Bound To The Moon Priestess Chapter 05

Bound To The Moon Priestess Chapter 05

I forced my eyes open to look at him. The heavy gold robe was pulled away, and my soul felt like it could finally breathe. I gasped in air, and smelled moss, rain, and that warm cedar scent off him.

I realized my robe was open, and my brain short-circuited. I shoved Leoric back and pinned him to the

ground before I thought.

Without the robe’s weight holding me down, I was stronger, faster, quicker on my feet.

Leoric landed hard on the dirt, his uniform got covered in mud. His eyes darted away, and the tips of his ears

went bright red.

“Uh… you’re sick, just… get up, okay?”

I snapped back to my senses.

“No.

“I’m not a girl.

“You just saw it wrong.”

I scrambled to my feet, flustered, wrapped the soaking wet gold robe back around me and tried to bolt.

A warm hand wrapped around my wrist.

His palm was warm, his voice lazy and easy.

“Caelum, you think I’m an idiot?”

I was panicking. I had no idea how to explain any of this now. The Ashward family had supplied the temple priests for generations. Back in the day, we had lots of kids, so we always had a Sun Priest and a Moon

Priestess. But by my generation, we only had twin girls.

So someone had to sacrifice.

I’d wondered before, why did the Sun Priest always have to be a man, and the Moon Priestess always a woman? But Ashward’s harsh old traditions were like chains wrapped around my soul.

Every time I thought about those questions, my heart ached so bad.

There were no answers.

So I just went numb.

When he saw my eyes fill with tears, Leoric panicked. He let go of my wrist like I’d burned him.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna force you to explain anything. I just wanna get you to the hospital ’cause you’re

burning up.

1 finally looked up at him, dazed. “Where’s the hospital?”

He laughed at how out of J was.

He thought for a second, then squatted down in front of me. “C’mon, Caelum, I’ll carry you.”

“No, I can walk. Just lend me an umbrella, I’ll give it back to you tomorrow…” I’d spent so many years pretending to be a boy, I’d gotten used to never going to the doctor.

Leoric just looked at me, quiet, like he saw right through my act.

“I promise no one else will find out your secret. Just trust me this once, okay?”

My head was spinning, and I ended up slumping against his back.

I still tried to defend myself, mumbled, “I really do have strength. I carried my sister once, walked like ten miles down the mountain with her on my back…”

Leoric stopped walking, tilted his head to look at me, and cut me off, gentle but firm.

“If I remember right, you two are twins? She’s way taller than you are.

“Caelum, sometimes the things we get used to aren’t the right things.”

I didn’t know if it was just how hard the rain was pouring that day, but when he said that, the tears just burst out of me.

Leoric pulled some strings somehow, he cleared out a whole exam room just for me so I could be treated

alone.

He changed out of his wet clothes, dried his rain-soaked red hair, and asked me, “You want me to let your parents know where you are?”

When I didn’t answer, he leaned into that dry sense of humor he had.

“The Sun Priest goes missing, the temple’s gotta be panicking, right? I’m low-key scared they’re gonna throw me in jail as a rogue.”