Chapter 56 THE GODDESS’ CHOICE
“And the bond?”
Another throb tears through my body—Kael’s emotions slamming into me like a storm.
“Kael is close,” I breathe. “Too close.”
Damien’s jaw clenches, jealousy and fear warring in his eyes.
“Then we’ll be ready,” he says. But his voice shakes. “Selene… whatever is coming—”
A distant howl slices through the night.
Deep. Familiar.
Kael.
The sound reverberates through my bones. Through the forest. Through the very air.
And the Woods answer.
The glow surges upward, lighting the sky like a column of ghostly fire.
The whispers rise to a roar.
COME HOME.
My breath shatters.
The storm isn’t coming.
It’s already here.
And I am standing at the center of it.
The glow of the Shadow Woods hums beneath my skin long after the whispers fade. A thin silver mist coils between the trees like breath—alive, watching, waiting.
Waiting for me.
Damien stands a few steps behind, tense, his hand hovering near my arm but not quite touching. Not anymore. Not since the firestorm. Not since the battlefield turned to glass under my palms.
The distance between us is small.
But it feels like a chasm.
I swallow hard and stare into the trembling light of the Woods. Each pulse of glow syncs with the pounding in my skull. The whispers from earlier still scratch at the edge of my mind like claws dragging over bone.
Come home.
Home?
To what?
To the Moon? The shadows? The prophecy waiting to devour me?
I rub my arms, trying to ease the cold. “It’s getting louder,” I whisper.
Damien doesn’t answer right away. He just watches the forest with the same wary tension a man uses to watch a trap.
“The bond?” he asks quietly.
A tremor rolls through my body before I can speak. It starts under my ribs—one violent throb, sharp as a blade—then another, harder. Kael’s emotions slam into me like a storm: fear, desperation, raw determination.
I stiffen. “Kael is close.”
Damien’s jaw tightens, jealousy flashing through his eyes—but beneath it is fear, deep and real. Fear of losing me. Fear of losing himself. Fear of losing the war.
“Too close,” I breathe.
He steps forward finally, placing a steadying hand on my waist, grounding me. “Then we’ll be ready.”
But his voice shakes.
Before I can answer, a howl echoes through the night.
Deep. Familiar.
Kael.
The sound vibrates through my bones, through the earth, through the air itself. The Shadows Woods shiver as if the trees can feel him too. The glow surges upward, silver-green, lighting the sky like a ghostly fire column.
The whispers rise again—no longer soft.
"COME HOME!"
My breath shatters.
My knees buckle.
The world tilts.
“Selene—?” Damien grabs my shoulders—
But I don’t feel his hands for long.
Because the glow bursts brighter—too bright to be natural—and a force yanks me downward like the ground has swallowed my feet. My vision fractures. Light. Darkness. Silver. Black.
“Selene!” Damien’s voice distorts, swallowed by the roar of the forest.
Then—
Everything disappears.
A void opens beneath me.
Silent. Endless. Heavy with cold light.
I float weightlessly, suspended in a shimmering space of silver and shadow. A moon hangs overhead—fractured, bleeding black light like cracks in glass.
My heart lurches.
This is not a dream.
This is not a vision.
This is a summoning.
And she is here.
The Moon Goddess steps from the darkness, her form soft and terrible. Silver hair drifts like mist behind her, and her eyes—Goddess, her eyes—are endless wells of sorrow.
“Selene Thorne,” she says softly. “My daughter of fire and shadow.”
My throat tightens. “Why… why did you bring me here?”
She studies me, grief etched into her celestial features. “Because time has run thin.”
Her voice echoes like moonlight on water, soft but absolute.
“You were meant to save them.”
The words hit me like a blow to the ribs.
My breath trembles. “Then why am I destroying them?”
The broken battlefield flashes behind my eyes. Melted faces. Glassed earth. Blood steaming on silver fire.
My hands shake.
“Why can’t I control it? Why is everyone dying because of me?”
The Goddess closes her eyes, as if my pain wounds her. “Because your power was never meant to be wielded in a world unprepared for it.”
I stumble back. “That’s not an answer.”
“It is the only one I can give.”
“Then tell me what I am,” I whisper. “Tell me what you made me.”
Her gaze lifts to mine—heavy, ancient, unbearably compassionate.
“You are fire born of shadow.”
The words ripple through the void.
“Fire?” I repeat. “Shadow? I don’t understand—”
“You are both,” she says. “Moonfire of the divine. Shadowborn of the broken bond. Light and darkness entwined. A child of two fates that should never have crossed.”
My chest constricts. “Kael.”
The Goddess nods slowly.
“The bond that was severed was never truly undone,” she murmurs. “It left a wound. And in that wound, shadow grew.”
My knees weaken. “So I’m… corrupted?”
“No.” Her voice sharpens, clear and fierce. “You are complete.”
I stare at her in stunned disbelief.
Complete?
Complete and killing everything around me?
“How am I supposed to save anyone,” I whisper, “when even Damien fears me? When I fear myself?”
The Goddess steps closer, lifting a hand toward my cheek but stopping just shy of touching me.
“Because you are meant to return to where you began.”
My skin turns cold.
“Return… where?”
“To the place where fire and shadow were first born. The place your power can be contained. The place fate has been calling you to since the moment you awakened.”
The Woods’ whispers echo through my skull:
"Come home…"
“No…” My voice cracks. “I can’t leave. Not now. Not with Kael coming. Not with Damien—”
Damien’s face flashes in my mind, desperate and protective. Kael’s voice slams through the bond—Hold on, Selene. I’m coming for you.
Pain ripples through me.
“They need me,” I insist. “Both of them.”
The Goddess tilts her head. “Do they need you… or do they need your sacrifice?”
The void stills.
My nails dig into my palms. “I’m not dying.”
A sad smile curves her lips. “Every flame must return to its source.”
“No,” I whisper. “No. There has to be another way.”
“There is none.”
Her voice sounds like a closing door.