If You Leave, I Leave novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Moon Stone

The Moon Elder pulled the white cloth off the Stone.

It lay bare in the candlelight, black and polished, with a shallow bowl worn into its top by a thousand years of hands.

High above us, the moon was sliding into the round window in the roof.

"The moon is at the glass," the Elder said. "By the old law, the leaving Luna lays her hand on the Stone first."

"The law is what the King reads," the King said. "The willing Luna goes first tonight. The Stone should be ready for the other."

"That is not the law."

"It is tonight's."

The Elder looked at him for a long moment, then stepped back.

Verity came down the floor in her white gown with her head bowed.

The court parted around her.

She stopped at the Stone and held out her left hand.

The Elder put a small knife with a bone handle into her right.

"By your own hand," the Elder said, "and your own blood."

"By my own hand," Verity said softly.

She turned her back to the hall as she lifted the knife, so the court saw only the line of her shoulders.

Her sleeve rode up over her wrist.

I watched her hand.

She swept the blade across her palm and tipped her wrist, and a thick red stream ran over the Stone.

It filled the bowl and spilled down the black side.

The court murmured.

It was a lot of blood for a small cut.

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