Chapter 13: The Charge

I stood at the foot of the Moon Stone, where my son had stood a month ago, and waited to be called a poisoner.

The moon was full and white over the ridge.

A hundred and fifty wolves made their ring around me, and not one of them met my eye.

Otis stood at the edge of the ring with Tobin on his hip, in the grey cloak with the fox collar.

I had told my son no four times.

Each time he had said the same thing: "I want to go to the stone."

The elders had ruled that the charge named the child, so the child could watch.

Conall stood in the front row, where I had put him.

His hands hung open at his sides, and he did not look at me either.

The oldest elder, the one with the white braid, rose on the flat top of the rock and read the summons aloud.

"Catriona Sedley stands charged with poisoning a pack child.

"The penalty is banishment, and her son stays with the pack.

"Who speaks?"

Lorna stepped out of the crowd with Emmett by the hand.

She wore black and no jewelry, and the lantern made her hair look like copper wire.

"I do," she said, and her voice shook exactly as much as it needed to.

"I don't want this.

"I love Catriona. I held her son the day he was born.

"But eleven nights ago my boy turned blue in my arms."

A low sound moved through the pack.

"Our healer will tell you what was in him."

The pack healer, a stooped man in a canvas apron, came forward and cleared his throat.

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