Chapter 232: Cycles Of Chaos

~Aveline~

The first thing I noticed was the silence.

There was no rustling of trees, no sound of rain, or even the faint rhythm of my own breathing. I couldn't hear anything at all.

I opened my eyes and was met with darkness, endless and stretching in every direction.

For some reason, I wasn't afraid.

I should have been, considering how much I hated the dark and had no idea where I was or how I'd even gotten here in the first place.

Yet, strangely, fear never came.

Gently, I pushed myself up, only to notice how weightless my body felt.

Painless.

Then, like a freight train, the entire memory of what had happened just seconds ago came rushing back into my mind.

My breath hitched, and I immediately looked around, searching for Daisy, for any clue of where I was.

Was I… dead?

“I see you're awake.”

A familiar, soothing voice spoke up from behind me.

My head snapped toward the space that had been empty only moments ago, and my eyes landed on a figure with silver hair cascading down her body, accompanied by a lace veil.

Her silver eyes lingered on me, and a strange sense of familiarity stirred in my chest.

“I know you.”

The edges of her lips curved, and the next second, something moved from behind her.

My eyes shifted toward the movement, and surprise flickered across my expression as a wolf with gray-colored fur emerged from behind her.

Immediately, a feeling of bondship snapped into place between us.

I furrowed my brows.

“Serena?” I called.

“Hello, Aveline.” Her voice came through the mind link, and my frown deepened.

This shouldn't be possible, I thought, my mind racing a thousand miles an hour.

Unless…

“Correct. You're dead.”

The figure in front of me spoke, and my breath hitched.

“I had hopes for this chance I'd given you once again, but it seems hope wasn't enough.”

As her voice filled the empty space, I lowered my head, staring blankly at the dark ground beneath me with only one thought consuming my mind.

“Where's my Daisy?” The thought spilled past my lips.

A beat of silence followed.

“Is that really what you want to worry about now?”

My head snapped up, ready to speak, but the words failed me when her face suddenly appeared right in front of mine.

“You're dead right now, and you're worrying about someone else who should have died by the natural order?”

Her eyes bored into mine.

My fingers clenched at my sides before I finally spoke.

“Can I do anything else?”

Another round of silence followed, then, she pulled back.

The sudden lack of her presence felt almost like the abrupt disappearance of something I hadn't realized was there. It reminded me of the strange sensation I'd experienced when Eryndor had used black magic on me during the ceremony.

“Stand.” She instructed, already turning away.

It was only then I noticed her feet weren't even touching the ground.

Before I could think too much about it, Serena pranced over and nudged my face with her fur.

“Stand at once. We must not keep her waiting.” She said.

I glanced at her before looking back at the figure. My eyes lingered on her back, but I stood nonetheless and followed.

“Who is she?” I asked through the mind link.

“The Mother Supreme,” Serena answered. “The first Luna to ever exist.”

So, in a sense, she was… the Moon Goddess, I thought, strangely lacking any excitement.

If I'd been shown this before I died and regressed, I would have felt honored. Excited, even.

But now, I just felt… numb.

“That is expected,” the figure—the Moon Goddess—said. “You've been through quite the ordeal.”

My brows twitched.

“You can read my thoughts.”

Her laugh echoed through the darkness.

“When you're the balance and watcher of a planet such as Earth, harboring beings of your kind, mind reading is the least thing you should possess.”

She paused before continuing.

“But that aside…”

Her steps slowed, and over her shoulder, I caught sight of a faint light glowing in the darkness.

“Come take a look at this.”

I hesitated for a moment before stepping forward.

My eyes landed on a pocket window within the darkness, displaying a field that was all too familiar.

My mother's field.

And in it were several familiar faces seated around a wooden chair and table.

Rhaedon.

Rowan.

Amara.

Me.

And… Daisy.

My heart leapt at the sight of her, and I instinctively took a step forward before stopping myself, realization dawning on me.

This… It was just like that time back at the first trial, when I'd watched a memory that wasn't mine.

“This one is yours,” the Moon Goddess said.

I hated the fact that she could read my mind.

“The first time, right before chaos struck. Before the cycle began.”

My eyes remained fixed on the memory, precisely on Daisy.

She looked happy.

Untouched by everything.

I yearned to reach through the window and hug her, but something in me told me she was better off there.

I reluctantly tore my gaze away and looked at the Moon Goddess.

“So this is a memory? My memory? As has everything I've seen like this? Those visions?”

I gestured toward the window.

“Those were all mine?”

She gave a small nod.

Something in my chest flipped—or perhaps dropped. I swallowed hard.

“How many?” The question came out quieter than I intended. “How many cycles have there been?”

A pause followed, one far too long for my liking, before her answer finally came.

“Including your recent cycle, three.”

The answer settled in my chest like a heavy stone.

Three.

Three cycles consisting of two lives I don't remember?

I had so many questions at that moment that I didn't know which one to ask first.

“Your questions will be answered with time. Your memories will return if you try hard enough.”

She reached out a hand and swept it through the air in front of me. A strange lightness suddenly filled my head, as though something inside my mind had been freed.

“You've crossed paths with enemies you weren't meant to encounter in the first place and made choices that would cost you dearly.”

My chest tightened, and for some reason, Daisy's face flashed through my mind.

“But you still have a mission to fulfill.”

My brows furrowed.

“A mission?”

“Indeed.”

She regarded me calmly.

“You honestly didn't think I gave you another chance, as I've done several times, just for you to carry out vengeance, did you?”

I parted my lips, only to close them again when I realized… she was right.

“I have far better things to waste my mercy on.”

“Then why did you?” I questioned.

She turned back toward the memory, and I followed her gaze just in time to catch one last glimpse of it.

Rhaedon had somehow gotten down on one knee in front of me, a ring held out as everyone around us watched with approval and happiness.

The scene tugged at something deep inside my chest.

A strange kind of want and a longing I couldn't explain.

But before I could grasp it, the Moon Goddess swiped her hand across the memory, and it morphed into another.

Immediately, my heart dropped at the sight that greeted me.

Fire ravaged a battlefield littered with broken walls and bloodstained floors, and thick smoke rose into the sky until everything was shrouded in ash.

“This is…”

“Vermont,” the Moon Goddess completed.

My eyes widened in shock, my gaze snapping toward her.

“What?”

“Six years from now,” she said. “This is the fate Vermont shall face once the throne falls into the wrong hands.”

Six years?

I quickly did the calculations in my mind.

Barely a year after my death?

Could Lucien have caused so much damage?

“Lucien Ashbourne was not the creator of this destruction,” the Moon Goddess said.

My brows furrowed even deeper.

“ If it wasn't Lucien, then… who is?”

She turned her attention toward me, and for the first time since this conversation began, I saw her lips move.

They curled at the edges as she spat out the last name I wanted to hear.

“Valerius Draven Ashkaar.”