Semua Bab Shadows Of The Rejected Luna: Bab 31 - Bab 40

~KAIRIOS' POV~The Royal Terrace used to be my safe place. The highest point in the Eclipse kingdom. From here, I could look out across the land and see everything that belonged to me. The forests. The towers. The lights in the far villages. All of it.Tonight, it didn’t feel like that at all.Tonight, it felt like a cage.I stood by the stone railing, holding onto the cold balustrade so tightly that my fingers started to ache. My knuckles had gone pale from the pressure. My side throbbed with a slow, burning pain where the wound was. Still, that pain was nothing compared to the one sitting heavy inside my chest.Much worse.It felt empty inside me. Hollow. Like a sharp hook was stuck beneath my ribs, tugging at my soul and pulling it toward the dark forest far below.Hoofbeats suddenly echoed up from the courtyard below.The sound snapped my head up.I leaned over the edge of the terrace before I could stop myself, my heart jumping with a stupid, desperate hope I hated myself for fe

~ELARA’S POV~The priest’s hole felt like a grave. The air smelled of wet dirt and old wood that had been rotting for years. I was pressed so tight against Kairos I could feel the heat rolling off his skin. It came in slow waves. Every time he took a rough breath, his chest pushed against mine, and I felt the wild, uneven beat of his heart.I kept my hand over his mouth. My palm was damp from his sweat. Just beyond the thin wooden slats, the study was full of guards moving around.“Search every corner!” a voice snapped. It was Captain Harlen. “If the King isn’t here, the Shadow girl took him. If we learn she or that exile Kael is holding him hostage, we’ll come back with the whole Eclipse army. We’ll burn these ruins down. Everyone inside with them.”Beside me, Kairos went rigid. His hand slid up and grabbed my waist. It wasn’t gentle. It was a warning. I could feel it in the way his fingers dug in. He wanted to jump out, to order his men to stop searching, but he was too weak. If h

~KAIROS POV~The walk back from the ruins to the palace felt like dragging myself through mud. Darkness kept pressing in, trying to pull me under. My shoulder burned like someone had stabbed me with hot iron, the exact spot where Kael’s arrow had ripped into my muscle. Every heartbeat sent sharp pain through it. But worse was the ache in my chest. That didn’t fade.I slipped through the servant’s entrance, the same way I had sneaked out. I couldn’t let the guards see me like this, hunched, clutching a blood-soaked bandage, looking hunted. My boots dragged across the stone. The hallway was quiet, too quiet. Heavy.I reached my chambers and leaned back against the oak door, closing it as softly as I could. I exhaled without even realizing I was holding my breath. For a moment, I just stood there, in the dark. My hands caught the moonlight, they were red, soaked with my blood, but also dust from the ruins where Elara had saved me. I thought of how she had looked at me with hate in he

~GENEVIEVE’S POV~The mirror never lied. And I still hated it.I lifted a trembling finger and traced the rough scar across my neck. The skin there was swollen and uneven, red where that cursed silver bow almost cut straight through my throat. When I breathed in, I could still feel it in my mind, the weight of that metal squeezing tight, pressing down like it wanted to finish the job.Elder Silas, that Coward.I should’ve been dead. I knew that.That Shadow girl… the maid. She’s the one who pulled me back from it.“Why couldn’t you just stay buried in the dirt?” I muttered to the girl staring back at me from the glass.For a moment, something sharp and quiet nudged my chest. Guilt, maybe. But I shoved it away before it could grow.Yes, Elara saved me. Fine. That was true.But then she turned around and stole everything that was meant for me. My future. My place. My crown.She walked into my palace like she belonged there, holding a crown that should never have touched her head. And so

~ELARA’S POV~The silver bars of my cell didn’t only lock me inside. They hummed. A low, steady vibration that crawled under my skin. The sound pressed against my shadows like invisible hands squeezing tight around their throats.I sat on the cold stone floor. My back against the wall. My fingers curled in my lap.My breath kept catching.A thin line of dawn slipped through the tiny window high above me. Pale light crept slowly across the floor like it was scared to come inside.Today was the day.Today I would walk out of this cell as a Queen… or I wouldn’t walk out at all.The iron door groaned open. I braced myself, expecting guards. But the face that stepped through made my chest jump.“Lila?” I whispered, pushing myself to my feet.She rushed toward me at once. Her eyes were swollen and red like she had cried all night. In her arms she carried a plain white tunic made of rough linen. Her hands shook so badly the fabric almost slipped from her grip.“I begged the head cook,” Lil