**Chapter 43 – Blackbird Moon and seventeen
** Friday, June 10, 2028 – 11:47 p.m.**
The ridge is alive tonight.
The entire Tsatoke-Calder pack is here (twenty-three coyotes in human skin and thirty more in fur), gathered in a loose circle around a bonfire that burns blue at the edges because Seras insisted on "helping."
Remy stands in the center, shirtless, the locket catching firelight, blackbird bead braided tight into my hair brushing his shoulder every time I move.
He lifts his chin and starts the song.
Not the one from two years ago.
A new one.
In Caddo first, then in English so I can follow.
**Remy (voice carrying over the crackle of flames):**
"She came from across the water,
lightning braided in her hair,
thunder laughing in her throat.
The valley opened its arms.
The coyotes opened their hearts.
Blackbird flew ahead to guide her home."
Every shifter in the circle tilts their head back and howls (one long, perfect note that makes the stars feel closer).
Then they shift.
Fur and moonlight and joy.
Remy's mom (Lena Tsatoke, tiny, fierce, eyes the exact gold Remy got from her) walks up to me barefoot, wearing a dress the color of river clay.
She takes my hands.
**Lena (soft, proud):**
"My mother dreamed you before any of us were born.
She said the storm queen would have pink shoes and a mouth that never learned to lie.
She was right."
She presses something into my palm: a second blackbird bead, this one carved from jet and river stone.
**Lena:**
"One for the girl who came.
One for the woman she'll become.
Wear them both when you're ready to carry two names."
I swallow the lump in my throat.
**Celeste:**
"I already carry Tsatoke in my heart.
Always will."
Lena smiles like sunrise.
Then she shifts (sleek silver coyote with one black ear) and joins the circle.
Remy pulls me into the firelight.
**Remy (quiet, for only me):**
"Tonight the pack sings you in.
Not as guest.
As family."
He lifts my left hand (the one with the river-wolf mark that never fades) and presses it over his heart.
The entire pack howls again.
This time the valley answers.
Every hot spring erupts in perfect unison (geysers of steam and starlight that spell my name across the sky in Caddo symbols I suddenly understand).
Seras is crying and pretending she's not.
Kayo's tails are fully out, golden in the firelight, swaying like she's dancing to a song only foxes hear.
Rowan stands at the edge, arms folded, but even he's smiling.
The crown above my heart spins once (slow, warm, home).
**Celeste (voice cracking):**
"I don't know all the words yet."
Remy kisses my knuckles.
**Remy:**
"Tonight you don't need them.
Tonight you just listen."
The pack sings.
I close my eyes and let the valley, the fire, the moon, and every Tsatoke voice wrap around me like the safest storm I've ever known.
When the last note fades, the fire settles into ordinary orange.
Remy's arms are around me from behind, chin on my shoulder.
**Remy (whisper):**
"Welcome to the family, Celeste Valentina Morua-Tsatoke."
I turn in his arms, kiss him soft and slow under a moon that finally feels like it belongs to us.
**Celeste:**
"Blackbird taught the storm how to land."
He laughs (quiet, perfect).
The pack howls one more time.
And somewhere beneath the deepest ocean, Atlantis feels the song and trembles.
Because the storm queen just got roots deeper than continents.
And a second name that nothing (not gods, not empires, not time) can ever take away.
Summer's just getting started.
And I've never felt more at home.
**The Dream That Waited Thirty-Four Years**
**Lena Tsatoke's memory – told to Celeste, June 11, 2028, 2:03 a.m.**
We're sitting on the back porch of the Tsatoke house, fireflies blinking lazy Morse code over the yard.
Lena's rocking slowly in the old swing, sweet tea sweating in mason jars.
Remy's inside pretending to sleep so his mom and I can talk woman-to-woman.
Lena's voice is soft, river-stone smooth, but every word lands like it's been carved.
**Lena:**
"I was seven months pregnant with Remy when the dream came.
Summer of '2010.
Hot enough to melt crayons on the dashboard.
I fell asleep under the cedar out back and didn't wake up for three days."
She smiles at the memory like it still tastes like lightning.
**Lena:**
"In the dream I was standing on this exact ridge, but the valley was empty—no houses, no roads, just steam and stars.
A huge blackbird landed on my shoulder (big as a hawk, eyes like molten gold).
It spoke with my mother's voice, the one who walked on when I was twelve.
"She said:
'Listen close, daughter.
One day a girl will come from across the water.
She will carry thunder in her footsteps and mercy in her hands.
She will wear shoes the color of sunrise and speak storms like lullabies.
Her heart will beat forty-seven times for every people who ever bled.
When she arrives, the valley will breathe her name.
The coyotes will sing a new song.
And the blackbird will guide her home.'
"Then the bird showed me her face.
Sixteen years old.
Twin tails.
Silver scar right here."
She reaches out, brushes the exact spot on my forehead.
"Pink high-top Vans, muddy from skating through every world that tried to drown her."
I swallow hard.
**Lena:**
"I woke up crying so hard your grandpa thought something was wrong with the baby.
