Chapter 140 Hundred and forty two
“Ryder, don’t move,” Sienna whispered sharply, though her own breath trembled as she felt the shift in the air around him. His chest rose too fast. His pupils tightened to thin rings. His hand, the one gripping her cloak, shook as if something beneath the surface wanted to claw out.
“I’m fine,” he said, even though the word scraped like broken stone from his throat.
“You’re lying.”
“I don’t want you afraid.”
“Then stop giving me reasons.”
The wind pressed against them, carrying the cold scent of earth that hadn’t been touched in centuries. Sienna stepped closer, refusing the instinct to recoil from the cold pulsing through his skin. She knew that cold. It was the same she felt in the Moon Temple when Lunaris warned her that the curse would not rest until it consumed them both. She had survived gods, rebels, and betrayal; she would not be undone by the man she fought to reach.
Ryder raked a hand through his hair as though trying to calm himself by force. “Something broke open when the moon cracked. I can feel her, Sienna, she’s inside my head.”
“Lunaris?”
“Yes.”
“What is she saying?”
His eyes flickered. “She’s not speaking. She’s… pushing.”
Sienna swallowed. “Pushing what?”
“Images. Feelings. Hunger. Rage that isn’t mine. Instincts that shouldn’t belong to any living wolf. I can’t tell where I end and the curse begins.”
“Then we hold the line together,” she said firmly.
He almost smiled at that, pained, breathless, grateful. But the smile didn’t last. His body spasmed again, stronger this time, and he dropped to one knee as though the force inside him demanded submission.
Sienna grabbed him, pulling his arm over her shoulder. “Stand. If you go down, I’m going down with you.”
“You shouldn’t touch me.”
“That hasn’t stopped me yet.”
“It should now.”
“No,” she whispered, tightening her grip until her knuckles whitened. “I’m not letting go.”
He shuddered once, strong enough that she felt it through her entire body. The curse surged again, a violent pulse beneath his skin like a second heartbeat. She felt it. Heat and cold mixed unnaturally, rolling through him in waves powerful enough to make her teeth clench.
He lowered his head. “Sienna, step back.”
“No.”
“You must.”
“Ryder, look at me.”
He didn’t.
She grasped his jaw, forcing his gaze upward. His eyes, normally deep gold, shimmered with a bright metallic silver, swirling like liquid light contained only by sheer will. It wasn’t him looking at her. Not fully. Something else was watching. Something old. Something furious.
“Sienna,” he whispered, “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.”
His grip tightened on her wrists. “You don’t understand what she’s doing.”
“Then explain it to me.”
He exhaled, harsh, jagged. “She’s trying to complete the curse. The moon cracked because the curse reached its next stage. Lunaris is using it to force my wolf into becoming her vessel again.”
Sienna’s pulse jumped. “You’re not hers.”
“I was,” he said quietly. “In another life.”
“Not anymore.”
His breath hitched. “She thinks I still belong to her.”
“Then she can learn she’s wrong.”
He looked at her like she had just said the one thing he had waited centuries to hear. But before he could answer, the ground trembled beneath them.
Ryder went rigid.
“Sienna,” he muttered, “do you feel that?”
“Yes.”
“Something is coming.”
“Zane’s army?”
“No.” He shook his head slowly. “This is older. This is bigger.”
The wind shifted again, and suddenly Sienna couldn’t hear the river anymore. She couldn’t hear the leaves. She couldn’t hear anything except the pounding of her own heart and Ryder’s ragged breathing.
The silence was absolute.
Too absolute.
“Ryder,” she murmured, “why is it so quiet?”
He didn’t get to answer.
The sky split open.
A crack of silver light, thin as a blade, cut from one horizon to the other. It wasn’t lightning. Lightning was loud. Violent. Alive.
This was deliberate. Controlled.
A warning.
Ryder’s head snapped upward. “She’s coming.”
Sienna felt her stomach twist. “Lunaris?”
“Yes.”
“How close?”
“Close enough to hear us breathe.”
Sienna grabbed his wrist. “Then we move.”
