took Jasper's place beside me without a word, and Jasper stumbled back.

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