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 handshakes 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 continueto 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 openside 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.”
