Chapter Twenty-Four
“This was you!” Darren’s tone makes my blood chill. “You—” He jabs a finger at me. “You talked her into this.”
“Darren—” My fists curl, but Neeve steps between us before the urge to punch him in the face fully takes over.
“No!” Neeve’s voice shakes. “No one talked me into anything.”
“She’s been in your ear all night.” His jaw works and his eyes snap to her, even as he continues to point at me.
“Lyra simply made me realise that I should have made this decision ages ago.”
Darren's focus whips back to me, as if she’s just proved his point.
Fuck. I don’t want to be an arsehole like him, always holding her back. But I don’t want to be the sole reason she enters either.
“Neeve.” I raise my palms. “I wasn’t saying you should—”
“I know,” she states, not taking her focus off Darren. “But you were right.”
“Neeve, please.” Darren’s voice breaks to barely a whisper, and even though I think he’s being a total prick, the fear beneath his words still wraps around the softest part of me and pulls until it hurts.
“Blood Moon is a fucking lottery. Dragons are rare, and bonding is rarer still. No one knows if there’s a compatible one out there waiting for them, and even if there is, there’s no guarantee they’ll see you as morally worthy.
You’re tired, scared from the dreams. You’re not thinking clearly. ”
“Of course I am fucking scared. I’m terrified.
” She swallows, and for a second, he looks relieved.
Then she goes on. “But I know they are out there. The dreams are so strong now and if I don’t enter, I’ll always wonder, and I’ll resent it.
I’ll resent you, even if I don’t want to.
I can’t marry you knowing I may have given up my dragon because you asked me to. ”
“No.” Darren shakes his head, backing away from her like refusing this might undo everything. “No, I won’t let you enter.”
Neeve’s expression hardens in a way I haven't seen before, and my gut knots.
Definitely not the right thing to say right now.
“You won’t let me?” Her words land colder than the air around us.
Darren seems to hear them at the same time I do, because his face goes pale. “That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you meant.” She fumes.
His gaze flicks to me, furious and pleading all at once, then returns to Neeve and his teeth clench so hard I swear I can almost hear them grinding. “I’m not discussing this here.”
“Good,” Neeve bites back. “Because there’s nothing to discuss. I’m entering.”
The silence that follows is awful, and when I glance down, I’ve started picking at my sweater, the right cuff almost fully unravelled beneath my fingers.
If I stay any longer, I’ll either unpick the whole thing or step in and start fighting Neeve’s battle for her, and she doesn’t need me to do that.
She’s strong enough to hold her own. What she needs is for Darren to stop looking for someone else to blame and actually fucking listen to her.
Stone crunches underfoot as I take a slow step away, then another. “I’ll give you both a minute.”
Neither of them looks at me as I turn away, but I can still feel Darren’s anger burning between my shoulder blades as return to the camp.
The soft, almost graceful sound of Ezzy snoring fills the otherwise cold and empty tent.
At the far end, Neeve’s and Reya’s beds are both empty, but mine is still covered in the remains of the broken Letter-threader, delicate golden pieces sprawled across the blankets and catching the moonlight as it seeps through the gap in the tent door.
I drop down beside them, brushing my fingers over the cold pieces.
Fuck. I want to write to Talen, to tell him about how Darren is a total dick. How I didn’t mean to talk Neeve into entering, and how petrified I am that she’s going to die right there beside me tomorrow.
But to be honest, it’s better that I broke the damn thing. Talen was becoming too good a distraction, and tomorrow I need every piece of myself locked down. No crying. No falling apart. No giving Ahria a single reason to see me as someone too weak to choose.
Smoke curls through the air on my next heavy inhale, following to the chair at the end of the bed, I catch her at the end of a long yawn.
“I know I can be enough for you,” I whisper, watching her green scales rise and fall as she drifts into sleep.
“I can be strong, I can be like her, like my mum.” Reaching out, my hand shakes as I hover it just above her, close enough to feel the heat radiating off her tiny body.
“I only need you to give me the chance.”
God, I want to touch her so badly. To hold her. It’s crazy how much.
But then another puff of smoke slips from her nostrils as she curls herself up tighter, and I jerk my arm back, dropping into the mattress below me.
I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but one thing’s for sure—I’m not getting any sleep tonight, so I push up, grab the woollen blanket and head outside.
