Chapter 22: The Ring

Keira's POV

The Ring lay at the bottom of a grass bowl behind the Davenant estate, a circle of gray stone forty feet across.

Two packs filled the slopes above it.

I stood at the edge with my mother's hand in mine, and Derrick on my other side, and the last red light of the day going out over the lake.

Orson walked down the steps to the stone in his shirtsleeves.

He did not look at me.

Across the Ring, Broderick waited in his black suit, with his sleeves rolled to the elbow and the gold ring on his right hand.

The old elder came down between them with her cane and held out both palms.

"Hands."

Orson showed his, open and empty.

Broderick showed his.

She looked at them for a long moment.

She did not touch the ring.

My stomach clenched.

On the Kingsley slope Blair stood alone with her hood up, a few steps apart from her father.

She was watching Broderick's right hand, and nothing else.

Orson turned his head at last, and found me on the edge of the stone.

He gave me one short nod.

I nodded back, and I did not look away.

"Begin," said the old elder, and she struck the stone once with the cane and stepped back.

They did not circle.

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