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And it is where we all shall die
Prayers of the Moon Priestesses
Grief and heartache saturated Cila’s square.
Milly, the seamstress, clutched her son Simon to her chest, her round cheeks flush and wet. Lola and Amelie, our neighbors, sandwiched their sixteen-year-old boy between them, the only sign of Tom being the tufts of raven hair poking out. Even Samuel, the stoic metalsmith, gripped his son Mikael by the arm, an uncharacteristic display of emotion playing across the older man’s weathered face.
Mikael’s sister, Lilah, caught my eye, her lovely brown eyes clouded with tears. She’d been my first love, my firsteverything, and yet, we hadn’t spoken for months. I knew the reason well enough, and it had everything to do with the gossip surrounding me like a shroud—
Stay away.
Kiara’s dangerous.
Cursed.
Slowly, Lilah’s gaze traveled to Liam, and she bit her full bottom lip before giving me her back. Her apathy stung, but it didn’t touch on the other emotions suffocating me today.
To their credit, my parents held back their tears, but judging from their red-rimmed eyes and the dark circles painting their lower lids, they’d shed their fair share of grief the night before.
Mother’s black hair hung limply down her back, her head resting against my father’s broad shoulder. Her delicate fingers squeezed the pendant tied around her throat, the chain tarnished and the face of the nameless Moon God spotted with age.
Often I wondered why she wore the charm of the Moon God when the day and its light was all she yearned for. Mother simply told me that sometimes it was best to pray to the gods you could see, for perhaps they might listen.
But the Moon God wouldn’t help with our failing crops. None of the gods would. After Raina disappeared, all of the gods seemed to disappear, leaving us without direction or guidance. Leaving us a cursed land and people.
I followed my father’s dark gaze to where Liam cut through the dense crowd of onlookers. His lifted chin and creased eyes radiated pride, an expression he rarely wore for his son.
I ground my teeth.
While Father would never admit it, I’d often see the glimmer of disappointment beneath his carefully constructed smile.
Liam found my eyes, and the spark glinting in his irises warmed the space in my heart reserved solely for him. With a final nod, he broke contact, marching into line with the others.
He was brave enough to meet the beginning of his demise with grace, and for that, I found him to be the most courageous person I’d ever known.
For the first time in a while, I genuinely missed my uncle. He’d left for the southern lands a week ago without any explanation. If he were here, he’d probably say something profound—or something harsh enough to snap me out of my stupor.
“It’shim,” Mother hissed into my ear, elbowing me gently.
I followed her vehement stare to a man more legend than flesh.
A man they claimed to have been disfigured by the grisly creatures roaming beyond the borders. Allegedly, he’d battled his way home to the capital of Sciona last winter, drenched in blood and reeking of death.
But that couldn’t be anything more than gossip.
No one ventured deep into the Mist and returned. Yet, even as I assured myself, I couldn’t help but admit that the commander’s domineering presence could be felt from a distance.
Boldly, I drank him in.
He exposed no discernible features, his body and face encased entirely in thin onyx metal. All of them wore armor, but the commander’s was covered in obsidian spikes, the tips glimmering in the erratic lighting of the torches that lined the square.
A wave of ice weighed my bones, slinking around my thudding heart and squeezing.
I shivered as phantom fingers traced down my spine, the mountain breeze tickling my ears like a whispered caress.
I sensed something here, in this square, that didn’t…belong. Afeelingmy late grandmother would declare divine intuition. She died only last year, leaving a yawning void in my heart when she left. Aurora Adair was a force of nature, a formidable woman who believed in the impossibility that was faith.
“What’s wrong?” Father’s grip on my arm tightened as he peered down at me with concern.
