Semua Bab Bound to the moon: Bab 21 - Bab 30

I ran.Through trees, barefoot, breath burning in my lungs, wind slapping my face. I didn’t stop.Couldn’t. Not after what just happened. Not after I floated off the ground. Not after the wolf inside me spoke aloud.I didn’t know where I was going.I just needed to get away before I hurt someone else.Branches tore my arms. Roots scraped my legs. My skin bled, but I barely felt it. All I felt was the fire still rolling through my veins.“You saw her,” the voice in my mind said, my wolf, or the thing I was becoming. “She’s almost here.”“I don’t want her,” I whispered.“You don’t get a vote.”I dropped by the river, breathing hard. My aura flared again. The water actually pulled back, like it was scared of me.I wrapped my arms around myself. My body was shaking.I hated this.I hated how close she felt now, the other version of me. The red-cloaked stranger with my eyes and none of my soul.Time passed. I don’t know how long.Eventually, I heard footsteps.“Go away,” I said.“No thanks

I smiled.Not because I meant to.But because the thing inside me wanted them to see it.The elders froze. My hand gripped the blade. My palm bled gold and black, mixing like ink spilled in sunlight. The chamber seemed to tighten around me. Too quiet. Too still.Kael called my name.I couldn’t answer him.“We should burn this place,” the wolf said inside me. “Start over.”I dropped the knife.The clatter echoed like thunder.“I’m done,” I said flatly. “You wanted proof. There it is.”The Seer looked shaken. The other elders stared at the blood like it was cursed. Maybe it was.Kael was beside me in an instant. “We’re leaving.”No one stopped us. Not one guard moved.Because they were afraid.They should’ve been.That night, I didn’t sleep.When I did, I didn’t dream; she did.I saw my body walking through the forest, glowing faintly in the moonlight. My feet didn’t leavetracks. My eyes were silver-bright. My voice echoed in double tones, one real, one ancient.“Three will claim. One

I stared at him.Riven.Still shirtless. Still silent.Sitting in the dark like he hadn’t moved in hours.His eyes never left me.The air in the room felt heavier than it should. Thick with smoke, something sour beneath it.Like blood and ash.“What happened?” I asked, my voice low.“You blacked out,” he said. “Again.”My mouth was dry. “How long?”“Half a day.”I looked at my hands. They were clean now. My skin was pale and smooth. Someone had washed me.“Was it you?”He nodded once.“You undressed me?”“You weren’t breathing right,” he said. “I thought your ribs might be broken.”I sat up slowly. “Did anyone else see me?”“No.”He stood, finally, and walked toward the table.“You started convulsing in the blood circle,” he said. “Your aura spiked. Kael couldn’t touch you without getting burned. Thorne was panicking.”“And you?” I asked.“I carried you here.”That made sense.And yet… it didn’t.I stared at him, trying to read his expression.“Riven… Did anything else happen?”He gla

I should have screamed.When the wall cracked. When the woman stepped through. When I saw my face but not my eyes, I should have screamed.But I didn’t.I just stared.Because it wasn’t just that she looked like me.It was that she moved like a memory I hadn’t lived yet.Kael stepped in front of me, shielding me without hesitation, but even he was frozen. Not from fear—at least not the kind that makes you run—but the kind that makes your mind go quiet.Riven stood just inside the hall, eyes locked on her.The woman tilted her head.Her voice was mine.“The Gate has opened.”I took a step back.She matched it.Kael’s arm went out to stop me. “Stay behind me.”“I think she is me,” I whispered.“No,” Riven said sharply. “She’s not.”Her presence felt like heat under my skin, not just familiar but embedded. She wasn’t copying me. She wasn’t pretending. She was real.But wrong.The wrong kind of real.“I know what you’re thinking,” she said.I flinched. Because I was thinking of running.“

Kael’s voice was the first thing I heard when the door opened.“They burned her name into stone,” he said.“Not her,” Riven replied. “Something that speaks like her. That moves like her.”I was seated at the long table in the war chamber. Not tied. Not guarded. Just... placed there. Like an artifact.I turned slowly as they entered.Kael’s eyes were tired. Riven’s were unreadable.No one asked if I was okay.I didn’t blame them.“What did the mark say exactly?” I asked.Kael hesitated. “It was carved into the Elder’s chamber wall. With magic. Still smoking when they found it.”I waited.Riven answered instead. “Just one word. Your name.”I looked down at my hands. “It’s a message. Not a threat.”“Are you sure?” Riven asked.“I didn’t write it.”“But you were the one burning yesterday,” Kael said quietly.He wasn’t accusing me.But he wasn’t denying it either.Thorne hadn’t woken up.The healers tried everything: herbs, packed energy, and even raw bond surges.But his mind was stuck so