Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Mating Stone.

Adel’s POV.

“You’re on your own from here. We have to take our path,” Nora whispered to me before she took the heavy shawl off my shoulders, exposing my thinly draped body to the January evening.

“What if I take the wrong turn?” I asked, nervously turning to the young Star Seeker.

Suddenly the excitement from the day bled out from my body until all I felt was anxiety.

“Trust your instincts, Adel. Remember. This is the first test of a Luna.”

I silently nodded my head as I straightened my shoulders, turning away reluctantly from the Star Seeker who had been nothing but kind to me during all of the rituals I had endured through the course of the day. Nora, her mother Maggie, and Maggie’s mother Henrietta had shown me gentleness, and patience as they walked me through these strange, and somewhat uncomfortable customs, preparing my body for the ceremony I was about to walk toward.