THE LUNA HE THREW AWAY

The Confirmation

The Hollow was still when the moonlight faded. Everything waited, every root and stone silent. I stayed inside the circle. The Circle was more than a boundary; it was ancient, shaped by hands and songs older than memory. It marked the heart of our rites, a line in the earth where old magic gathered, where oaths mattered and spirits watched. Here, Sovereigns had been named and cast down, a ring burned into the ground by promise and sacrifice. The Rite was our passage, a trial that tied soul to land and leader to people, watched by the night and the unseen. Stepping out before the Rite ended would break its protection, or worse, undo what so many before me had given in fear and hope. I wanted to move, but leaving felt like breaking a spell or waking a beast that hadn’t decided if it was hungry.

Rowan stood up first. He didn’t look at me, but nodded slowly, as if he saw something old and dangerous in the air. Dara got to her feet with a sniff, brushed her hands on her skirt, and glanced at Aldric, then at me, then down. The Exile elder stayed kneeling a moment longer, lips moving in a prayer I couldn’t hear. When he stood, he looked relieved, like the outcome had never been certain for people like us.

Kael appeared beside me before I noticed, his hand hovering near my shoulder. He didn’t say anything. He just stood there, his presence steady and protective. Fen stood on my other side, arms crossed, tattoos moving under his skin. He had watched the Rite with wary pride, as if daring me to fall and daring the world to try to finish me if I did.

Cass stepped to the front of the crowd. For a moment, the moonlight grew brighter, silver shining through the trees and along the edge of the circle, as if the night was waiting. In our tradition, when the moon lights the Circle’s edge so clearly, it means more than an omen; it’s said to be the magic of the Rite finishing, the old laws agreeing to the choice. In that silver light, tradition says the Sovereign’s right is witnessed by both the living and the spirits and ancestors beyond. "The moon has confirmed the claim," she said, her voice clear. "Lira Vale stands as Sovereign." She looked at me, then at the crowd. "The Rite is witnessed. The law is bound. The history is made, by us, not the Council."

The silence that followed wasn’t empty. It was a hundred people deciding who to follow, who to fear, and who to become. I saw hope, anger, and envy in their faces. Some looked at me like I was a miracle. Others looked at me like I was a weapon aimed at them.

Aldric was the last to move. He stepped forward, shoulders hunched. In the silver light, he looked worn out, like a man who had built everything and now saw it slipping away. For a moment, I remembered when he carried me, bloodied and angry, from the wreckage of my father’s death, back when I was too young to understand his kind of mercy. He had once protected the packs, stood between us and the old raids, and every scar on his hands came from nights he chose us over the monsters at the gate. Now he met my eyes, and for the first time, I saw exhaustion instead of hate or pride. He didn’t bow or speak. He just nodded, and in that nod was the surrender of someone who knew the old world was ending, even if he’d never say it.

I wanted to celebrate. I wanted to shout and let everyone know what it felt like to win. But I couldn’t. The cost was still too close, the pain too fresh.

Instead, I said, “Get up. We have work to do.”

The crowd broke apart, voices rising. Rowan’s wolves started packing up. Dara spoke quietly to her guards, her words short and clear. The Exiles slipped back into the trees, their silver eyes lingering on me, a silent promise to hold me to my word.

Jax found me in the chaos. “You did it, Lil,” he said, voice thick. “I knew you would.”

I hugged him, hard. “We did it. But it’s not over.”

He grinned, crooked and tired. “It never is.”

Fen came up beside us, his expression unreadable. “You ready for the next fight?”

I almost laughed. “What, that wasn’t it?”

He shook his head. “The world doesn’t change because you win a Rite. The world changes because you make them remember what it costs to keep you down.”