Bound To The Moon Priestess Chapter 09

Bound To The Moon Priestess Chapter 09

I wasn’t the old Caelum anymore.

So I didn’t agree with Roran, and I never forgave Isara.

Just like Mom, she was terrible at apologizing.

I didn’t push them.

I still showed up to the temple every day and stuck to my duties as a priest. just stopped talking to them much, stopped clinging to their sides like I used to.

At dinner that night, Mom cooked my favorite venison on purpose.

I pushed the plate toward Isara without thinking.

The whole table froze. Silence hung over us for a long time.

Right after that came the final priest evaluation. I threw myself into training completely.

During a break, I overheard a couple of girls chatting.

“Hey, did you hear? Roran and Isara broke up.”

“That sucks.”

One girl tucked her tongue out.

“They fought a bunch before, right? Didn’t they always make up?”

“Who knows how long this fight’s gonna last?”

Leoric stuck by me, reading me a story from an old tome.

“Long, long ago…”

He was just trying to distract me so I wouldn’t hear anything about Roran.

I snort-laughed and patted his head.

“You’re terrible at being a bard.”

Isara was crying her eyes out in the temple.

When I went looking for her, I heard her sobbing to a friend.

“What do I do? Roran won’t even talk to me anymore!

“He said he only dated me because he mixed me up with someone else. He blames me- I pretended to be his pen pal when I wasn’t the one writing his But I apologized! I don’t know what else to din.. I have to find that girl. This is all her fault.”

I set my old notebook gently on ber desk and walked out.

She didn’t even glance at me.

For the final evaluation, a ton of people showed up.

The elders, the Alphas, the Lunas, even my parents.

I got a score way higher than anyone expected.

The elder was over the moon. “True to Ashward blood! You’ll be the head priest to the next Forest Solstice”

Mom was so happy that day, her cheeks were bright pink. She held out her arms to hug me, but I stepped out

of the way.

The air went stiff immediately.

The elder tried to smooth things over. “Ah, the Ashward boy’s just shy!”

“No.” I cut him off. “I’m not close to any of them. I barely talk to them these days

Both my parents froze.

“I’ve had a secret I’ve been wanting to tell everyone.”

I took a deep breath to work up the courage. I’d carried this secret for far too long. Now I’d proven my

strength with the evaluation-it was time for the truth to come out.

I was just about to speak when Isara came sprinting in, screaming.

She threw every letter I’d ever written straight into my face.

“You’re the one who tricked Roran! You were the one writing him, weren’t you?

“You’re disgusting, Caelum. Do you have any shame?

“Stealing your own sister’s boyfriend!”

Her voice boomed across the hall.

The whole crowd erupted into chaos.

Leoric rushed over to yank her away. “What are you talking about? There are hundreds of people here do you want to ruin Caelum?”

Isara fought hard against him, her eyes red with rage.

“Loved Roran first! You have to shame!”

Roran, who was standing in the crowd, looked up right then. He stared at me, completely calm.

Amid all the yelling, he didn’t deny I was his pen pal. He couldn’t admit that lately, he’d seen how close Leoric and I had gotten, and it had eaten him up with jealousy.

Under everyone’s staring eyes, the elder wiped sweat off his brow trying to calm the crowd while shooting me secret looks to back down.

I grabbed Isara’s wrist hard and shouted, “Calm down!”

Leoric was panicking, ready to step in and explain for me.

I just smiled softly at him.

“Don’t worry. I want to handle this myself.

“And… thank you. Leoric.”

Isara wrenched her arm out of my grip and laughed coldly.

“You hooked up with one guy and lied to another, you slutty mess! I’m telling Mom!

“Caelum, Mom’s gonna beat you! You’re dead!”

I thought I was done feeling hurt, but her words still cut right through me.

I suddenly grabbed her by the collar, eyes blazing, and shoved her up against the wall.

“Why!

“Why do you have to hurt me like this? I was always so good to you!

“Why! Sister!”

That word-sister-hit her hard.

She broke down crying immediately.

“Because everyone expects more from you! They all care about you so much! They call you the Sun Priest, say you have way more potential!

“But you already have the Sun Priest’s gift! And yet Mom and Dad still tell me I have to go easy on you, because you sacrificed so much. I have to not fight with you.

“I don’t get it. Why do they always look at you like they owe you something? It makes me feel like I’m the

bad guy! But I didn’t do anything wrong!”

She sobbied.

“That teddy bear when we were kids was supposed to be mine! You’re a boy, you’re supposed to let me have

what I want!

“It’s the same now! Anything I want, you have to give it up, because you’re my brother!

“What right do you have to steal Roran from me.”

Isara cried like her heart was broken.

I finally spoke, my voice quiet,

“You want to know why?”

Her crying stopped.

I said calmly, “Because I’m a girl. I’m your little sister.”

She stared blankly. “That’s impossible!”

The crowd erupted again, shocked stares burning into me. Mom collapsed to the floor sobbing.

I clenched my hand at my side.

Isara and I stood so close, face to face.

We both saw each other reflected in our eyes-our features were so similar.

I bit down hard on my lip and said, slow and clear, one word at a time.

“We’re twins. One of us had to become the Sun Priest. You were weak when you were born. Mom and Dad didn’t want the Sun Priest’s robe to hurt you- they wanted to save you. So they made me wear it instead.

“Do you know why I’m shorter than you? Because the Sun Priest’s robe burns me every second of every day! It’s a cage, it’s chains-it traps me and it hurts me!

“Your health, your smile, your happiness-all of it was built on my pain!”

Isara froze, her eyes full of disbelief. She mumbled, “No, that can’t be… how…’

I laughed low. “I think I’m way more deserving of crying than you are right now, don’t you think?

“For twenty years, I’ve been trapped in this lie. I couldn’t even break free.”

Isara suddenly collapsed like all her strength had left her. She shook all over. “No, this isn’t true. You’re lying to me!”

I wiped the tear from the corner of my eye.

“And why they feel guilty? They deserve to, don’t they?

“I’m their daughter tool What right did they have to treat me like that?

“And you… as my own older sister, what right do you have to yell at me?

“After all, you’re the one who got everything!”

Her lips trembled, but she couldn’t get a single word out.

My voice was rough.

“As for Roran’s stupid crush you’re so hung up on? It just annoys me.

“From the second I stopped writing him letters, we had nothing to do with each other anymore…

“Even if I am a girl, I’d never love him.”

Isara’s gaze flickered.

I turned around.

My eyes met Roran’s in the crowd.

He looked completely broken.