Luna was crazy about tagging along with Cederic in the Winter Woods.

“Where are we going, Cederic?”

The military general had the nerve to shrug as if he did not care.

“You’re scaring me,” Luna muttered beneath her breath.

“I am baffled. My presence alone should be enough to scare you.” He smiled. “My ego is in shambles.”

He looked me up and down as though inspecting something that could be bought and sold.

A horse at the market or something worse.

He chuckled softly to himself.

“Is that a threat?”

“Wait and see, My Lady,” Cederic said. “You’ll figure it out.”

After a quarter-mile of travel in the middle of icy nowhere, Cederic raised a finger, signaling her to stop.

Cederic appeared to be staring intently into the dead claw-like branches as if he was communicating with someone telepathically.

Luna’s heart leaped.

Her horse wheeled around, and she laid the ends of her reins to her haunches.

“Hah!” she shouted as she surged forward.

A cloaked rider blocked the road along with three other cloaked riders behind him.

They appeared ominous as if Cederic had called and gathered them to kill her again for being insolent and causing trouble.

Luna’s heart raced, and her instincts told her that something was wrong.

Turning the horse around, Luna abruptly hauled on the reins.

“Where are you going, Girl. Tis’ me!”

Well, it would be crazier of her not to take advantage of any moment she could to escape this Kingdom.

She was ready to run like a devil was chasing her tail.

“Luna!” Cederic yelled after her.

“High Priestess!” A familiar voice.

  Older this time, Luna stopped, reined in, and looked over her shoulder.

“Fei?”

“Yes, it’s me, High Priestess.” He trotted over to her, pulling back his hood to reveal his face.

“What are you doing sneaking about like that?” Luna said. “You scared the wits out of me.”

“I apologize, High Priestess.”

An apology that didn’t explain at all why they had been lurking in the bushes in the first place.

“Where have you been?” Luna asked the question even though goosebumps still broke out of her skin. The adrenaline and panic settled down quite a bit. “Cederic and I have been looking for you for the past hour!”

“Oh, here and there,” Fei said cryptically as the palace guards followed him around, riding around her in a circle. “Preparing for your initiation as the new High Priestess.”

“Initiation of what kind, Fei?” I asked.

“Just a simple initiation High Priestesses underwent on the first night of their mission.”

“Then, why are we all gathered here together in the middle of nowhere?” Luna frowned. “What would it take for me to complete this mission along with you, Cederic, and the whole gang?”

“This is for your good, My Lady.” Luna heard another familiar voice from one of the cloaked riders.

It was Jon, the right-hand man of the Vampire King. “It’s better if you don’t know at first.”