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.

snapped. “You almost revealed yourself in front of an entire room

shot back.

“Ella-”

about all of this? What if there really is no

That’s what you think

you actually know that someone could die if I tell them the truth?” I bit

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Chapter 249

+25 BONUS

a long moment. Then she walked over to an old trunk at the end of the bed, opened it, and pulled out a manila folder.

newspaper clippings inside. Old ones

read: “LOCAL SHOP OWNER DIES IN FREAK

crashed into his store. According to employees and eye witnesses, Mr. Webb had been speaking with a

righteous anger slipping away from me as the implications set in. “Mom …?” I whispered in

was desperate,” Lilith said quietly. “I’d only been reborn for a few months, and I was trying to figure out what had happened to me. I found someone who had known

looked at the third clipping.

blaze appears to have started from faulty wiring, but investigators are puzzled by the rapid spread of the flames. Miss Webb had recently inherited her father’s shop following his death in a

people died because I told them the truth about who I was. I naively went to his daughter

me, still holding the clippings. “But that could

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.

of me. Three people. All dead within a

not just that we get a second chance at life. It’s that we

don’t know for sure

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

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

people. Five people had died