Moonless

Chapter 24

An; Hello everyone! Thank you all for the 1,067 reads and 192 votes! You all are so amazing! So, I am going to be changing some things here and there, so the story makes a bit more sense. Very small things. I'll put them at the top of the next chapter because they will affect the people who made it this far in the book. Anyways, hope you enjoy this short chapter!
—————————————————

"So it all began on the first full moon after your eighth birthday which, as you know, is the day the moon coronation can be completed to..." Liam trailed off and peeked at me from under his unruly brown hair. 

"Determine if you are moonless or not, I'm familiar."

"Anyways, I was just 11 years old at the time. I remember being miserable because mom made me wear this tux with this bow tie around my neck. It felt like it was choking me, and you wouldn't shut up about your stupid dress, because it was pink instead of purple."

I remember that dress, I came here dressed in it, with an old brown coat. If I doubted he was telling the truth that he was my brother. How else would he know that was my dress?

"So mom was there at my moon coronation?"

" She got between you and dad afterwards, and he she ended up dead."

Cold tile floor, a sickening thud, a door flying open.

"Everlee?"

Hands around my throat, falling, somethings in here.

"Everlee!?"

I jerked back to reality and yanked my hands away from Liam, so I could wrap my arms around myself.

"Where did you go just now?" I saw your conscience slip from your eyes.

"I'm just shocked that she died for me," I replied. Which was not necessarily untrue.

What was that, was that the memory of her death? I felt like I don't think I wanted to remember if that was the case.

"Hmmm interesting," murmured Liam said.

I gave him a hard stare. "What is interesting?"

"Oh don't worry about it, I find a lot of things interesting."

"Okay, so what  happened after she died?" I pressed.

"Father took you to give you to him, the Dark One. And then you appeared deep within the woods on pack lands, without a scratch, later that same night. Luckily, we were near one of the pack's emergency cabins when I found you. We have a couple of them in case a pack member gets hurt, or the weather gets bad suddenly and you need shelter. I was still in my wolf form because of the full moon, but sometimes I managed to herd you inside."

"So let me get this straight. My father sacrificed me to the 'Dark One' and I just appeared in the forest in the mild of winter alone? Are you sure he carried out the sacrifice ?"I asked.

"Yes," Liam replied. "I watched him pick you up and throw you into The Dark One's home. He made me and our younger brother watch. That's why I was so deep in the woods when I found you. I shifted and blacked out from the shock. When I came to, you were standing in front of me. Cold, shaken, but otherwise unharmed."

"And where does this Dark One live? What was I thrown into?"

"It's this gaping hole in this rock formation that is just big enough for a body to slip into. It's so dark and deep you can't see anything in it. That's where the Dark One takes his children. You see, having a Lunera child is still seen as something you to be hidden but for different reasons in our pack. It's a sign that you wronged the Dark One, your child must be given to him to make amends."

"What does the Dark One do with the children?"

"I don't know, none of them have come back. Only you."

"Why am I alive then?" How did this story end with me ending up in Pine Ridge?"

"I told you I found you deep with the pack lands. Alone and shivering. You refused to speak even one word. So I spent the rest of the night inside that cabin, huddled under the blankets with you in my wolf form. We both fell asleep. And that's the first time that the spirits of the forest spoke to me."

"I woke to their voices calling me, to come outside. I was scared but I listened, and stepped out of the cabin . And even though it was supposed to be in the dead of winter, it was like a summer day had been placed around the clearing where the cabin sat. There was green grass and flowers and brightness, while a little beyond it, the rest of the woods were dark and cover in snow. And lying in the grass in front of the door, was a pine branch, and when I smelled it I knew were I had to take you."

"You came outside too, in this brown coat you must have found inside, and I picked up the pine branch and it started to glow with a green light. And the light left the branch it started to surround it, and I don't know how to explain it, but we became part of it. You climbed on my back and we ran across the night sky. All the way to Pine Ridge, although I didn't know its name at the time."

I let out a sigh and shook my head. "Nice story. You know you really had me, until the glowing green branch."

"You don't believe me?"

"Of course not who would believe that story!? So what then you took my memories after we landed and left me to die in a snowstorm?"

"I had too, you told me before the green light took me back.

"I told you to leave me? I thought I wasn't talking?"

"You didn't until we got there. You told me I had to go, and you had to stay and forget until you could remember and you took this vial out of your pocket and drank it . And the light took me back to the Red Crescent land. Look I know it sounds impossible, and I thought it was a dream at first. Until... well that's another story. A story that I think I need to tell you, so listen closely."