Michael carney's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

Michael woke to Storm batting at his ear. The cat had come down from the wardrobe for the first time in days. The wolf was three streets away in his cousin's kennel, and already the house felt like his own again. Then he opened the letter that had come at dawn. It was from a friend in the gentry, a woman who traded gossip the way farmers traded eggs. She wrote that a rumor was moving through the summer houses. A pale wolf. A young man from town. A fae claim. She wrote that the noble he meant to court had not heard it yet, but would by nightfall if someone did not reach her first. Michael dressed before he finished reading. Five days to the revel. If the noble heard it from anyone else, she would refuse the meeting. Fae did not court men who were already bound. He knew where she was staying. Every visiting noble that season took rooms at the pale mansion on the hill, the one with iron balconies and a willow at the gate. He walked there with the book from the herb woman under his coat. He did not know yet what he would say. He only knew he had to say it first. A steward met him at the door and would not let him past the step. Michael gave his name. He said he had come on a private matter and would wait. He waited an hour on the stone bench by the willow while carriages came and went. She came out herself. She was smaller than he expected, brown-haired, tan-skinned, with bright brown eyes that fixed on him at once. She wore a fur-trimmed coat too warm for the day. A blue stone hung at her throat. She looked at him the way a person looks at a familiar dog in a strange coat. "You are the one they are all whispering about," she said. "I came to tell you myself." "You are late by an hour." She sat on the bench beside him without asking. "I heard it at breakfast. From my maid, who heard it from a groom." Michael's mouth went dry. "Then you know." "I know a wolf followed you out of the wood. I know it laid a moonpetal at your feet." She tilted her head. "I am not the noble you came to see. I am her cousin. She left for the coast this morning. She will not be at the revel." He stared at her. "Then why are you sitting with me." "Because I wanted to see the man the wolf chose." She stood and brushed off her coat. "My name is Luna Paige. Come inside. We should talk before you make it worse." She walked back up the steps without waiting. Michael sat a moment longer with the book pressing against his ribs. Then he followed her in.