Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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The news about the three dead guards spread before sunrise.
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By the time Damien and I stepped into the main hall, everyone already knew. People stood in tight groups with their arms folded, whispering like the bodies were somehow my fault. I could feel every stare dragging over me, over my collarbone, over my hands, like they were waiting for claws to come out again.
A man near the door shook his head. “Ever since she came, people keep dying.”
I stopped walking.
Damien’s hand found my lower back. “Keep moving.”
“No.” I turned toward the man with furrowed eyebrows. “Say it properly if you’re going to say it.”
His face tightened. “I said what I said.”
A woman beside him pulled him back, but another voice muttered, “The rogues want her. Maybe handing her over would stop this.”
Damien moved before I could blink. His shoulders went stiff, and the room felt colder. “Say that again.”
Nobody did.
I swallowed hard and raked my fingers through my hair. My throat hurt, but I refused to cry in front of them. Not again. Not when yesterday they had called me Luna because one child thanked me, and now they were looking at me like I had dragged those guards to the gate myself.
Alice stood near the stairs, calm as ever. Her face looked sad, but her eyes stayed dry.
I looked at her. “You enjoying this?”
She blinked. “Sienna, three people are dead.”
“And somehow you’re still the cleanest person in the room.”
A few people gasped. Alice lowered her head like I had wounded her. “I’m not going to fight with you while the pack is grieving.”
I almost laughed. The audacity was actually athletic.
Then my chest cracked anyway.
I stepped back, bumping into Damien. My eyes burned, and I hated it. I hated them. I hated how badly I still wanted someone in that room to believe me without Damien forcing them to.
“I didn’t kill them,” I said, but my voice came out small.
Damien turned me toward him. “Look at me.”
11:49 Thu, May 21.
Chapter 104
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I shook my head. “No. I’m so tired.”
His hand lifted to my cheek, but I pulled away before everyone could watch him comfort me again. “Don’t.”
His jaw flexed. “Sienna.”
Before he could say more, small footsteps ran across the hall. The little girl I saved pushed through two adults.
“Luna?”
I froze.
She walked to me and held up the drawing with both hands. “I made another one.”
I crouched, my knees touching the floor. “For me?”
She nodded. “My mum helped me spell it.”
I took the paper carefully. It showed me standing in front of children again, but this time Damien’s black wolf stood beside me. Above us, in crooked letters, it said Our Luna.
My face crumpled before I could stop it.
The girl touched my sleeve. “Don’t cry. You saved us.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded because if I spoke, I would fully lose it. I folded the drawing carefully, smoothing the edges with my thumb, then stood up.
Damien watched me with a look that made my chest ache.
I turned to him. “I’m done begging for belief.”
His eyes searched mine. “What do you need from me?”
I held the drawing against my chest. “Not protection. Trust,”
The room went quiet again.
Damien nodded once. “Then lead the next move.”
The elders called the Luna trial that afternoon.
Of course they did. Because apparently trauma needed a schedule.
I stood at the training ground with my hair tied back, my hoodie swapped for fitted black gear the healer forced on me. Damien stood near the edge of the ring, arms crossed, looking like he wanted to burn the whole trial down with eye contact alone.
Linda leaned close. “You can still walk away.”
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Chapter 104
“I know.”
“Will you?”
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I looked at the crowd. Some stared with hope. Some stared with fear. Alice stood near Clara, hands folded. face calm enough to make my wolf pace under my skin.
“No,” I said. “I’m done letting them decide who I am from a hallway.”
Marcus stepped forward. “The trial will test control, courage, and restraint. You will face controlled threats. You will protect a marked target. You will not kill.”
I nodded. “Got it.”
Damien’s voice cut in. “If anything goes wrong, I stop this.”
I looked at him. “Damien.”
“I mean it.”
I walked to him, stopping close enough that only he could hear. “You said trust.”
His eyes dropped to my mouth, then back to my eyes. “Trust is not the same as watching you get hurt.”
“Then don’t watch me like I’m already bleeding.”
His jaw tightened. I touched his wrist. “Stand beside me, remember?”
He nodded, but his fingers caught mine for one second before I stepped back.
The first part began fairly. Two warriors attacked with padded staffs. I ducked, spun, and shoved one back without claws. The crowd murmured. My wolf growled, wanting more, but I clenched my fists and breathed through it.
The second part started when a young servant boy was marked with blue paint and placed behind me. Four warriors circled us.
“Protect the target,” Marcus said.
I moved with the boy, keeping my body between him and every weapon. “Stay behind me,” I told him.
He nodded fast. “Okay, Luna.”
That word hit me, but I stayed focused.
The warriors came in harder. I blocked one. Kicked another back. My shoulder slammed into a third. Then Damien’s head snapped up.
“Sienna!” he shouted.
I saw it a second later. One blade flashed silver at the edge.
11:49 Thu, May 21 ♫
Chapter 104
The safe weapons had been switched.
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Damien stepped into the ring, but I lifted my hand fast, signaling him not to interfere. His whole body locked.
The silver blade sliced across my arm.
Pain burned hot and brutal. I stumbled, teeth clenched, but stayed on my
feet.
AD
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11:49 Thu, May 21 ♫
