All Chapters of A Packless Luna: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

CHAPTER 22Nyra’s POVThe moment he says be careful, something inside me almost laughs, not because it is funny, but because I do not remember the last time being careful saved me from anything.Careful did not save my family.Careful did not stop the fire or the blood or the screams that still follow me when the world gets too quiet.Careful only keeps you alive for a little longer, and I am done living like that.I keep walking, not looking back at Riven, because I know if I do, I might start asking questions I am not ready to hear the answers to, and right now, I need my head clear, I need my thoughts sharp, not tangled in things I cannot control.The fortress feels different again as I move through it, like something has shifted in the air, something heavy and unseen pressing down on everything, and I can feel it in the way people move, in the way they look at me and then quickly look away, like they are afraid of what I might do next.Good.Let them be afraid.Fear keeps people f

CHAPTER 24Nyra’s POVI knew something was wrong the moment the wind changed.It was not loud, not sudden, not something anyone else would notice, but I felt it deep in my bones like a warning I could not ignore, like the world itself was holding its breath and waiting for something terrible to happen.The air felt heavier, thicker, like it was pressing down on my chest, and for a second I could not move, could not think, could not even breathe properly because a strange fear wrapped around my heart so tightly it hurt.This was not normal.This was not just another day in a place that already felt like it was falling apart.This was something worse.“Nyra.”Kael’s voice reached me, low and steady, but I could hear the tension in it, the way he said my name like he already knew something was coming.I turned to him slowly, my eyes searching his face, and I saw it there, the same thing I was feeling, the same quiet understanding that something had changed.“What is it?” I asked, even th

CHAPTER 26Nyra’s POVThe world does not break all at once, it cracks slowly, quietly, in places no one else can see, and by the time you feel it, it is already too late to stop it.That is what it felt like standing there, with blood on the ground and chaos still echoing through the hall, while Elder Magnus’s words settled deep inside my chest like something heavy I could not push away.You were never meant to survive that night.The sentence would not leave my head, it kept repeating itself over and over, louder each time, until it drowned out everything else, the fighting, the shouting, even the sound of my own breathing.No.That was not true.It could not be.My grip tightened around my blade, my fingers trembling just enough for me to notice, and I hated that, I hated that he could do this, that he could stand there and twist something inside me without even touching me.“Stop listening to him.”Kael’s voice cut through the noise, low and firm, pulling me back just enough to bre

CHAPTER 28Nyra’s POVThe silence that comes after a fight is never peaceful, it is not soft or calm or something you can rest in, it is heavy and filled with everything that just happened, every scream, every clash of steel, every life that ended, and as I stand there in the middle of the ruined hall, breathing slowly while the last echoes of battle fade into nothing, I can still feel it in my bones like the fight never really stopped.The ground is stained with blood, dark and spreading across the stone like something that will never wash away, and the air smells sharp and metallic, thick enough that it settles in the back of my throat, but I do not look away, I do not flinch, because this is not new to me, this is survival, this is what my life has always been, just on a different battlefield.Around me, the warriors of Ironfang begin to move again, slowly at first, like they are not sure it is over, like they are waiting for another attack that might come crashing through the brok

CHAPTER 30Nyra’s POVThe first man who comes at me thinks I will hesitate, and I see it in his eyes before he even reaches me, that small moment where he expects fear, where he expects me to step back instead of forward.He is wrong.I move before he can finish his strike, my body reacting faster than thought, faster than doubt, because there is no space for either of those things now. My blade meets his with a sharp clash that echoes through the chaos around us, and for a second we are locked there, strength against strength, breath against breath.Then I twist.His balance breaks.My blade finds his side.He drops.I do not stop.There is no time to think about the way his body hits the ground, no time to feel anything about the blood that stains my hands, because another one is already coming, and then another, and the world turns into nothing but movement and sound and survival.The courtyard has become something unrecognizable, something wild and violent and alive in the worst w