Chapter 168 Hundred and seventy one
Chapter 168 Hundred and seventy one
“Open the gate,” Sienna ordered the moonlit corridor itself, her voice steady as steel though her pulse trembled beneath her skin. “I know you hear me. You’ve always heard me.”
The torches along the walls dimmed as if exhaling, their flames bending toward her, and the air thickened with the unmistakable presence of something old, ancient enough to remember the first kings. The stone beneath her feet vibrated, humming like a heartbeat awakening after centuries of silence. It wasn’t the first time the Citadel had shifted around her, but tonight it felt deliberate. Sentient. Expectant.
She stepped forward.
The corridor stretched ahead, then twisted, doors vanishing, arches melting into silver vapors, walls folding into themselves. The castle obeyed her, guiding her toward the hidden exit reserved for chosen vessels of the goddess. Sienna didn’t look back. There was nothing behind her she couldn’t leave, except memories, and she carried those like wounds.
“You shouldn’t go alone,” a voice murmured behind her, low and urgent.
Sienna didn’t slow. “You followed me, General.”
Kael’s second-in-command, Captain Alistair, emerged from the shadows, breathing hard as if he had sprinted through half the Citadel. “Your Majesty,” he said, gripping his sword hilt, “the Council suspects something. They’re rousing the night guard. If you disappear now, ”
“Then let them suspect,” Sienna replied, her steps firm. “This is my path.”
Alistair blocked her with a desperation she had never seen in him. “If the prophecy is true, ”
“It is.”
“, then you will be lost.”
“Better me than the realm.”
“Better neither!” His voice broke, and for a heartbeat he looked younger, rawer, like a soldier who had seen too much death and wasn’t willing to lose his queen to fate. “You rebuilt us. You steadied us. Without you, ”
“The realm will stand,” she said, softer now. “It always does. With kings. Without kings. With queens. Without queens. The gods don’t care, Alistair. But I care about him.”
Alistair swallowed. “Then let someone go with you.”
“This road accepts only the marked,” Sienna said. “You know that.”
His jaw tightened. “Then at least allow me to guard your exit.”
“You may guard the kingdom instead,” Sienna murmured, brushing past him.
“Please,” he whispered.
Sienna paused only long enough to look at him, her gaze gentler than her tone. “You’ve served me loyally. But this… this is something I must do alone.”
She turned.
He didn’t follow.
The corridor bent into a narrow, spiraling descent, walls whispering like a thousand forgotten prayers. Sienna felt the moon’s pull, subtle, insistent, like a hand pressed between her shoulder blades.
She reached the final arch.
Beyond it lay the open night.
The sky hung low with heavy silver clouds, shifting like restless spirits. The old moon road shimmered faintly ahead, a narrow trail of pale light threading through the dark landscape. It hadn’t appeared in years. The last time it had, Ryder had been dragged through it.
Sienna stepped into the cold night air.
“Going somewhere, little queen?”
The voice that slithered from the shadows wasn’t mortal. It carried wind and snow and old promises carved into bone.
Sienna didn’t turn. “Lunaris.”
The goddess materialized slowly, as if stitching herself from moonlight. Her form shimmered, too beautiful, too terrifying, too divine to be anything shaped like a woman. Her eyes were two shards of night. Her hair fell like streams of stars. Her expression was unreadable, but her presence pulled the temperature of the night down until frost kissed the grass.
“You’re walking a road I didn’t summon,” Lunaris murmured, stepping closer, her voice drifting like cold silk. “Stubborn as always.”
“This road has always been mine,” Sienna replied. “You marked me. You made me what I am.”
“I made you my echo,” Lunaris corrected. “I did not make you reckless.”
“Reckless?” Sienna laughed softly. “I’ve ruled your chosen realm for years. I’ve carried your mark into war. I’ve bled for peace. What do you call reckless, goddess?”
“Love,” Lunaris whispered.
Sienna faced her, unflinching. “I know.”
Lunaris studied her. “You intend to give your heart to open the Celestial Gate.”
“I do.”
“You will not survive it.”
“I’m aware.”
“You will lose everything that binds you to who you are.”
“Good.”
“You will cease to be…” Lunaris tilted her head, searching for the right word. “…you.”
Sienna felt something break inside her, not pain, but recognition. “I lost myself the night he vanished. Everything since has been… echoes.”
Lunaris moved closer, until the air between them hummed with divine energy. “What makes you believe he deserves such sacrifice?”
Sienna didn’t blink. “You marked him with a curse he didn’t choose. He lived and died for me more times than you will ever admit. If the world demands balance, then let this be my offering.”
Lunaris’s eyes flashed. “You think you understand sacrifice?”
“I lived it.”
“You think you understand grief?”
“I married it.”
“You think you understand love?”
Sienna’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I am drowning in it.”
Moonlight flickered violently in Lunaris’s gaze. “You are more dangerous now than when Ryder stood beside you.”
“Then move,” Sienna said, stepping toward the moon road. “Or strike me down.”
Lunaris didn’t move. “I won’t stop you.”
“Good.”
“But I won’t help you either.”
“I don’t need your help.”
Lunaris’s lips curved faintly. “You always did. You just never admitted it.”
Sienna stepped onto the moon road. It glowed beneath her feet, soft, warm, alive. With each step, the night rippled around her, as if reality were bending to accommodate her will. She felt the prophecy thrumming under her skin, the parchment’s words burning in her memory.
Only the heart given freely
Can summon the lost from the Shadow Gate.
The road stretched long and narrow, winding through fields of silver mist. Stars dimmed overhead. The world seemed to pull away, leaving only her steps, her breath, her purpose.
After some time, Lunaris’s voice drifted behind her, softer than before, touched by something like regret. “If you succeed… he will return. But you won’t. Do you understand that?”
Sienna didn’t stop walking. “He deserves a life. Even if I’m not in it.”
“You accept that?”
“I have accepted worse.”
“You will forget him.”
“Then he will remember for the both of us.”
“You will forget yourself.”
Sienna exhaled, her breath trembling. “That part frightens me.”
Lunaris stepped beside her now, matching her pace even though she didn’t need to walk. “You will suffer.”
“I already do.”
“You will be alone.”
“I am already alone.”
“You will become a hollow queen.”
“I won’t be a queen after this.”
“You will be empty.”
Sienna’s voice cracked. “Then let me be empty.”
Silence stretched between them, heavy as a final prayer.
Lunaris finally spoke, her tone gentler than moonlight. “You walk this path for love.”
“Yes,” Sienna whispered.
“And love,” Lunaris murmured, “is the only power I never could command.”
Sienna stopped. The moon road glowed brighter beneath her. The air thickened with divine power.
Lunaris lifted a hand.
The clouds parted.
The celestial horizon opened like a wound.
And far, far ahead, beyond mountains carved from starlight, Sienna saw the faint outline of a gate , enormous, trembling, ancient, waiting.
Her breath left her in a single, aching whisper.
“Ryder.”
Lunaris watched her quietly. “Go to him, then.”
Sienna began walking again.
This time faster.
This time without hesitation.
The moon road pulsed beneath her feet as if obeying her urgency.
“Find him before the last moon rises,” Lunaris said behind her, voice sinking into the wind. “Or he will fade forever.”
Sienna didn’t look back.
She didn’t need to.
She had already made her choice.
And the road to destiny opened wide, swallowing her whole.