Chapter 37

Chapter 37
The wind:

POV: Darius

The wind died.

Even the trees stilled as if nature itself was recoiling. Alice stared at the fallen scout, her hand trembling over his chest as if she could will his heart to beat again. Kael was already on his feet, tense, eyes darting toward the shadowed tree line.

“The Lunari Sect?” I echoed, my voice rough with disbelief. “They were wiped out.”

“No,” Kael said coldly. “They went underground. My father suspected it. We just didn’t think they’d resurface like this.”

Alice stood slowly, her pendant catching the light. It shimmered faintly—like it was reacting. She clutched it, her breath quickening. Something was wrong.

“I can feel it,” she whispered. “Something is calling me.”

“No,” Kael snapped. “That’s exactly what they want.”

I moved between them, not to block Kael, but to steady her. Her skin was ice. Her pulse raced.

“They’re using your bloodline to wake Selene,” I said. “That’s why they need you. But the knife...”

Kael’s eyes darkened. “It’s gone. The Sect stole it. They must have been tracking her longer than we realized.”

Alice swayed slightly. I caught her shoulders.

“They’re going to try to merge her with Selene,” she whispered. “Not just awaken the power... but erase who I am. Replace me.”

The air pulsed, the pendant glowing brighter—until Alice gasped and dropped to her knees, her hands gripping her skull.

Then came the voice.

Not hers. Not Selene’s. But something… deeper. Older.

“Let me in.”

She shrieked, and her body arched. The ground trembled. Trees groaned. A shockwave blasted outward—Kael and I flew back, slamming into rock and dirt. Pain lanced down my spine, but I didn’t care.

I crawled to her.

“Alice—”

She was glowing now. Pale violet tendrils of light twisted around her limbs. Her hair floated as if underwater. Her eyes were not hers.

Kael cursed. “It’s already started. We’re too late.”

I grabbed Alice’s wrist—and for a second, I saw it.

A memory, not mine—hers. No. Selene’s. Screams. Fire. Blood soaked altars. The knife, obsidian and etched with runes, plunging into a young woman’s chest.

I yanked my hand back.

“She’s fighting,” I said. “But something’s pulling her under.”

“Then we cut the link,” Kael growled.

“With what?” I snapped. “You just said the damn knife is gone.”

Kael hesitated.

Alice’s body twitched. She muttered in an ancient tongue, her voice layered. Not one voice—two. Hers and Selene’s. Merging.

Then a different energy rippled through the air. One I’d felt before—but not from her.

Luca.

He emerged from the trees with purpose, his hands already glowing with the gold-silver hue of healer magic. But his face… it was wrong.

Too calm. Too knowing.

Kael noticed it first. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Luca smiled faintly. “Neither should she.”

The wind shifted again. The air buzzed.

“You said something earlier,” I said slowly, standing. “That she was changing into something new. Something none of us might be ready for.”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Luca said. “I was talking to her.”

Alice rose—not by will, but by magic. Her feet hovered an inch off the ground. Her pendant cracked down the center, spilling a thread of shadow.

Luca raised his hand.

Kael moved first, lunging—but Luca was faster. With a flick of his wrist, Kael’s body went rigid mid-air and crashed into a tree with a sickening thud. He didn’t get up.

“Stop it!” I roared, charging him.

He caught me by the throat, the strength unnatural for a healer.

“I told you not to become what they think of you,” he whispered, eyes glowing. “But you never listened.”

“What are you—”

“I’m not just a healer,” he said, voice almost regretful. “I was Selene’s bound servant. Her blood-keeper. Her tether. And Alice... Alice is the vessel.”

I struggled against his grip. “You’re part of the Sect.”

He nodded once. “The last of the Inner Circle. And tonight, she will awaken. Fully. Entirely. She was always meant to.”

“You’ll kill her!”

“No,” Luca said. “I’ll free her. From fear. From hesitation. From you.”

Then he turned back to Alice, lifting his hands. A golden circle formed in the air, pulsing with runes.

Her body arched. She screamed.

And that’s when the plot twisted.

Because Alice’s voice cut through Selene’s.

“No.”

The energy cracked. The spell shattered. Luca flinched, his hand smoking.

Alice dropped to her knees, panting, hair soaked with sweat. But she was herself.

“I’m not your vessel,” she spat, eyes glowing violet and blue. “I’m not Selene. I’m something else. Something you can’t control.”

Luca paled. “Impossible.”

She rose, swaying slightly, but her gaze locked on his.

“I’ve seen what she is. I’ve seen what you did to keep her alive. The sacrifices. The lies. You hid the truth even from yourself.”

“What truth?” I asked, breathless.

Alice turned toward me, and my heart nearly stopped.

“She’s not trying to take over me,” she whispered. “She’s trying to warn me.”

Kael stirred weakly behind us. “Warn you?”

Alice’s voice shook.

“Selene didn’t die. She was sealed. And not by the Lunari. By someone else. Someone who feared her power—and mine.”

Her eyes narrowed at Luca.

“She was trying to protect the world from you. From the Sect. But they twisted it. Tried to make her into a monster. And now… now they want me to finish what they started.”

Luca’s mask finally cracked.

“You don’t understand the power you’re rejecting.”

“I do,” she said. “And I choose not to become her.”

With one sharp breath, Alice reached into herself—and her hand caught the glow of the pendant’s broken core.

And she pulled.

Not a knife.

A shard. Of memory. Power.

It shimmered in her palm, pure light.

Selene’s essence.

And she let it go.

The sky roared. Light exploded outward. Trees bent. The ground cracked. Luca screamed as the energy tore through him, unraveling every thread of magic he had woven.

Then it was quiet.

Luca lay unconscious.

Alice stood in the center, the light gone, the pendant shattered. But she was still standing.

Still herself.

I ran to her, catching her as she fell into my arms.

“I thought I lost you,” I breathed.

“You almost did,” she whispered.

Kael limped toward us, bleeding, broken—but alive. “This isn’t over.”

“No,” Alice said, voice calm. “It’s just beginning.”

Because something in the forest stirred.

Not Lunari.

Not Selene.

Something else.

And the sky was no longer bleeding pink.

It was black.

Too early for night.

And far too quiet.