Chapter 19 · Marked Registry - Chapter 19: Under the Moon Well

The Moon Well isn't on any map.

Cain's driving with his left hand because his right's wrapped in Ella's hoodie, still bleeding from whatever the hell that silver smoke did to him. She's got her phone out, swiping through every search result for moon well, lunar facility, underground registry—nothing.

"How do you know it's real?" she asks.

He doesn't look at her. "Because that's where they take the ones who don't comply."

Ella's stomach drops. Mia didn't comply with something. Mia, who follows every rule, who never even jaywalks.

"What does that mean?"

"It means we're running out of time."

The road narrows. Trees close in on both sides, no streetlights, no signs. Cain kills the headlights and keeps driving. Ella can barely see the asphalt. Her wolf vision kicks in, sharpening the edges of the dark, and she catches the turnoff before he does.

"There."

He veers left onto what's barely a road. More like a logging trail that hasn't been used in years. Branches scrape the sides of the car. The engine's too loud out here. Everything's too loud.

Then she sees it.

A concrete structure sunk into the hillside, half-buried, no windows.