#Chapter 154: Happily Ever After

Ava I followed Lily out into the gardens, the light evening breeze carrying the faint scent of roses and freshly turned earth. Moonlight filtered through the trees, casting flickering shadows across the winding stone paths. Moonrise gardens were just as lovely as Moonstone gardens—if not a bit more manicured. Every pebbled pathway was lined with hedges and shrubs, each one pruned into some sort of fantastical shape or another: an elephant, a heron, a perfectly round sphere. Then, all of the pathways converged into one center area, where there was a towering peach tree—one that was far larger and more knotted than any normal peach tree, due to its ancient age. It must have been here since before Moonrise pack was even a pack. But as Lily and I strode up to the enormous tree, underneath which was a small, moss-covered stone bench, I couldn’t help but notice something. The leaves… They looked perfect. Not a hint of the beetles that Lily had been talking about