My breath mists in the icy air as I walk.
Wrapping the blanket around my shoulders, I head through the silent camp toward the central square and stop outside the Food Tent.
Settling onto an upturned crate, I stare at the moon as clouds drift calmly across its face while I wait for something in me to do the same.
It’s so high and bright I can hardly see the stars beyond it.
The calm doesn’t come, but I stay anyway, sitting there until the cold finally gets too much, creeping through my boots, making my toes tingle and go numb. Shivering, I stand to head back, only for the low murmur of tense voices nearby to catch my attention.
Without thinking why, I jerk into the shadows, quick and quiet, and watch as two figures slip out of the Combat Tent into the spill of silver moonlight.
Magda first, Merrin close behind.
Pulling the blanket closer around me, my brows pitch together. Strange, I thought Merrin said he wouldn't return until the next briefing...
With their postures tense, they pause in the centre of the square as Merrin presses a folded note into Magda’s hand.
She snatches it and shoves it into her pocket before hurrying away without a word.
Leaning back to keep out of sight, I continue to stare as she turns the corner and disappears from view, but when I turn around Merrin is gone too.
Scanning the square, I search for the flutter of a tent door, the shifting shape of a horse, any sign of where he went.
Nothing.
Another shiver works its way up my arms, and not just from the cold. This is the second time I’ve seen them meeting at an odd hour—
But I don’t wait around to question it, because whatever this is, it doesn’t seem like something they want witnessed.
So before either of them can return, I head back to the tent, scoop the broken Letter-threader to one side, and lie down with my eyes fixed on Ahria at the foot of the bed, waiting for sleep that I know isn’t coming.
“Welcome everyone,” Magda calls from the centre of the mountain clearing, “Please be seated.”
Surprisingly, she shows no sign of tiredness from her secret late-night meeting with Merrin. Meanwhile I wipe the sweat from my forehead and bite down on a yawn that threatens to break free.
I don’t think I slept at all last night, and the three-hour hike up the mountain at dawn has left my legs trembling beneath me, but that doesn’t matter. Not today. Today I don’t get to be tired. Today is the day I bond with Ahria.
Blinking hard against the fatigue, I look around.
Cliffs rise on three sides of the clearing, their faces carpeted in green alpine growth so lush it almost seems soft, broken only by thin waterfalls that drop hundreds of metres like ribbons before breaking into mist.
It should be freezing up here; I can smell the early autumn snow settled above us, clean and metallic in the air. But the open side of the clearing faces west, so we are bathed in sunlight, hot, full, and impossible to escape.
Around me, bodies begin to move as everyone settles onto the small rocky outcrops that are arranged in a perfect circle around Magda.
The whole camp is here. Well, nearly everyone, Lucien and Darren joined but the other five riders are either out on patrol or stayed back keeping the Veils up at the camp, and there’s no sign of Merrin or Talen.
During the hike, I kept searching for him, Talen, glancing at every shift of movement behind us, until I finally had to accept he was either still too injured or too caught up with Citadel stuff to come.
Eventually, I made myself stop. My focus needs to be on Ahria today anyway.
Still, with every step we took higher, the ache behind my sternum grew.
Beside me, Ezzy and Neeve each drop down onto a stone, and I follow suit.
Cold seeps through my trousers almost straight away, so I shift and place my sweater and Talen’s flight jacket underneath me.
It’s warm now, but I’ve no idea how long this ceremony lasts, and as soon as the sun sets, I’m sure it’ll get icy up here.
“The Blood Moon Ceremony is sacred,” Magda begins, her voice carrying around the silent circle. “It is brief, but it is not merciful. And from this moment forward, there is to be no talking from those who stand before me.”
Blood Moon.
The words flow through the air and lock around my throat, squeezing until every inhale turns shallow and my pulse kicks up, but I hold myself still as this is what I’ve been waiting for. This is it.
Across the circle, a blur of colour catches my attention as JC drops onto Lucien’s shoulder, followed a heartbeat later by Nex landing beside Darren.
My attention follows them instinctively, searching for Ahria among the flashes of wings and scales, but she’s not there.
She disappeared halfway up the climb, and I can’t stop thinking that the next time I see her, her jaws will be parted, ready to burn me alive.