Chapter 148 Hundred and fifty one
“Sienna… don’t move.” Ryder’s voice broke through the settling dust, raw and low, as if he feared even sound could shatter her. His hand hovered near her back, not touching her, afraid to and desperate to at the same time.
She didn’t turn. Her body was locked, breath caught in her throat as the whisper that wasn’t wind curled around her ear again, silk-smooth and cold.
“I said don’t move,” Ryder repeated, closer now, the curse stirring beneath his skin like a warning.
“I heard her,” Sienna whispered.
The forest held its breath.
Ryder’s jaw clenched. “Sienna, look at me.”
She turned slowly. The silver light still clung to her skin like moon-dust, faint but undeniable. Ryder staggered one step back. Not in fear, never fear. It was more like awe mixed with something heavier, something that hurt to name.
“Ryder…” Her voice trembled. “This isn’t normal.”
“No,” he murmured, eyes tracing the glow along her neck, her arms. “It isn’t.”
Before either of them could speak again, the temperature dropped. Frost crawled across the stones behind Sienna, spreading toward them like veins of frozen light.
Ryder’s breath turned to mist.
Sienna’s heartbeat thudded in her ears.
A soft hum filled the air, melodic and ancient. It wrapped around them, sinking into the soil, the trees, the sky itself. And then, from the center of the frost, a figure stepped forward.
Not a body.
A shape sculpted out of silver smoke.
Tall.
Graceful.
Terrifying.
Lunaris.
Sienna sucked in a breath, but the goddess’s gaze stayed fixed on Ryder first, sharp, cutting, amused.
“You run,” Lunaris whispered, her voice weaving through the branches. “Yet still you cling to her shadow.”
Ryder’s hands curled into fists. “I don’t run from you.”
“You should,” Lunaris replied with a lazy tilt of her head. “You always should.”
Sienna stepped between them. “Enough.”
Ryder reached for her arm. “Sienna, ”
She didn’t let him pull her back. “If you’ve come to threaten us again, say what you want and leave.”
Lunaris’s eyes glowed, twin moons burning. “You speak as if I am your equal.”
“I speak,” Sienna said steadily, “as someone who refuses to bow.”
The goddess smiled. It wasn’t kind. “How bold my little creation has become.”
Sienna stiffened. “I’m not yours.”
“Oh, child…” Lunaris whispered, “you are more mine now than ever.”
Ryder moved in front of Sienna again. “Stay away from her.”
Lunaris drifted closer, her feet never touching the ground. “Your curse frays. The next time it tightens, you will break.” She tilted her face, studying him. “Do you wonder why it hurts more each day?”
Ryder didn’t answer.
He couldn’t.
His breath had already turned shallow.
Sienna stepped closer to him instinctively. “Stop doing this to him.”
“I am not doing anything,” Lunaris said, tracing his shaking form with her gaze. “He brought this upon himself by loving what he was forbidden to love.”
Warmth spread through Sienna’s chest, anger sharpened by fear. “You’re punishing him for something that has nothing to do with you.”
Lunaris laughed softly, musical and cruel. “Love is divine. But when given to the wrong soul, it becomes the greatest sin.”
Ryder’s hand rose to his temple, his body trembling harder. “Sienna… don’t argue with her.”
“I’m not letting her speak like you’re a mistake,” she snapped.
Lunaris turned her full attention to Sienna. “Your glow awakens. The Silver Wolf stirs within you. Every breath you take brings you closer to becoming what you were always meant to be.”
Sienna swallowed. “And what am I supposed to be?”
“A weapon,” Lunaris said simply. “A blade forged from moonlight. A ruler carved from sacrifice.”
“I’m not your weapon,” Sienna whispered.
“You already are.” Lunaris raised a hand. “And soon, they will all bow to you.”
Sienna stepped back. “I don’t want anyone bowing to me.”
“You will,” Lunaris murmured. “When you lose everything else.”
Ryder’s body jerked, the curse clawing again. He dropped to one knee with a hiss of pain.
Sienna knelt beside him instantly. “Ryder, breathe, look at me, look at me, ”
He forced his gaze up, eyes bloodshot with silver burning through his veins. “Don’t touch me,” he rasped. “The curse, Sienna, don’t, ”
She held his face anyway. “I don’t care about the curse. Breathe.”
Lunaris watched them with detached interest. “You cling to each other as though together you can rewrite fate.”
Ryder growled through clenched teeth. “We will.”
“You will fail,” Lunaris replied.
“No,” Sienna snapped. “You’re afraid we won’t.”
The goddess’s smile faltered, just slightly.
Sienna saw it.
Ryder saw it.
Lunaris lowered her hand, the frost retreating. “The celestial beasts will return before dawn. Each wave stronger than the last. I cannot stop them anymore.”
Sienna lifted her chin. “Because you sent them.”
Lunaris didn’t deny it.
Instead, her voice dipped lower, almost a whisper.
“One of you will not survive the next moonrise.”
Ryder stiffened.
Sienna’s breath hitched.
Lunaris stepped backward, her form fading into streaks of silver mist. “Prepare yourselves. Fate grows impatient.”
“Don’t you walk away!” Sienna shouted.
But Lunaris was already dissolving into light.
Only her voice remained, carried on a cold breeze as if the forest itself repeated her words.
“One soul must fall for the bond to break.”
The trees groaned under the weight of the omen.
Sienna’s pulse trembled.
Ryder leaned into her, exhausted, his voice rough. “Sienna… don’t listen to her.”
But she couldn’t shake the heaviness pressing into her chest.
“Ryder,” she whispered, lifting his chin so he’d look at her. “We’re running out of time.”
Ryder tried to speak, but his body jerked violently, the curse ripping through him again.
This wave didn’t stop.
Not after a breath.
Not after a minute.
His back arched, his hands digging into the soil as if he were being dragged underground. Sienna grabbed his shoulders, desperate.
“Ryder!”
His eyes rolled back.
Silver veins spread across his skin like cracks in glass.
Sienna felt his heartbeat stutter.
The forest dimmed.
His breath shuddered.
Then,
His body went still in her arms.
Too still.
Too quiet.
Too cold.
Sienna’s voice broke. “Ryder… Ryder, open your eyes.”
But he didn’t.
And the night around her narrowed into a single truth she couldn’t outrun.
She might have just watched the man she loved cross into death.