MasukAurelia’s POVThe letter slipped from my fingers and fluttered to the floor, the words echoing through my skull like a curse.Meet me at the Blood Well, or your mother dies.For a moment, my lungs forgot how to work. My vision blurred at the edges, shrinking to a tunnel of panic. My heart hammered so violently that I pressed my hand against my chest, half certain it would crack my ribs apart."This bitch has some nerves.”My voice shook as I grabbed the paper again, staring at the ink as if the words would somehow rearrange into a joke, some twisted ploy that didn’t involve my mother—my mother, who had already suffered enough loss for this lifetime.I gasped sharply. “Sarah!”My voice echoed off the walls, frantic and raw. “Sarah!”Sarah was the maid assigned to watch over my mother. I waited, chest rising and falling too fast.Cold dread rushed through me, freezing the air in my lungs.I screamed her name again, louder, “Sarah! Answer me!”Silence.It suffocated me.I spun around and
Aurelia’s POVDominic’s scent still clung to my skin as dawn bled across the skin. You would think that comforted me, that it steadied a world spiraling into chaos. But after what happened in the Forgotten Realm… after what I saw nothing made sense anymore.I lay awake beside him, staring at the ceiling beams, hearing his breathing shift from deep sleep to restless half-wakefulness. Every time he turned toward me, I flinched. Every time he touched me, a dangerous thought whispered in the back of my skull.Selena’s soul still lingers in your son.Selena can only be destroyed with sacrifice.Selena wants him.And the worst part?I felt a pull toward her. A magnetic thread between predator and prey except I no longer knew which one I was.Dominic’s arm slid around my waist.“Aurelia,” he murmured, voice husky with sleep. “You haven’t slept.”I swallowed. “I’m fine.”“Don’t do that.” His voice sharpened, fingers tightening. “You’ve been different since you came back. Your aura feels wrong
Aurelia’s POVMy dreams were no longer mine.I knew the moment sleep took me now because my wolf curled inward instead of stretching free.And then he was there.Liam did not chase me in my dreams as expected, he was a gentleman.I found myself standing in endless twilight, the sky bruised purple and black, the moon hanging low like it was listening. The ground beneath my bare feet pulsed faintly, alive, responding to my presence.“Aurelia,” Liam’s voice murmured, smooth as silk, curling around my thoughts.I did not turn.“I won’t look at you,” I whispered.He laughed softly, unbothered. “You already are.”A shadow stretched along the ground beside me, rising, forming his shape before he stepped into it fully. He looked exactly as he always did.“You were tired,” he said gently, walking a slow circle around me. “I could feel it.”“Get out of my head.”“You invited me,” he replied calmly. “Every time you bled. Every time your wolf weakened.”His fingers brushed the air near my temple
Aurelia’s POVThe realm was tearing itself apart and somehow, I was still standing.The ground split beneath my feet, light and shadow ripping at each other like wild beasts, but my arms were locked around my children. Madeline screamed now, her cry sharp and terrified, while Kieran’s wail carried something else beneath it.“I’ve got you,” I whispered hoarsely, though my voice trembled. “I won’t let go. I swear it.”The Forgotten Realm convulsed violently. Towers cracked. The sky folded inward, fragments of silver mist raining down like dying stars. The spirits of cursed Lunas screamed as they were torn from the stone, their forms dissolving into ash and memory.And then everything went silent.The kind of silence that pressed against my ears until my heart thundered painfully in my chest.The light shifted.I looked up.She stood before me as though the chaos bowed to her presence.The Moon Goddess.Beauty did not describe her. Words failed entirely. Her skin glowed like liquid pearl
Aurelia’s POVThe Forgotten Realm did not open its gates. It swallowed us.The moment I stepped past the boundary stone, the world folded inward like a breath being held too long. Light bent. Sound warped. The air thickened until every inhale scraped my lungs like frost.I tightened my hold on my children.Madeline slept against my chest, her tiny fingers curled into the fabric of my cloak, her warmth anchoring me. Kieran lay in my other arm—too quiet, too still for a newborn. His eyes were open, staring at nothing, reflecting shadows that didn’t belong to this world.“I’m here,” I whispered to them, more to myself than anyone else. “Mommy is right here.”The Forgotten Realm answered with silence.The ground beneath my feet was not stone or soil but something in between ash mixed with memory. Each step released whispers, soft and layered, brushing against my mind like fingertips.Luna…Mother…Queen of blood…Lyra stood behind me, her face pale, her hands trembling as she wrote hurrie
Liam's POV The news reached me through one of my spy.I was seated in my private study when the spy knelt before me, his head bowed so low his forehead nearly scraped the marble floor. His scent carried the fear that I knew so well.“They found the twins,” he said anyway, voice shaking. “Aurelia fought Selena and brought them back to the palace alive.”For a moment, the room went completely still.Then my glass shattered in my hand.Crystal bit into my palm, but I barely felt it. Rage flooded me too fast, too hot, drowning out pain. I stood so abruptly the chair crashed backward against the wall.“She what?” I asked softly.The spy flinched. “She stormed the crypt and everything was evaded. Selena was defeated. The children are back in the palace.”My jaw clenched so hard my teeth screamed. Found them. Of course she did. Aurelia always survives. Always wins. Always ruins everything.“Get out,” I said.He scrambled to his feet and fled.The moment the door slammed shut, I roared.The







