323
Lucy
I was back in that house with that couple that adopted me. I felt the floorboards creaking as I went downstairs. I saw the men in suits. I shrieked, turning. Not again. I couldn’t be back here. Where was David? How had I gotten back here?
I looked down. I wasn’t… wearing the dress or the armor. I had no daggers. My hair was just as uncombed and dry as it had been then. When I looked in the mirror, the skinny young woman who had barely had anything more than ramen and school lunch stared back at me.
My stomach lurched. The door opened, and I turned to run, knowing what was about to happen. I dug my heels in as dark shadows pulled me towards the door. I felt myself being lifted onto someone’s shoulders. I fought and kicked, but all my training and all my strength were gone.
I saw the calendar on the wall, but the date was different. It wasn’t my birthday. It was the day of the Crescent Moon Festival. I screamed, grabbing anything I could manage.
Then, Selene appeared with a cold smile, following me out the door.
“I told you, didn’t I?” She asked. “It’s really a shame. Things would have been so much easier, but I supposed it’s fine.”
I growled. “David will come for me.”
She chuckled. “I promise by the time he comes, you will no longer be in this world.”
My heart lurched as the force ripped me backward. My hands slipped from the doorframe. I hit the inside of the trunk hard. Then, they slammed it closed over me, leaving me in complete darkness.
I opened my eyes with a scream to that same darkness. I wiggled and pushed. I couldn’t be back then. I couldn’t be there. I wasn’t going back there. I kicked against the darkness and thrashed, and then I felt the hard length of my concealed dagger strapped to my thigh. I felt the gliding softness of the dress, and I sucked in deep, calming breaths. Today was not my eighteenth birthday. Most of the people I knew were back at the Festival Grounds, maybe fighting for their lives.
Just like I had to. I had to breathe. The darkness of the trunk had shape and reason. Panic, cold and clammy, slithered down my spine as the memories flooded back, vivid and brutal: the sting of something, the paralyzing fear, and knowing that perhaps no one would find me until it was too late. The darkness wasn’t shrinking. The car was already in motion. It was bigger than the last trunk I had been in. I took a deep breath and focused. I shuffled my heels off and kicked out as hard as I could, but all I heard was the thud of metal.
I tried to gather magic to get out, to conjure a light, to do anything, but it stuttered and fizzled out before I could do anything. I swallowed. My breath hitched in my throat. I was trapped.
For now.
They had to get me out of here eventually. For now, all I could do was focus on what I could. Every bump, every turn, sent tremors of fear coursing through me. I couldn’t figure out how long we were driving. I couldn’t figure out where we were headed or even who had taken me. The air, stale and suffocating, pressed against my lungs. I felt dizzy as it got harder and harder to breathe. The car bumped and rocked. I was banged against the sides of the trunk. My jaw trembled. I closed my eyes, blocking out the fear and the memory of the last time I had been in this situation.
What was most likely?
Selene was behind this. I was probably being taken to wherever the ritual was being held. What did I remember from class? From the books? Her ritual would have to be somewhere with lots of ambient magic, somewhere she and I had a connection to.
The White Moon Estate.
The scene of a courtyard flashed through my mind. Then, I saw David casting a wave of dragon fire on a group of people. Was that my imagination or something else? Did it matter? I closed my eyes. Where was I going? How far was I? Was the ceremony already starting?
Then, the car stopped, and silence fell. An eerie stillness settled around me, broken only by the distant rustle of leaves and the chirping of crickets. The engine sputtered, coughed, and finally died.
My breath hitched, anticipation knotting my stomach. I curled tight, ready to jump out and attack whoever was about to open the trunk. The trunk lid creaked open, a sliver of moonlight painting jagged stripes across the rough metal floor. A shadow, tall and menacing, fell across the opening.
I leaped out, aiming to slam into the person and take them down, but the person slid aside and slammed me to the ground. Gravel and stone bit into my side. I think I hit my head. Disoriented, I craned my head around, searching for my assailant. And then I saw him, bathed in the moonlight, his familiar face contorted in a mask of cold malice.
“Peter?”
But even as relief flooded me, a chilling awareness crept in. His eyes glowed with the same unnatural light. His voice, when he spoke, was a hollow echo, devoid of its usual warmth.
"Don't struggle, Lucy," the words rasped, but the voice was Selene's. "Resistance will only bring pain for you and Michelle."
My gaze darted to the edge of the clearing, where Michelle stood frozen, her eyes wide with terror. A hulking werewolf, its eyes burning with the same odd light, held her hostage. A wave of nausea washed over me. Despair, cold and heavy, threatened to drown me. I pushed it down and struggled to my feet, facing Peter.
“Let her go,” I hissed, my voice tight with barely contained fury. "This is between you and me, Selene. Leave her out of this."
The werewolf holding Michelle let out a guttural laugh, the sound echoing with Peter's distorted voice. "How noble, Lucy. But sentimentality won't save her. Cooperate, and she lives. Resist, and she pays the price."
I took a deep breath. My heart clenched tight. I didn’t have a choice…
For now.
A sliver of cruel amusement flickered in the light of their eyes.
"Excellent," Selene's voice purred, slithering through both Peter and the werewolf.
Peter stepped forward and grabbed me, pulling me along down the path. The earth was soft beneath my feet. I smelled blood. I looked down, and my stomach turned. I could see the blood seeping into the ground. I could smell it even though my feet were perfectly dry. I looked up as we walked further down the path. The ghosts and spirits of White Moon appeared along the way. Their sorrowful gazes followed me, an unspoken chorus of empathy and anger. Mothers were cradling spectral children, warriors frozen in poses of eternal defiance, and older people simply watching and shaking their heads.
People who were once my packmates, maybe even my family. As we approached the crumbling remnants of the cave Duke and I had fallen into before, my gut twisted.
She was taking me to that door, but where did it leave?
“Open it,” Selene commanded through Peter. I looked at the pattern on the wall and hesitated. I didn’t know how to open it.
Then, I saw David standing at a door similar to this one. I turned back. Was this a vision from her or somewhere else? A memory?
“Why can’t you do it?”
Selene hissed. “Do it, or else.”
I set my jaw and looked back at Michelle before stepping forward. I saw Delilah appearing beside me. She said nothing, but her eyes told me everything. I followed her instructions as they flowed into me. Fear gnawed at me, but she seemed calm. Could Selene see her? Did it matter? My trembling fingers traced pieces as they slotted into place. When the black wolf’s eyes lit up, and the moon began to glow, I heard a metallic click, and the door whispered open, revealing a dark tunnel.
“Get moving,” Selene hissed, jabbing me forward.
Just inside the tunnel, Eve and Allison were. Delilah walked alongside me, along with countless other women. They were the women from the circle I’d seen before. Former Moon Goddesses.
I felt sick.
As I descended into the inky blackness, the spirits of White Moon followed. The passage pressed in, and the air was thick and stale. No one had been down here in decades. Then, the path started to split.
Which way was I supposed to go?
“Go,” Selene hissed from behind me.
The path stretched before me. I hesitated then. Delilah tilted her head to the right, and I followed. We were no more than a few steps down the path when the earth started to tremble around us. The passage shuddered violently. Rocks tumbled from the crumbling ceiling, narrowly missing Michelle, who stumbled, yelping in fear. Peter and the other werewolf stumbled and staggered around, but I felt oddly steady.
This was my chance.
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