Chapter 161 Hundred and sixty four
Chapter 161 Hundred and sixty four
“Ryder?” Sienna’s voice cracked through the ruins, sharp enough to slice the air, sharp enough to make the world flinch. “Ryder, answer me!”
No answer came.
Only the echo of her own voice rushing back at her, twisted by the hollow chamber and warped by something darker that had already begun to seep into the cracks of the Moon Temple. She pushed herself up from the cold floor, her hands shaking, her pulse hammering with the wrong kind of fear , the kind that knew loss before loss even arrived.
“Don’t do this,” she whispered into the shadows, as if speaking softly could coax him out. “Don’t walk away from me again. Ryder, ”
The ground beneath her trembled.
Not a natural tremor , not stone shifting under age or war , but something ripping reality open like tearing fabric. The air thickened, heavy as molten silver, trembling with a hum older than the temple itself.
She spun toward the center of the chamber.
“Ryder?” Her voice rose again, desperate now.
A line of darkness sliced through the air.
Just a line.
Thin.
Silent.
Then it widened, stretching in opposite directions, splitting the space until it yawned into a swirling void , a gash of night in the shape of a doorway. Shadows poured out of it like smoke in reverse, curling upward instead of falling, carrying a cold that tasted like grief.
Sienna staggered back a step. “No…”
Her breath stuttered. She knew this. Knew the feel of divine magic when it stood too close, when it decided to intervene. She felt Lunaris in the pit of her stomach before she ever heard the goddess speak.
A shimmer of silver light appeared at the edge of the growing void.
“Do not attempt to stop him.”
The voice slid across the air like frost crawling over glass. Sienna clenched her fists, her vision blurring with fury.
“You did this,” she hissed. “You pulled him from me.”
Lunaris’s form materialized slowly , not fully solid, but a being of moonlight and shadow, drifting in that impossible way of gods who had never learned the limits of gravity. Her eyes , pale, ancient, merciless , flickered across the chamber before fixing on Sienna’s face.
“He chose to walk the path that balances your fate,” Lunaris answered softly.
“He doesn’t choose anything,” Sienna snapped. “You force him. You corner him. You torture him until he believes your lies.”
Lunaris tilted her head in a gesture almost sympathetic. “He believes what he sees. And what he sees is a future where his touch ends your life.”
“That’s your doing!” Sienna shouted.
The goddess didn’t argue.
Instead, Lunaris lifted her hand, and the shadow portal pulsed with a violent ripple, as if it reacted to her will. Sienna’s heart lurched.
She took a step forward. “Where is he?”
“Beyond this veil,” Lunaris said.
Sienna began to move toward the portal.
Lunaris’s voice hardened instantly. “Stop.”
Sienna didn’t. “I’m going after him.”
“You cannot follow.”
“Watch me.”
Lunaris appeared in front of her before she could take another step. Not drifting, not shimmering , she simply manifested, her presence swallowing the space between them with divine authority that pushed against Sienna’s bones.
“You will die,” Lunaris said quietly.
“Then I die,” Sienna shot back. “Move.”
Lunaris’s silver gaze softened, which somehow made the moment worse. “You are not strong enough. Not yet. The shadow realm feeds on the world between heartbeats. It devours mortals. It devours half-gods. It devours even my own light if I am not careful.”
“Then teach me how to survive it,” Sienna demanded.
“You cannot,” Lunaris replied.
Sienna’s voice wavered. “He’s fading. I feel it.”
“Yes,” Lunaris whispered.
“That’s not an answer!” Sienna burst. “What are you doing to him?”
“What destiny requires.”
Sienna’s chest tightened so painfully she nearly doubled over. “No more riddles. Tell me.”
Lunaris stepped aside then, her form drifting to reveal the swirling rift behind her. Its edges crackled with shadows that writhed like living creatures, pulling and twisting as if reaching for whatever warmth entered their radius.
“He goes where the curse pulls him,” Lunaris said. “The shadow realm calls the marked. It consumes them to protect the balance.”
“Balance?” Sienna spat. “You call destroying him ‘balance’? You call ripping him from me ‘balance’?”
“What would you have me call it?” Lunaris asked softly.
“Cruel.”
“Cruelty is a word mortals use when they do not understand necessity.”
Sienna felt something snap inside her. “You don’t understand anything.”
“On the contrary,” Lunaris murmured, “I understand too much.”
Sienna ignored her. She took another step toward the portal. The shadows hissed as she approached, lashing toward her as if tasting her energy. One tendril brushed her arm.
It burned.
She gasped and staggered back, gripping her wrist. A thin line of blackened skin marked where the shadow touched her , a scar burned into her flesh within seconds.
Lunaris watched calmly. “Do you understand now?”
“No,” Sienna breathed. “No, I don’t understand anything except that I’m not leaving him there. I’m not.”
Her voice cracked on the last word.
Lunaris looked at her with something almost like weary sorrow. “You love fiercely.”
“I love him,” Sienna whispered, tears burning behind her eyes. “And that should be enough.”
“It is not,” Lunaris answered. “Love does not break curses. Love does not rewrite fate. Love does not prevent what must occur.”
“It should,” Sienna whispered.
“But it does not.”
Sienna took a long, trembling breath. “If I can’t enter the realm… then pull him out.”
Lunaris shook her head. “He walks willingly. I cannot interfere.”
“Liar,” Sienna whispered, stepping closer. “You interfere every chance you get.”
“You cannot force a god,” Lunaris said.
“Watch me try,” Sienna said through clenched teeth.
She gathered her power without thinking , an instinct, a reflex, something burning from deep inside. The air trembled. Luminous silver began leaking from her skin, bright enough to stain the entire chamber with pale fire.
Lunaris stiffened.
“You awaken too fast,” the goddess murmured. “You burn too brightly. You risk becoming something neither mortal nor divine can contain.”
“Then let me break,” Sienna whispered. “Let me rise. Let me fall. I don’t care , just bring him back.”
The portal suddenly pulsed harder, and a shockwave hit the chamber. Sienna stopped breathing. Her heart went still.
A silhouette appeared inside the swirling shadows.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Fading at the edges like smoke dissolving into night.
“Ryder, ”
Sienna lunged forward.
Lunaris caught her wrist an inch before she crossed the threshold.
“You will die,” Lunaris warned again.
“I DON’T CARE!”
Her scream cracked through the temple.
Inside the void, Ryder’s outline shuddered. His hand lifted toward her, as if fighting through water, through fire, through death itself.
Sienna fought Lunaris’s grip desperately.
“Let go of me! Ryder! Don’t go , don’t you let go!”
But the shadows around Ryder surged upward, wrapping around him. His hand blurred. His form flickered.
He was disappearing.
“No!” Sienna sobbed. “Ryder, please , don’t go where I can’t follow, ”
He mouthed something.
Just one word.
“Sienna.”
Then the darkness pulled him deeper.
He dissolved into the void.
Gone.
The portal roared shut with a violent snap that cracked the stone under their feet.
Silence collapsed into the chamber like a smothering blanket.
Sienna fell to her knees, breath ripped from her lungs.
Lunaris drifted behind her, her voice soft as dying light.
“The shadow realm has taken him.”
Sienna’s fingers dug into the stone until her nails cracked.
The next breath she took trembled with fury, grief, and the first ember of something far more dangerous.
“Then I’ll tear it open,” she whispered. “And I’ll bring him back myself.”
The temple trembled around her.
Her power answered.