When The Luna Broke Her Chains novel Chapter 41

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Chapter 41 Seven Pages Of Ink

[XENA]

After returning from the feast after the oath–taking ceremony, the second night at the palace passes gently.

I sleep deeply. When morning comes, my body feels light, as if it remembers something it had forgotten how to be.

No one comes for me. No summons. No orders. No Cassian. For an entire day, I exist only within the narrow bounds of my room.

Astrid tells me why when she returns briefly in the morning. She doesn’t sit, only pauses by the door. “There’s a small Guild gathering today,” she says. “Healers. Scholars. A few who hope to become trainees. Others who want favor. Or glory.”

“Are you attending?” I ask.

She nods. “I have to.”

When she leaves, the quiet settles back in.

I spend the day with the book of illustrations open across my lap. Glyphs stare back at me–curved, angular, repeating in patterns that almost make sense if I don’t try too hard. I copy them onto parchment, writing my thoughts beside them, crossing out what feels wrong, underlining what might be right.

It’s a good way to pass the time.

I’ve always liked books.

When I was younger, before marriage, before Frostfang became a cage, I used to hide in my father’s library whenever there wasn’t training for the younger wolves. I learned faster from ink than from claws. I remember the comfort of shelves, dust, and silence.

If I could reach the royal library, I think dimly, I might actually find answers.

Someone here has to know these glyphs.

But who would help me?

A wolfless Luna. A wife no one respects.

By lamplight, I fill seven pages of parchment.

Astrid reappears sometime later and stops short when she sees me. “Have you moved at all?” she asks.

Jilb

My lips curve into a guilty smile. For a moment, her mouth twitches too. It’s the first comfortable silence

we’ve shared.

“Have you eaten?” she asks.

I shake my head, suddenly realizing how long it’s been.

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Chapter 41 Seven Pages Of Ink

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“You forgot,” she says, not unkindly.

“I feel… fine,” I admit.

And I do. Too fine.

It’s only then that it strikes me–this steadiness, this quiet strength in my limbs and the freshness in my mind. It isn’t new. It’s old and familiar.

This is how I used to feel.

Before, I was being poisoned with knotgrass. Before Davina tied me up in the forest and sent those rogues after me. Before weakness became my normal.

I was never frail. I was strong. Stronger than most. Even stronger than those from prized Alpha bloodlines in Frostfang.

My lineage was never discussed or questioned. I know I’m not an omega. I’ve always known that. I might be a gamma. But more likely–a beta.

Astrid leaves again, and the thought follows me into the quiet.

For the first time in years, I think of my real family.

Who were they?

What would my life have been if they hadn’t been killed by rogues?

It’s true that I wouldn’t be alive if Alpha Duran of Crescent Ash hadn’t found me afterward. He gave me shelter. A place.

That’s all I owe them, I think. My life.

The thought makes me laugh softly.

When my mind drifts again, it goes to yesterday.

Cassian was furious after the private meeting because he realized there was much he didn’t know. And then…

Knox.

His name comes easily now.

He’s a prince. Soon to be king. And after his ascension, he could end my marriage with a word.

I know he knows there’s something between us. A pull. I refuse to name it anything more than gratitude and curiosity.

Gratitude–because he saved my life. Curiosity–because he hid himself as a beggar and failed at it

terribly.

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Chapter 41 Seven Pages Of Ink

No beggar should look like that.

Astrid returns with a tray. The smell hits me first–stew, rich and warm. Bread, fresh and fragrant.

My stomach betrays me with a loud growl.

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She sets the tray down. “Lady Mara and Oriel attended the feast,” she says. “I brought this back from

there.”

“Thank you,” I say softly.

She hesitates. “Tomorrow morning, there will be a Bloodwake Hunt. The Prince will spill first blood. His kill will be offered to the Moon.”

“We’ll watch?” I ask.

She nods. “And wait for them to return.”

I take it in quietly.

When she leaves, I eat slowly, savoring each bite.

And as night creeps in again, my thoughts return to Vera.

I miss her constantly. The absence of her is a dull ache beneath everything else.

I have a strange certainty. If I ask him, Knox will let me see her.