Chapter 3: Moon's Gift

Nora's Point of View

Elena's eyes narrowed slightly as she regarded me. My heart racing inside my chest, I didn't let a flicker of emotion show. A moment that felt like an eternity passed, and then she stepped back.

"Well, Aria," Elena said, her voice was honey-sweet with a steel rim behind it. "Welcome to our pack. I'm Elena, the head healer here."

Head healer. Not Luna. That was revealing.

"Come on," Kai said, resting a light hand on my shoulder. "Get you settled. You look beat up."

I was, but not from the trip. Maintaining the rage burning in my heart while standing face to face with inches of my murderer was taking every ounce of self-control.

Kai led me down a corridor I knew better than the back of my hand. Past the great sitting room where I'd spent so many nights bent over a book. Past the dining hall where I'd dined with the pack. With every step, memories came that cut like dagger wounds.

"Here," he said, stopping at a door midway down the passage. "This room will do for tonight. Something more permanent, we'll sort out tomorrow."

I almost laughed. That was the guest room Elena and I shared upon our initial arrival to live with the pack as teenagers. Our parents were murdered in what everyone thought was a rogue attack, and Alpha Marcus had taken us in for charity.

What a lie.

"Thank you," I got out.

Kai stood in the doorway, remaining silent. "If you need anything, my room's just down the hall. Don't think twice."

He vanished, and I fell onto the bed, covering my face with my hands. The familiar scents of the pack house closed in around me, reminding me of a deluge of emotions I'd thought long dead and buried.

This was where I'd called home. These were my people. And they'd just stood by and let me die without lifting a finger to help me.

A soft knock at the door snapped me out of my thoughts. Elena stood in the doorway, one hand holding a steaming mug.

"I brought you some tea," she said, coming into the room without invitation. "My special blend. It'll see you through tonight."

All my warning bells started ringing. Elena inviting me for a drink was exactly how this horror story had started the first time.

"That's very kind," I replied diplomatically. "But I'm not thirsty at all."

"Oh, but I insist." Elena's smile didn't waver, but something cold passed through her green eyes. "You've come such a long way. You must be parched."

She offered me the mug, and I caught a whiff of what it contained. Chamomile and honey, but underneath some other thing. Something that made my wolf twitch in revulsion.

Wolfsbane. Not a large dose, not enough to kill me at any rate but enough to leave me weak. To leave me defenseless.

My sister was already trying to poison me once more.

"Seriously," I said, standing up and stretching my back. "I think I'd like to go take a shower first. Get the road dirt off, you know?"

Elena's jaw clenched almost imperceptibly. "Of course. The bathroom is just down the hall."

After she left, I emptied the tea and splashed water on my face. My face glared back at me from the mirror above the basin. Silver hair, purple eyes, dead girl's face.

What was I here for? What did I think I could do?

I climbed into bed and closed my eyes, but I could not sleep. Any movement in the house seemed to cause me to cramp. Any settling of the old floorboards could be Elena coming back to finish what she started.

At last, fatigue won out and I slept uncomfortably.

I had stood in a clearing of moonlight that did not exist on earth. Silver light filled all, with grass reflecting like water. A woman who seemed to have been formed of starlight itself stood in the center of the clearing.

The Moon Goddess.

I had seen her once before, when I died. She'd stood there as my spirit left my body, her face twisted in sorrow and something like regret.

"My child," she whispered, her voice sounding like wind chimes on a summer day. "You have questions."

"Why?" The word was breathed out loud. "Why bring me back? Why now?"

"Because the balance has been disturbed." The Goddess moved closer, and I could see that her eyes held the ages. "Elena's crimes go far beyond what she has committed against you. She has been sucking the life force out of Moon-blessed wolves for years, extending her own lifespan at the expense of the innocent."

My fists clenched. "Then let me kill her."

"Is that what you truly want? Revenge?"

The blunt question hit me as a physical blow. Yes, deep within me howled. I desired Elena to suffer as she'd made me suffer. I wanted her to feel what it was like to be betrayed by one who was to love her.

But another part of me, one that whispered eerily like the woman I once was before the poison, warned that vengeance would bring only more shadow.

"I don't know," I admitted.

The Goddess of the Moon smiled miserably. "That is why you were placed in Aria's form rather than your own. She was innocent of heart, despite all that she suffered. Her soul clung to love rather than anger, even at the moment of death. You must learn to do the same."

"Elena killed me. Elena killed our parents. She poisoned me since we were children." My voice cracked. "How am I supposed to forgive that?"

"I didn't say forgive. I said love in place of hate. There's a difference." The Goddess leaned forward and touched my cheek with fingers like moonlight. "Justice and revenge are two things, child. One is healing. The other only makes the wound larger."

The glade surrounding us was beginning to soften at the edges, but the Goddess's words were clear.

"You've been offered a second chance, and it's one with a choice. You can let your new life ruin the ones that harmed you, or you can use it to heal the wounds they left. This is your decision, for the path you take will not only determine your future, but the future of all Moon-blessed wolves Elena tries to harm."

"Wait." I cried as the vision dissolved. "What do I have to do?"

But I was already awake, moonlight streaming in through the guest room window. The Goddess's words echoed in my mind as I sat up in bed.

Justice or revenge. Healing or destruction.

A stifled sound outside the corridor made me tense. Footsteps, gliding softly by my door. I tiptoed out of bed and listened against the wood.

Elena's whisper, barely audible: "Yes, she is here. No, she does not yet have the slightest idea. The three weeks until the full moon should be sufficient to sufficiently debilitate her."

A hesitation, as if hearing a voice on the other side of a phone line.

"Trust me," Elena continued. "I've been working toward this for too long to get it wrong now. With her Moon blessing on my side, I'll be irresistible."

My blood chilled. Elena wasn't attempting to poison me, not this time. She was attempting to steal my powers entirely.

Which meant she had some notion of who I was.

The sound of footsteps faded down the hall, and I could hear the door to Elena's bedroom close softly behind her. I stood there in the darkness, my mind reeling.

Elena had spotted me after all. She was just leading me on, making me think I was save while she prepared to complete what she had started ten years earlier.

But if she thought she was pursuing the same weak, vulnerable Luna who'd died on wolfsbane, then she was wrong.

I walked over to the window and stared out at the moon hanging full and bright in the sky. The Goddess had been wanting me to choose between vengeance and justice.

Maybe there was a third choice she hadn't considered.

I put my hand on the window and could feel energy flowing through me, stronger than ever before. Elena want to steal my Moon blessing?

Let her attempt to do it.