Rejected Under the Blood Moon

CHAPTER NINE — The Uncontrolled Reaction

Ava

“You are done for today,” Blake said, still visibly on edge after the ravens. His hand remained close to the weapon at his side as his eyes scanned the forest below the courtyard.

The courtyard had not settled since the birds scattered.

The guards stationed along the upper walls stood straighter than before, their attention fixed outward instead of on routine patrol. Even the air felt wrong now. The mountain wind still moved through the stone terraces, but unevenly, arriving in sudden cold shifts before falling still again.

Danica leaned against the inner railing, watching the treeline below.

“No one has seen ravens react like that before,” she said quietly.

Blake finally looked at me. “Which is why you are returning to your room.”

I glanced past him toward the lower levels of the compound. From the edge of the courtyard, narrow stone paths curved downward through the mountainside beneath the stronghold. Terraced gardens stretched between the cliffs below, carved carefully into the rock itself. Evergreen shrubs and climbing ivy softened the harsh stone, while darker trees crowded the outer edges where the cultivated paths gave way to wilderness.

Running through the closest garden terrace, a river cut through the forest at the base of the cliffs, its dark water winding between the rocks before disappearing into the mist below. Even from this height, I could hear it faintly beneath the wind.

The gardens sat closer to the forest than the upper courtyard did.

Closer to open air.

Closer to something alive.

I moved back toward the outer railing for a better look.

“Step away from the edge,” Blake said immediately.

I glanced at him over my shoulder. “I am not going to throw myself off a mountain.”

“That is not the concern.”

His tone made me pause.

He was still watching the forest below, not me.

The same uneasy feeling from earlier crept back beneath my skin. Something about the territory had changed after the ravens. Or maybe it has changed around me.

“I have been locked inside since arriving here,” I said. “You cannot seriously expect me to stare at stone walls for another day.”

“This is not a negotiation.”

“Then stop phrasing it like one.”

Blake’s jaw tightened immediately.

Danica exhaled softly beneath her breath, already sensing where the conversation was heading.

I pushed away from the railing before my ribs could protest too much and headed toward the lower staircase leading down to the gardens.

Blake stepped directly into my path.

“You are restricted to approved areas.”

“And this is an approved area.”

“You are leaving it.”

I looked past him toward the terraces again. “It is still inside the territory.”

“That does not mean you are allowed there.”

Something sharp flickered through my chest at the word allowed.

Storm Pack had used that word constantly.

Allowed to train.

Allowed to speak.

Allowed to attend meetings.

Allowed to exist only within the shape they found acceptable.

The irritation rose too quickly before I could suppress it.

“I am not a prisoner,” I snapped.

Blake’s expression hardened. “At the moment, that assessment is still undecided.”

The words hit harder than they should have.

Before he could stop me, I shoved past him and started down the stone staircase.

Pain shot through my shoulder immediately from the impact, but I ignored it and kept moving.

“Ava,” Danica warned behind me.

I did not stop.

The lower terraces were colder than the upper courtyard. Moisture clung to the stone beneath my boots as I descended, the sound of the river growing louder with every step. Ivy crawled across the retaining walls beside the path, thick and dark from the recent rain. The scent of wet earth and pine filled the air more strongly here, pulling at something inside me, I could not explain.

For the first time since crossing into Dauntless territory, the tightness in my chest eased slightly.

The garden opened fully at the bottom of the stairs.

Wildflowers spread between the stone pathways in uneven patches, their colors muted beneath the overcast sky. Moss climbed the edges of the terraces, softening the mountain rock beneath it. The river curved only a short distance away now, moving fast through the narrow channel carved into the cliffs.

A break in the clouds cast pale light across the terrace as I ran into the middle of the garden.

I stepped closer to the river instinctively. I closed my eyes and let the sound of the water drown out everything else for a moment.

No guards.

No questions.

No walls.

Just the river and the forest stretching endlessly beyond it.

Then Blake grabbed my arm.

The movement was firm enough to stop me before I could reach the edge of the river.

Pain flashed through my shoulder instantly, sharp enough to make my breath catch.

“You do not ignore direct orders,” he said sharply.

I jerked against his grip immediately. “Let go of me.”

“You are not cleared to be down here.”

“I walked down a staircase, Blake,” I snapped, pulling against him. “I did not breach military defenses.”

“That is not the point.”

His grip tightened instead of loosening.

Something inside me reacted before I could stop it.

Not emotion.

Pressure.

It started low in my chest, subtle at first, like a shift in breath that didn’t belong to me. Then it deepened, spreading outward in uneven pulses that made my ribs feel too small for what was building inside them.

I froze.

The garden did not.

A sound moved through the lower terraces first. Leaves shifted where there was no wind. Branches tightened against themselves, then released in uneven motion, as if the forest had noticed something it did not understand.

Blake noticed it immediately.

His attention snapped away from me and toward the trees.

“What is that,” Danica said quietly.

Blake didn’t answer her.

The movement in the forest increased.

The lower canopy shuddered in uneven waves while the upper trees remained still, as though only part of the forest had been told to respond.

Blake stepped forward half a pace, his body going rigid.

“What are you doing?” he said sharply. “We need to go inside.”

“I am not doing anything,” I said, but my voice was higher now.

The pressure inside my chest shifted again, deeper this time, like something pressing outward from inside me trying to find form.

