They Made Me Hunt For My Own Wedding novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Girl Who Walked Dark Stones

Nobody in the pit moved.

Opal stood in her silver cuffs with her chin up, and when she spoke she spoke to me alone.

"I was eighteen," she said. "I'd been in your house ten years. Mama's pack was ash, and the only people in the world who loved me were Corwins."

"We did love you," I said.

"I know." She shut her eyes. "That's what made it so bad."

The envoy watched her without writing anything down.

"My mother was the Chosen of Cinder Creek," Opal said. "Everyone in this pit has heard the story of what happens to a Chosen. The Council calls, and she goes. That night she went, and the pack was left with no wards and no one standing the line."

She opened her eyes.

"Raiders came down out of Canada at midnight. I was eight. I lay in a ditch with my hands over my mouth, and I counted the roofs."

Somewhere on the benches a woman began to cry.

"Dad found me at the road at dawn," Opal said. "He gave me a bed and a sister and two brothers. And on my eighteenth birthday I asked him something."

I turned my head.

My father sat very still in the row of elders.

"I asked if I could walk the hunt," she said. "Mama was Chosen. I had her eyes in a bad light. I thought, maybe, if it's in the blood, it's in me. And then I could stand guard over all of you, and never be called away."

"You were eighteen," Gray said, hoarse.

"Dad took me himself, at night. He knew the way to the true stones, because he'd seen Sabine's mother walk them. He said he'd show me the path and leave me at the island."

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

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