My Family Forgot I Existed, So I Left Them Behind novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Open the Link

Imogen's POV

That night the moon came up over a clearing that had stopped pretending.

Nobody whispered.

Both packs stood in the snow in a tight ring around the altar, and the torches had been lit in a square, so no wolf could stand behind the light.

The hollow in the altar had been scraped clean.

Somebody had laid a white cloth over it, and over the cloth, a jar and a thin brown book.

My palm throbbed under its bandage.

Torin's arm was around me, and I let it be.

My parents stood to the left of the altar, a pace apart from Odette, who stood to the right in the same plain white dress.

She hadn't been given a coat.

The elder lifted her stick, and the clearing went silent.

"Harlan Ridge," she said. "Brask Ridge. You were here on Saturday. I was not. I will hear the Beta."

The Harlan Beta stepped out of the crowd and stopped in front of her, hat in hand.

"Say it plainly," the elder said.

"Miss Odette gave me this jar on Friday afternoon," he said. His voice was rough, and it carried. "She told me to mix the silver in and pack the hollow before the rite, so Miss Imogen would feel welcome. I did it. I'm sorry."

He held up the jar.

"The pale dust is what's left of the moonstone," he said. "She kept it three months."

A low sound went through the ring.

"That's a lie," Odette said.

She said it clearly and without heat.

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