Chapter 157: THE BINDING VEILRHEA'S POV: SONG OF THE CHAPTER: MOON RIVER BY FRANK OCEAN.~~The forest looks way different now. It used to hum. I remember the first time I came here, to the heart of this ancient glade tangled in ash trees and forgotten moonlight. It was wild, ferocious and magic pulsed in the mossy floor, whispering in an old tongue I was too young to translate but I could feel it. In my bones. That heavy thrum of fate. That was where it happened. Where the Veil found us and it wrapped itself around my soul and tied it to Lucien's. Not gently and sweetly. Instead it was like claws sinking into marrow, like breath stolen mid-sentence. That bond was never gentle. It never asked. It simply was. And now... the forest is quiet, too quiet. The magic here no longer whispers. It waits. The roots creak under my boots as I step into the clearing. My body knows the way, even if my mind begged me not to come. I touch the scar on my wrist, the place where the Veil le
CHAPTER 156: PROPHECY BROKENKAIA'S POV: SONG OF THE CHAPTER: MY TEARS ARE BECOMING A SEA BY M83~~~ The vision comes like a knife through water in a sharp, rippling, and wrong manner. I’m standing in the clearing behind the Guen Pack house, where the trees lean like old friends but something’s off. The air smells of ash, and the wind is whispering in a tongue I don’t understand. I reach for the usual thread of fate, the glowing line that tells me where to go, what to feel, how to breathe through the storm. But it’s gone. Not severed. Just... disappeared.I blink, and another vision hits. Rhea is crumpled beneath a tree, her chest unmoving. Her fire is extinguished. The air around her is scorched black, but no flame dares flicker. Her hand... the one she once pressed to my heart when I was breaking, is curled into a fist, holding nothing but dust. My scream shatters the vision, dragging me back. But I don’t get to breathe before another one slams into me. Lyss stands
CHAPTER 155: THE HAUNTING OF NYRIELLENYRIELLE'S POV: SONG OF THE CHAPTER: “MY BODY IS A CAGE” by Arcade Fire~~~ The dream begins like a lullaby, slow and aching. Smoke curls through the air, but there is no fire, only the scent of ash and of endings. My wings beat against the sky, but I’m weightless, drifting through memory or something older. The clouds part, and beneath me is the valley of my kin. Once, it sang with laughter. Now it screams. I hover in horror as I watch the valley below; silver scales dulled by blood, wings snapped at their joints, tails twisted in death. My brothers. My sisters. My mother with her crest of pale gold. My father, his eyes frozen wide. All still. All dead.I land, or maybe I fall. “Myriad,” I whisper, naming one. Then another. “Valka. Soren. Ereth…” I drop to my knees, claws digging into scorched earth that pulses as though it remembers me. My reflection stares back in a shallow puddle, and I see what I always fear: I’m the only one
CHAPTER 154: STOLEN KISSES, STOLEN FIRELUCIEN'S POV: SONG OF THE CHAPTER: "Flickers" by Son Lux~~~ The stars are burning tonight. Not in the poetic way they always do in Rhea's gaze or her fire, but truly... achingly burning. I stand near the edge of the old fae courtyard, the stones still humming with the residual magic from her earlier visit. The air tastes like something ancient, like ash and dawn, like something once forgotten waking up with a long, low breath. I've felt it for hours now. The way the wind trembles. The way my skin seems too tight for my bones. Like the whole world is holding its breath.And then she walks in.Rhea. She's barefoot and looks like the beautiful parts of fire. Her hair tumbles like a storm of copper and fire down her back, her dress torn at the edges, eyes bright with something that hurts to look at. Not rage or grief. Love. Love, edged in uncertainty and terror. I want to speak but can’t. My throat is dry, my pulse thunder. I wait
CHAPTER 153: A CHOICE IN BLOODLYSS' POV:SONG OF THE CHAPTER: “CONTROL” by Halsey~~~ The final cut is never clean.I’m kneeling in the middle of a salt-drawn circle, the silver dagger heavy in my trembling hands. Blood trickles from my palm, staining the runes I etched into the stone beneath me. I can feel the bond fraying inside me like threads of my own soul unraveling slowly and deliberately. There’s a low hum in the air, like a song only magic can hear, and it trembles through my bones. “I sever thee,” I whisper, voice barely audible, “from soul, from blood, from bond.” The words sting in my mouth. Sacred. Forbidden.The bond fights back. It lashes through me like lightning, a thousand memories slicing through the fragile threads of my mind; Lucien's steady gaze, his hands in mine, the way his breath always steadied my storms. My vision blurs. I bite down on my bottom lip until I taste copper. This is the price.I dig the blade deeper into my palm, feeding the runes wha
CHAPTER 152: THE WEIGHT OF STONESRHEA'S POV: SONG OF THE CHAPTER: "THE ARCHER" BY Taylor Swift~~~ The fires are out, but the smoke still lingers in the air like grief that refuses to leave. I walk through the scorched ruins of the courtyard, my boots crunching over broken tile and ash. The sun hasn’t even risen, but light peeks over the horizon like it’s afraid of what it’ll find. My cloak flutters in the wind, and in my chest is a hollow I can’t fill. The Elder is gone.He is dead. Just like that... The word doesn’t sit right. It’s too small for what he was.He wasn’t just a Guen Elder. He was the one who told me stories in the library when I couldn't fall asleep and stayed up. He taught me how to read fae runes and showed me how the stars told secrets. When I couldn’t sleep, he left fresh mint leaves on my windowsill, said they warded off nightmares. I thought it was just kindness. I never realized it was protection. A part of me still waits to hear his cane tapping dow