The sickened luna’s last chance

Chapter 249

Ella

A Luna Trial. Alexander was going to host a Luna Trial to replace me less than a month after my death.

The crowd went wild, cheers and applause turning into a din in the space. Meanwhile, my heart was cracking inside my chest. For a moment, when Alexander had been so gentle with me in the kitchen, I’d thought that maybe he did love me after all.

Maybe he was grieving me the same way Liam was. Maybe this whole week had been as hard for him as it had been for me.

But no. Here he was, barely a week after burying me, announcing to a room full of people that he was ready to find my replacement.

“Applications will be open starting tomorrow,” Alexander continued. “The trial will consist of several rounds of varying tasks, and the winner will become Luna of Ashclaw and adoptive mother to my heir.”

Adoptive mother. Some stranger was going to raise my son. Some stranger was going to take my place in Alexander’s bed, in his life, in everything that had once been mine, even if only for a little while.

My hands began to shake as the rage built up within me like a pot about to boil over. How dare he? How fucking dare he move on this quickly?

Before I could stop myself, I was pushing through the crowd toward the platform.

I had to tell him. I had to tell him the truth-

“Ella. No.” Lilith suddenly stepped in my way and grabbed my wrist. Her eyes were cold and fierce.

She dragged me out of the banquet hall before I could take another step further.

“Let go of me,” I hissed once we were in the hallway.

Lilith didn’t release my arm until we were safely in her room with the door locked, far away from any prying eyes or ears. Then she whirled on me with a fire in her gaze that I’d never seen before.

revealed yourself in front of an entire room full of

I shot back. “Maybe it’s time

“Ella-”

wrong about all of this? What if there really is no punishment for telling people who I

pale. “Superstitious. That’s what you

die if I tell them the truth?” I

1/3

Chapter 249

+25 BONUS

me for a long moment. Then she walked over to an old trunk at the end

it and found newspaper clippings inside. Old ones dated

headline read: “LOCAL SHOP OWNER DIES IN

According to employees and eye witnesses, Mr. Webb had been speaking with a customer when the accident occurred. The customer, who has not been identified,

slipping away from me as the

happened to me. I found someone who had known me in my previous life–Maxwell had been a friend of my family’s. I thought… I thought if I told him who I was,

vision as I looked at the third clipping.

started from faulty wiring, but investigators are puzzled by the rapid spread of the

died because I told them the truth about who I was. I naively went to his daughter after his death and told her my identity, and she died days

me, still holding

Ella. It wasn’t a coincidence.” Lilith pulled out more clippings. “Because there was a third person. Maxwell’s business partner. He died right after I told him. Heart attack. He was thirty–two years old and

out in front of me. Three people. All dead within a week

curse really meant,” Lilith said. “It’s not just that we get a second chance at life. It’s that we have to stay dead to everyone from our first life. If we don’t… people

you don’t know for sure that it was because

and depressed and desperate. I found another friend from my old life. I thought maybe the first three had

was from five years later. “TEACHER DIES IN SCHOOL FIRE.” “She died the next day,” Lilith

Five people. Five people had died because