All Chapters of ASHES OF THE LUNA QUEEN: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The forest was on fire But it wasn’t burning, Blackpine’s trees bled silver sap, their roots twisting away from the soil as if trying to flee. Animals scattered. The protective wards the ancient ones were gone.Theron’s envoy team had barely escaped with their lives, They’d seen her. The woman with Kael’s eyes, But she wasn’t Kael Not exactly. She was… wrong.The scout trembled as he finished his report. “She walked through the flame like it wasn’t there,” he said. “Her skin shimmered. Glass and shadow. Her voice…”He shivered. “It wasn’t human.”Altheya frowned. “Shapeshifter?”“No,” Aria said grimly. “A Mirrorborn.”Sera’s eyes narrowed. “From the Lost Crown?”Liora exhaled. “From the Glass Crown.”She turned to Auren. “We need to go. Now.”“To Blackpine?”“To her.”The team moved swiftly, Liora. Auren. Sera. Theron. Altheya They rode through moonlight like blades, the horses trembling under the weight of magic, As they neared Blackpine’s eastern ridge, the trees grew eerily still,

The storm returned just after midnight, But it wasn’t rain that lashed the Citadel It was ash. Fine. Grey. Silent, Falling from a sky that held no clouds.Sera stood at the top of the western tower, her sword drawn, though there was no enemy in sight, She didn’t need to see it She felt it, The world was holding its breath, And something was about to exhale.The vaults beneath Nightwind were older than the packs themselves, Before the Luna line, Before even the Ash Crown’s dominion, Aria moved through the stone corridors with unerring memory, Liora and Auren following behind her.Each vault was sealed by bloodlines long forgotten, Until now, They came to a stop before a wide iron door laced with glyphs.A strange cold radiated from the stone, not freezing, not icy. A stillness that felt… hollow, Liora touched the center glyph, Her sigil pulsed in response. The door unlocked. And the vault hissed open.Inside: A circle of thrones.Each broken, Each marked by a different crown Ash. Ice.

They watched her like she was a stranger, Sera with narrowed eyes, Auren with heartbreak blooming behind his concern, Theron didn’t even speak, Because how do you speak to someone who just returned from the birthplace of gods… looking like one?The room stank of smoke and dying magic. The ritual candles had melted into the floor, leaving burn marks in the shapes of ancient sigils.The air shimmered faintly around Liora-no, around the woman who had returned. She was taller somehow, though she hadn’t grown. Her skin still bore her scars, but they gleamed faintly, like they’d been carved into place rather than left behind.Only Aria met her eyes without flinching, And it was Aria who spoke first. “Tell them what you saw.”Liora’s voice echoed faintly when she answered, “I saw my beginning. And the world’s end.”They sat around the high council table. Not just Nightwind’s pack leaders, but envoys from neighboring clans, the last surviving members of the Seer Order, and two Blood Pact gene

The Hollow Crown sat in her hands like a living thing, It pulsed not with heat or cold, but with intention. It wanted to be worn. Not just by anyone but by her, Liora… or Nimara?She wasn’t sure anymore, All she knew was this: the moment she placed it on her head, the world would change Forever.The Council was in chaos, Some begged her to destroy the crown. Others swore loyalty before she’d even made her choice The lines were clear now: Liora’s world vs. Nimara’s truth.And Liora stood in between blazing with both, Altheya looked weary. “If you wear it, the bond completes. You stop being the anchor of the Hollow Flame, and become the source. There’ll be no going back.”Sera crossed her arms. “And if she doesn’t?”Aria said softly, “Kael takes it instead. Through the Mirror Woman or whatever echo he’s become. And then he becomes the end.”Auren met Liora’s gaze. “I’m with you. No matter who you become. Just… don’t forget who you were.”Liora looked at them all, then whispered: “I neve

The skies were quiet, For the first time in what felt like lifetimes, Nightwind Citadel stood beneath an unbroken sky. No sigils. No mirror storm. No blood-red moon, Just wind, Just light, Just… silence.Liora stood alone at the edge of the eastern ramparts, the Hollow Crown cradled in her arms like a sleeping child. It no longer glowed. It no longer whispered. But she knew better. “Power doesn’t sleep,” Aria had once said. “It waits.”Kael was gone, Not defeated, Not banished. Gone.Turned to light. Freed from madness, And perhaps, finally, from guilt, His final words echoed in her memory: “I didn’t know how to love you… so I destroyed you instead.”Liora didn’t cry, She had no tears left. But she did sit, And she did breathe, And she let herself feel the weight of survival, Inside the Citadel, the survivors gathered, Auren and Sera oversaw rebuilding.Altheya and Aria sealed the remaining mirror gateways, The people whispered her name like a lullaby now, not out of fear, but awe, Th