Chapter 1

The gown for the Bonding ceremony arrived at dusk.

I stood in front of the mirror, running my fingertips over the layer of silver gauze along the hem, thin as moonlight, smiling like a girl on her way to a first date. Seven more days. In seven days I would finally stand at Kael's side, just as he'd promised nine years ago beneath a new moon. "One day you'll stand beside me, and we'll share this glory together."

The woman in the mirror already had fine lines at the corners of her eyes, yet I felt a shy, foolish sweetness at how much I still wanted this.

I gathered the gown into my arms, meaning to go find him and slip my arms around him—the way I had a thousand times over the last nine years. But the oak doors to the council hall hadn't been shut all the way, and through the gap drifted a stranger's lazy, purring laugh, and a single sentence that froze the blood in my veins.

"Kael—moving the moon mark early, is that really safe?"

I went still in the doorway and looked through the crack. Selene was nestled against his shoulder, reaching up for a wine glass.

Her sleeve slid back.

The moon mark.

That cool sliver of a new moon—the one soul-mark meant to belong to me alone, the only one the Moon Goddess had ever blessed—was resting quietly now against another woman's wrist.

I looked down at my own right wrist without thinking.

Bare. Horribly, glaringly bare. When had it been taken? I hadn't felt a thing.

In that instant, nine years crashed down on me all at once. Nine years ago, Kael had held my hand beneath that crescent moon and made his vow. For nine years I had treated the mark as a promise from the divine, turning it over and over in my mind, honing myself into his most flawless right hand—raising him from a fringe lordling to an Alpha of terrifying reach.

And now he had peeled it off me and handed it to another woman like some cheap party favor.

Inside, Kael's voice came—steady to the point of cold-blooded, the voice I'd listened to for ten years and once believed was the most reassuring sound in the world. "It's only a temporary measure. Once the Bonding is done, everything goes back to how it was."

"But what if Evelyn finds out?" an Elder fretted.

Kael laughed softly, and there wasn't a shred of guilt in it—only the cool arrogance of a man used to control. "She won't leave. She's run my territory for ten years. She's grown dependent. She needs this Bonding more than anyone alive."

The moment my fingertips went cold, a shadow slid across the floor at my feet. I looked up. On the windowsill at the far end of the corridor, a raven had settled without a sound, jet-black from beak to tail. It cocked its head and watched me with one amber eye—as if looking at something long lost and finally found.

A small scroll of parchment was tied to its leg.

Before I could reach it, the talk inside the hall cut off. Kael turned slowly, his gaze sliding through the gap in the doors to land squarely on me.

"Evelyn." He set his glass down and strode toward me, his eyes flicking to my empty wrist. He was silent for half a second. "We were going to find a good moment to tell you afterward."

"Tell me what?" My own voice came out frighteningly calm.

"The Council needs stability. Selene's bloodline is better suited to carry the duties of Luna in a delicate time like this." He explained it as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. "You're still my Bonded. It's just a mark—a symbol. Does it really matter that much?"

I smiled. A faint taste of iron rose in my throat.

So nine years of devotion, nine years of loyalty, were worth so little to him that I hadn't even rated a word of warning.

I met his eyes. Mine were flat as dead water, but the corner of my mouth curved into something that would have stopped a heart.

"You're right, Kael." His shoulders visibly relaxed. "So that seat—keep it. Enjoy it."

I turned and walked away. Behind me, for the first time, Kael called after me with a flicker of panic. "Evelyn!"

I didn't look back. Because the moment I stepped through that door, the raven at the end of the corridor spread its wings, and the little scroll dropped—landing right at my feet.

I picked it up and unrolled it. A single line, in a hand I didn't know but that cut like a blade:

"Don't complete the Bonding. What they've taken isn't a mark—it's your life. The North is waiting for you."