I told him, 'No. Something's finally right.'
That night I started carving the first blackbird bead.
Took me seventeen years to finish the pair.
Kept them in cedar shavings so they'd smell like home when the time came."
She lifts my left hand, turns the river-wolf mark toward the moonlight.
**Lena:**
"My mother walked the Trail of Tears when she was nine.
She always said the land keeps its promises.
It just takes its time.
She promised me the valley would call its queen home one day.
And it called you."
Her eyes shine wet, but her smile is fierce.
**Lena:**
"Thirty-four years I waited for those pink shoes to walk up my driveway.
Worth every second."
I can't stop the tears now.
**Celeste (whisper):**
"I thought I was the one who found Hot Springs."
**Lena (laughing soft):**
"No, baby.
Hot Springs found you.
The cedar found you.
The coyotes found you.
And this old Caddo woman's dream made sure you'd have a porch to land on when you finally got here."
She pulls me into a hug that smells like cedar smoke and sweet tea and every grandmother I never got to meet.
**Lena (against my hair):**
"Welcome home, storm girl.
The blackbird kept its promise."
Behind us, somewhere in the dark, a real blackbird calls once (clear, proud, ancient).
The valley answers with a breath of warm steam.
And I know, bone-deep, that I was sung into this place long before I ever took my first breath.
Some storms don't just arrive.
They're answers to prayers spoken in languages no one remembers.
Until the right girl finally shows up wearing pink Vans and a heart big enough to hold the world.
I'm home.
And the dream that waited thirty-four years just smiled and went back to sleep.
Its work is done.
**Seventeen**
**Thursday, July 19, 2028 – 12:01 a.m.**
I turn seventeen exactly when the clock flips to midnight.
No big party.
No rented venue.
Just the ridge, the pack, and the people who would burn the world down before they let it burn me.
The bonfire is normal orange tonight (Seras promised to behave).
Al brought ghost whiskey that somehow still gets the living drunk.
Holly is singing something slow and copper-sweet that makes the stars lean closer.
Remy's arms are around me from behind, chin on my shoulder, heartbeat steady against my spine.
Mom and Dad are slow-dancing on the grass like they're twenty again.
Lena Tsatoke is laughing with Kayo about something involving fox tails and bad decisions.
Rowan is actually barefoot for once, coffee mug abandoned, letting Riku and Aki try to teach him an oni drinking game he's definitely losing.
Seventeen.
I thought it would feel bigger.
It feels… quiet.
Like the crown above my heart finally stopped spinning and just settled.
Like the valley exhaled and decided it likes the way I fit.
Remy's lips brush my ear.
**Remy (soft):**
"Happy birthday, storm queen."
He slips something into my left twin tail (the second blackbird bead Lena gave me last month, now threaded on a thin silver chain so it rests beside the first).
Two beads now.
One for the girl who came.
One for the woman I'm becoming.
**Celeste (voice cracking):**
"I'm seventeen and I just realized I'm not scared of eighteen anymore."
**Remy (laughing low):**
"Good.
Because eighteen's gonna be wild."
Seras appears out of nowhere, arms flung wide, eyes glowing like twin suns.
**Seras:**
"SEVENTEEN SHOTS OF ROOT BEER, COMING UP!"
She's already holding a tray of seventeen frosted mugs that definitely have something stronger than root beer in them.
Kayo steals two before anyone else can.
**Kayo (toasting):**
"To the queen who drowned Atlantis in mercy and still came home for cake."
Al raises his ghost glass.
**Al:**
"To the kid who made gods kneel and still asks for extra syrup on her papanasi."
Holly finishes her song on a note that makes everyone shut up and feel things.
Then she grins.
**Holly:**
"Speech, Your Majesty!"
I roll my eyes, but Remy nudges me forward.
I step into the firelight.
Seventeen years old.
Queen of Sea and Storm.
Bearer of a crown that used to break worlds and now just keeps mine whole.
I look at every face (living, dead, shifter, fire, fox, monk, family).
**Celeste (voice steady, small, huge):**
"I spent fifteen years thinking I had to earn the right to exist out loud.
Then I spent one year learning I already belonged.
Tonight… I'm seventeen, and I'm not asking permission anymore.
Not from gods.
Not from cities.
Not from mirrors.
I'm just… here.
With you.
And that's enough."
The fire flares white for a heartbeat (my power answering without being asked).
Then it settles back to ordinary orange.
Remy pulls me into him again.
**Remy (whisper):**
"More than enough."
Mom hands me a slice of papanasi the size of my head.
Dad pretends he's not crying.
Seras starts a chant that's half "speech" and half "cake."
The pack howls.
The valley steams.
And somewhere, very far below, the ocean listens to seventeen heartbeats that refuse to be afraid.
Seventeen.
It doesn't feel like a number.
It feels like the moment the storm finally learned how to rest.
And the world (gods, empires, hidden cities, and all) can wait another day.
Tonight, I'm just a girl on a ridge with the best family in any universe.
And that's the most powerful thing I've ever been.