Chapter 157: My Mother, Selene

Seraphine POV

The forest felt emptier as we left Wildfire behind. Or maybe it was me, like the silence inside had swallowed everything... all the secrets, my birth, my parents. I finally had the answers. After months of searching, every truth was there. Somehow, I just felt more hollow.

I rode next to Agora, rebels guiding us through those twisted trails far from the main roads. No one said much. You could still taste the tension from our escape. Every snapped twig made someone reach for their weapon. Every distant howl made hearts freeze. Maybe Kael’s hunters were still out there. Maybe not. Who really knew anymore? The trees stretched on without end while we drifted deeper into the wild country.

I kept looking back. Once, then again. And again. Back toward the mountains marking Wildfire territory... my home. That word felt strange. Sort of wrong, sort of right. I had spent my whole life searching for a place to belong, finally found it… and now I was walking away. The pain of it caught me harder than I expected.

A hand brushed mine. Agora. His gold eyes watched me, worry written plain across his face. “You’ve looked back six times,” he said.

I sighed. “You counted?”

“I always count.”

That made me want to smile, even though I barely could. It was just like him... protective, observant, impossible.

We kept riding. He spoke quietly, “You can talk to me.”

I swallowed, feeling like a huge lump had lodged in my throat. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Try.”

I stared at the endless blur of the forest and finally managed, “My mother is dead.” Saying it felt emptier than I ever imagined. “Kael killed her.”

Silence.

“My father’s a monster.”

More silence.

“I have a kingdom that isn’t mine.”

Agora’s jaw tightened. “It’s yours.”

“No,” I said, voice breaking. “No, it isn’t.” I looked away fast... if I met his eyes for another second, I’d lose it. “I never lived there. I don’t know their traditions.” Bitter laughter escaped me. “I barely know how to pretend to be an Alpha’s girlfriend.”

Agora frowned. “Seraphine...”

“I don’t know how to rule people. I don’t know how to save them.” My throat burned with the words. Memories flashed, starving workers, scared children, wounded wolves, mothers hiding, rebels risking all. “I can’t even save myself.”

Agora let me talk. He didn’t fix anything, didn’t argue. He just listened, and that made everything hurt more, like there was suddenly room inside me for the grief and guilt to grow.

I turned away before he saw tears gathering in my eyes.

The journey dragged on. Hour after hour, forest after forest. The further we got from Wildfire, the heavier my chest became.

Finally, the rebels pulled the group to a stop. The leader got down first. Everyone else followed. I frowned, confused. “What’s wrong?”

The man gave a sad smile. “Nothing, Princess.”

Princess. The word hit so hard. Not Seraphine. Not a servant. Not a girl. Princess.

Everyone else climbed down, and it hit me... this was goodbye. This is where they leave us.

Their leader dipped his head. “Our paths split here.”

His words hurt more than I expected. These people had risked everything for me, and now they’d go back... back to Kael, back to danger, back to all that uncertainty.

“No,” I said before I realized it.

Sad glances passed between them. Their leader smiled, gently. “We must return.”

“He’ll kill you,” I blurted. The silence told me some of them were already aware.

An older woman stepped forward, one I vaguely remembered from rebel meetings. Gray hair escaped her hood, wrinkles deep across her face, but her eyes were kindness itself.

She came closer, reaching into her pocket. “Your mother once asked us what sort of kingdom she should build.”

I barely breathed.

She unfolded her hand, revealing a worn silver token... a wolf surrounded by flames... the royal crest. “My husband carved it for her, years ago.”

My hands trembled when she dropped it into my palm. The metal felt warm, almost alive, as if it had waited just for me. Tears blurred my vision.

“I can’t take this.”

“Yes, you can,” she said, voice breaking. “Because it belongs to her daughter.”

My chest twisted inside itself.

The woman stepped back, and the world shifted. She knelt, one knee then the other. Another rebel knelt. Then another. Until every single one of them bowed before me.

I could barely breathe. “No,” I shook my head fast, “please don’t.” But none of them moved.

The leader lowered his head. “For years we waited,” he said, voice thick with emotion. “For years we hoped.”

Another rebel spoke. “For years we prayed someone survived.”

My eyes blurred completely.

“Stop,” I whispered.

The old woman smiled through tears. “Princess.”

That title came from everywhere. Princess. Princess.

