Chapter 123 THE SISTER’S SUCIDE

Chapter 123 THE SISTER’S SUCIDE
Medea's Pov

I was in my chambers trying to figure out how much longer I could hide my fake pregnancy when a tribunal guard knocked on my door. His expression was serious and grim which immediately made my stomach drop.

"Luna Medea I need to speak with you. May I come in?" the guard asked.

"What is this about?" I asked.

"It concerns your sister Eclipse. There has been an incident at the prison facility. You need to come with me to the tribunal headquarters," the guard said.

An incident. That could mean anything. Maybe Eclipse had gotten into a fight with another prisoner. Maybe she was sick. Maybe she had tried to escape.

I followed the guard to his car, and we drove to the tribunal facility in silence. He would not answer any of my questions about what happened, and that made me increasingly anxious.

Every mile felt longer than the last, each turn of the tires against the asphalt echoing in my chest. The air inside the car was heavy, stale, and silent, save for the occasional shuffle of the guard shifting in his seat. My hands clenched in my lap, nails biting into my palms as I tried to force down the rising panic.

“What happened exactly?” I asked again, my voice barely above a whisper.

The guard’s eyes flicked to me in the rearview mirror, cold and unreadable. “You’ll see soon enough. That’s all you need to know.”

I swallowed hard, forcing my breathing into slow, measured rhythms. But each passing moment only amplified the dread building inside me. Whatever awaited me at the tribunal facility, it was clear I wasn’t meant to know until I was face to face with it.

And the not knowing made it far worse than the truth might have been.

When we arrived I was taken to a private room where a tribunal official was waiting. She looked at me with sympathy which made everything worse.

"Luna Medea please sit down. I have some difficult news to share with you," the official said.

"Just tell me. What happened to Eclipse?" I demanded.

“I am very sorry to inform you that your sister, Eclipse, took her own life last night. She was found in her cell this morning. The medical examiner has confirmed it was suicide,” the official said.

The words hit like ice… My chest tightened, breath caught somewhere between disbelief and something darker, harder. For a moment, the world narrowed to the sterile walls of the office, the official’s careful voice, and the finality of those last syllables.

I closed my eyes, forcing myself to steady my shaking hands. Relief flickered—danger had ended—but it was tangled with anger, sorrow, and the bitter knowledge of everything she had done, everything she had tried to destroy.

No one spoke. Silence pressed around us like a living thing. And in that silence, I realized something I hadn’t expected: the threat was gone, but the damage… the damage would linger forever.

The words did not make sense at first. Took her own life. Suicide. Eclipse was dead.

"That cannot be right. You must be mistaken. Eclipse would not kill herself. She was too strong for that. She was a fighter," I said.

"I understand this is shocking news. But I assure you it is accurate. Your sister used her bed sheets to hang herself. The guards found her during their morning rounds but it was too late. She had been dead for several hours," the official explained.

I felt like I could not breathe. Eclipse was dead. My sister, my only family, my partner in everything. She was gone.

"I need to see her. I need to see the body. Maybe there was a mistake. Maybe it is not really her," I said desperately.

“We can arrange for you to identify the body if you wish. But I must warn you—it will be difficult. Your sister has been dead for several hours, and the method of death was not peaceful,” the official said.

I inhaled slowly, steadying myself. A part of me recoiled instinctively, the human part that didn’t want that image burned into memory forever.

But another part—the one shaped by years of loss and unfinished endings—knew I couldn’t walk away.

“I’ll do it,” I said after a moment.

The official nodded, relief and sympathy flickering across his face. “We’ll proceed when you’re ready.”

As he turned to make the arrangements, I felt the weight of it settle fully in my chest. Eclipse had been many things—cruel, manipulative, dangerous—but she had also been my sister. Seeing her like that would not bring closure or peace.

But it would bring truth and after everything she had done, I owed it to myself to face that truth—no matter how painful it was.

"I do not care. I need to see her," I said.

They took me to the morgue where Eclipse's body had been brought. The medical examiner pulled back the sheet and I saw my sister's face. It was purple and swollen and her eyes were open staring at nothing.

I fell to my knees and started screaming. That was Eclipse. That was really Eclipse. She was dead and I would never see her alive again.

The guards had to physically lift me off the floor and help me out of the morgue because my legs would not work. I could not stop crying and screaming. Nothing made sense anymore.

Eclipse was supposed to survive this. She was supposed to serve her sentence and then come back to me. We were supposed to figure things out together like we always did.

But now she was dead and I was completely alone.

They took me back to Brazen Pack and I went straight to my chambers. I locked the door and collapsed on my bed sobbing. Eclipse was gone. The only person who ever truly understood me. The only person who ever supported me no matter what.

Growing up we only had each other. Our parents were executed when we were young and the pack treated us like dirt because of it. Everyone looked down on us and whispered about how we were the children of traitors.

Eclipse had protected me from all of that. She had made plans and schemes to lift us out of poverty and shame. She had done terrible things but she did them for us. For our future.

And now she was dead because those plans had failed. Because we got caught and exposed and everything fell apart.

I thought about all the things Eclipse had done for me. How she had framed Celestia so I could have Raphael. How she had stolen money so we would never be poor again. How she had eliminated threats to protect our secrets.

She had even killed our own parents when they discovered we were stealing. I remembered that night five years ago when Eclipse told me what she had done.

“They were going to turn us in. They were going to have us arrested. I had no choice but to poison them. Then I made it look like they were guilty of treason so the pack would execute them. It was the only way to protect us,” Eclipse had explained.

She said it calmly. Too calmly.

As if she were describing a difficult but necessary chore, not the deliberate destruction of lives. Not the moment she crossed a line she could never return from. Her eyes never wavered, never searched my face for understanding or forgiveness. She had already justified it to herself a thousand times.

“You chose,” I said quietly.

Her lips pressed together. “I survived.”

That was the truth of it. In her world, survival excused everything—lies, poison, false accusations, death. Loyalty was expendable. Innocence was collateral.

I felt something settle in my chest then, heavy and final. Not pity nor rage.

Clarity…

Eclipse hadn’t been driven to evil by desperation.

She had embraced it—and called it necessity.

I had been horrified at first but Eclipse convinced me it was necessary. They would have destroyed us. We had to eliminate them before they eliminated us.

And then she had killed Celestia's family when they discovered our financial crimes. More murders to protect our secrets. More blood on our hands.

But Eclipse had carried the weight of all those crimes. She had been the strong one who did what needed to be done while I just benefited from her actions.

Now she was dead and I was left alone to face the consequences of everything we did.

I looked around my empty chambers and realized how isolated I had become. Eclipse was dead. Raphael barely spoke to me. The pack hated me. I had no friends and no allies.

The fake pregnancy was about to be exposed because I could not hide it much longer. Once that happened I would lose whatever little credibility I had left.

Everything was falling apart and I had no idea how to fix it. Eclipse had always been the one with the plans. She had always known what to do.

But Eclipse was gone and I did not know how to survive without her.