RISE OF THE LUNA

cent from stories, but the acrid, smoke-choked kind that clings to your skin

it wa

was sh

part of the forest bit deep-but from something

e

he far end of the fire, where a few logs had been dragged into something like a circle. I sat al

they wer

ack w

structure-fed wolves l

e cracks of every hierarchy. Some probably hadn't even b

had

r my arms and tried to

dn't

. The girl from earlier-the one with the knife. She crouched just a few feet away no

ine,"

at's what they a

fi

nted. "Befor

oked

, then shrugged and r

urned with her.

em, watching from beneath furrowed brows and

I'd left

ected m

fall like ash

'd tol

shattered us both. And maybe that was why it hurt so m

to stop the tears before they came. I wasn't

nearby mad

feet-a lump of fur an

abb

oked

unreadable. He didn't say anyth

to do with that?"

d his he

t have

link. "Not

e walk

bit. Blood still oo

o skin something raw. I knew how. In theory. But theory and practice we

und. No one

en. Not a formal one.

how they

or st

hands, or

idn't come clean. My fingers slipped, and blood smeared my hands.

y cleaned and tossed over a stick

I di

at

e smoke and m

the best thing

mine. Because

I wasn

didn't smell like piss or ash. I curled up under a blanket someone must've dr

ars through the we

ilder. Like it remembered thi

the dark. "Do y

s didn't

he co

, a wolf howled. Not in grief

't belo

've dr

thing I felt was

t, heart slammi

all, wiry, with greasy hair and a w

like prey

ke someone

beside me,

ke outsiders. Especially ones

ar his scen

u. You smell like power. Like privilege

d. So

off,"

d in. "O

e, another voice c

ff, Sil

n

't need to. The way the air c

ck, muttering, "

and you'll sa

oulders blocking the moonlight. Silas

up, but inside,

harass newcomers?" I asked,

at me. "They're

o they list

dn't

d and star

oment, I

ough the trees until th

ed tree trunk. He gestured inside. "You

was warmer. Dry. Smel

," I mu

. "You handl

rel

n most do on the

the blanket around m

didn'

urpris

all it

ut here, survival is the

to leave, t

why you

ed up

know anythi

. Seen it in the mirror. You're not weak

"You ever r

hoice. She chose someone else. I

in his voice wa

hurts," I

ea

sappearing into the

me since I'd crossed

the careful, muffled sobs I'd le

o

ering release that left my throat ra

there was no

world I knew and into

hollow ache of it, a

surv

one n

was a

came gre

he fire still smoldering. A few of the strays were alre

g against a tre

d someth

bread. Stal

ht it

said. "The

kind o

alf-smile-dry,

vivi

didn't as

re you'd come from

demanded

rning how to

urred into a relentless rhythm of hunge

open arms. No. They tested me. Lik

en Knox let me stay that first night. But t

y hair, even the quiet ones with shadows behi

hoice but to p

not a

er ha

, the servant girl who

at was a dea

rotected

e, there we

survi

gs were th

wed at my belly before

ted me. No warm kitchen or gentle

e and the ragged breath of a world

ortless grace-tracking, hunting, fighting-l

d to f

t, I st

fe

bl

tracking a rabbit, I returned to camp

t me, express

ive up," he

odd

to be a stray,

. "Not if you don't l

g group of strays-lived by ru

our place or

mp

n't break under her sarcasm and cutting words. Maybe be

n't hol

her

ard with a quick jab, sh

than I thought

t a flicker of something I ha

unt with Knox

crushed leaf, the broken twig,

ught I'd never

I

n the smallest kill, a small par

as proof I c

more than the omega who'd b

mostly to myself, tha

nd loneliness gnawed at

ine, the gentle faces of those who barely noti

Even now, I ha

all, I misse

s a ghost.

t a servant, not a dau

t A

re asleep, I sat by the dying

avy like a

breathe, letting the tears fall li

had to b

one could s

dn't sp

as like the earth its

t left me bruised and exhaust

running anym

at him,

hispered.

dded

eans so

the lump i

ha

cause you're forced to, but because y

became

ough the thick underbrush, in ever

ys didn'

t care abo

d about t

resent wa

never g

was te

the whispers that told m

ted to drag me back to a place whe

night of rain, the ca

small hare and

it," she s

animal, hea

more th

accep

d as the others

dark, violent, fille

strays who'd been cast out for crime

e was a knife's edge be

ength in sm

eady gaze didn't fli

om Silas when I hel

inty that I could ca

tretched i

egan to

grew t

ds ste

uieter but

ng low and silver over th

r into the forest

nt?" I

e said. "To see

a spark

methin

o

rst time, I wasn't

ing toward