The Luna Queen's Rebirth novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Only Woman Who Knows

"You always did hurry," Perdita said.

She said it kindly.

"I thought you would wait a week. I thought you would smile beside him and play the good Luna until I was ready."

She sighed.

"You rejected him before the first cup was poured. I could have wept."

The lamp hissed outside the bars.

I stood very still.

"What are you saying?" I said.

"The silver ribbons," said Perdita.

I stopped breathing.

"I spent an afternoon in the Moon Hall sewing room, deciding between silver and white."

Her mouth curved.

My ears rang.

"Perdita."

"I remembered you in them for a year, with your hair coming loose from its plait."

The corridor tilted around me.

I put out a hand and found the cold iron of the bars.

"You couldn't," I whispered.

"The bell," said Perdita. "The little brass one."

She smiled at nothing.

"It was ringing when I woke in the healer's cot, and my body was twenty-six again. Do you know how that felt?"

She leaned forward.

"I knew at once."

"You burned too," I said.

"A year after you."

There was nothing in her face now, not even tears.

"In the Courtyard of Stones, on the same black patch where your stake had been."

She shrugged.

"He lit it himself that time. He didn't hand the torch to anyone."

"Why?"

"He found out whose pup it was."

Her smile thinned.

"That's a story for another day, Luna. I think we both have a lot of time."

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