I tried to steady my breath.

It didn’t help.

“Ava,” Danica said carefully, taking a slow step closer. “You need to calm down.”

“I am calm.”

But I wasn’t. Beneath the pressure inside my chest, something else had appeared. Not my wolf. Something far more unstable.

A sudden pulse tore through the bond.

Draxen.

The sensation hit so hard my knees nearly buckled.

Pain crashed through my chest without warning, foreign and familiar all at once. For a split second I saw nothing clearly — only fragments.

Anger.

Control stretched too tightly.

Then the connection snapped back violently.

I gasped.

The reaction around us became immediate.

Then the first birds lifted.

Not a flock.

A disruption.

One section of the garden erupted upward, birds tearing out of the lower terraces in uneven bursts.

Then another section followed.

Then another.

The sky above the garden fractured into motion.

“Get far away from her,” he ordered Danica.

Danica stepped back instinctively.

Blake didn’t move.

His hand was already near his weapon.

He wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was looking at what I was affecting.

“You’re done,” he said firmly. “Inside. Now.”

I looked toward the trees. The pressure beneath my ribs intensified.

Not pain.

Something worse.

It felt like being pulled in two directions at once.

“I am fine,” I said, though my voice sounded higher than I intended.

“No,” Blake replied. “You are not.”

The words snapped something inside my patience.

“I said I’m fine,” I shouted back.

The response came too fast. Too sharp.

My eyes rolled back as memories of Draxen swam through my mind. A promise, betrayal, rejection.

Danica straightened from the stair railing at once.

“Ava,” she called out carefully.

But I barely heard her.

The bond tightened and spread beneath my ribs, stealing part of my breath as it spread outward in uneven pulses I could not control.

The surrounding air changed.

The entire garden below erupted.

The wind moving through the courtyard dropped without warning. The torches fixed along the walls flickered sharply before steadying again.

One of the guards near the stairway turned toward the forest.

Below us, movement rippled through the trees.

Not wind.

The branches reacted independently now, shuddering in uneven waves through the lower forest while the upper canopy remained still.

Blake noticed it immediately. He changed to a fighting stance. His hand tightened on his weapon.

A violent rush of wind tore through the lower terraces without touching the courtyard above. Ivy ripped free from the stone walls. Branches bent hard enough to c***k somewhere deeper in the trees.

The guards swore under their breath.

A flock of small birds exploded upward from the garden paths below.

Then another.

Then dozens more.

I froze.

The pressure in my chest surged violently.

The birds did not scatter naturally. They circled tightly around me before breaking apart again in frantic bursts, slamming through the trees as if fleeing something unseen moving beneath them.

Danica stared over the stair railing. “Blake…”

“I see it.”

The mountain air dropped several degrees colder.

I stepped backward instinctively.

The moment I moved, the wind changed direction again.

It rushed inward this time.

Toward me.

The flames of the torches seemed to grow bigger, raging to escape their holds.

My breath caught sharply as cold air slammed across the courtyard hard enough to rattle the iron lanterns hanging overhead. One of the guards grabbed the wall to steady himself.

Birds burst upward from every level of the terraces in a deafening wave of wings. The wind tore through the trees hard enough to send branches twisting violently against one another.

Far below the cliffs, the river changed.

Not shape.

Movement.

The steady rush of water surged unnaturally fast around the rocks, crashing louder against the cliff side as though something had disturbed the current itself.

The sound echoed through the mountains.

One of the guards backed away from me completely.

Another made the sign of the Goddess against his chest.

Blake did not move.

But for the first time since meeting him, I saw genuine alarm break through his control.

“What did you do?” he demanded.

I looked at him in disbelief.

“I can’t stop it,” I whispered.

Danica heard me.

So did Blake.

That frightened them more than the wind.

The pressure beneath my ribs tightened again.

Draxen.

The name struck through my head before I could stop it.

Another violent pulse answered immediately.

This time the courtyard itself reacted.

The torches blew out all at once.

Darkness swallowed the stone terrace except for the pale mountain daylight beyond the walls.

Wind slammed through the courtyard hard enough to force Danica sideways. She grabbed the railing before she could lose her footing.

“Ava!” She screamed in panic.

Cold air wrapped around me violently now, spiraling instead of flowing naturally through the open space. Leaves and loose debris tore upward from the lower gardens, circling through the air beneath the terrace.

My breathing turned uneven.

Fear finally broke through the confusion.

Not fear of them.

Fear of myself.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to force the pressure down, trying to force whatever was happening back under control.

Another pulse hit the bond.

Sharper this time. Like someone reaching blindly through darkness trying to force contact across something broken.

The pressure inside my chest exploded outward.

Every lantern along the courtyard walls shattered simultaneously.

Glass hit stone.

The wind vanished.

Everything stopped.

Not gradually.

Instantly.

The silence afterward felt enormous.

The forest had gone silent.

Completely silent.

No birds.

No movement.

No sound beyond the river striking stone far below.

I opened my eyes slowly.

One by one, the birds that had filled the sky were gone.

Blake stared at me.

Not with suspicion anymore.

Danica looked pale.

And across the upper levels of the stronghold, standing motionless on the original terrace overlooking the courtyard, Lucian Star watched the entire scene unfold without speaking.

His expression revealed nothing.

But he had seen enough. I realized that immediately.

The worst part was knowing I had no explanation to give him.