Chapter 21: Luna

The hall waited for me to answer.

I looked at the steward first.

He still held his parchment out, with his chin up and his small eyes bright.

I crossed the floor and took it from his hand.

It had a wax seal the size of my palm, with a wolf's head pressed into it.

"The Alpha King honours me," I said. "Thank him. My daughter is not an heir. She's a girl, and she's staying with her mother."

I held the parchment over the nearest candle.

The edge caught, and curled, and the seal ran down onto the stone in a long red drip.

I dropped the last of it on the floor.

The steward's face went dark.

"The Alpha King will not forget this."

"I hope not," I said. "I'd like him to remember it."

Lucian had put a hand on the table, and he moved one finger.

Not yet.

I understood it.

The steward bowed stiffly and went back to his bench, and the eight men at his back did not take their eyes from me.

I turned away from them.

I walked back down the length of the hall, past the Redmoor wolves on their benches and the Nightwood vampires along the wall.

Every face turned as I passed.

Dorian stood where I had left him.

He wasn't breathing, I realised.

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