Page 31 of Blood Moon

A noble sacrifice—it’s what you wanted from me.

Article IV, Lost Letters from Aadan the First

A week had passed. In that time, I’d read every published article I could find on the animal attacks in Timber Plains. It was true, they followed a pattern. A majority of the deaths occurred on the night of a full moon, and the survivors either reported the locations of the attacks or vanished.

Very few articles mentioned werewolves. The few that did were simply due to who was interviewed.

The townies, the ones that believed in the folklore, proclaimed it was a werewolf every single time—a vicious beast that stood on two legs, howling at the moon.

The victims, however, never witnessed what attacked them.

This made many of the reports inconclusive.

On one of the days, I borrowed a car to return home. I needed to see Bobby’s collection again, study the reports he deemed crucial to the case. But the papers were gone, which I supposed was good for Bobby— growth —but it was a dead end for me.

Then there was the inexplicable behavior from Julian.

We hadn’t conversed since the party, nor had I seen him since that night in the woods.

Part of me wondered if he’d died at the hands of the woman that troubled him.

Perhaps he’d been swallowed whole by a creature.

Every thought was perturbing, and on the seventh day since I’d last seen him, I’d committed to filing a missing person’s report.

That was, until today.

A few yards away, amid the sea of hurried students, he was there. Only he wasn’t alone. Chase stood across from him, a firm hand on his shoulder. A showing of superiority as he leaned in with low brows and a snarl on his lips.

They stood in the darkness between buildings, and it wasn’t a conversation they shared, but rather what looked like an urgent warning. At once, Julian shook away from his grasp, leaving Chase behind as he headed toward the Lansing Building.

The tan bandage, wrapped around his right hand, caught my eye. Figures. He was a magnet to trouble, that boy. But what had happened? Did Chase fulfill his promise, or had the woman taken part in this?

However, when Julian sat beside me in class, I was completely unhinged.

He didn’t assess me, didn’t so much breathe in my direction. There was an airiness about Julian, a wispiness that worked its way through his muscle and bone, slowly molding him to the chair.

I leaned away, glaring as he began to jot down notes.

Had he forgotten the aversion we shared?

The malicious nature that tied us together and turned us upside down like a bunch of wilting, dead flowers?

Perhaps. But as I further observed him, I saw additional signs of a prior conflict.

A light scar on the apple of his cheek. Another on his forearm.

Both fresh, still tinted shades of pink and red.

His mouth, his lips, were what I noticed next.

I was seized by the sudden reminder of how we’d shared breath, how we’d come together to create a moment that still sent shudders through me.

How the thought of it now made me ache. That kiss was perfectly imperfect.

A memento of our past selves, something we’d never get back.

Not in this reality. Not when everything was on the line.

I caught my breath, snapped out of it. “Why are you sitting here?”

Julian adjusted to the bend of the chair, pulled down the sleeves of his waffle-knit shirt. “What? I can’t sit here?” His voice was low.

A twitch there, in the corner of my eye. “It’s not that you can’t sit here—it’s that you’ve never willingly sat by me before— but also … you can’t sit here.”

His gaze tracked the professor as she progressed to the next slide on the screen. “Was there someone else?” he asked.

“No.”

A half smile crept to his lips. “Then I think I’m fine where I am. Thanks for the concern. Very considerate of you.”

I made a disgusted sound, gripped the pen in my hand. At this, he regarded me. His stare starting at my hands and trailing to my eyes, studying me in a way that brought discomfort—and another feeling, one I wasn’t ready to admit, not even to myself.

“Mirabella, has anyone ever told you what a joy you are to be around?”

“ Fuck you .” The words came out in a whispered breath, and I sank in my seat. Julian smiled, his eyes glistening with a response he didn’t say. Though I was certain it was grotesque. “And it’s Mira,” I grumbled.

“Hmm. Right. That .” He carried on like nothing happened.

“You’re being strange,” I muttered.

“How is sitting next to you strange?”

I hissed. “Since when is it normal?”

He shrugged, relaxed. “I thought we were becoming friends.”

I looked at him pointedly, my hands curving into fists. “We’re not friends. I’m not sure what makes you think that.”

He tilted his head. “You don’t have the slightest idea?” There was a sanguineness about him, a cheekiness in the smirk on his face as he sat up. “I feel like we know each other so well. Potentially more than that.”

