Chapter 5 : The Woman in Silver

“At last.”

The whisper brushed my ear like cold breath.

I spun toward the voice, but darkness swallowed everything. The chamber had become a void where even the silver glow from my mark struggled to survive.

“Ronan?” My voice trembled.

“I’m here.”

Relief hit me so hard my knees weakened. Then a black flame ignited in his palm, casting a circle of dim light around us.

The chamber looked different now.

The altar was gone.

In its place stood a woman.

Silver hair flowed to her waist, untouched by the wind that howled through the room. Her gown shimmered like moonlight on water, and a delicate crown rested upon her brow.

Queen Selene.

She was not a ghost.

Ghosts did not cast shadows.

The guards backed away in terror. One dropped his sword with a clatter that echoed through the chamber.

Ronan stepped in front of me, blade raised.

“Stay back,” he commanded.

Selene’s gray eyes settled on him with unbearable sadness. “You still protect her, even after all these centuries.”

The air thickened.

Ronan’s grip tightened on his sword. “You are not Selene.”

“I was Selene long before your kingdom learned to fear my name.”

My mark burned.

I gasped and clutched my wrist. Silver light flared across my skin, brighter than ever before.

Selene looked at the mark and smiled softly.

“She carries the moonblood.”

Ronan did not lower his weapon. “Tell me what you are.”

Her gaze shifted to me. “I am the reason your king is cursed.”

Silence crashed over the chamber.

I stared at Ronan. His face had become stone.

“You said the curse was a legend,” I whispered.

“I said I do not believe the history written by frightened men.”

Selene laughed quietly. “Wise. Histories are written by survivors, not by the dead.”

A guard suddenly cried out and lunged toward her.

“Witch!”

His sword sliced through her chest.

The blade passed through her like smoke.

The guard stumbled in horror.

Selene touched his forehead.

He screamed.

Moonlight burst from his eyes, and he collapsed lifeless to the floor.

The other guards fled.

Only Ronan and I remained.

My pulse hammered so violently I thought it would tear through my ribs.

Selene looked at the dead guard with regret. “I warned them not to touch me.”

Ronan advanced a step. Shadows coiled around his sword like serpents.

“Enough games.”

Selene’s expression changed.

For the first time, I saw fear in her eyes.

“Do not use shadowfire against me, Ronan.”

“You know my name.”

“I named you.”

The words struck him harder than any weapon.

His sword lowered by a fraction.

“What did you say?”

Selene’s gaze softened. “You were born during the blood moon. Your mother placed you in my arms before she died. I swore I would protect you.”

Ronan’s breathing became uneven.

“No.”

“Yes.”

The chamber seemed to tilt.

I looked from the silver-haired queen to the cursed king and suddenly saw the resemblance I had missed before—the same storm-gray eyes, the same sharp mouth, the same loneliness.

“You’re related,” I whispered.

Selene closed her eyes briefly. “I am the first queen of the Shadow Throne. Ronan is my descendant.”

Ronan’s voice became deadly. “You were executed.”

“I was betrayed.”

The word echoed through the chamber like a bell.

My stomach tightened.

“By whom?” I asked.

Selene opened her eyes.

“By the man who loved me.”

A strange ache passed through my chest.

Ronan’s shadows stirred restlessly.

“The chronicles say you cursed the throne.”

Selene laughed bitterly. “I loved a king who feared my power. When our daughter was born with moonblood, his priests convinced him I would destroy the kingdom. He chained me beneath the palace and called it justice.”

My mark pulsed again.

Daughter.

Moonblood.

The word lodged in my mind.

Selene turned fully toward me. “You are her last living descendant.”

The world stopped.

“No.”

“You carry my blood, Lyra Vale.”

My knees nearly gave out.

I had spent my life believing I belonged nowhere. No family. No bloodline. No destiny.

And now a dead queen claimed me as her heir.

Ronan looked at me as though seeing me for the first time.

“You knew?” he asked Selene.

“I felt her the moment she entered the palace.”

I stepped backward. “This is impossible.”

Selene’s gaze dropped to the silver pendant hidden beneath my dress.

I froze.

“How do you know about that?”

“Because I wore it first.”

My hand flew to the pendant instinctively. My mother had hidden it from everyone, even from me.

Tears burned unexpectedly behind my eyes.

“Who was my mother?”

Selene’s expression filled with grief. “A Moonborn who fled the palace before the hunters found her.”

The room spun.

My mother had been running all her life.

Running from this place.

Running from him.

I looked at Ronan.

He looked shattered.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” I whispered.

“Because every Moonborn child was hunted after the curse began,” Selene answered. “Your mother erased herself to keep you alive.”

A low growl rumbled through the chamber.

Ronan’s shadows rose around him, forming dark wings against the walls.

“What curse?” he demanded. “Tell me the truth.”

Selene met his gaze.

“The curse was never meant for the throne.”

The shadows stilled.

“It was meant for the king who betrayed me.”

Ronan went pale.

“You.”

Selene nodded once.

“Every time a Draven king truly loves, the curse awakens and death follows. That is why your lovers die, Ronan. Not because you are a monster, but because I was.”

Pain crossed his face so quickly it felt intimate.

I suddenly understood the emptiness in his eyes, the distance, the cruelty.

He had spent his life terrified that loving someone would kill them.

Ronan looked at me.

Raw fear burned there.

The same fear I had seen in the mirror queen’s eyes.

The mark on my wrist blazed hotter.

Selene’s expression sharpened. “It has begun.”

“What has?” I asked.

“The bond.”

Silver light burst from my mark and shot toward Ronan.

He cursed as the same light appeared across his palm.

A glowing crescent formed on his skin.

My breath caught.

Ronan stared at his hand in horror.

“No.”

Selene’s voice softened. “The moon has chosen.”

The chamber trembled violently.

Cracks raced across the walls.

Stone rained from the ceiling.

Ronan seized my arm. “We’re leaving.”

Selene shook her head. “You cannot leave yet. The blood moon rises tomorrow night. When it reaches its peak, the bond will either break the curse…”

She looked directly at me.

“…or kill you both.”

A deafening roar shook the chamber.

The floor split open behind Selene, revealing a chasm filled with swirling silver light.

Something moved inside it.

Huge.

Ancient.

Watching.

Selene stepped backward toward the abyss.

“Find the Moonwell before the blood moon rises,” she said urgently. “Do not trust the council. One of them serves the old king.”

“Wait!” I shouted. “Who?”

But the chamber exploded with light.

Ronan dragged me against his chest as stone collapsed around us.

When the light faded, Selene was gone.

Only the chasm remained.

From its depths came a sound that froze my blood.

A heartbeat.

Slow.

Massive.

Alive.

Ronan looked down into the abyss, shadows twisting violently around him.

Then he whispered the words that made terror seize my soul.

“Something is waking.”