All Chapters of The Luna’s Forbbidden Blood : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Maya’s POVThe field of white bones didn't crunch under my feet. They rang like porcelain, a hollow, musical chime that echoed into an endless grey sky. I stood there, clutching a sword that felt like it was made of frozen sunlight and liquid moonlight. It was heavy, vibrating in my palm with a heartbeat that matched my own.In front of me, the shadow was growing. It didn't just have three heads; it had three distinct personalities. The left head was a snarling, scarred wolf, its eyes the sickly yellow of a dying star. The right head was a regal, terrifyingly pale creature with the elongated fangs of a vampire elder. And the middle?The middle head was human. It had my mother’s eyes."You aren't a spirit," I whispered, my knuckles turning white on the hilt of the blade. "You're the curse. You're the reason my blood has been a battlefield since the day I was born."The human head smiled, a slow, sickening spread of lips over teeth that were far too straight. "I am the balance, little s

Maya’s POVThe river didn’t just flow backward. It hissed, the water churned against the smooth river stones, turning a jagged, neon white as it fought the laws of gravity. I stood on the bank, my hand still gripped by Kael, feeling the air around us grow thin and metallic. It tasted like a penny under the tongue."Maya, what is that?" Kael’s voice was low, his wolf senses already screaming. He stepped in front of me, his massive frame a shield, but his eyes were darting toward the treeline.The pines weren't swaying anymore. They were flickering.Every few seconds, the dark green needles would blink out, replaced by the grey, skeletal silhouette of a skyscraper. I saw a streetlamp sprout from a snowbank, its orange light buzzing with a frantic, dying energy before vanishing back into the frost."The city," I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs. "The frozen second my mother trapped me in. It’s bleeding through.""The Wardens said the mountain was a stomach," Sela said, stepp

Maya’s POVThe snow didn't crunch. It hissed. Every step we took away from the Silver Peak felt like walking through static, a cold, needle-like vibration that traveled from the soles of my boots to the base of my skull. We were marching, but it didn't feel like an escape. It felt like a parade for a king who had forgotten how to bleed.Kael led the way, his back a rigid, perfect line. He hadn't shifted into his wolf form once since we left the High Ridge. He didn't even smell like a wolf anymore. The scent of damp fur and pine had been replaced by the sharp, sterile smell of ozone and expensive cologne."He isn't stopping," Sela whispered, pulling her coat tighter. She was walking close to me, her eyes darting toward Kael’s retreating back. "Maya, the pups are exhausted. Leo’s feet are bleeding. Every time I call out to him, he just says we have to 'maintain the efficiency of the trek.'""He isn't the one setting the pace, Sela," I said.I felt the smartphone in my pocket. It was a

Maya’s POVFalling into the Static didn't feel like a drop. It felt like being unmade.My vision shattered into a million grey pixels, each one a memory of a life I wasn't sure I had actually lived. I saw the bone cathedral, then a high school hallway, then the red snow of the Silver Peak, then a car's shattered windshield. The images strobed against my retinas until my brain screamed for the darkness to just stay dark.Then, the world solidified.We weren't in the hospital. We weren't on the mountain. We were standing in a vast, echoing void that looked like a city made of unpainted clay. There were no trees, no sky, and no sun. Just a flat, grey horizon and buildings that lacked windows or doors. It was the "sketch" of a world, a place where the code hadn't been finished."Kael?" I whispered. My voice didn't echo. It just fell flat against the grey air."I'm here."He was sitting on a low, featureless wall a few feet away. He looked... wrong. He was wearing the hospital scrubs from

Maya’s POVThe red rose didn't wilt. It didn't flicker. I reached into the elevator and touched a petal. It was cold, velvety, and undeniably biological. In a world of rusted steel and orange dust, it was the most expensive thing I had ever seen."Don't touch it," Sela warned, her voice sharp behind her respirator. She stepped forward, her jagged spear leveled at the open elevator doors. "The Architects don't leave gifts. They leave lures."Kael leaned against the wall of the pod chamber, his breath hitching in his chest. He looked at his hands again. They were thin, scarred by years of IV needles. "Sela is right. In the Peak, a rose meant a truce. Here, it means someone knows we’re awake."I pulled my hand back, but I didn't stop looking at the elevator. "The music box. It’s playing the song my mother sang in the simulation. If the simulation was a lie, how do they know that song?""Because they didn't just harvest your energy, Maya," Sela said, gesturing for her scavengers to fan ou