Leonora’s confession

Leonora’s confession
Selene’s POV

What did he mean by reborn?
The word wouldn’t stop echoing in my mind.
Did he plan to use my blood for his own power? To make himself into something darker than human or wolf?

I sat there, my wrists raw from struggling against the iron, my heartbeat thundering as the faint torchlight flickered across the stone. The dungeon walls felt closer with every breath.

Then, footsteps again. Softer this time. Careful. Hesitant.

I looked up.

“Leonora?” I whispered, disbelief twisting through me.

She stood at the cell door, cloaked in shadows. Her face was pale and drawn, her gray hair falling loose from its bun. Her eyes — those sharp, judging eyes that had once followed me through the palace halls — now looked… broken.

“Selene,” she said softly, her voice trembling.

I frowned, pulling myself upright. “Why are you here?”

She hesitated, glancing down the corridor before stepping closer to the bars. “Come closer to me,” she said in a low voice, her tone almost pleading.

I hesitated, suspicion tightening my chest. But there was something in her face — sorrow, guilt — that I’d never seen before. Slowly, I crawled toward her, the chains dragging behind me with a metallic scrape.

When I reached the bars, she knelt and cupped my face with both hands. Her touch was trembling.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her eyes glistening.

I blinked, confused. “What are you talking about?”

Her tears spilled freely now. “It’s my fault, Selene. I know it’s my fault.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice trembling as a strange, heavy dread began to build inside me.

Leonora took a shaking breath, her hands still holding my face. “I was the one who delivered your mother when you were born,” she said. “I was there, Selene. I saw the red mark on your shoulder — the mark of prophecy.”

My breath caught. “The mark…”

“I believed what Eleazar told us,” she continued, her voice thick with regret. “That the mark meant you were the payment for the kingdom’s sin. That your blood would cleanse the curse upon us all. I thought—” her voice broke— “I thought I was saving everyone.”

I shook my head, tears blurring my sight. “You believed him… and because of that, my parents were killed protecting me!” My voice cracked with fury. “Do you know what that did to me? What it costthem?”

Leonora’s face twisted in pain. “I know,” she whispered. “I know, child. And I have carried that sin every day since. I didn’t see it then, but Eleazar… he’s not a servant of the gods. He’s a monster. Greedy for power. Obsessed with immortality.”

Her hands fell away from my face, and she looked down, shaking. “When I learned the truth, it was already too late.”

I stared at her — this woman who had once scolded me, who had looked down on me as nothing more than a cursed servant — now trembling in guilt.

A thousand words tangled on my tongue, but all I could whisper was, “Why now?”

She met my eyes again, and for the first time, I saw compassion there. “Because I can’t watch him hurt you again. I can’t stand by while he spills another innocent’s blood.”

I swallowed hard, the weight of her words pressing down on me. “Then help me,” I said, desperation threading my voice. “Help me stop him.”

Leonora nodded faintly. “I will do my best to help you escape,” she said. “Even if I must risk my life for it.”

My heart stuttered. “You’d… do that for me?”

“For your mother,” she whispered. “For what I took from her… and for you.”

Before I could answer, the sound of heavy boots echoed down the hall.

Leonora’s eyes widened in alarm. “They’re coming.”

“Wait—Leonora—!” I called, but she was already stepping back, pulling her hood over her head.

“Stay strong, Selene,” she said quickly. “When the moon turns red… I’ll come.”

Then she instantly goes just as the guards’ footsteps grew louder, their torches blazing against the stone.

I pressed my back to the cold wall, my pulse racing. Her words replayed in my head — I’ll come.

For the first time since my capture, a fragile ember of hope flickered inside me.

Maybe not everyone in this cursed palace was against me.
Maybe — just maybe — there was still a way out.