The Luna He Failed to Protect novel · Chapter 18 of 32

Chapter 18: Seven

Cale's truck was gone from the Great House the next morning.

I didn't notice.

I wasn't looking for it.

The lumber father told me.

He came down to the Vardy house at noon with sawdust to his elbows and his eyes red from no sleep.

"He came to my yard last night," he said. "After the market. He asked me for seven boxes."

I put down the shovel I was holding.

"Boxes."

"Pine. Plain. The kind we bury in." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I built them by lamplight. He helped. He's not bad with a plane. He loaded them on his truck at four and drove south."

"South," said Edda behind me.

"He said to tell you he'd be back before the moon. He said nobody should touch the chest behind the dais while he's gone."

The squad had stopped working.

The tracker straightened up from the porch rail he was fixing.

"Ten hours," said the cook. "Each way."

"And the digging," said Edda.

Nobody said anything after that.

We all knew what was behind the mess hall.

We all knew how deep the ash went.

He didn't come back that night.

He didn't come back the next day.

Morwenna made sure the whole valley knew it.

By evening the story was all over the market.

The heir had run.

He'd lost his ring and his nerve and gone north to the packs where he'd spent his four years.

He'd left the hearth-shamed girl to face the moon alone.

The honey seller told the schoolteacher.

The schoolteacher told me.

"She's lying," said the youngest.

"Of course she's lying," said Edda.

I didn't say anything.

I went out on the porch after dark and sat on the step where I could see the river road.

I'd spent two years not waiting for him.

I was out of practice.

Edda came out around midnight and sat beside me.

"He'll come," she said.

"I know."

"Then why are you sitting out here?"

"Because I want to see him do it."

She put her arm around my shoulders.

We sat there until the cold got into our bones, and then she made me go in.

On the second night I didn't sleep at all.

I lay on the floor with my eyes open and listened to the trucks on the valley road.

← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend