“I didn’t know my life was ending the first night I heard his name spoken in anxious whispers, instead of the reverence I’d always thought he deserved.”
Leaving out that she traveled her memories in dreams, looking for messages, Lunara told him of the night she’d revisited most recently.
“I no longer wanted to be part of the Elder Tier, or the Council, or any of it. And I’d already lived almost my entire existence thinking it wouldn’t happen, so what would it matter if it actually didn’t?”
Brand drew in a sharp, deep breath, blowing it out slowly. “I’ve always thought they were a bunch of bloody cold bastards, but Araxis has never mentioned a word of it.”
“Why would he? He’s one of them.”
She hadn’t meant it in a cruel way, merely a statement of fact, but Brand bristled. “No, he would never. He isn’t like that.”
“No?” Her heart ached for him, for herself. “Then, tell me—if he isn’t one of them, why did he vote against culling Malachyr that last time, when they all knew what he was doing?”
“What are you talking about?”
She dug deep—so deep she worried it might kill her to finally find the bottom. Pushing beyond the loneliness of the last fifty-two years to the center of her pain, Lunara sifted through a drudgery of memories best left forgotten to findthatnight.
Brand’s gasp was instant when she called it up in full, the mating bond roiling between them. “Weeping Sisters,” hebreathed, tears springing to his eyes as he clutched his chest. “What the fuck happened to you?”
“The day before my trial and twentieth birthday, a vote was cast. That’s when everything changed.”
Fifty-two years ago…
Lunara was lost.
She and her parents were taking their usual walk after supper. Music floated gently on the air, the swelling strings a perfect accompaniment to the glittering city of Starkeep—and completely at odds with her mind.
The truths her parents had shared haunted her. She didn’t know how to act, how tobe.So much building hope, so much excitement, and it was just gone.
Everyone had tried to convince her to release her concerns and accept her place, making light of every argument or question she posed. It was like being a child again, and they were not taking a word she said seriously.
Her father showed her blueprints and projects he wanted the two of them to work on together—cycling through glowing drawings and journal entries, going on about how their powers would compliment each other. Her mother had suggested various healing demonstrations she could do—making casts or bandages that empowered the wounded, filling orbs with light to speed the restoration process. Rambling about the profits she could make in the long run.
After all, tomorrow was supposed to be her trial. A public display of her ability to control the most revered substance in Nachthelliae.
‘The things you could achieve!’they said.“The changes you could make!”
She took all of it in—and still had no idea what she would do.
Cordelia’s visit had only made it worse.
She’d arrived in all of her crotchety glory and requested a word. They’d sat in the front room with tea and cake, and Lunara had confessed her every concern regarding the Council. A risk, since she was one of them, but the aged Elder was her mother’s best friend, and Lunara had always loved her.
Cordelia had taken a couple beats at the end of Lunara’s impassioned speech before throwing her head back and laughing to the rafters.
“Sweet, naive child,” she’d said, hiccuping as she tried to suppress her mirth. “You think you have a choice? No.”
Lunara had asked her to clarify, and Cordelia’s response had utterly bewildered her.
“They’ve already been cataloguing the possibilities for how your power could be used to their advantage. They’ll tell you it’s for the Evesong. In some ways, I suppose it is, but they’re not going to let you go on your merry way because you’re having a moral dilemma. I tried to tell your parents to be discreet, but their pride knows no bounds. I’m sorry, but your fate has already been decidedfor you,Lunarathe Moonweaver.”
“How so?” she’d asked.
Cordelia had gotten a far away look. “They’ll persuade you. You’ll be joining the Elder Council tomorrow, one way or another.”
And then she’d walked out, leaving only more confusion in her wake.
“Where are you wandering?” her mother asked, the bump of her shoulder knocking Lunara from her reverie.
