Page 26 of His Found Lycan Luna

Shaking my head, I grab some of the longer pieces and make a sarong out of them. I look like a peasant. I chuckle at the thought as I stand in front of the mirror in the bathroom.

Mrs. Daley would have whipped me good for my seamstress skills, or lack thereof. Oh well, it did the trick. Wandering out of the bathroom, I retrieve the tray from the floor by the door.

I move toward the fireplace and sit on the floor by the coffee table. My hands tremble as I pick up the fork. I practically inhale my food, barely tasting any of it.

I am ravenous. When I finish, I wander around the room, wondering if I’m allowed to leave it. An hour passes and no one enters, so I walk to the bedroom doors leading in with my empty tray in hand.

No one is standing outside my door, no guards or anything, so Ifigure I must be allowed to leave the room. I stare down at my lovely bedsheet attire and shake my head.

Yep, I’m doing this; I’m going to walk down to the kitchen and pray no one sees me in my sheet sarong or notices the fact I have no clothes on underneath it or peek at my ass, which I know isn’t fully covered because I can feel the draft from the open bedroom window caress against me. This is mortifying, but seriously, it can’t be any worse than the king rejecting our bond, so I shrug and step out. If I can survive that agony, then I can survive a little embarrassment.

As I move through the corridors trying to remember the way, one thing becomes obvious: no one is on this side of the castle. The place is ghostly and quiet until I come to the stairs.

Straight across are the king’s quarters, yet here, too, is also silent, and no guards stand or line the corridors. It is eerily quiet, maybe because it is so early in the morning. The sun is only just rising. However, I think it’s a little strange. Descending down the stairs, it is the same.

Where is everybody? I can’t figure it out. I find the kitchen is also empty as I make my way to the laundry room and retrieve a servant’s uniform. I’m not daring enough to enter the king’s quarters in search of clothes.

I’m afraid my nose will pick up his mouth-watering scent and I’ll be plunged back into the darkness the bond held me in for days.

The sound of a horn in the distance makes me move to the laundry window as I button up my uniform to see everyone down by the river running back to the castle.

The entire palace must be down there,I think to myself. Grabbing some flats from the shelf, I slip them on and step out the back door to where the long clotheslines are.

This side of the castle is surrounded by fruit trees and gardens. Sheets flap along with the breeze as I make my way down the back to the hill, where I can see everyone standing still as statues, staring out at the horizon. I keep close to the trees, wanting to know what’s going on, but also to go unseen.

All uniformed guards stand in rows, and people from the town outside the castle gates take up most of the hill. Unable to see, I walk out of my hiding place and stop beside one of the guards. I peek my head around, trying to see what’s going on.

The guard looks down at me, and I peer back at him in confusion when I see his eyes glaze over. Moments later, Gannon is beside me. He leads me down the hill, bringing me to where Abbie stands at the front with Clarice and the castle servants.

Only then do I realize why everyone is gathered here. It’s a cemetery. Hundreds and hundreds of black marble headstones line the flat before the river.

Chapter Nineteen

My stomach drops, and I look at Abbie, who seems shocked to see me, but she stays quiet. She reaches over and grips my fingers with hers. The king stands at the front, where I see thirteen fresh graves dug. He stares off vacantly toward the path leading to the surrounding forest.

I can only see his side, but he must sense my stare because he turns his head and looks at me. His eyes meet mine, and my heart sputters in my chest. He then turns his gaze away, as if I am merely another servant or member of the public.

Time seems to stop, and I suck in a breath when I see the open graves. I peer around before seeing a succession of coffins being carried to the grave sites where the king stands.

I have no idea what happened, but one thing is clear to me: most of the coffins belong to children or small adults. Four of them, I can tell, are adult-sized coffins, but the other nine are child-sized coffins.

The guards carrying them stop by a grave and set them down before music starts playing from a violinist who I hadn’t noticed wasat the side by the water. It’s complete silence while we wait for the coffins to be lowered into each grave.

Nobody speaks or even whispers. We merely watch. Something happened; that much is apparent. I wonder briefly if this is where the king had gone. If so, when did he return to organize all this?

When it finishes and the coffins are laid to rest, a horn blares again. After a few minutes, everyone starts climbing the hill and leaving. The place is packed.

However, I notice the king remains. Abbie grabs my arm and tugs me up the hill, back toward the castle. I feel she’s almost vibrating beside me, squeezing my hand like she can’t believe I’m holding it.

We go back in through the laundry, following Clarice. The moment I step inside, I am crushed between the two of them as they smother me in their warmth.

“You’re back?” Abbie gushes while squeezing me tight. Clarice cups my face in her hands, her eyes teary, and she lets out a breath. I’m about to ask what happened when the king suddenly enters the room. His scent hits me like a brick to the face, and I’m stunned in my tracks.

“Get back to work,” the king snaps at us before stalking past us without so much as a backward glance. I swallow and stare after him as he passes through the kitchens.

Gannon and Damian follow him as he leaves without acknowledging my existence. I bite the inside of my lip. The pain helps the pang of hurt that courses through my chest as the metallic taste of my blood washes over my tongue.

“He will come around,” Clarice tells me, gripping my shoulder, but I’m sick of hearing it. Sick of losing days to a bond he broke. I’m not going to wait around and hide in my room for him.

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