Luna Greymane's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

Luna led Astra east along the river as the sun dropped toward the hills. The gold chest slowed them both. Astra carried it against her chest, her royal robes torn at the hem, her diadem tucked away in her pocket. She did not complain. But she stumbled twice on the wet stones, and her breath came short. Luna's ears twitched at every sound in the pines. Sundown was close. Once it came, her father's word ended, and the pack would hunt. "We need cover before dark," Luna said. "Not open ground." "Then find it." Astra's voice stayed level, but her knuckles were white on the chest. "You know this land. I don't." Luna dropped to a crouch and pressed her palm to the ground. She shifted her weight and let her nose work. Under the smell of moss and cold water, she caught something older. Empty stone. Trapped air. She rose and pointed downstream. They followed the water around a bend. There the bank fell away to a low mouth of smooth grey stone. A stream ran across the entrance in a thin sheet. The cave was small and dark, half hidden by a lip of rock. Trackers on horseback would ride past it. The running water would break their scent at the door. "There," Luna said. "The stream covers the smell. They won't look under it." Astra studied the black opening. "How far back does it go?" "Far enough. Come on." They waded the shallow stream and ducked inside. The floor was dry two steps in. Astra set the chest down and sat against the wall, finally letting her shoulders drop. Luna crouched at the mouth and watched the trees turn grey, then black. No riders came. The sun went down, and nothing found them. For a long while neither spoke. Water ran across the stone in a steady hush. "Your father gave us until sundown," Astra said at last. "It's sundown." "I know." "So now we're inside his rule, or outside it." Luna turned from the entrance. "Outside. From here on, if the pack finds us, they take us both. He won't stop them. He can't." She sat beside Astra. "He meant it. I'm not his daughter anymore. Not while you're with me." Astra was quiet. Then she reached over and rested her hand on Luna's, on the cold stone floor. "You said you'd ask me," Astra said. "When we were alive." Luna looked at her. "We're alive." "We're hunted in a hole in the ground." "That's alive." Luna almost smiled. "Ask you what, then. Say it." Astra held her gaze, and for once her control slipped, just at the edges. "Ask me to stay." "Stay," Luna said. "Yes." Outside, an owl called. Somewhere north, a wolf answered it — one, then two. The pack was moving. They had shelter for the night. Come morning, they had a whole kingdom hunting them, and nowhere left that was home.