29. The Moon
Chapter 29
The Moon
H ow could I have missed a threat as dire as this? Had I grown so inattentive that evil could close in around me without notice? The signs were there. Kenna was so much stronger than the others, so confident that none of the pack members could unseat her as Luna. She hadn’t shown a trace of trepidation when Briar’s true rank was revealed in the quad. If anything, she was excited, a fire igniting behind her eyes at the potential challenge.
After I begrudgingly watched as Briar headed back to Isaac’s room, I knew I should return to my chambers, but questions left unanswered were calling out to me. I needed to go back. So instead of climbing into bed, I trekked through the trees toward the sunken arena I hoped held the secrets I was determined to unearth.
I froze at its precipice. The enormity of the destruction had been lost on me as it occurred, muted by adrenaline and denial. Chunks of stone larger than me lay scattered, torn from the embedded benches where we’d sat. Vines brown and wrinkled, lay lifeless across the floor of the arena.
Everywhere I looked, immortalized chaos stared back at me.
I descended the steps, avoiding the loose rubble and gaps as I went. I wanted—needed—to stand where they’d stood, see what they’d seen. Maybe then a shred of reality would make sense like I thought it had a few hours before. Instead, all I felt was a growing tightness in my chest and pain lodging in the back of my throat that no amount of swallowing would dissipate. Looking up, or looking down, the scene was the same: cataclysmic.
I laced my hands behind my neck and dropped my chin to my chest. I let my eyes drift shut and tried to breathe in and out as slowly as I could manage. Maybe it was pointless to come back here. Staring at the debris wasn’t going to magically explain how it was created.
I opened my eyes to go back to my room, maybe write an account of what had occurred to send to my parents. They deserved to be warned of the threat. I’d set my mind to go and do just that, but a scrap of black on a darkened patch of earth caught my eye.
I crouched to grab the torn leather and brought it to my nose. The smell of sea salt and cinder toffee greeted me. It was one of Kenna’s wounds, then. Briar was more citrus than sweet. I inhaled again and the blood coursing through my veins turned to ice. It was subtle, nearly undetectable for a normal nose, but it was there: sulfur.
Any lingering doubts I may have had about Kenna’s guilt left me. I didn’t know when or where, but Kenna had met with a demon, and recently if the scent still clung to her clothes.
I’d been deceived, but I wasn’t blind. I’d seen Kenna going off on her own, disappearing in the woods for hours on end, rejecting her Beta’s counsel, deflecting any questions about herself that went past surface level. I knew there were pieces about herself she chose not to share with her pack, but I’d thought it a fair boundary to set. As a leader, I empathized with holding back parts of yourself from the ones who looked to you for direction. I’d been wrong.
“It’s fascinating what secrets lie beneath battle and blood, don’t you think?” Fabian’s sister, Eris strode into the stone circle, and I rose to my feet, leather still grasped in my hand. “I didn’t expect to find you here.”
“Who else did you expect? Is investigating this incident not both my duty and my right?”
Her head cocked to one side and rose-tinged silver ringlets fell over her shoulder. She pursed her lips and looked me over, ending on my clenched hand. “I don’t know who I was expecting to see, I just know I wasn’t expecting it to be you.”
My patience for enigmatic musings, if it ever existed, was diminished. I commended myself for keeping my eyes fixed on hers instead of letting them roll as they longed to.
“Whose vindication were you searching for when you came here?” she asked. “Yours or hers?”
“Kenna’s guilt is self-evident,” I said, “It became inarguable the moment she shook the ground and brought rocks down upon us.” The little fox strolled along the perimeter, letting her fingertips brush the lanterns and boulders as she went.
“Then why not visit her cell and simply extract the answers you seek? You have the skill set and the stomach, so what’s stopping you?”
“Contrary to what you may think, I don’t relish inflicting pain on another being, even one as vile as her. I do what’s required of me to protect my people. I don’t think I need to remind you of what’s at stake.”
The last time elementals and demons infiltrated our lands entire communities had been destroyed, both of shifters and any realms who stood as their allies. The moon foxes had lost countless lives by coming to the shifters’ aid.
“No,” she said solemnly, “I was young, but I remember well enough.” She shrugged and looked around the arena with a look of longing as if searching for something just beyond her reach.
“Why did you come here, Eris?” Her answering grin was sheepish and she toed at the dirt beneath her feet.
“I don’t know, I felt drawn to come here so I did. I have no explanation to give but that.” She chuckled dryly. “I’ll leave you to your investigation.”
As she walked away, I shifted my focus back to the bloody contents of my hand. There would be no leniency for Kenna, not with the proof of her corruption clutched between my fingers.
“Oh!” I looked up as Eris twisted to look at me over her shoulder. “One more thing. I think you misunderstood me earlier.”
I snickered under my breath. “On which account?”
“It wasn’t Kenna’s vindication I was asking about. We both know there’s only one place you’ll find the truth you’re searching for.” The half grin that was forming on my face fell. “Enjoy the new moon.”
And then she was gone, leaving me to face the question that plagued me most: how did Briar, a latent shifter, overpower an elemental on a new moon when Lunar Realms were at their weakest?
Another scrap caught my eye, this time with a flash of red. Leather-wrapped stone. Bloodstone. I grasped the strip of leather and brought it to my nose, begging whatever or whoever may be listening that its scent would be sweet.
It wasn’t.
Citrus.
Sage.
Like Kenna, I knew Briar was hiding something. It didn’t matter how drawn to her I was; I couldn’t make the same mistake twice. Amidst Eris’ oddities and ramblings, she’d said at least one thing I was certain to be true: there was only one way to find my answers.