Chapter 123 122
Amarien POV
The Southern woodland was alive with preparation for the Blue Moon Festival, yet all I felt was the hollow echo inside my ribs.
Lanterns hung from the low branches like trapped stars, their pale glow trembling in the dusk. Garlands of blue roses and moon lilies were woven between trunks, their scents thick in the air.
The other maidens moved around me in soft chatter, arranging offerings, polishing silver bowls, laying out ceremonial fabrics dyed in shades of midnight and frost.
I worked in silence.
My fingers threaded flowers onto twine with mechanical precision. Twist. Pull. Knot. Repeat.
Once, I would have found this beautiful.
Once, I would have believed festivals were for joy.
Now they were only reminders that the world still celebrated while my child lay in the cold grip of death.
Or so they told me.
A sudden tug jerked the garland from my hands.
Flowers scattered across the forest floor.
I looked up slowly.
Alicia.
Her lips were already curled in disgust, her sharp eyes raking over me like I was something rotten dragged in from the river.
"You," she spat.
Her voice was loud enough that nearby maidens paused, pretending not to listen while hearing every word.
"You think you can waltz in here and act like a Luna already?"
I blinked once, calm.
She stepped closer.
"Ever since you came," she continued, "Theron barely looks at the rest of us. Whispering in his ear. Filling his head with poison."
My gaze drifted back to the flowers at my feet.
"If your worth to him is so fragile," I said quietly, "perhaps it was never worth much to begin with."
Her face reddened.
A few maidens gasped softly.
Alicia leaned down, her voice dropping to a venomous hiss.
"You witch."
That word again.
It followed me everywhere now.
"Since you arrived," she said, "babies have gone missing. Children dying. Curses spreading."
Her finger jabbed toward my chest.
"They're saying it's you. That you're the Scarlet Witch."
My lips twitched.
"And?" I asked.
Her eyes widened slightly, surprised I didn't deny it.
"That's why they named you enemy of the human race," she pressed on. "You made the emperor's child blind."
At that, I finally looked at her fully.
And yes…
There was pleasure in my gaze.
A small, dangerous flicker.
Because if they believed I had power…
Then at least my suffering meant something.
"When it's all over," I said softly, "I hope the North never hears a crying baby again."
The words slipped out of my mouth unexpectedly.
Alicia recoiled as if struck.
"You….you suck, woman!" she stammered.
I didn't answer.
I simply bent to pick up a fallen moon lily, turning it between my fingers.
Her shock turned to fury.
"Cursed woman!" she shouted.
Her hand flew before I saw it.
The slap cracked across my cheek.
My head snapped to the side, hair spilling over my face.
For a heartbeat, I held my face in silence. Then, something inside me snapped.
I laughed.
Soft at first.
Then louder.
It startled even me.
Alicia's expression faltered. "Have you gone mad?"
Mad?
Yes.
I rose slowly to my feet.
"If I am cursed," I murmured, "then perhaps you should keep your distance."
She shoved me.
Hard.
"I'm not afraid of you!"
I stumbled back a step, then straightened.
The maidens were fully watching now, their circle widening.
"Theron will tire of you," Alicia sneered. "You're nothing but a grieving shell. He'll return to women who can actually give him children."
My stomach twisted.
Children.
The word was a knife.
And she twisted it on purpose.
So I did the only thing my broken heart knew how to do.
I shoved her back.
She gasped as she nearly tripped over a basket of offerings.
Her face turned feral.
She lunged.
I grabbed her hair and yanked her off, sending her tumbling to the floor. She jolted up and tried to grab my hair.
I caught her wrist.
"You think you know pain?" I hissed. "You play at jealousy while I buried my child in my heart every single day."
Her other hand scratched across my arm, leaving burning lines.
"And whose fault is that?" she shot back. "You bring death wherever you go!"
That did it.
I pushed her away with a force that surprised us both.
She fell back into a tray of silver bowls, the clang ringing through the trees.
"Witch!" Alicia's bleeding mouth cried. "You're a witch!" She screeched and tried to lung at me again, but someone stood in her way.
Theron.
"Enough." Theron's low voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
The air shifted.
His presence alone was commanding enough; maids shrank back, and Alicia's fury melted into trembling outrage.
His hand closed around Alicia's wrist mid-lunge, stopping her before she could reach me again.
"That's quite enough of claws for a festival night," he said coolly.
Alicia's face crumpled. "Alpha Theron! She…”
"I saw," he replied.
And then, deliberately, he moved to my side.
The message was unmistakable.
Alicia's lips parted in disbelief. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. "You always choose her," she whispered.
Theron didn't answer her.
He looked at me instead.
His gaze softened, dangerously so.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, thumb brushing the faint scratch on my arm.
The gentleness felt foreign. I almost recoiled from it.
I pulled my arm away.
"So their child is blind," I said flatly.
The words tasted bitter and sweet at once.
A hush fell over the women.
"I hope Catherine's child is next."
Several maidens gasped.
Alicia stared at me like I'd grown horns.
But I felt nothing.
No guilt or shame.
Theron studied my face carefully, as if reading the fractures beneath my skin.
"The Blue Moon rises tonight," he said after a moment. "A rare gift to wolves. A night when power answers those bold enough to claim it."
His voice lowered, meant only for me.
"You could take my offer, Amarien."
My jaw tightened.
"You would feel the full call of the wolf. Your deepest strength. Your true self. As my Luna, your power would awaken in ways you cannot imagine."
His words flowed like honey over steel—m, tempting, persuasive, dangerous.
For a flicker of a second, I imagined it.
Power.
Not being prey.
Not being the weeping woman left behind.
But then my chest ached where my child once lived.
Power hadn't saved him.
Love hadn't saved him.
Nothing had.
I turned my face away from Theron.
"I can make my own way," I said quietly. "Blue moon or not."
Something unreadable crossed his eyes.
Before he could answer, a thunder of footsteps tore through the clearing.
One of Theron's warriors burst from the treeline, breath ragged, eyes wide.
"My Alpha!"
Every head turned.
His voice shook with urgency.
"We are under attack!"
The festive air shattered.
Theron's posture snapped from calm to lethal readiness.
"Speak," he
commanded.
The warrior swallowed.
"The northern banners! Human soldiers! Wolf hunters…"
My heart began to pound.
"The emperor leads them himself."
The world tilted.
"The emperor… Daevir," the warrior finished.
My breath stopped.
I froze.
Daevir.
He came to kill me.