Chapter 27

*Kael*

Sleep would not come.

Not tonight. Not any night lately.

Every time I closed my eyes, I felt her. I heard her cries like echoes in my bones. It was not just a memory—something more—a tether being pulled taut across distance and time.

I finally started to drift off. Could feel the pull of sleep.

And then I saw her.

Not in a dream.

In the truth.

Flashes. Pain. Shadows. The forest alight with ancient magic. Aria—kneeling, screaming into the stars. Her body arched, her eyes glowing with something not of this world. Her blood singing to the moon.

The bond between us roared back to life.

It burned.

It screamed with her.

It seared through me like fire, alive and ancient. A current too vast for my body to hold. I clutched my chest, gasping as if I were the one undergoing the rite, as if her pain was mine to carry too.

Because maybe it was.

She was meant to be mine... and I...

The vision sharpened and demanded my attention.

She stood inside a ring of standing stones, moonlight pouring over her like a blessing. Her dress shimmered like starlight woven into fabric. Her crown was forged with crystal and glowing embers of moonfire. Her face was tear-streaked, beautiful, and defiant.

I saw her fall to her knees. I saw her scream without sound.

And I felt everything.

I felt her terror, her courage, her sorrow. I felt the weight of generations crashing down onto her shoulders. I saw her mother—Lyriana—just a whisper in the vision, reaching, fleeing, protecting. And I saw Dax’s uncle—his face younger. His hands bloodied—holding the infant Aria in the shadows of battle.

I saw her power ripple out of her in a gentle caress. I saw the followers gathered around to witness what she was becoming.

And then everything changed.

The bond didn’t just pulse.

It howled.

It demanded.

I shot up from my bed, drenched in sweat. The room felt too small, too silent, too far from her.

I need to get to her. I need...

I didn’t think. I didn’t dress.

I shifted.

Bones cracked, muscles tore and reformed, and within moments, my wolf stood in the ruins of my room, chest heaving.

I let my wolf take over.

And I ran.

Through the halls, out the gates. No one dared stop me.

The wind screamed at me, but I didn't stop.

My paws pounded over earth and stone, faster than thought, faster than doubt. Something inside me knew where to go. An ancient pull. A buried instinct clawing its way free.

Fate. Destiny. Her.

The closer I got to the baron lands, the stronger the pull became. Until it was less a feeling and more a scream in my blood.

Nightshade ancestors had ruled those lands once. Her ancestors. The soil there was soaked in blood I had not understood—until now.

I crossed the boundary.

I felt like an electric slap against my skin.

And the world shifted.

My legs faltered.

The scent of ash filled the air. The sky bled red. But it wasn’t real. Not now. Not today.

It was then.

The past that refused to stay buried. That demanded to be known.

I was no longer just seeing it—I was inside it.

The final battle.

The one that destroyed Aria’s family. Her kingdom.

My father stood at the heart of it all, cloaked in blackened armour, his eyes lit with fury. Not justice. Not law.

Just hate.

He cut down those who surrendered. Ordered the burning of the wounded. Slaughtered wolves who carried no weapons. I watched him raise a hand, and a line of witches were dragged from hiding—children among them. His orders were clear. No survivors. No heirs. No Nightshades.

My breath caught.

No... No. How could I not have known? How did I miss this? Ignore the truth?

I knew this battle. I knew the cost. But not like this. Not the truth.

He hadn’t just ended a war.

He had committed a massacre.

My father.

My hero.

The man I had spent my life trying to live up to.

His cruel and sharp voice echoed through the vision: “Leave nothing. Salt the earth. Let even the gods forget this place.”

I staggered back as the vision cracked and shattered like glass against stone. The red faded from the sky.

I was me again.

My wolf breathed heavily beneath my skin.

I stood at the border of the baron lands. The wind was still. No birds. No signs of life.

Except—

Something moved.

A glint.

My entire being was focused on what was happening before me.

I stepped closer.

Right where the vision had faded—where the soil should have been long dead and cursed—something broke through the dirt.

A stem. Thin. Fragile.

And then petals opened.

Silver-white.

A moonflower.

Tears burned my eyes before I even felt them fall.

This land had rejected life for eighteen years. Nothing had bloomed. Not even moss dared grow here.

He had ensured it.

But now?

Now, something sacred stirred. The land was showing me what was coming—the promise of a healed future.

Because of her.

Because she was rising.

Because the land chose her.

Magic chose her.

And the world—my world—was changing.

I knelt beside the flower, afraid to breathe too hard and crush it. My hand hovered above it like a prayer.

“I didn’t know,” I whispered. "I am so sorry."

To the flower.

To the dead.

To her.

“I didn’t know what he did. What he was. I didn't.”

But I did now.

I saw it. Felt it.

And I could never unsee it.

He was a monster. And I have been living his lies for eighteen years.

She had every reason to hate me.

To reject me.

And if she never forgave me—I would understand.

But I would still fight for her.

For the truth.

For redemption.

Because where once there was only ash and blood… now there was a flower.

And with it, hope.