Chapter 3

I stayed behind that wall until my feet went numb from the cold.

Celeste never denied what Vivienne said.

That was how I learned the truth.

Celeste was my mother. Serena was Vivienne’s daughter.

Mara died that same winter.

Before she died, she called me to her room and pressed the old carved stone into my hand.

“Keep this hidden.”

I looked down at it.

“What is it?”

“Something the Seer left behind.”

My fingers tightened around it.

I asked the question I had wanted to ask for years.

“Is my face really that ugly?”

Mara’s eyes filled with tears.

“No.”

I did not believe her.

She touched the red mark carefully.

“The Seer said this was never a curse. He called it the Moon Mark.”

I stared at her.

“Then why does everyone hate it?”

Mara closed my fingers around the stone.

“Don’t tell anyone what you heard. Not yet.”

“Why?”

“Because they won’t believe you.”

She was right.

Serena was already loved by the entire pack.

No one would believe me, so I stayed quiet.

By the time Serena turned ten, Silvercrest had built a Moon Temple in her honor.

Pack members came every month to pray for Serena’s blessing.

On those days, I was locked inside my room because the servants said my face would ruin the ceremony.

Everyone celebrated Serena. No one remembered me.

Two years later, Serena came to see me alone.

She carried a pretty box of candies.

I was cleaning ash from the fireplace when she walked in.

She looked around the room.

Then she looked at me.

“Do you hate me?”

I kept cleaning and asked, “For what?”

“For having everything.”

“I know I’m not Celeste’s real daughter.”

The piece of charcoal in my hand snapped.

“Relax. I’m not going to tell anyone.”

“Why not?”

She looked at me like I’d asked something stupid.

“What would I get from that?”

She stood and came closer.

Her eyes moved over the mark on my face.

“It’s kind of sad, really.”

“You’re the real one.”

She lowered her voice.

“But look at you.”

I turned my face away when she reached toward the mark.

Her expression changed.

Only for a second.

Then she smiled again.

“You think the truth matters?”

I looked at her.

“Celeste won’t claim you. Darius won’t believe you. The pack already loves me.”

She placed the candy box on the table.

“And no one wants the Moon-Blessed Daughter to look like you.”

“Anyway, it’s my birthday. The whole pack is celebrating.”

She smiled.

“I thought you should have something too.”

Then she left.

It was my birthday too.

We were born the same night.

The entire pack remembered hers, but no one remembered mine.

Vivienne came in later and saw the box.

Her face went cold.

“You touched Serena’s things?”

“She brought it.”

Vivienne kicked the box off the table.

The candies rolled across the floor.

“You don’t deserve anything from her.”

That night, she made me kneel outside in the snow.

By midnight, I could no longer feel my legs.

From the courtyard, I could still see the Moon Temple glowing in the distance.

Hundreds of lights burned for Serena while I knelt alone in the snow.

And she knew every one of them should have been mine.