LOGINMENODORA'S POV The first thing that gets to me is the pause that hangs heavy and jagged in the air, a frozen stretch of time waiting for someone to shatter it. It is not the kind of silence that comes from a lack of sound, but rather a silence that carries with it a heavy weight. The entire square has fallen into a still that makes even the wind feel like it is disturbing whatever has just happened.A large expanse of people, as far as my eyes can see, are still on one knee before me…old men with their shoulder length silver hairs, young women clutching their children to their chests, hunters who are still carrying with their their bows from the day’s hunt, even blacksmiths with the soot still staining their hands. Every single one of them had their heads bowed.A sudden frantic vibration hums at the base of my throat, betraying the calm facade I am fighting so hard to keep.“What's…what's going on? What are they doing?”No one answers and this quickens my pulse even more. My eyes ar
MENODORA'S POV As we start to descend carefully down the steps like contraptions, towards the city, movements start to stir below. The people, more than a dozen of them, emerge from their homes, gardens, workshops…everywhere I turn to look, I can see people coming out. None of them shout or even look like they may be panicking. Instead, they fix their gazes on us, watching us with part curiosity and part wariness.Everywhere I look, there are men, women and even little children. Their clothes are like nothing I have ever seen before. It is woven with threads in the shade of silver, cream and deep forest green. Some of them have streaks of silver strands woven naturally through their dark hair even when it appears that they look young. Some of them also carry varying marks across their skins…marks that glow and shimmer softly under the sunlight.None of us spoke and their eyes locked on ours with a bright and unblinking sheen, like a pair of headlights in the dark…only there are so ma
MENODORA'S POV "They know that you have finally come home." Those words settle over me like the softness of the first snow of the season. "They know that you have finally come home." The words echo through my mind, bouncing around the walls of my chest and refusing to take root.“This is not my home, I have no home!" I say, the words coming out sharper than I intend it to be."No?” Cassian asks, regarding me with the kind of patience you use when talking with a petulant child."Yes,” I reply, shaking my head. "This isn't my home. The only place closest to what felt like home for me was snatched too early. A small cottage where my mother hid me away from prying eyes…I never really understood her then, but now I do.”My eyes start to water again and I blink against the tears rigorously. “I still remember the way it smelled of cedar after every rainfall. My mother would sneak in whenever she could to avoid anyone knowing where I really was. There was a crooked fence she always promise
MENODORA'S POV Ancient trees climb up, stretch so far that they almost touch the sky. Their silver trunks are broader and larger than any buildings I have ever seen. Their leaves glow with a faint shimmer, like stars had found a way to be caught in the branches.Flowers cover the hillsides in different shades and hues of colour, some of which I do not even have a name for.The birds are just as breathtaking and awe inspiring as the landscape. They have long iridescent tails that shimmer and shine like a liquid pearl. Flying overhead, they sing a bird song unlike anything that I have ever heard before now. Far below where we're standing, gentle creatures grazed across a meadow that stretches on for endless miles. They seem so relaxed, without any care in the world. Some of them have antlers like those closely resembling that of a deer. Some have six legs…so unlike anything I have seen or heard of before.One of them must have sensed our presence. It lifts its head, antlers shimmering
MENODORA’S POVInside the mountain swallows whatever little light there is. The sound of stone grinding against stone echoes behind us until it is a deafening grating sound on our ears and then, there is nothing but silence around us. It is not the silence of an empty room or even the kind of silence that hits the forest before a storm. This is a silence that is pulsing, a silence that I can feel the breath of it…a silence that is watching.For a minute, I can't help but come to a halt. The passage ahead of us stretches endlessly for miles that do not seem to have an end. The walls around us glow with the same hues of gold, blue and white that glowed on the stones outside like a heartbeat pulsing beneath the walls. The light isn't bright enough to chase the shadows that surround us but it is enough to illuminate our path, as though the mountain itself knows exactly how much we need to see.Without a single conscious thought, gravity pulls my gaze…and my body…back to the entrance. My h
ORVAX'S POV The camp stirs before the first signs of sunrise begin to peek out of the clouds. We all speak in hushed tones, no one speaks too loudly, even the horses seem to sense the change in the air.Elira helps Menodora gather what little belongings she has…a folded cloak that one of the kind women in the territory gifted to her, the comb that the other stranger; that I just realized I haven't seen for a while, gave to her. There's also the small carved wolfe that I had once given to her as a gift on one of the nights I visited her…that night feels like a thousand years ago.Picking up the carving, she turns it over in her hands, probably thinking the same thing I am, before slipping it carefully into her satchel, a small unconscious smile playing on her lips. I watch her from my spot from across the clearing, she looks entirely spent, like a battery drained to a critical percentage.The tiredness isn't just physical alone though, beneath all that physical exhaustion is a spirit
MENODORA’S POVThe Alpha's gaze lands on me, heavy and piercing right through me like a hot knife piercing through butter.“You…,” his tone holds the same accusation I see in the eyes of everyone around me. "You were found at the scene. Do you care to explain?”"This is nothing but a pure coinciden
MENODORA'S POVI stand at the edge of his offer, my toes curling over the precipice. I am holding my breath and contemplating if I dare to take the plunge even though every instinct in my body screams at me not to trust him.“After everything I have been through, it makes sense to not want to rely
MENODORA'S POV“No… that's impossible,” one of the council members says, but right before their very eyes, it is already happening.The first sight that catches my attention is the sight of my fingers, because extending from where my nails should be are now lethal-looking claws, long and sleek.“Be
MENODORA’S POV “What did he mean by the moon makes no mistakes?" My head spins from the pressure of trying to understand what his words mean. "The same moon that rejected me?! The same moon that never once spoke to me in my years of isolation?! Who is she to judge me now?!” Those are the words I w







