Chapter 15: The False Luna's Scar

Maeve lived because Darius carried her. Nora had never seen him move like that. One moment Maeve was falling behind the witness stand. The next, Darius crossed the chamber with the bolt in his own shoulder, one arm around Maeve, his body placed between her and every window. The bolt had missed Maeve's heart by less than two inches. It had not missed the truth. By midnight, the Council physicians confirmed what Nora already knew. The bolt was packed with moonbane, a poison used to silence wolf blood without leaving ordinary wounds. It was illegal in every northern pack and expensive enough that no common assassin carried it. Elder Callum denied everything before anyone accused him. That was his first mistake. His second was trying to leave the Council under medical excuse. Frost guards found three sealed letters inside the lining of his travel cloak. Two were coded transfer orders. The third was addressed to Iris Bell. Nora read it in the infirmary while Maeve slept under silver light. Burn the fertility records before the scar fades. "What scar?" Nora asked. Darius stood by the door while a physician bound his shoulder. He had refused a chair. "A false Luna mark must be renewed." Nora looked at him. The physician paled and found a reason to leave. Darius waited until the door closed. "When a true Luna bonds with pack authority, the mark appears naturally. It settles in the skin like moonlight. A forged mark can be cut and filled with silver dye. It lasts as long as the body does not reject it." "Iris showed everyone a mark after Rowan named her." "Yes." Nora remembered it. Iris had pulled her hair aside in the ceremony hall, letting the blue-white crescent at her collarbone flash under candlelight. The pack had cheered. Nora had been too busy trying not to collapse to question why the mark looked fresh. "If it fades," Nora said, "she was never accepted." "If it fades before the Council, Rowan's claim weakens." Nora folded Callum's letter. "Then we make her show it." Darius studied her. "You have begun to enjoy court strategy." "No." Nora looked through the glass at Maeve's bandaged body. "I have stopped being polite to people who tried to bury me." The next morning, Councilor Venn granted Nora's request. Iris refused. That refusal did more damage than a confession. The chamber filled with ranked Alphas and legal witnesses. Iris stood beside Rowan, one hand clamped over the high collar of her gown. She had painted her mouth red and her cheeks pink, but nothing could hide the sweat at her temples. "Luna Iris Vale," Venn said, "display your acceptance mark." "This is indecent." "The mark was displayed publicly at appointment." "That was ceremonial." "So is this." Iris looked at Rowan. For once, Rowan did not move to protect her. Slowly, shaking with anger, Iris lowered the collar. A sound passed through the room. The crescent at her collarbone was not moonlight. It was an angry silver cut, blurred at the edges, the dye beneath it breaking into gray scales. The upper curve had already split. Under it, raw skin showed. False. The word did not need to be spoken. Nora felt no triumph. Only a cold click of understanding. Iris had not stolen one title. She had built an entire false life on Nora's pain. Iris saw Nora looking and smiled with all her teeth. "Do you think this makes you safe?" she whispered as she passed the witness table. "You still do not know who paid for the moonbane." Then she stumbled. The false mark cracked open. Black blood ran down the front of her blue gown, and Elder Callum began shouting for the guards to burn the records.