The Rejected Luna's Hidden Legacy

, reject you, Felicia Ashbo

efore I remember

dropped to a crouch like an invisible hand had shoved them down. Somewhere behin

arlier, I still

under the table where no one could see. He'd pressed his thumb slow against my knuckles al

and Selene Ravenshade w

owned it, knelt before the council with her spine straight and her chin dip

e said, "I car

essed both hands to her mouth, delighted. Somewhere behind me a servant girl went white and looked at her fe

n's hand went rigid in

ver her shoulder. Soft.

s pack," she said, dabbing at an eye that wasn'

y throat closed around eve

struck his staff against the marble, and the sound

te, or choose your people. Reject the wolfless Luna tonight

the table his knee had started to bounce, a tell I'd me

efore I d

k at

head in the hall turned. Lucien's did

sleep w

llowed the

wer

and released, curled and released, like he was counting something only h

, in the way his shoulders had gone tight enough to shake, in the tendons stan

end you, that gold sai

nd her instead, his s

weapons. At Selene, kneeling in her white dress with her hand still

d already chosen, somewhere between the elder

. No

Lucien Bla

gh began again, slower this time,

ou, Felicia

warm slip over my lip ... blood, thin and hot, dripping onto the silver of my gown before I understood what it was.

. His whole body had gone rigid, fighting something under his skin that wanted out, and f

e rejected," th

between us, shaking, before he forced it back to

ire didn't c

llars, terrified of what people would think if they saw it. Heat seared through the fabric.

were too busy watching Lucien for signs of weakness. Only the light gave me away ... a thin, si

st n

by shadow among the visiting d

His guards turned toward him, alarmed, hands twitching toward their blades, but he was already si

"...she bears the

Selene, too busy watching Lucien finish what he'd started,

y mate a

d like a door slammi

opped. I felt it go. I felt myself go with it, hollow and ringing, and I locked m

ief, raw, nothing royal about it, his eyes glassy and his throat working around words he wasn't allowed

don't love me

swer enough to break the las

ile, an old healer pressed through the crowd toward me, murmuring some excuse

ent s

int, disbelieving. Her eyes climbed to mine, wide,

he breathed. "Y

time to ask he

ght, one hand braced against a pillar, staring at the fading silver

voice carried, cutting clean through the noise, through Se

cted the fu