The Rejected Luna Is A Phoenix Heir

Veyra's Point of View

The witch arrived just moments before sunrise.

I was standing in the middle of the council hall, surrounded by guards stationed in all corners of the room, as an old woman dressed in dark robes started forming a circle of bones and herbs around my feet. Her eyes were as milky white as those of a blind woman, either because of her age or her craft – I didn't know. She was working with a sort of slow motion, muttering words I didn't understand.

"Please," I begged. "I have never practiced black magic in my life. I don't even know how to do it."

Not a single one of the council members answered me. Kaizen was near the platform, with his arms crossed, watching the proceedings with the same detached look he had worn ever since his wolf had chosen me. He had not changed his mind in the slightest. He had no doubts whatsoever.

"You don't need to look at me like that," I blurted out, unable to hold back. "I know that you have already come to the conclusion that I am guilty, but I want to tell you that, regardless of what the test will show, I never practiced dark magic."

Kaizen glanced at me in a split second. "Then there is nothing to be afraid of the ritual."

A witch raised a hand before I could react. "Silence," she croaked. "Essence doesn't reveal its secrets through noises."

I held my tongue tightly as she started circling me, her fingers barely touching my skin. She was whispering some words in a steady rhythm, and I felt an unusual pressure in the air as it pushed against my chest as if it had invisible hands.

"Essence of this girl," the witch spoke softly. "There is something under it. Something ancient."

"What does that mean?" asked one of the council members.

The witch's already dark eyes narrowed even more as she continued with her inspection, sliding her hand down the length of my arm without touching me. "Traces," she muttered. "Faint, but there. Dark threads embedded into her essence."

"No," I said, feeling fear rising up in me. "It's not possible. I have never-"

"Black magic," the witch declared, standing up. "There are traces of black magic in her essence."

The room was immediately full of noise.

"I knew it," the skinny woman on the council said, getting up from her seat. "The scar. I've told you that the scar means something."

"This proves everything," someone else added. "She's done something with the ceremony. She's compelled the Alpha's essence to respond to her own."

"No!" I said, my voice breaking as I turned towards the witch. "Please, you need to check again. I've never cast such a spell. I don't even know how. Please, find out more before you accuse me of something I haven't done."

The witch ignored me; she had already turned to speak to the council, it seemed, her task done here.

"Please," I said, looking towards the council members, to whomever would listen. "I've been in this pack my whole life. Ask any wolf that I've healed, Mira and the others. I've never opened a spell book in my life."

Nobody answered me; nobody even looked me in the eye.

Kaizen stepped forward. "Then it's decided," he said. "The witch has proven what I thought all along. I want this false bond ripped out at once."

"Kaizen, please," I said, my voice breaking as I turned towards him. "I promise you that I'm not lying to you. I don't understand how this could happen, but I swear to you, I never-"

"Guards," he said, cutting me off without so much as glancing my way. "Restrain her. We're removing the bond tonight."

Hands grabbed at my arms and forcibly pulled me into the chair that had been set up in the middle of the room. Straps were tightened at my wrists, at my ankles, even around my waist, immobilizing me.

"Wait," I gasped, struggling feebly against the bindings. "Please, wait-"

The witch came toward me once more, hands held out in front of her, and suddenly I was afraid.

"This will not be pleasant," she said, her voice holding no mercy.

"Pleasant" hardly covered it.

As soon as she started on the extraction ritual, an agonizing pain ripped through me, as if some unseen force had clutched hold of the very essence of my being. I shrieked, my body arching against the bindings from the agony of the pain, spreading outward through my limbs.

"There is something wrong," I panted. "Please – it hurts –"

"Stay still," the witch ordered, even though I wouldn't have been able to move even if I wanted to. The wolf inside me cried out, struggling wildly as she felt herself torn apart, violently and relentlessly.

"Stop it!" I wept, hot tears running down my cheeks. "Please, I can't –"

Nobody tried to help me. I could see Kaizen through my eyes watering from the pain; he was standing right where he had been, staring ahead without the slightest hint of hesitation.

My pain peaked in such a way that it left me blinded by agony and spots of darkness in front of my eyes. I knew with certainty that in this very second, I was going to die. Whatever it was that the ritual did to me, it would rip me apart before finishing.

And then everything stopped.

The pressure dissipated in an instant, leaving me hanging limply in the restraints, trying to catch my breath. My wolf moaned weakly inside me, tired and dazed.

"It's done," she said. "The link is broken."

My muscles screamed in protest, but somehow I managed to raise my head enough to see what was floating in front of me-the essence that had entered me at the time of the ceremony, and that hadn't faded as I had expected, but had flown across the room.

"What's that?" somebody wondered.

It flew even faster, twisting in the air, and landed on the skin of a woman standing in a corner, surrounded by servants of the council.

All eyes were now upon her.

Maevra Thorne was petrified with her hand covering her heart, the place the essence had landed, her face a mask of horror and something else I couldn't identify.

"Maevra," one of the council members said.

"That is impossible," a new voice cut in. "The essence chose *her*?"

Chaos erupted in the room as the councillors leaped to their feet, arguing over what had just transpired. I was slumped against my restraints, unable to really comprehend the scene before me but knowing for certain one thing.

The essence never belonged with me in the first place.

"I told you," I said weakly, forcing the words out despite my tiredness. "I've been telling you that I haven't done anything to him, that I didn't use any magic. The essence only proved it."

Nobody was paying attention to me. Everyone was focused on Maevra in front of them, the glow of essence barely visible under her skin.

"Please," I called out once more, louder this time, the desperation eating through my vocal cords. "I'm innocent since the beginning. I need you to believe me."

Kaizen looked just as hard as he did before, his face even colder and distant as though the fact of my innocence was of no consequence when compared to what just happened in front of the entire council.

"This is it," he stated.

"What?" I asked softly.

"You used black magic, you tried to take what was never yours, you brought an abomination into this land and that would not be forgiven." He turned to the guards. "Get her away from my territory. She is now exiled."

"Kaizen-" I began, but I didn't have the strength anymore.

They got me out of the chair and pulled me to my feet, my legs wobbly and barely able to keep me standing as they dragged me towards the door.

Before I was dragged away from the room altogether, Maevra appeared in front of me.

"Maevra-" I said, but my voice failed again.

She looked at me with a look that I couldn't interpret, something calm and unhindered by what had just taken place around her. Then she leaned in close and whispered in a quiet, cold tone.

"This is not over..."