Chapter 12 - Twelve
Night draped Thornridge in velvet shadows, and the moon, usually my comfort, felt like a witness I couldn’t escape. I stood at the tree line, wrapped in a plain cloak that made me look more like a traveling healer than the Luna of an Alpha. The Seer had told me to blend in, to wear no symbol of power or status. I was not Luciana of Thornridge anymore—not to the human world I was about to enter.
I was just a girl with a secret and a mission.
The Seer waited for me near the river’s edge, her gnarled fingers drawing new runes into the soil with a stick soaked in ash and herbs. She barely looked up when I arrived.
"You’re late," she murmured.
"I had to... I left a note," I said, adjusting the satchel on my shoulder. It held a few essentials—herbs for healing, a blade for safety, and the Veilglass tucked in a velvet pouch. I didn’t bring anything else from the pack. Nothing that could give me away.
"Your Alpha will wake soon," she said, her eyes narrowing at the dark horizon. "When he senses your absence, the bond—even severed—might tug him. We need to move."
"I’m ready." My voice was quiet but firm.
She nodded and led me through the dense underbrush. We walked in silence, my boots pressing soft against the mossy earth. Every step felt like a goodbye. The trees whispered my name in the wind. The woods I had grown up in, trained in, cried in—these woods were watching me leave.
We stopped at the mouth of the forgotten trail, a place I hadn’t dared to explore since childhood. It was said to be cursed, the way grown wolves say "cursed" to keep curious pups from stumbling into danger.
The Seer turned and handed me a tiny leather pouch.
"Salt, dried bloodroot, and moon ash," she said. "You’ll need it to close the gate behind you. Otherwise, anything might follow."