Chapter 4: The Circlet

The Luna's office was on the ground floor of Echo Hall, with a south window and a desk older than the pack house.

Rosalind had written twenty winters of grain tallies at that desk.

On the fourth morning after the ball, she stood beside it with her hands folded and let Jessamy walk in.

Two elders stood at the door as witnesses, the old she-wolf and a thin man with a cane.

Jessamy looked around the room slowly.

"It's so tidy," she said.

"I labeled the drawers," Rosalind said. "Treaties on the left, clinic orders in the middle. The bottom one sticks, so lift it a little."

"You're so thoughtful."

Jessamy ran a finger along the window ledge and checked it for dust.

There was none.

"And the circlet?"

The circlet sat on a small cushion of gray velvet on the desk.

It was a thin silver band with a single moonstone, no bigger than a thumbnail.

Rosalind lifted it.

It hummed against her palm, soft as a cat asleep on her lap.

It had hummed for her since the night it was placed on her head.

She did not let her face change.

"It's heavier than it looks," she said. "Hold still."

She set it on Jessamy's golden hair and stepped back.

The moonstone stayed dull.

There was no hum, no warmth and no glow, only a plain silver band on a young woman's head.

The old she-wolf at the door drew in a breath.

The man with the cane leaned forward on it.

"It's quiet," he said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Shattered Sanctuary: The First Luna's Severance from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.