and silver clung to the

tion-but something stranger. Like her cells had been rearra

ough the crumbling ceiling of the temple. The pedestal she'd touched

gertips

ed down-

inside of her wrist, intricate and unfamiliar.

ell is this?"

her made her l

heart racing.

pillar, tall and cloaked in black.

said. His voice was low, smooth, and carried a strange accent she

. Awak

chiseled face, half-covered in tribal markings.

sturing toward the pedestal. "Only one o

ed her eyes.

g no surname. "Sent here to watch

send you to guar

ecause one day, the Moon-Blooded would rise

d. "You think I'm th

on her wrist. "That's not a tattoo. It's a seal. A gift

en rejected by the man she was fated to love, accuse

s raised in the Crescent Moon pack. My mother died whe

ze piercing. "Maybe that's wh

do you

new what you truly were, they'd have never let you live. You ar

g to prove her loyalty, her worth-and now he was say

said. "You

ou?" he asked. "The strength? The p

tbeat of a rabbit yards away. Smell the faintest trace of blood

e admitted, her

en your reckoning

st, at the mark that seemed to pul

true... she wasn't j

thing far mo

ked, her voice b

"Because you're the last of her blood.

is c

arthed dark magic, made pacts with blood sorcerers. You think you were betrayed by c

hest tight

he feared her po

er truly b

forced herself to stand st

rvive. Then... you gather your strength. You m

f wind tore th

ent-one Selene

o

tip

ashed silver. "T

pounding. Shadows mov

onger safe-n

her hand. "We n

look back. The temple crumbled behind them

something anci

't going ba

e night-long, mou

rning. A

s were alr