Chapter 57 THE FAREWELL
“You carry the power of a dying Moon and a broken bond. That power must be restored or it will consume everything.”
I shake my head, backing away. “I won’t accept that.”
“You must.”
“I WON’T!”
My scream echoes through the void, shaking the fractured moon overhead. Cracks widen. Light spills. Shadow pulses.
My power trembles violently inside my ribs—silver and black swirling, fighting, burning.
The Goddess watches me with grief so deep it feels endless.
“Selene,” she says, “the choice is no longer between love and death. It is between worlds.”
My breathing falters.
“What does that mean?”
But she only looks at me—sorrow, love, fate all tangled in her gaze.
“You must go back,” she whispers. “And when the Woods call again… you must answer.”
The void begins to dissolve.
“No—wait—tell me what happens—tell me what I am supposed to do!”
Her voice is the last thing I hear as darkness claims me.
“Return to where fire meets shadow… or everything will burn.”
When I open my eyes I am back in the forest.
Damien is shaking me, panic breaking his voice.
“Selene—Selene! Wake up!”
The glow of the Shadow Woods pulses around us.
But I am no longer the person who walked into this place.
The Goddess’s words echo through me like a prophecy carved into bone.
Fire born of shadow.
Return to where it began.
And somewhere in the distance, a lone, furious howl tears open the sky.
Kael.
Coming for me.
Coming for a destiny I no longer understand.
I swallow hard, staring into the glowing forest as whispers rise once more.
COME HOME.
A shiver ripples through me.
The storm isn’t coming.
It has already begun.
The ruins are quiet tonight.
Not dead… just quiet in the way a battlefield becomes when the grief finally sinks into the stones. The wind drags ash across the broken floor, whispering through shattered pillars and burnt beams. Blackridge’s stronghold, once proud, now stands like a skeleton — charred, cracked, grieving.
It smells like endings.
I stand among the remains, arms wrapped around myself, watching the moonlight struggle to reach the ground. Even her light feels thin now. Weak. Wounded, like me.
The Goddess’s words still echo inside my head.
Fire born of shadow must return to where it began.
The Shadow Woods.
The place calling me home.
The storm I can’t outrun.
My throat tightens.
Footsteps approach from behind — soft but sure. Damien never tries to hide his presence from me. Even now, when he should be furious, broken, terrified… he’s gentle.
“Selene,” he says quietly.
I close my eyes.
His voice already feels like something I’m losing.
When I turn, he’s standing in the doorway of what used to be the council hall — tall, battle-worn, streaked with soot. His hair is damp from the river, his jaw clenched like he’s forcing the world not to break apart in his hands.
But it’s his eyes that undo me.
Raw. Red-rimmed. Brimming with things he’ll never say out loud.
“Is it time?” he asks.
I swallow, hard. “Yes.”
He nods once — a sharp, painful motion — and walks toward me. The floor crunches beneath his boots. When he stops in front of me, he doesn’t touch me. He just looks, memorizing every piece of my face like he’s afraid it’ll fade the moment he blinks.
“Where will you go?” he asks.
“The Woods,” I whisper. “Where the Moonfire was born. Where the Goddess wants me to return.”
“And after that?”
My chest twists.
“There is no after.”
The words hurt more than any wound I’ve taken.
Damien looks away for a moment, jaw flexing. When he speaks again, his voice is hoarse.
“Then this is goodbye.”
A gust of wind sweeps between us, carrying ash with it like the stronghold itself sighs at the truth.
I nod, because there’s nothing else I can do.
But Damien steps forward suddenly, as if the decision has snapped something inside him. His hands come up hesitating and trembling before finally cupping my face. His forehead rests against mine. His breath mixes with mine, warm but unsteady.
“Selene,” he whispers, “you don’t have to face this alone.”
“Yes,” I say softly, “I do.”
“The hell you do.” His voice breaks. “I won’t let you walk into that cursed forest and die.”
A painful smile pulls at my lips.
“Damien… I’m not sure I’ll live or die. The Goddess didn’t say. The Woods didn’t say. No one is telling me anything except that I must go.”
His hands slide down to my shoulders, gripping harder.
“You’re not a sacrifice. I won’t let them turn you into something to be used and thrown away.”
“I know.” I reach up and touch his jaw. “I know you would fight the Goddess herself for me.”
“Gladly,” he whispers.
Our breaths mingle.
Our pain hangs between us, heavy and unsaid.
Then he does something I didn’t expect.
He pulls me into his arms.
Not as a warrior.
Not as an Alpha.
But as a man clinging to the last piece of light he has left.
I bury my face in his chest. He smells like smoke and pine and blood — the scent of a man who has fought too hard and loved too fiercely.
“Damien…” My voice cracks. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want this fate.”
“I know.”
“And I’m afraid.”
His arms tighten around me.
“So am I.”
For a long moment, we just stand there, holding each other in the ruins of everything we’ve survived together. The moon hangs above us, bleeding faint silver light. The world feels too quiet. Too fragile.
Finally, he pulls back just enough to look at me.
“Selene… kiss me.”
My breath catches. “Damien—”
“Please,” he whispers. “If this is goodbye… let me have one thing that is ours.”
His voice breaks on the last word.
And Goddess help me, I can’t deny him.
I rise onto my toes, fingers curling into his shirt, and press my lips to his.
It’s not a desperate kiss.
It’s not a frantic one.
It’s slow.
Deep.
Soft in all the places we’ve been hard.
Tender in all the places the world has been cruel.
His hands move to my waist, pulling me closer. My heart stumbles. My breath trembles. He kisses me like he’s memorizing the shape of my soul. Like he’s kissing the fire that’s been tearing us apart.