Todos os capítulos de THE LUNA HE TOOK FOR GRANTED: Capítulo 51 - Capítulo 60

Selene's smile was the first thing Lyra noticed.Not the knife in her hand. Not the mud staining the hem of her dress. Not even the faint smear of blood along her jaw.The smile.It was the same one Selene had worn at Mooncrest whenever Lyra entered a room and discovered that everyone had already been told a different version of the truth.“You really should have come alone,” Selene repeated.Lyra tightened her grip on Elena's letter.“You keep saying that as though you expected me to obey you.”Selene's smile faded slightly.“Your mother had that same stubbornness.”The words struck harder than Lyra wanted them to.For years, she had survived on scraps of information about Elena. A name whispered in dark rooms. A letter hidden beneath floorboards. A photograph showing a woman whose face Lyra had spent her childhood trying to remember.Now Selene stood before her, speaking about Elena as if they had shared something intimate.“How did you know my mother?” Lyra asked.Selene glanced to

The wooden door split with a sharp crack.Rowan stepped in front of Lyra, sword raised, while she clutched her mother's letter and tried to make sense of the sentence that had turned her entire childhood into a lie.The person who returned you to me was not your father.Someone had brought her back to Elena.Someone other than Elias.And whatever had happened that night, her family had spent years hiding it from her.“Move away from the door,” Rowan said.Lyra glanced at the map on the table. A narrow passage was marked behind the chamber, almost hidden beneath a faded drawing of the river.“There.” She pointed. “Is that another exit?”Rowan followed her finger. “It should be.”“Should be?”“I've never been down here before.”“Wonderful.”Despite everything, he gave a short laugh. “You're welcome to suggest a better plan.”Another blow landed against the door.They had no time to argue.Rowan dragged the table aside, revealing a stone hatch beneath it. Lyra dropped to her knees and he

For several seconds, Lyra could only stare at the bracelet in Kael's hand.Two daughters.One mother.The words made no sense, yet they seemed to fit too neatly with Elena's final letter.“Where did you get that?” she asked.“Your father's room. The men who took him left it on the floor beside his chair.” Kael closed his fingers around the bracelet. “Rowan found a blood trail leading to the eastern passage, but it ended at the river.”Lyra looked at Aurelia.“You knew about this, didn't you?”Aurelia shook her head. “I knew Elena had given birth to a daughter. I knew she disappeared for seven days after you were taken. I never knew about another child.”“Then why did she write that the child returned to her wasn't me?”“I wish I could answer that.”Lyra took the bracelet from Kael. The metal felt cold against her skin. She turned it over, searching for another inscription, a name, anything that might explain why her mother had kept such a secret.Nothing.“I'm going after Elias,” she

The pendant was still warm from Lyra's hand when Rowan finished examining it. He turned it over beneath the morning light, studying the tiny engraving on the back. LIORA. No one spoke. Lyra stared at the name until the letters blurred. Her sister. The word still felt impossible. She had spent twenty-three years believing there had only been one child in Elena's arms. One daughter. One life. Now everything she remembered seemed to have a second shadow behind it. “Where did you find this?” Lyra asked the guard. “Inside the abandoned building near the northern boundary.” “Was Elias there?” “No. But there was blood on the floor.” Kael stepped closer. “And no body?” The guard shook his head. “We searched every room.” Lyra took the pendant from his hand. “Then we search again.” Kael looked at her. “Lyra” “No.” Her voice wasn't loud, but it stopped him. “I am not going to sit somewhere safe while everyone else decides what happens to my family.” “I

The trapdoor slammed shut above them.Lyra spun around.Darian stood at the entrance of the hidden room, one hand resting against the old wooden frame. He looked older than the last time she had seen him, but there was nothing weak about the way he watched them.His eyes moved from Lyra to Liora.Then back to Lyra.“Neither of you was supposed to find this place.”Liora stepped closer to Lyra.“Uncle Darian?”Something flickered across his face.“Don't call me that.”Lyra's stomach tightened.She moved in front of Liora.“You knew about this room.”“I knew it existed.”“You knew about the children.”Darian's jaw tightened. “I knew what they were doing here.”“And you said nothing?”“I tried.”Lyra gave a bitter laugh.“You call hiding the truth for twenty-three years trying?”Darian looked at her for a long moment.“No. I call surviving long enough to tell you what your parents couldn't.”“That isn't an answer.”“No,” he said quietly. “It isn't.”Liora suddenly grabbed Lyra's sleeve.