“No,” he said. “Not yet.”
“Ryder, we can’t stay here.”
“If we run now, she will follow. She’ll bring the fragments with her. She’ll bring everything she buried.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
He looked at her with new determination, dangerous, desperate, burning. “We hold this ground long enough for me to force her out of my head.”
“You can’t fight a goddess.”
“I can fight for you.”
Before she could answer, the air thickened. Not wind. Not magic she could recognize. Something else, an ancient weight pressing down on them, making the trees bow, making her knees weaken, making Ryder gasp as the curse surged again.
Sienna straightened her spine, refusing to bow. “She’s trying to break you.”
“She won’t,” he said, though his voice broke on the last word.
Sienna moved in front of him. “Use me. Focus on me.”
“Sienna, no, ”
“Yes,” she said fiercely. “Anchor yourself to me. Not to her. Not to the curse. Look at me.”
He dragged his gaze upward, slow, painful, trembling. “I’m trying.”
“Then try harder.”
Another pulse of silver tore through the sky above them. The light hit the river and split across its surface like a thousand jagged mirrors. The ground trembled again, harder this time, making Sienna stumble and Ryder crash to both knees.
He grabbed her cloak before she fell too, pulling her against his chest. “I’m losing control.”
“No,” she whispered against his ear. “You’re not.”
“You don’t understand. If she takes me, ”
“She won’t.”
“Sienna, ”
“I’m right here.”
“You need to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You should run.”
“I won’t.”
“Sienna, ”
“Ryder.”
Their foreheads met again, hard, desperate, burning with everything they hadn’t said for years. His breath shook. Hers trembled. His hands curled into her cloak as if she was the only thing keeping him tethered to himself.
“Sienna,” he whispered, “I’m scared.”
The honesty in his voice nearly broke her. Ryder had faced death, war, betrayal, gods, and never flinched. But this curse, this goddess, this ancient thing inside him…
It was the first time she had ever heard fear from him.
“You’re not alone,” she whispered.
The ground split.
A thin line of silver light crawled across the earth beneath them like a crack opening into another world. Ryder’s grip tightened. Sienna pulled him back as the crack widened.
Voices rose, whispers, thousands of them, echoing from below.
Ryder stiffened. “No. No, no, no, Sienna, don’t listen.”
She tried not to.
But the whispers grew louder. More urgent. More familiar.
Sienna heard her own name.
Then she heard his.
Then she heard something worse.
Ryder’s voice.
But not the Ryder standing with her.
Another Ryder.
A past Ryder.
A Ryder who broke the goddess’s heart.
A Ryder who died for her once already.
Her breath caught. “Ryder, the voices, ”
“Don’t listen.”
“They’re calling me.”
“Don’t listen.”
“They’re calling you.”
His whole body shook violently. “That’s the point.”
He grabbed her shoulders, pulling her closer. His eyes, silver and gold swirling violently, bored into hers.
“Sienna,” he whispered, “I need you to promise me something.”
“No.”
“You don’t know what I’m asking.”
“I don’t care. The answer is no.”
He swallowed hard. “If the curse takes over, if I lose myself, if I become something that hurts you, ”
“It won’t happen.”
“Sienna, ”
“It won’t.”
“If it does,” he said, voice breaking, “you run. You don’t fight me.”
“I’m not promising that.”
“You have to.”
“I won’t.”
He looked at her like she was both salvation and doom. “You can’t save me from this.”
“I can save you from everything.”
His breath shuddered.
The silver crack in the sky widened once more.
The silver crack in the earth widened too.
The voices rose.
The ground shook.
The curse pulsed through Ryder so violently that he cried out despite himself.
Sienna grabbed him again. “Ryder, stay with me.”
“I’m trying, ”
His eyes rolled back.
“Sienna, ”
The whisper came from everywhere.
From the sky.
From the earth.
From the crack.
From the past.
From the curse.
From Lunaris herself.
“One of you must fall.”
Ryder’s body jerked violently.
He collapsed against her.
The light swallowed everything.