I felt sick. Broken. I wasn’t a princess. I was a girl who cleaned floors, a girl nobody wanted, abandoned. Sold. Yet they looked at me like I was hope itself, and that terrified me. Hope was so fragile.

“I’m sorry,” I said, the words pushing out before I could stop them. The rebels looked confused.

I wiped my eyes angrily. “I’m sorry I’m leaving. Sorry, I can’t help you.” My voice cracked apart. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to save anyone.”

The leader’s eyes softened. “Then don’t.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Not yet.”

The old woman squeezed my hand. “Right now, survive.”

Silence pressed in around us. No one dared to speak. Then the rebel leader pushed up from the ground. The others rose as well, one after another, some slower than others. That was it... Our goodbye was over before I could even brace myself. It stung, how abrupt it felt. Too fast, too final, and too raw.

In minutes they slipped away, melting into the shadows beneath the trees. Heading back to the kingdom I’d failed to save. Back to a fight I kept losing. Back to Wildfire. I kept my eyes on them, counting each figure until the last one slipped into the forest. Even after, I stood there, pretending their shapes still lingered, lying to myself that I wasn’t abandoning them.

A hand touched my back, warm. Agora. “We should go.”

I nodded, but my head kept turning. I couldn’t help it. I looked until Wildfire was gone behind a curtain of leaves, and even then I still looked back, too stubborn or too broken to stop.

That night we made camp under a wide, cold sky. Stars spilled above us, the fire making small noises in the quiet. Orange light slid across Agora’s face. We didn’t talk for ages. I just sat there, holding my knees, the silver token heavy in my palm. I’d been staring at it for so long that the edges felt etched onto my skin.

At last, Agora spoke. “You think leaving was wrong.”

It wasn’t a question. Just a fact.

I watched the fire. “Maybe.”

His jaw went tight. “If we stayed, people would’ve died.”

“They’re going to die anyway.” The words came out sharp, almost like I meant to hurt him. Regret followed instantly. But Agora didn’t flinch. He just kept studying the flames.

“You couldn’t stop that.”

“I should have tried.”

He finally looked at me. “No.”

My chest squeezed. “They needed me.”

“They needed a miracle,” he said quietly. And something about how soft he said it made it hurt even more.

I swallowed, hard. “They believed in me.”

Agora edged closer, just a little. “Because you’re worth believing in.”

A bitter laugh caught in my throat. “They don’t know me.”

“I do.”

The way he said it, so calm and certain, cracked something open inside me. My eyes burned. “I left them.” The words fell out, small. “I left every single one of them.”

Agora came closer until our shoulders touched, like he was letting me lean without saying it. “You survived.”

I just shook my head. “It feels the same.”

He stayed quiet, then wrapped his arm gently around me. I sagged against him, too drained to care. All the exhaustion from these endless weeks finally hit, and it was heavy. Crushing. Like carrying a world I had no hope of saving.

“You’re not supposed to fix an entire kingdom in a night,” he said softly.

“But they expected...”

He cut me off. “No. They hoped.”

I closed my eyes. That distinction scraped at something deep inside, even if I couldn’t explain it. After that, sleep won. The world blurred... the pop of the fire, the stretch of stars, all of it faded as I drifted off.

In my dream, I was back in the palace, and it was burning. Flames crawled up the marble, licking the vaulted ceiling. Smoke choked the air. I should have been afraid of the heat, but it barely touched me... it all felt muffled, like stepping into someone else’s memory.

Footsteps echoed behind me. I turned and stopped cold. A woman stood there, right in the heart of the blaze. Beautiful, unyielding. Golden eyes. Dark hair flowing past her shoulders. The face I knew from a portrait. My mother... Selene.

A wave of emotion crashed through me.

“Mother.” The word barely made it out of my mouth.

Selene smiled at me, all sorrow and love and longing tangled together. I took a shaky step forward. The flames bent aside for her, like the fire itself was bowing in respect.

“I found you,” I whispered, tears blurring my vision. “I found the truth.”

Her smile flickered. For a split second, she looked like she wanted to tell me something... needed to. The palace groaned around us as fire chewed away at everything I knew. I tried to ask, desperate. “Tell me what to do.”

Something in her face softened, then she glanced past me, staring at something hidden in the flames. Fear flashed in her features, just for a moment, before she turned back to me. She only whispered two words: “Not yet.”

The fire roared up, swallowing everything.

And I jolted awake, tears still running down my cheeks.