All Chapters of Blood Moon Rising - The Lumenwild Trials: Chapter 61 - Chapter 65

I woke to quiet that felt earned.Not the fragile quiet of denial or shock, but the deep, exhausted stillness that follows survival. Stone beneath me radiated residual warmth from Ashen’s fire. The air smelled faintly of ozone, burnt shadow, and iron, battle’s afterimage lingering like a bruise.For a moment, I didn’t move.I took inventory instead.Heartbeat, steady, slower than it should have been.Breath, unlabored, but shallow.The door...There.Not ajar. Not shut. Present in the background of my chest like a star beneath cloud cover. Waiting, patient in a way that unsettled me more than hunger ever could.Kyren was closest. Curled around my left side on the cold stone as though comfort outranked dignity. One wing stretched protectively over my legs, the other slack with fatigue. His breathing was deeper than mine, a rare thing. He had spent himself without restraint.Silas knelt a few feet away, finishing a sigil circle that faded as he completed it. His light dimmed deliberatel

The aftermath did not arrive gently. It crept in on trembling breaths and fractured stone, on the slow realization that the stronghold still stood only because we had refused to let it fall inward. Silas sagged against me, consciousness flickering like a candle in wind. I shifted, bracing his weight more fully, my knees protesting as the echo of moonlight faded from my veins. The door inside me closed, and not sealed, not locked, but resting, like an eye half-lidded and watchful. “Easy,” I murmured, smoothing a hand through Silas’s sweat-damp hair. His light still glimmered faintly beneath his skin, no longer wild, no longer tearing at itself. Kyren moved then, decisive as ever. He shed his wings and crossed the chamber in two strides, crouching beside us. His hands hovered for a fraction of a second before settling on Silas’s shoulders, careful, grounding. “You’re staying awake,” Kyren ordered, voice tight with barely leashed emotion. “You don’t get to check out after that.”