Chapter 95 CHAPTER 95
The temple of the Moon Goddess stood quiet beneath the early sun, its marble walls glowing faintly in pale gold. The stillness should have felt calming, but every step Lisa took toward the open hall only tightened the knot inside her chest. She felt Celia’s turmoil fluttering against her ribs, a trembling heartbeat folded into her own. Liam walked beside her, his jaw tight, eyes shadowed with worry he was trying hard to hide. Ethan was already waiting in the vast hall, pacing back and forth like a caged storm. When he saw Lisa, he stopped, his shoulders sagging with a mixture of relief and dread.
“You’re here,” he said quietly, he had left early for the city and promised to meet Liam and Lisa at the Celestine’s temple.
Lisa nodded, though her voice failed her. She wasn’t sure what she could say that wouldn’t crumble in her throat. Her mind kept replaying Celia’s memories - Kael in the healer’s cave, weak and fading, the desperation in Celia’s voice as she begged the healer to save him. Lisa had never felt her wolf tremble the way she did today. Celia was strong, fiery, unbreakable. Seeing her afraid was like watching a mountain crack.
Ethan stepped toward them, his gaze gentle when it landed on his sister but hardened the moment it flicked to Liam. “Celestine is already preparing a place to commune with the goddess,” he said. “She’ll see us when she’s ready.”
Liam nodded once, but Lisa felt the tension rolling off him. She could almost hear his thoughts - worrying for her, worrying for their fragile new happiness, worrying for a wolf he didn’t even know but whose pain was now part of Lisa’s life. She wanted to reassure him, but she didn’t know how. She couldn’t even reassure herself.
Celia whispered softly in her mind. “I’m sorry I frightened you.”
“You didn’t,” Lisa said inwardly. “I’m just… worried. For you. For Kael.”
“For all of us,” Celia added, and Lisa felt the truth of it settle inside her.
Celestine appeared at the far entrance, her light robes brushing the marble floor like mist. Her expression was unreadable, which only made Lisa’s stomach twist worse. The priestess walked toward them slowly, the gentle rhythm of her steps at odds with the heaviness around them.
“We will speak now,” she said.
They followed her to the centre of the hall, where the roof opened to a circle of sky. Sunlight poured down like a silent blessing. Lisa didn’t feel blessed. She felt trapped, standing inside a choice she did not know how to make.
Celestine stopped and folded her hands. “Tell me everything,” she said. “Every detail.”
Celia rose to the surface then, speaking through Lisa’s lips with her soft, echoing voice. “Kael is fading. The healer says he’s weaker than before… weaker than when he first arrived. He said Kael used the last of his strength to warn Sebastian.”
Liam flinched at that, jaw clenching. Ethan swore under his breath and looked away.
Celestine listened without interrupting. When Celia finished, she nodded slowly, as if she had expected this but dreaded hearing it aloud.
“What did he say Kael needed?” Ethan asked.
Celestine met his gaze. “A mate.”
Silence fell like cold rain.
Celestine went on, her voice soft but firm. “A mate’s bond strengthens the wolf. If Celia bound herself to Kael, even partially, he would heal. His spirit would regain the power that Sarah’s dark magic drained.”
Lisa felt Celia’s pain spike inside her chest, sharp and desperate before it sank into aching sorrow.
Liam exhaled hard. “So she… she has to choose between saving him or…”
“…or keeping her life with Lisa uncomplicated,” Celestine finished.
Liam’s face darkened. He looked at Lisa, eyes full of apology and helplessness.
Lisa swallowed. “But if she bonds with Kael… what happens to me? To Liam and me?” Her voice cracked despite her effort to steady it.
Celestine didn't soften her answer. “Your lives will be tied to the wolves’ bond. You will feel Kael through Celia the way Sebastian pulls you through him. Your heart will not be fully your own.”
Liam ran a hand through his hair and paced back, tension rolling off him like heat. “This isn’t fair,” he muttered. “She didn’t choose this. She didn’t ask for any of this.”
“No one chooses the path woven for them,” the priestess replied gently.
“That’s nonsense,” Ethan snapped before he could stop himself. His voice echoed sharply across the marble. “My sister has suffered enough. She was tortured in Silverpine. Rejected. Humiliated. She finally finds someone who treats her with respect - someone she wants - and the goddess wants to chain her again?”
His breath shook with rage he was barely holding down.
Lisa’s eyes stung at his defence, her heart warm with gratitude even though the fear underneath still gnawed at her ribs.
“There must be another way,” Liam said, stepping forward. “A way to help Kael without forcing Lisa to feel what Sebastian feels. Without binding her future to someone who hurt her.”
Celestine sighed, the smallest crack of weariness in her calm surface. “If there is another way… I have not seen it.”
Celia whispered inside Lisa, “I don’t know what to choose… I don’t know how to choose…”
Lisa pressed a hand to her own chest and whispered back, “We’ll figure it out. Together.”
“I don’t want Kael to die,” Celia whispered. “But I don’t want to destroy what you’ve found with Liam.”
Lisa’s throat tightened. She felt Liam watching her, felt the pain in him mirroring hers.
Ethan stepped closer to Celestine. “Then ask her,” he demanded. “Ask the goddess what solution exists. Ask her what she expects from my sister. Ask her why Lisa must keep paying for a bond she never asked for.”
Celestine hesitated - truly hesitated - for the first time Lisa had ever seen.
“The goddess does not give answers freely.”
Ethan’s voice was low, commanding. “Then we’ll pay whatever price she demands.”
Lisa stared at him, startled. “Ethan…”
“I won’t lose you,” he said quietly. “Not again. Not to witches. Not to fate. Not to some ancient decree that doesn’t understand what you’ve been through.”
Something inside Lisa broke at the softness in his voice.
Celestine finally gave a long, resigned nod. “Very well. But be warned - the goddess never asks for anything small.”
“We’re not afraid,” Ethan said.
Liam nodded in agreement, even though Lisa knew fear was twisting his heart. She reached out and took his hand. Without looking at her, he threaded his fingers through hers tightly.
Celestine stepped back. “Wait here,” she said. “I will enter the inner sanctum and seek her voice.”
She turned and walked away, disappearing through a narrow stone passage lit only by faint silver runes. The moment she vanished, the air seemed to thicken around them.
Ethan paced like a restless storm. Liam stared at the sky above, jaw locked, silently making promises to himself. Lisa stood still, gripping her brother’s hand with one and Liam’s with the other, grounding herself in the only two people she fully trusted.
Minutes passed.
Then an hour.
Then another.
No one spoke. Not because they lacked words, but because speaking felt like it would shatter something fragile between them.
When Celestine finally re-emerged, her face was pale, as if she had walked through the centre of a prophecy that burned.
They turned toward her at once.
“The goddess has spoken,” she said quietly.
Ethan’s breath hitched. “Tell us. What was it? What did she say?”
Celestine looked at all three of them with an expression that sent a shiver down Lisa’s spine - sorrow, warning, and something that looked almost like fear.
And then she whispered:
“There is a way… but the goddess demands a price.”