Chapter 21

Raven’s POV

The roar came again.

Lysander and I didn’t move. We just stood there, staring at the tunnel entrance like it might swallow us whole.

Then Kael made a sound—low, weak. A breath that barely counted as a breath.

I turned fast, dropping to my knees beside him. His face was too pale. His lips, cracked. His breathing? Too slow. Too shallow.

“Kael?” My voice was tight, a little shaky.

Nothing.

I shook his shoulder. “Hey. Look at me.”

His eyelids fluttered, but they didn’t open.

Lysander hovered over me, gripping his sword. “Is he—?”

“He’s alive.” I swallowed, pushing down the lump in my throat. “Barely.”

I pressed my hand against his chest. His heartbeat was there, but faint. Fading.

No. Not now. Not when we’d fought so hard.

Lysander shifted beside me. His voice was flat, but I caught the crack in it. “Can you—fix it?”

Fix it?

I almost laughed. What was I supposed to do? I wasn’t a healer. I wasn’t anything. Just a girl who barely knew what she was doing half the time.

But then—

A flicker.

Silver light, faint and soft, just beneath my fingertips. It faded as fast as it came, like a trick of the eye.

I pulled my hand back fast. “Did you see that?”

Lysander frowned. “See what?”

I looked down at my hands. They looked the same as always. But for a moment, just a second, I’d felt something. Something strange. Something warm.

The memory of the fight flashed in my head—how my dagger had glowed when I swung at the shadow. How the thing had actually flinched.

That wasn’t normal.

I hesitated, then slowly pressed my palm back to Kael’s chest. This time, I focused.

Nothing happened.

I pushed harder, searching for that feeling, the same one I’d felt before. The silver light. The power.

And then—

A spark.

It spread beneath my skin, soft and pulsing, like moonlight trapped in my veins. It wasn’t hot. It wasn’t cold. It was something in between.

Kael sucked in a sharp breath.

I yanked my hand back.

Lysander dropped beside me. “What did you do?”

“I don’t—I don’t know.” I looked at my hands again, but they were still normal. Still just hands.

But Kael’s breathing wasn’t as slow anymore. His skin wasn’t as cold.

Lysander swore under his breath. “That’s not normal.”

“No,” I said. “It’s not.”

We sat there in silence, the wind rustling through the trees, the distant echoes of whatever was happening inside the tunnel pressing against the night.

I looked at Kael’s face—his sharp jawline, his dark hair, his lips, slightly parted as he breathed.

I had felt something when I touched him.

A connection.

Like we were tied together by something bigger than either of us.

Like he was meant to be here, and I was meant to keep him here.

I closed my eyes for half a second. The Moon’s Daughter.

The name had followed me since I was a child, whispered behind closed doors, spoken in hush tones by my mother when she thought I couldn’t hear.

I had never understood it.

Not until now.

Because suddenly, it all clicked.

The silver light. The strange whispers in my head. My mother’s warnings. My father’s distant, unreadable gaze every time he looked at me.

I wasn’t just part of the prophecy.

I was at the center of it.

A cold shiver ran through me.

Lysander watched me closely. “You’re freaking out.”

“No,” I said too fast. “I’m just—” I sucked in a breath. “Okay, maybe a little.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Only a little?”

I shot him a look. “Do you ever shut up?”

“Not really.”

I sighed, rubbing a hand down my face. “Lysander, I think—I think this prophecy isn’t what we thought it was.”

He gave me a flat look. “You’re gonna have to be more specific than that.”

I bit my lip, trying to piece it all together. “We always assumed it was about war, right? About choosing a side, about destroying or saving the world.”

“That’s usually how these things go.”

“Yeah, but—” I hesitated, then shook my head. “What if it’s not about that? What if it’s not about winning or losing?”

Lysander frowned. “What are you saying?”

I swallowed hard. The words felt too big, too heavy. “What if the prophecy isn’t about destruction or peace? What if it’s about something else? Something…bigger?”

The wind howled through the trees, carrying the whispers again.

A transformation.

A shift.

A change.

I didn’t know how I knew it, but I did. Deep in my bones. In my blood.

Everything was about to change.

And we weren’t ready.

Lysander’s jaw clenched. “We need to get Eira out of that tunnel. Now.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

But before we could move, the ground trembled.

A crack split through the earth, the sound like bones snapping under pressure.

Lysander cursed. “That’s not good.”

I grabbed Kael’s arm, pulling him close. “We need to go. Now.”

Then, from deep inside the tunnel—

A scream.

Eira’s scream.

And everything went dark.

The ground shook again, harder this time. I could feel it in my bones, in the air around us, thick with something I didn’t understand.

Lysander’s eyes darted toward the tunnel entrance, then back to me. “We have to move.”

“I know,” I said, my voice tight. “But Kael—”

“We’ll carry him,” Lysander cut in. “Or drag him if we have to.”

I clenched my jaw. “We’re not dragging him.”

“Then start lifting.”

I shot him a glare but didn’t argue. Carefully, I slid my arm under Kael’s shoulders. His body was heavy, limp. Too still.

I pressed my hand against his chest again, searching for that spark, that warmth I’d felt before.

Nothing.

Panic twisted inside me. I wasn’t imagining it before. I felt something.

“Raven, we don’t have time for this,” Lysander snapped.

I ignored him.

Focus.

I closed my eyes, pushing past the fear, the exhaustion. The whispers in the wind grew louder, curling around me like smoke.

Blood of the moon. Light in the dark.

A sharp chill ran down my spine.

Then—

A pulse.

It started in my fingertips, spreading outward, a soft hum beneath my skin. The silver light flickered to life again, faint but steady.

Kael inhaled sharply.

My eyes flew open. His fingers twitched. His lashes fluttered.

Lysander cursed. “What the hell—”

Kael let out a ragged breath. His eyes cracked open, unfocused. “Raven…?”

Relief hit me so hard I almost collapsed. “I’m here.”

His gaze found mine, barely there, but there. His lips parted, like he wanted to say something, but then—

A scream tore through the air.

Eira.

Lysander and I whipped around. The tunnel entrance pulsed with an eerie glow, shadows twisting at its edges.

Then another sound—low, deep, and wrong. Like something growling from beneath the earth.

Lysander gripped his sword. “That’s really not good.”

No kidding.

I turned back to Kael. His breathing was still weak, but stronger than before. If I could just keep him stable—

The earth trembled again, knocking me forward. The air felt thick, suffocating.

I grabbed Lysander’s wrist. “We need to go now.”

But before we could move, the tunnel entrance collapsed.

Stone and dust exploded outward, swallowing everything in darkness.

Lysander pulled me back just in time. My ears rang. My lungs burned.

When the dust settled, I saw it—

The tunnel was gone.

And Eira was trapped inside.

The whispers curled around me again, soft and cruel. The prophecy is in motion. And nothing can stop it now.

I didn’t know if it was my own fear speaking or something else entirely. But one thing was certain—

Everything was about to change.

And I wasn’t sure if we’d survive it.