A Luna and A Whore

nder and sickness

d a ceramic mug she no longer had the strength to lift. Steam drif

s, as if the forest itself grieved with them. Jasmine could hear the soft ticking of the old clock in the hallw

hoarse from crying. "You

oftest movement beneath the blanket..

like a gh

neath pale skin. Her lips were dry, cracking at the corners. Jasmine re

ws," she murmured. "Said it ma

ttled hard i

ind slipped inside, cold and biting, and for a moment Jasmine imagin

g breath stirred. Ja

d and sunken...found hers.

here,

and the shallow rise and fall of her mother's chest. Her mother's hand,

outh," she said, a ghost of a smil

on the lump in her t

tearing. "He'll come for you. When I'm

. "I don't care. He had

her with something deep in her eyes...

Not unless you're ready to become somethin

ine

, bony fingers like iron. "He'll smell

do you

drifted shut again, her br

mother's and stayed there, trembling

full and sharp above the

.without being told that he

before the sound broke inside her. No n

. And the old blood her mother

ith her own hands in the garden. No sh

in grounded was gone but Jasmine Wembley wasn't the same girl a

she didn't recognize. A crescent moon split down the center. The scent on it m

rayed like it had traveled through storms to reach her. She couldn't under

recognize. But something in her bones shifted the mome

the page. Earthy.

d it like

the open window with a voice that wasn't just w

from the lette

the old couch, a kitchen knife under her pillow,

een trees, cloaked in moonlight. She never heard the

neath her head. She thrashed, bit, fought like her mother tau

rowled, breath hot against her ear

s. A sack over her head.

dar

, sex, and despair. The floor was hard stone. T

the corridor. Men's l

e, a wom

gged, still gagged, she fel

dirt or rot anymore. It smelled... sweet. Lik

ne else's dream. Her eyes blinked open to chandeliers that scattered golden light across a ceiling trimmed in

was... it wa

wasn'

dry. There were no ropes now, no cage. Just a quiet room,

her from a mirror the size of a door...wild-eyed, pale

ame th

e door opened befo

e burnished bronze and a smile carved too precisely to be real. Her hair spilled in

r voice smooth like honey over stee

th moved, but

ke she owned it. "I run things here. We don't get many from the outside anymore,

p, throat tight. "I don

y for those of our kind. You're not here as

f she felt relief or

from beneath her arm and held it out. "Your rules. Read them carefully. Break them once, and you'll be w

he book. Her f

ing upstairs without invitation. No entering

re rules. More shado

leave. At the

that same too-smooth smile. "And st

linked. "

gone. The door shut be

shimmered faintly, and for a moment the letters re

Deep in her ches

ar. Not jus

. wasn't jus

somethi

moved. Something that breathed w

with sudden, bon

t just be

been c