LOGINVALENTINA
I woke before the sun. At the feeling of the palace breathed differently around me.For a moment, I lay still, half-drowned in sleep, Andres’s arm heavy around my waist, his warmth anchoring me. His heartbeat was steady beneath my cheek. Calm and Controlled. Too controlled.Something had happened. I could feel it.I didn’t need prophecy or visions to know that. My body had learned the language of danger long ago. It spoke now in quiet pressure behind my ribs, in the way the air felt… tilted.Like a floor that had shifted half an inch when no one was looking.I eased out of Andres’s hold carefully, sliding from the bed without waking him. He didn’t stir— but his arm twitched once, instinctive, as though searching.Even asleep, he was guarding.I pulled a robe around myself and went to Luciano’s room.He slept on his side, his lips parted, one tiny hand fisted into the moonweave blanket.VALENTINAI woke before the sun. At the feeling of the palace breathed differently around me.For a moment, I lay still, half-drowned in sleep, Andres’s arm heavy around my waist, his warmth anchoring me. His heartbeat was steady beneath my cheek. Calm and Controlled. Too controlled.Something had happened. I could feel it.I didn’t need prophecy or visions to know that. My body had learned the language of danger long ago. It spoke now in quiet pressure behind my ribs, in the way the air felt… tilted.Like a floor that had shifted half an inch when no one was looking.I eased out of Andres’s hold carefully, sliding from the bed without waking him. He didn’t stir— but his arm twitched once, instinctive, as though searching.Even asleep, he was guarding.I pulled a robe around myself and went to Luciano’s room.He slept on his side, his lips parted, one tiny hand fisted into the moonweave blanket.
ANDRESValentina slept curled against my side, her breath warm against my chest, her fingers still tangled in the fabric near my collarbone as if even in sleep she refused to let me drift too far.For a long while, I didn’t move.Not because I feared waking her— but because I was afraid that if I shifted even an inch, this fragile, impossible peace would dissolve like morning mist.My kingdom had never been quiet. My life had never been gentle. But this moment… This was both.Luciano slept in the cradle in his room, right next to us which I could see through my phone. wrapped in soft moonweave blankets, the faintest silver shimmer pulsing beneath his skin— but no longer dangerously bright. Not divine. Not overwhelming. Just… our little boy.And yet, beneath the sweetness of the moment, beneath the warmth of Valentina still clinging to me, there was something else.A strange hum in the walls. A pressure in the air. A
VALENTINAThe palace felt impossibly quiet after the chaos of the Moonwell. Even the walls seemed to inhale, taking in the weight of what had happened outside and letting it rest just beyond the corridors.Luciano slept in a soft cradle by the window of our chamber, a silver glow faint beneath his skin. The soft rise and fall of his chest was almost hypnotic, a reminder of how small and real he was in comparison to the vast threads of destiny and power that had chased us to the Moonwell.Andres sat across the room on the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on his knees, head bent, fingers steepled. Even in stillness, he radiated tension— golden heat curled just beneath his skin, the lingering trace of his War Form refusing to settle fully.I sank to the floor beside the cradle, careful not to disturb the fragile peace, and let my hands rest on my knees. My mind still felt scattered, stretched between memories that were mine and lives I hadn’t lived, e
VALENTINAThe Moonwell did not stir again after it answered Luciano.It simply breathed.Soft silver currents rippled across its surface in slow, patient circles, as though the ancient heart beneath the water had returned to a resting rhythm.The air eased too— no longer strained by watchful forces or divine intrusions. The terrible pressure that had clung to my lungs since the Veil’s fall finally loosened, and for the first time since the worlds had screamed open, I could draw a full breath without pain.I didn’t realize I had been holding it that long.Luciano slept against my chest now, his glow faded to a gentle sheen beneath his skin, no brighter than moonlit milk. The silver thread that had touched him was gone, leaving no mark behind— only a faint warmth that lingered where it had brushed his tiny fingers.As if the Moonwell had memorized him.Andres stood a few steps away at the edge of the ritual stone, his pos
VALENTINAThe shadows moved like living ink.Not in haste, but with the quiet certainty of something that had waited a very long time for this moment.Andres stood in front of me like a wall of sunfire, his back broad, wings faintly ghosted in gold beneath his skin as if his War Form lingered just beneath flesh. His heartbeat thundered through the air, steady and lethal, and through it I felt his vow coil around me like living steel.But fear still crawled up my spine.Not for myself. For the child in my arms.Luciano’s small body glowed softly, unaware of the ancient eyes now fixed upon him. His warmth was real. His weight was real. And the unbearable terror of losing him cracked something fragile inside my chest.“They’re not here to fight,” I whispered, my voice barely surviving the tremor in it. “They’re here to measure.”Andres didn’t turn, but I felt his awareness sharpen. “Measure wh
ANDRESThe silence after the Veil’s collapse was deafening. The Moonwell’s waters had calmed, glowing faintly like embers in the dark, but the air still tasted of power— raw, ancient, and freshly unbound.Every nerve in my body thrummed with it, and Czer’s presence inside me was restless, alert, aware that something had changed irreversibly.I held Valentina close, her body trembling against mine, and I let my nose brush her hair. Her scent grounded me. But the calm was brittle. Every instinct screamed that this wasn’t over.The Veil was gone, yes, but it had left cracks… scars across the realm, and some part of me could feel the world breathing differently, as if it were holding its own breath, waiting.Luciano stirred in her arms, tiny fingers curling around the silk of her robe. Silver light coiled gently around him like living energy. His cries were gone, replaced with that quiet pulse that spoke of growing power.Something about him— our son, was awakening, and I could feel it vi







