Chapter 88 Ninety one
“Do you feel that cold, sister?”
The whisper cut through the dim corridor before Ryder even reached the Moon Temple entrance. He pressed himself against the nearest column, letting the shadows swallow him as two priestesses swept past in silver robes, their steps light as falling snow.
“Yes,” the second priestess murmured. “She walked into the inner sanctum at dawn and came out… different.”
Ryder stiffened.
Sienna.
Different.
He shifted silently, keeping just enough distance to avoid the torchlight that glowed along the temple walls. The Moon Temple towered above him, carved entirely from pale stone that shimmered faintly under the night sky. He had always hated this place. Not because of its beauty, but because of its devotion to the goddess who cursed him.
The priestesses moved closer, unaware of the eyes tracking them from the shadows.
“The air froze behind her,” the first said softly. “I swear it turned colder with each step she took. And when she touched the sanctum door, the runes lit up on their own.”
Ryder exhaled slowly. His pulse tightened. Runes lighting for Sienna? She had no divine blood. No lineage tied to Lunaris.
Unless the goddess had touched her.
The possibility made his breath burn.
The priestesses continued down the corridor. Ryder followed, moving like a shadow stitched to the walls. His boots made no sound against the polished stone. His curse pulsed in time with every heartbeat, making the temple’s cold air feel like needles against his skin.
“What did the High Priestess say?” the second whispered.
“She refused to speak of it. Only told us to stay away from the Queen until the omen is interpreted.”
Omen.
Ryder’s jaw clenched. They spoke of Sienna like she was a myth rather than a woman. A woman with skin the color of dusk, hair that curled like dark smoke, and eyes that once softened when they looked at him. A woman who carried too much weight on her shoulders and still managed to stand straighter than anyone else in the kingdom.
He reached the archway leading to the temple’s inner hall. The moment he stepped inside, the air hit him like a punch. Cold. Heavy. Saturated with something ancient.
It smelled like moonlight and rain on stone.
“Sienna was here,” he breathed.
The words tasted like longing.
A flicker of movement along the far wall caught his attention. A sheet of silver light shimmered across the mural of Lunaris, the goddess rising with wings that reached from floor to ceiling. Ryder stared at it, tense. The eyes carved into the stone appeared almost aware, watching him, mocking him.
“You want her too,” he whispered to the carving. “Don’t pretend you don’t.”
The goddess did not answer.
Ryder stepped farther inside, muscles tight, senses sharpened. His curse twisted again, clawing at his chest as if trying to drag him toward the heart of the temple. He fought it, forcing his breath to slow.
He needed to find where Sienna went. What she touched. Who she spoke to.
He reached the doorway leading into the sanctum, the holiest room in the temple, barred to all except the High Priestess and the Queen.
The silver doors were half open.
He froze.
That had never happened before. Not in any lifetime, not in any history he remembered.
He pushed one door with his palm. It glided silently, opening into a chamber bathed in pale blue glow.
“Sienna,” he murmured.
There was no sign of her, but her presence clung to the room like a second skin. He could feel her fear lingering in the air, sharp as glass. He could feel her confusion, her desperation.
She had stood here and faced something she should never have touched.
Ryder stepped into the room. The floor was carved into concentric circles filled with lunar symbols. The center circle pulsed faintly, hot against the cold air, as if still reacting to someone’s presence.
As if reacting to Sienna.
“What did you do here?” Ryder whispered.
He knelt and touched the floor.
The moment his fingers met the stone, a shock wave hit him.
Not pain.
Memory.
Sienna, standing alone at the center of the sanctum. Her hair lifting as if underwater. Her eyes glowing silver. Her lips parting as if she were speaking to someone no one else could see.
Then a sound. A whisper.
Ryder jerked his hand away, heart hammering.
Her voice. Calling out. Not in fear, not in pain…
In recognition.
“You saw something,” a soft voice said from the doorway.
Ryder spun to his feet instantly, dropping into a defensive stance. The curse flared bright beneath his skin, ready to strike.
But it wasn’t an enemy.
It was the High Priestess.
She walked toward him steadily, her long silver dress trailing behind her. Her hair was the color of moonlight and braided in intricate strands. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and her eyes glistened like frost.
“Your presence here is forbidden,” she said calmly, as though speaking to a child caught wandering. “And dangerous.”
“Where is she?” Ryder demanded.
The High Priestess did not flinch. “You should not be here, cursed one.”
“Where is she?” he repeated, stepping closer.
The High Priestess’s expression shifted, something like pity flickering behind her eyes. “You must leave before the goddess feels you in her walls.”
“I’m not afraid of your goddess.”
“You should be.” Her voice dropped lower. “Because she is watching you more than anyone.”
Ryder moved closer again. “Sienna came here. She touched something. She is in danger.”
The High Priestess hesitated. Her hands tightened around the wooden staff she carried. “The Queen’s soul was tested here.”
“Tested by what?”
“By whom,” she corrected. “By the one you hate above all others.”
Lunaris.
Ryder’s pulse quickened. His curse throbbed violently, responding to the goddess’s name like an old wound ripped open.
“What did she do to her?” Ryder growled.
The High Priestess closed her eyes briefly. “She marked her.”
Ryder froze.
Marked.
As if Sienna was no longer just Queen… but claimed.
“What kind of mark?” he demanded, voice low and dangerous.
“Something ancient. Something older than the throne.” Her voice grew quiet. “And she didn’t resist it.”
The words shook him.
Sienna would never willingly bind herself to Lunaris. Unless the goddess manipulated her. Or forced her. Or disguised herself as someone Sienna trusted.
Unless Sienna thought she was saving him.
Ryder’s jaw tightened. “You’re telling me she walked in here human and walked out something else.”
“Not something.” The priestess stepped back. “Someone. The goddess sees her as her echo.”
Ryder felt cold ripple through him.
Echo.
The same word the goddess whispered in his dreams. The same word burning in every vision.
The High Priestess took another step back. “You should leave. Your presence will draw her here.”
“I’m not leaving without Sienna.”
“You may not have a choice. The goddess is not the only one searching tonight.”
Ryder frowns. “Who else?”
The High Priestess’s gaze shifted to the sanctum entrance behind him. Her expression changed into something sharp, frightened.
“Run,” she whispered.
Ryder turned,
And every torch in the hall extinguished at once.
Blackness swallowed the room.
A cold wind tore across his skin.
A voice, soft and familiar, drifted through the darkness.
“Ryder…”
His blood froze.
It was Sienna’s voice.
But he knew instantly,
It wasn’t her.
Something had mimicked her perfectly.
He breathed out, slow, controlled, but his heart hammered hard enough to shake his ribs.
The High Priestess whispered again, barely audible.
“She is calling you through the curse. If you answer, she will find you.”
The darkness deepened, pressing against him, alive and hungry.
Then the voice came again, sweeter, closer, curling around his ears like a breath.
“Ryder… come to me.”
He felt the curse pull violently toward the sound.
He dug his nails into his palms.
“Not her,” he whispered through clenched teeth. “Not you.”
The shadows lunged.