FOTY SEVEN

FOTY SEVEN
CIARA'S POV

The estate's iron gates loomed ahead as I rounded the final bend in the road. Familiar spires pierced the sky, cold and unyielding against the sunlight. Home—or what was supposed to be home. The word felt hollow now, a shell emptied of meaning. But I was going to fix that. I was back to fix that

A sentinel's footsteps pounded the gravel as he rushed toward me. His eyes widened, breath catching. Recognition flickered across his face. He fumbled for his recorder, pressing the button with trembling fingers.

"She's here," he whispered, voice hoarse with urgency.

The gates hissed and clicked as ancient mechanisms released their hold. Metal groaned against metal as they swung inward, revealing the path I'd walked a thousand times before.

"Your father wants to see you immediately," the sentinel said, shoulders rigid with tension.

I brushed past him. "Word travels fast here. He'll know soon enough where I am."

"But Luna Ciara—"

"I'll be at the healer's ward."

His protest died on his lips as I strode forward, each step dragging as though my shoes were filled with lead. By the time the healer's building came into view, my lungs burned. Sweat beaded at my temples despite the cool air.

The healer stood framed in the doorway, her silhouette sharp against the warm light behind her. She didn't look surprised, just watchful. Like she'd been expecting me.

"Luna Ciara." Her voice carried on the breeze, a mix of deference and concern. "The whole pack was worried about you."

I stopped before her, shoulders heaving with each ragged breath. "I needed some time to myself. But I'm ready now. I'm ready for my first practice."

A small smile softened her weathered face. She stepped aside. "Come in."

The moment I crossed the threshold, the scent of herbs enveloped me—sharp wintergreen mingling with earthy sage and something sweeter, almost floral. My shoulders loosened despite myself.

The heavy door closed with a soft thud. The healer moved to an ancient oak cabinet, fingers trailing over carved runes as she selected a drawer. From its depths, she retrieved a small wooden box inlaid with silver crescents.

The air around it seemed to vibrate. A subtle hum that wasn't quite sound but something felt deep in the marrow of my bones.

She placed it on the table between us with the reverence one might reserve for a sacred text. The box seemed to pulse with an inner light, calling to something buried deep within me.

When she lifted the lid, my breath caught. Inside lay a stone no larger than a robin's egg, pale as winter moonlight and pulsing with gentle radiance. Cold rippled across my skin, raising goosebumps along my arms.

"What is that?" The question fell from my lips, though part of me already knew the answer.

"A moon rock." Her voice dropped to a whisper, as though speaking too loudly might shatter the fragile magic between us. "Taken from Lady Selene's altar itself. This is the source—the same essence I felt flowing through your meridian when I examined you."

The stone's pull was magnetic, an invisible cord tethering it to something inside me. "It feels like it's calling to me."

"Because it is." She folded her arms, studying my face. "But before we begin, there's something you need to understand."

I tore my gaze from the stone to meet her eyes.

"You're shielding yourself, Ciara."

"Shielding?" The word tasted foreign on my tongue. "From what?"

"From yourself. From your power." She leaned forward, her gaze intent. "Those fractured bones you came to me with last time? You shouldn't have needed my touch to heal them. Your regeneration should be almost immediate—faster than mine, faster than any wolf I've known. You carry the source within you in ways I can't begin to explain and I am a healer myself."

Her words settled over me like a weight, pressing the air from my lungs.

"And what does that mean?" My voice came out smaller than intended. "What can I do that you can't?"

"For starters, there are your visions." She gestured vaguely toward my head. "I've never had that gift. Few healers do. But it's rare enough to be legend rather than fact and you my dear happen to be in that minority."

I stared down at my hands, half-expecting them to look different somehow. They were just hands—the same hands that had failed to save myself and my daughter from that horrible fate.

"So how do I... unshield myself?"

The healer lifted the moon rock from its nest and held it out to me. It pulsed cold against my palm as I took it, the weight of it seeming to increase with each heartbeat.

"You look at what's holding you back and call it by its true name." Her eyes bore into mine. "Is it protection? Or is it cowardice? Only you can answer that."

The stone grew heavier in my grasp. I stared into its soft glow as though it might whisper secrets, and exhaled slowly.

"Now what?" My voice wavered.

The healer closed her eyes. Her right hand began to emit a soft blue light, tendrils of energy weaving between her fingers like liquid starlight.

