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TWENTY SIX

Author: Luca Fei
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-08-12 20:16:19

Kiara

I came to consciousness with a sharp gasp, my body jerking upright as if pulled by invisible strings. My head throbbed like I'd been struck, a dull ache pulsing behind my temples. Blinking against the dim light, I realized I was lying on damp earth beneath a thick canopy of ancient oak leaves that filtered the morning sun into fractured golden beams.

Around me, eleven other girls were stirring in various states of confusion. Cressa Stonebrook was already on her feet, her muscular frame tense as she scanned our surroundings with military precision. Pipa Valen sat rubbing her temples, her usually immaculate blonde hair tangled with twigs and leaves. Lyra Vale's silver veil had slipped slightly, revealing her unnaturally bright pink eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The last thing I remembered was drinking some tea in the Royal Garden, a bitter, herbal concoction served to all competitors before this trial. Julise had warned me it would likely contain some mild sedative to ensure w
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  • Dragon Born Luna    THIRTY SIX

    Kiara My legs were numb. Every breath I took sent a dull ache through my ribs. Dried blood cracked on my forearm, and mud had crusted over my boots and knees. My hair had come loose from its braid, tangling in damp strands across my face and neck, half-soaked from the river we'd crossed earlier. Everything hurt. Even blinking felt like a chore. The door to my chamber groaned open as I stumbled inside. Cold air collided with warm steam. A bath had been drawn in the marble tub carved into the corner of the room, steam curling like fingers into the dim air. The scent of clove and lavender wrapped around me, heady and comforting. Ryden must have sent someone ahead. Of course he had. He really didn't know how to take a hint. The door slammed shut behind me, rattling the hinges. I didn’t bother locking it. What was the point? If they wanted to find me, they would. They always did. Each step toward the washbasin sent sharp, splintering pain through my side. My sleeping dress clung

  • Dragon Born Luna    THIRTY FIVE

    Kiara We ran. And we ran. No plan, no direction, just raw instinct pushing our legs forward. Through the dark, through the pain, through the mess of brambles that clawed at our skin. We ran like it was the only thing left that made sense. I'd lost my mismatched boots at some point. Branches tore at our skin. Sharp thorns tore at our bare legs and ankles, and more than once, one of the girls tripped and fell. But no one stayed down for long. We had no time for pain. No time for questions. Only forward. The voices were distant now, the men's shouting, the barking of the dogs, the crashing of undergrowth. But still, we didn’t stop. My lungs burned, and I knew the others were barely holding on, but we pushed harder. The night was thick and wild, the moon offering just enough light to guide us forward. Sweat stung the cuts on my face and legs, my breath catching in harsh bursts. And yet, even through the exhaustion, I felt it. A pulse. Aurex. "Mira," Serapha gasped behi

  • Dragon Born Luna    THIRTY FOUR : The Hunt

    Kiara Consciousness returned like an unwelcome guest - first as a dull throbbing behind my eyes, then as the bitter taste of bile at the back of my throat. I lay perfectly still, taking inventory of my body the way I had been taught while I was at the Alpha's war camp. Toes? Could wiggle. Fingers? Stiff but functional. Ribs? Ached with each shallow breath, but nothing felt broken. The cold came next - not the crisp chill of morning, but the deep, damp cold of earth that never saw sunlight. It seeped through my clothes, pressed against the bare skin where my tunic had ridden up during the fall. My left cheek rested in something wet and vaguely metallic-smelling. Blood, probably. Mine or someone else's, I couldn't tell yet. Then the silence. Not peaceful. Not natural. The kind of silence that comes when the forest itself holds its breath, when even the insects stop their buzzing to witness something terrible. I didn't open my eyes. Beside me, Cressa's breathing was so shallow

  • Dragon Born Luna    THIRTY THREE

    Kiara One heartbeat didn’t belong. Then two. Then five. The moment I slammed the sanctum door shut behind me, those heartbeats echoed in my ears like war drums. Not loud but sharp, rhythmic, and wrong. Each one pulsed out of tune, out of time. Foreign. Unwelcome. Unnatural. There were thirteen. My boots struck stone with every step, each footfall reverberating louder than the last as I tore through the palace’s underbelly. My chest burned from cold air and raw exertion, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. The memory of what I’d just seen lingered like poison: journals with blood crusted in their bindings, surgical tools gleaming with dried crimson, and the tanks. Those awful, humming tanks filled with suspended bodies. Children. Dragon-born. Altered, broken, twisted. Transformed against their will. Subjects. And now, the heartbeats. Thirteen of them, moving through the castle’s veins when there should’ve been none. No guards, no staff. Ryden had ordered the Dollhouse

  • Dragon Born Luna    THIRTY TWO

    Kiara The corridor was narrow and silent, the kind of silence that pressed against your eardrums like a physical weight. Cold seeped through the stones beneath my bare feet, the chill crawling up my legs as I moved deeper into the darkness. I told myself I wasn't supposed to be here. That I should turn back. But something pulled me forward, an invisible thread tugging at my ribs with every step. The walls were made of thick stone, the kind quarried from deep underground, older than the palace above. Unlike the rest of the castle with its polished marble and etched gold, this place wasn’t meant to be seen. It was for secrets. For hiding things that couldn’t survive the light. I should have turned around when I realized I didn’t recognize the path. But I kept moving, one step at a time, hand brushing the wall to keep my balance in the dark. It wasn’t until the hallway began to slope slightly downward that I saw the door. It was out of place. Too clean. Heavy oak with frosted gl

  • Dragon Born Luna    THIRTY ONE

    Kiara The hidden door clicked shut behind me with a finality that echoed through my bones. Complete darkness swallowed me whole. I pressed my gloved palms against the rough stone walls on either side, the chill seeping through the leather as I took my first shuffling steps forward. The passage smelled of damp mortar and something far older, the accumulated whispers of generations of spies and schemers who had walked these same steps before me. My fingers traced deliberate grooves in the wall at regular intervals, notches carved by countless hands over centuries. This was a palace within the palace, its veins running unseen behind gilded halls and polished floors. Every ruler needed their secrets, and these walls held them all. --- I moved slowly, counting my steps. Twenty paces brought me to the first branching path. The left tunnel sloped upward slightly, its ceiling low enough to force a crouch. The right descended into blackness. A glint of metal caught my eye near the fl

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