I knew what he was getting at, what path he wanted me to go down. I deviated swiftly, recalling the words he murmured after we kissed. “You said you were going to be honest. So, what is this? What are you doing right now?”

Julian slunk back in his seat, sucked in a breath. It was only then that I noticed a gold chain peeking through the opening of his ivory shirt and falling down his chest, comparable to the one Seven wore. “You’re right. You got me there. That is what I said.”

“Own up to it then. This is your chance to tell me the truth, to tell me everything.”

Beneath the light that cut through the long windows, I watched his form go rigid. A tap of the foot. A squeeze of his pencil. A bob in his throat. “If you guess correctly—”

“You can’t be serious.” I gasped, my words sharp. “I’m not playing this game with you. It’s now or it’s now. Those are your options.”

“Mira, wait. Give me a second.” He fixed himself. “Listen. I want to tell you. Something is on the verge of happening, and you deserve to know. But the oath,” he said through his teeth. “It prohibits me from saying anything outright. So, if you—”

“ If I guess, you’ll tell me.”

He took a breath. “Yes.”

My body thudded with anticipation. Every question came rushing to, and still, I had no idea where to start. Minutes passed as I chewed at my lip, toes curled at the tip of my shoes.

Magic was knotted in this, only I was unsure how.

My speculations had spiraled after what I’d seen in the woods.

Julian, and those men, disappeared. The idea of a werewolf would be in accordance with the folklore of Timber Plains, but I needed more evidence.

Solid evidence. Although the moon and an ominous higher power were mentioned in the conversation I’d overheard from my snooping, it wasn’t enough for me to believe werewolves existed, and were behind this.

Any number of religions could encompass those very things.

Paranormal creatures were a wilder thought, a bit too far from reality.

Perhaps witches or a cult. A stretch, I knew that much, but it would explain my family heirloom, along with the rabid animals and the deaths.

Maybe this cult collected souls as a means for power and spell casting, using the wolves or bears as a tool to retrieve them.

The notion wasn’t that outlandish, considering the various documented cases of cults in the surrounding Kansas City and Timber Plains area.

It would justify what Rena was trying to cover up and her connection to the woods.

It would explain Julian’s as well, and the oath he was tied to.

In fear, I didn’t feel right suggesting my assumptions out loud. I needed to conduct a process of elimination first.

“It’s okay.” Julian startled me. He’d leaned in, shoulder close to mine.

I thought it was an attempt to rush me, pull the thoughts from my head like clothes strung on a line.

But on a second glance, I grasped the exhaustion in his eyes, pooling at the edges of his irises.

He continued, this time with a gentleness: “Anything … Ask me anything.”

I drew my attention away from him, took a moment to listen in on the lecture, but it was impractical. “What happened to you?” I pointed to the bandage and the scar on his face. It was an easier place to start.

“Got in a fight,” he said apprehensively; his fingers twitched.

“With who?” I considered one of the guards that lingered in Chase’s shadows.

“A brother.” So perhaps Chase?

“Why?”

He gripped his pen. “He thinks I’m weak.”

I’d seen the way he stood before Chase. Though he had men protecting him, Julian had an essence about him that appeared more threatening. “You don’t believe that, do you?”

“No. I’ve been at odds with my family, breaking vows because we don’t see eye to eye.

They’ve always had different plans for me …

but this threat is bigger than that, and I’ve refused to see it the same way as them until now …

” He trailed off, like he was still trying to convince himself.

If this was a cult, or a coven, perhaps he didn’t want to be involved anymore? Briefly, I felt a twinge of sympathy.

“What was it that—” I was interrupted by the sound of someone shushing us. They sat in the row behind, probably unable to concentrate. We’d been rather distracting for some time now, I understood, but it was still agitating.

“Later,” Julian whispered.

When class ended, I packed my bag. A strangeness enveloped me as Julian slowed his movements to match mine.

“Is it okay if I walk you to your next class?”

I narrowed my gaze instinctively. “Are you really asking me that?”

Innocence dressed his face as he relaxed into his stance. He nodded, but it wasn’t very convincing. I could have inquired about it, but now that Julian was giving me answers, I didn’t feel a need to.