All Chapters of Echoes of Moonfire: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

~AeronI followed my butler in silence.The hallway to the throne room was long, flanked by silver sconces and walls still streaked with faint burn marks. The stone floors had been recently scrubbed, but some things couldn’t be erased. War leaves residue. In the corners. In the air. In the bones.My boots echoed faintly as I walked. Each step sounded louder than it should have—a drumbeat against silence.I didn’t know who I was going to meet.Important, the butler had said. Not urgent. Not dangerous. Just… important. But I’d learned by now that importance could mean anything from a royal emissary to a harbinger of doom.My mind drifted as I walked, thoughts circling like vultures.The corridor opened up into the main chamber, sunlight pooling in through the high arching windows. Gold and obsidian banners hung from the pillars. The throne room had been rebuilt with fewer jewels and more steel. Fewer ornaments. More purpose.My eyes found him instantly.Reed.He stood casually near the

~SeleneThey say when the moon is high and the winds go quiet, the veil between realms thins. That’s when the world feels wrong—like something ancient is breathing just beyond sight, watching, waiting. Most people dismiss that feeling.But not mages.We know better.Alpha Aeron stood in the center of the war room, hands clasped behind his back, cloak rippling faintly from the open balcony. He looked like a statue carved from stormclouds—solemn, unreadable. I’d known him since I was a girl apprenticing under Master Theon, and even then, Aeron had a presence that filled the room before he ever spoke.“I won’t lie to you,” he said, voice clipped. “The risk is real. But the danger of not helping Lunar is greater. If we don’t act, if we don’t try—then the alliance breaks. They turn on us and given our current situation, we don’t stand a chance against them. I’m not asking you to go because I trust him. I’m asking you to go because I don’t want Obsidian to die.”We understood what he was tr

~Selene“Bram!”“Bram, answer us if you can hear!”Kira sent a pulse of blue light spinning through the trees, the arcane ring shimmering before it vanished into the snowy wind. Nothing. Not even an echo. I tried again, whispering a location incantation beneath my breath. The spell rippled outward in fine tendrils, searching the weave of magic in the air.Nothing.Until—A flicker.I gasped. “I found him.”Everyone turned.“His signature,” I said, narrowing my eyes as the magic responded. “It’s faint—but it’s coming from the south. Far south. The ice wastes.”Reed’s jaw tightened. “That’s an icy desert. No living creature goes there willingly. Not even our patrols. There’s nothing there but frost and wind.”“He’s there,” I said. “Or at least… something that carries his energy signature.”Reed looked toward the horizon, where snow fell like ash. “I can’t follow you into the wastes. But if things go wrong—send a signal, and I will send help.” His voice was grim. “Good luck.”We nodded.

~Selene “Kira!” My voice vanished into the wind like it never existed. “Kira, answer us!” We staggered forward through the wall of white, our hands shielding our faces, cloaks flapping violently behind us. We went back through the snow storm we just came out of. We had to find Kira. The wind here wasn’t just loud. It screamed—an endless shriek that scraped the inside of my skull. “Kira!” Halric bellowed beside me. No answer. We fanned out, just enough to see each other through the swirl. I tried casting a directional spell—a shimmer of violet lines like veins pulsing in the air—but it scattered uselessly, eaten by the storm. We were wasting magic. Worse, we were wasting time. I gritted my teeth and forged ahead, one foot after the other, the snow coming up to my knees. Every few seconds, I looked back, made sure I could still see Nilo’s glow-tipped staff or Halric’s tall silhouette. We couldn’t lose another one. But we had already, hadn’t we? I called ag

~Selene The temple loomed like a question that shouldn’t have been asked. We stood at the threshold, the three of us, watching the flames in the sconces burn with no smoke, no scent, no warmth. They flickered blue and still, like they were trapped mid-movement. The air was dry. Too dry. And the snow that had battered us for hours stopped the moment we stepped on the stone platform. “You feel that?” Nilo whispered beside me. His voice bounced strangely off the walls. “It’s like the wind knows not to come here.” “Or it was told not to,” Halric murmured. I stepped forward. The floor inside was black marble, veined with red like the roots of something buried deep beneath us. Each step echoed, but not right away. The sound came a half-second later, like the temple had to think before responding. “Don’t touch anything,” I said softly. “You say that now,” Nilo muttered. “But I already touched the door handle. So… curse incoming.” “Shut up,” Halric snapped. We walked