Chapter 59

Chapter 59
Orion's POV
I was awake. I did not know why.
For several minutes, I had been lying in bed staring at the ceiling, unable to settle my thoughts.
Twila's words from breakfast kept returning to me. It felt disturbed. Almost threatened.
I had reassured her that she was safe, but something about her dream had bothered me too.
I had felt it earlier. That strange tension. That sense that something had shifted within the castle.

I sat up.
Oren stirred inside me. "Something is wrong."
I frowned.
Before I could answer him, there was a knock at the door.
I stood. "Who is it?"
No answer. I was starting to regret dismissing my guards for the night.
Another knock. I walked to the door and opened it.
Natalia stood on the other side. For a moment, I simply stared at her.
She was dressed differently from usual. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders, and a crystal necklace rested against her throat. The pendant seemed to shimmer.
Something about it caught my attention. The pendant seemed so familiar, yet so different.
"Natalia?"
She smiled. "Orion."
The moment my eyes met hers, something strange happened.
My chest tightened, a warmth spread through me.
I froze. Oren growled. Not angrily... confused.
What was happening? I didn't know.
Natalia stepped closer.
"I couldn't sleep," she said softly. "I thought perhaps you couldn't either."
I should have told her to return to her room. Instead, I stood there. Looking at her, trying to understand why my thoughts suddenly felt so difficult to arrange.
Twila's face flashed through my mind.
Her smile, her voice, the way she looked at me when she thought I wasn't watching.
I felt something inside me pull toward her.
Then the warmth from Natalia's necklace intensified and the thought disappeared.
I blinked.
Natalia reached for my hand. I looked down at our joined hands. Something inside me protested, but the feeling was faint. Buried beneath something I couldn't understand.
"You look tired," Natalia whispered.
"I..." I paused. What was I going to say?
Natalia smiled again.
"Come. Sit with me for a while."
I followed her. And that frightened me more than anything else.

Twila's POV
I woke suddenly. My eyes opened to darkness.
For a few seconds, I didn't know where I was. Then I heard my own breathing. Slow and uneven.
I sat up.
Something felt wrong.
I pressed a hand against my chest and there it was again... That warmth.
The same strange sensation I had felt in my dream. Only this time, I was awake.
I looked around my room.
The windows were closed, the door was shut, yet the air felt different.
I got out of bed, my bare feet touched the cold floor.
I walked toward the window and pulled the curtain aside.
The castle grounds were quiet. Moonlight spilled across the training grounds. Nothing moved.
Still, the uneasy feeling remained.
I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to understand what my instincts were telling me.
Then something brushed against my awareness. A strange pulse.
It felt faint, distant and all shades of wrong.
My eyes opened. "What was that?" I didn't know.
But I knew one thing. It was coming from somewhere inside the castle.
I grabbed my robe and left my room.

Authoress's POV
Twila moved silently through the corridor.
She followed the strange sensation without understanding why. She didn't know what she was looking for.
She only knew that something was different. It felt like the pull from the moonstone but there was something strange about it that made her certain it wasn't the moonstone. The direction at which it was pulling her from was different from the direction of the moonstone.
When she reached the royal wing, she stopped. A faint sound came from ahead.
Voices.
Twila frowned. As she stepped closer, she heard Orion's voice.
Her heart skipped. She moved toward the slightly open doorway.
Orion was inside and so was Natalia.
Twila froze.
Natalia sat beside Orion.
Their conversation was too quiet for her to hear clearly.
Then Natalia laughed softly and Orion smiled.
Twila stared. Something tightened painfully inside her chest but she couldn't explain why.
Orion had spoken to Natalia before. Natalia had always sought his attention. None of this should have surprised her, but tonight felt different.
There was something in the way Orion looked at Natalia... Something unfamiliar.
Twila's fingers curled around the edge of her robe. She took one step backward. Then another.
She didn't want to watch, so she turned away.
Behind her, Orion suddenly looked toward the doorway. His expression changed.
For the briefest moment, his eyes seemed to search the corridor.
"Did you hear something?" he asked.
Natalia looked at him. "No."
Orion remained still. Something stirred inside him. A familiar feeling.
Twila.
His brow furrowed. He didn't understand why her name had suddenly appeared in his mind.
He stood. "I should check the corridor."
Natalia quickly caught his hand. "You don't have to."
Orion looked at her. The strange warmth returned. His thoughts became cloudy again.
After a moment, he sat back down.

Outside, Twila continued walking. She didn't look back.

Twila's POV
I returned to my room and shut the door.
I leaned against it. My heart was beating too quickly.
"What just happened?" I whispered the question into the empty room.
I didn't have an answer. I only knew that something had changed.
Orion had looked at Natalia differently, and somehow, that hurt.
I hated that it hurt.
I had never demanded anything from him. I had never asked him to choose me.
But after everything we had survived together, after every conversation and every moment between us, I had allowed myself to believe that whatever existed between us was real.
Now I wasn't so sure.
I walked toward the mirror. My reflection looked tired and confused. Almost angry... At myself, at Orion, at something I couldn't name.
I touched my chest again. The strange warmth was gone but the uneasiness remained.
I climbed back into bed and pulled the blanket over myself. Sleep refused to come.

Authoress's POV
Across the castle, something had already begun. And neither Orion nor Twila understood what had changed.
But Natalia did.
She sat beside Orion with a satisfied smile. Her fingers tou
ched the Crystal pendant at her throat.
For the first time, she believed the Luna title was finally within her reach.