Alpha's Ocean Born Luna

t dark while I was

ing through my fingers. It was my hatch day, the only birthday I have. The elders sat along the coral bench

child. She brought a basket of sweet kelp and handed it r

e carried through the water like a bell. "The

e to remember anythin

d nurse, who had pressed a hand over

and he hummed whenever I borrowed his tide. Sable was black, the kind of black that looked like a hole in the water, and she never hummed

red once, twice, an

ck. One moment there was white light on all our faces, and the next there was o

?" I

opped h

Iola's basket of sweet kelp was st

ke a bell being cracked from the outside. The sea glass overhead shudde

blood in my mouth. Iron. Every child of the deep learns to fear that taste. The Tidefolk guards sh

screamed. "Ev

ful of fireflies. It caught Pell's dead little body and dragged her up thr

ed. A stunned hush hung over the hall, and I realized I

idden to do anywhere except the

g a knife. It ran down my arms and out through my fingers. The water around me turned white

m the other Stars. Orin and Cinder and Teal

ready gone through the roof, pulled by something enormous that I cou

price c

e's no pain, which is the cruel part. I turned to find Iola swimming toward me, her

eyes was reaching for me, and I flinched. For

said. "Mari

ng. But something else had gone. I could feel the empty space where it had been, a small cold hollow, and I could n

uard shouted. "T

ned black from wrist to elbow. She had thrown herself between the net and the elders. She was ancient and

t her good hand, and in it lay a

t it,"

e metal was a small mark, worn but cle

know it

, the elders had begun to murmur and weep. "But I do. I have not seen tha

hey want w

r, their lights shrinking. "But the circle is broken. Without Pell, the others wi

fter her. The

's silver eyes held mine. "Tonig

thin and wrong. "I've n

child, hear me. Wherever you walk, whoever asks

now my mot

shara quietly. "Th