The Unforgiving Moon

24.

"Are you sure?"

Lotta's eyes were big. In fact, they had widened the moment we'd entered her room and I'd told her about the stranger in Aven's chambers—and they hadn't yet returned to their normal stance. Just as her heartbeat had quickened and was yet to calm down.

"I know what I saw," I confirmed, feeling squeamish at her unease.

Lotta shook her head. "Are you entirely sure, Sari, that her eyes were silver? And not grey, or blue, or anything else?"

"What is this about?" I inquired, as Lotta started pacing around.

She froze in place and her eyes were stoic on me. "You don't know what this means?" She nearly gasped at my ignorance.

"Clearly, I don't," I grumbled. "So please, tell me."

"Okay, okay," she said, hastily. "There's only one wolf alive currently known to have silver eyes. And that's Aven. Silver. Not grey, not blue, not any other kind of color. Silver, like the eyes of the Moon Wolf."

"Siddha," I whispered to myself. A word that had been spoken to me by none other than Sariranyasa herself, when she had told me about the truth of our origins.

Lotta continued her explanation, oblivious to the small interruption I had just made. "There used to be another; Selene, Aven's sister. But she died around twelve years ago. She was five."

I gulped. "Aven had a sister?" I muttered, quietly. Father had never mentioned this in any of our history lessons, though I'd recently come to learn there were many important details he'd refused to share with me.

Lotta shook her head to herself, and kept talking, as if saying the words made it sound more real, as if speaking them would make it make sense. "It must be Selene. But... it can't be. Beckett sent an assassin after her and Aven, and we were told Aven didn't reach her in time. The pack buried her. Mourned her."

I wanted to say another word, but I got interrupted by a small gasp on Lotta's part, and her hands clasped.

"She must have survived!" she exclaimed. "And Aven sent her into hiding. She has been alive all this time."

My heart was going crazy in my chest. Truly, such a story couldn't be real. People would know, especially if she had resided in the Castle in the Middle all along. "What if there's a third-" I suggested, and I didn't get the chance to finish my sentence.

"It is already so rare that two silver-eyed wolves are alive at the same time. The odds of it being three are non-existent, Sari. Ever since the first Moon Wolf, there hasn't even been a rumor of another being born with silver eyes, the token of Aranyasvan's blessing!"

"Aven is blessed by Sariranyasa," I corrected her. "Not Aranyasvan."

"That's my point," Lotta said. "Something strange must have gone on when our Moons blessed Aven, but from what I can recall, Selene very much showed signs of being blessed. And she wasn't blessed by Sariranyasa."

My head shook in denial. "How old were you when all this happened? How do you remember it so well?"

Lotta sat back down. "I think I must have been sixteen at the time," she began. "Aven had celebrated his twentieth Moon of birth, I remember because there had been a big feast. He'd been Alpha for two years, and his little sister was only five. She must be seventeen now. How old did she look like to you, Sari?"

I bit on my bottom lip as I answered, "I didn't see her that long in the hallway, but if I had to guess, I'd say she looked like she was a few years younger than me."

"It's her," Lotta exhaled. "It makes too much sense for it to be anyone else. But how did you notice her? I was only a few steps ahead of you and I didn't hear or see anyone in the hallway."