"We power it. Anchor you to Selene."

Her glowing fingertips brushed against the stone in my palm. A flash of heat exploded through my body, racing through my veins like wildfire, tearing through bone and sinew before pooling at the base of my spine. My knees buckled. I crashed to the floor, gasping.

"I can't—I don't like this," I choked out, trembling violently.

"Don't fight it." Her voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. "Give in, Luna Ciara. Let it take you."

Surrender? The very thought sent panic surging through me. But beneath the fear lay something else—a bone-deep exhaustion from fighting for so long.

So I let go.

The heat intensified, consuming every cell, every atom—and then vanished. Gone as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving emptiness in its wake.

I opened my eyes, blinking away tears I hadn't realized I'd shed. "Is that it?"

The healer's brow furrowed in confusion. "I don't understand. Nothing happened."

I nodded, oddly relieved and disappointed all at once. "Maybe the time isn't right." I held out the stone.

Before her fingers could close around it, the rock jerked from my grasp. It hung suspended in the air between us, defying gravity.

"Does this happen?" I whispered, unable to look away.

"No." The word escaped her on a breath. "No, it doesn't."

The stone drifted upward in lazy circles before stopping level with my forehead. My heart thundered against my ribs. I stood frozen, afraid that even breathing might shatter whatever magic was unfolding.

The cold surface of the stone touched my skin.

In an instant, gravity released its hold. My feet left the ground, body suspended in mid-air.

"What the fuck," the healer breathed, eyes wide with something between awe and terror.

I lifted my hands before my face and watched in horror as they flickered—solid one moment, translucent the next—as though something essential was being pulled from me, molecule by molecule.

Light exploded outward, bathing the room in brilliant blue.

When it faded, everything had changed.

Cold, clear air filled my lungs. Beneath my feet lay ground that shimmered like polished obsidian, reflecting a sky deeper and blacker than any night I'd known. Stars blinked overhead—not distant pinpricks but vibrant jewels of light. A pale glow bathed the strange landscape in silver.

"Where am I?" My voice echoed strangely, as though the very air was thinner here.

"My altar."

The voice rolled over me like midnight wind. It was ancient and ageless all at once.

I turned.

She stood there, towering and regal. I knew her. Which wolf didn't? Lady Selene herself. Her skin glowed like starlight captured in human form, her hair flowing past her waist in waves of liquid silver. A crown shaped like a crescent moon adorned her head, casting prismatic light across her features. Behind her, wings shimmered with every color of moonlight reflected on water—silver, blue, violet, pearl.

I dropped to my knees, head bowed. "Lady Selene."

Soft footsteps approached. A hand—cool as mountain streams—tilted my chin upward.

"Rise, healer. You called to me." Her eyes were galaxies, ancient and knowing. "What do you need?"

I pushed myself to my feet, legs trembling less from fear than from the sheer magnitude of her presence.

"I don't know exactly." The truth spilled out before I could shape it into something more dignified. "My pack healer believes I'm shielded. That I can't access your gifts fully."

Her head tilted slightly. "So you wish to unshield yourself."

The answer should have been simple. Yes. Of course yes. But different words formed on my tongue.

"I was never a healer in my first life." The admission hung between us. "Why now? Did you give me this power? Was it you who brought me back, Lady Selene?"

She nodded once, the movement fluid as flowing water. "I did."

"Why? What purpose am I meant to serve?"

"You misunderstand." Her voice softened. "I didn't bring you back to serve a purpose."

"Then why?"

"Because it was your daughter's final prayer."

The world tilted beneath me. One word echoed in the sudden hollow of my chest.

"Erin?" Her name felt both foreign and achingly familiar on my lips.

Lady Selene studied me, her gaze penetrating. "You don't remember?"

I shook my head slowly. "No... Or maybe..." Images flickered at the edges of my consciousness—a small hand in mine, laughter like silver bells, tearstained cheeks in moonlight. "Maybe I just didn't want to remember."

"You locked it away." There was no judgment in her voice. Only understanding.

"Please." The word emerged broken, desperate. "I want to remember. I need to know what happened to her that night I died. To me. To everything."

Lady Selene extended both hands, palms up. An invitation. A gateway.

"Then I will show you."

I placed my hands in hers, and the world dissolved into memory.