There’s a silence that only comes after a bond dies. It’s not just the absence of a voice in your head, or the echo of a heartbeat in your soul. It’s the kind of silence that makes the world feel too big. Too cold. Like every breath you take is being watched by something ancient and waiting. That’s how it felt after I broke the tie with Kael. Like a door had slammed shut behind me. And in front of me? A path I had to walk alone. ⸻ Liam stirred in my arms. His eyes fluttered open—clear. Soft. No more shadow in the irises. “Mom?” he croaked. “I’m here,” I whispered. He blinked, confused. “I had a dream. You were glowing.” I smiled, even though my chest felt hollow. “I was just fighting a goddess. Nothing major.” He giggled softly, then winced. “My head hurts.” Kael stepped beside us—cautious now. The invisible line between us was gone, and we both felt it. “How is he?” he asked. “Free,” I said. “For now.” Kael nodded once. No words. No touch. We were strangers wearing
The moment the voice spoke those words—“The second Luna”—the ground beneath our feet groaned. Not cracked. Not shook. Groaned. Like the earth itself was trying to breathe around something buried too long. Kael shoved Liam behind him. “Back. Now.” But I couldn’t move. Because that hand… the one clawing up through the ash? It wasn’t made of flesh. It was made of stone. Smooth, obsidian black, veined with silver light like the moon bleeding through darkness. And yet—it pulsed. Alive. I’d fought monsters. Demons. Even the goddess in my own head. But this? This was something else. Something that had never walked this earth. And somehow—I knew her name. “Nyra,” I whispered. Kael blinked. “What?” I swallowed hard. “The Second Luna. Her name is Nyra.” ⸻ The ground split. And she rose. Not fully. Not yet. Just enough for her face to break the surface. Sculpted like a statue, beautiful and terrifying in equal measure. Her eyes were shut, but her presence was suffocating.
The raven’s message haunted me long after its ashes blew away. Liam. Just his name—burned into the glass like a brand. No instructions. No location. Just the weight of inevitability pressing into my bones. Selene wasn’t asking anymore. She was summoning. Kael stood by the window, tense. “It’s a trap.” “It’s a challenge,” I said. “She’s daring me to come.” He turned to face me, eyes dark. “Then let me come with you.” “No.” “Elara—” “If I walk into this with a pack behind me, she’ll see it as war,” I said. “And she wants that. She’s been baiting it.” “She already declared war when she touched Liam.” I stepped closer, my voice low. “She doesn’t want a bloodbath. Not yet. She wants to convert. To lure. If I show up alone, maybe—just maybe—I can reach what’s left of her before she becomes something worse.” He stared at me for a long moment. Then nodded. “You have until dawn,” he said quietly. “If you’re not back—I burn the world to find you.” ⸻ I didn’t take a blade. Did
Three days had passed since Selene vanished into smoke. Three days of holding Liam a little too tightly. Of waking up in the middle of the night, listening for a whisper that never came. Of watching shadows crawl across the walls and wondering which one might speak. Kael tried to reassure me. “She’s gone, Elara. You won.” But that’s the thing about shadows. They don’t die. They wait. ⸻ The Elders returned the fourth morning. Only two of them. The third—Seyla—had vanished overnight. No trace. No scent. “She spoke to something before she left,” the eldest said. “Something that answered her through the fire.” “What kind of fire?” Kael asked, already tense. “Black,” the Elder whispered. “It didn’t burn. It devoured.” My stomach dropped. “Selene,” I said. “No,” the Elder corrected. “Something older. Something that welcomed her.” ⸻ We found it that night. A circle of scorched ground deep in the forest. At its center—a symbol. Not a sigil. Not magic from our world. It
I stood frozen at the edge of the cliff, my breath snatched by the wind. HE’S MINE NOW. Three words carved into ancient rock—each one jagged and raw like a wound torn open. My fingers shook as I traced the letters. Same slant. Same pressure. Same hand I used to cradle Liam’s head when he was just a crying pup in my arms. “She’s in me,” I whispered. “Still.” “She’s out of you,” came a voice behind me. Kael. He moved closer, wrapping his arms around me, grounding me even as my world spun. “She’s trying to rewrite your bond with him,” he said quietly. “That’s what this is.” “She already has,” I whispered. “He dreamed of her. She touched him, Kael. She’s trying to take him.” “Then we stop her.” “How?” I snapped, turning to him. “She’s me. She knows what I’ll do before I do it.” Kael didn’t flinch. “Then stop thinking like Elara.” ⸻ That night, I asked the Elders for something forbidden. “A separation rite,” I said. “The real kind. I want her gone. Not bound. Not merged.
There was something different in the way the wind moved through the trees. It carried whispers. Not of wolves. Not of spirits. But of me. “You feel it, don’t you?” Kael asked softly, brushing his hand down my arm. “The shift.” We stood at the edge of the forest, watching the sun dip beneath the horizon. The pack house glowed in the distance—warm, full of laughter and healing. But I didn’t feel peace. I felt a storm in my bones. “She’s not just in me,” I murmured. “She’s marking me. She’s trying to take over.” “You won’t let her.” I wanted to believe that. But this morning, I almost slapped a pup who startled me. Last night, I almost growled at Kael when he reached for me in the dark. And when Liam looked up at me with those bright, innocent eyes—I flinched. Because I wasn’t sure which version of Elara he was seeing anymore. The Luna. Or the shadow. ⸻ The Elders returned that evening. “Something is brewing,” the oldest said, her voice cracked like ancient bark. “You