Chapter 61
Chapter 61
Chapter Sixty_one
Selene’s POV
The fall did not feel like falling.
It felt like being pulled through the skin of the world, like the mountain was swallowing us whole. Light rushed around us in spirals. Heat pressed against my ribs. Kai’s hand stayed locked in mine. His grip was desperate and warm, the only real thing in the blinding silver.
Then the light snapped away.
Silence fell like a curtain.
My knees hit solid ground. The impact jolted up my spine. For a moment I could not breathe. Everything shimmered around us in waves of white and shadow.
Kai landed beside me, catching himself on one arm. He groaned softly. Blood seeped through the torn fabric across his chest. His skin looked too pale. Too drained.
“Kai. Stay with me.”
He nodded once, jaw clenched in determination. “Where are we?”
I looked up.
The Core.
I knew it before the thought formed. The chamber stretched endlessly above us, a vertical chasm of black stone lit by veins of silver that snaked across walls like living rivers. The air hummed with a slow pulse, steady and deep, shaking dust loose from the higher ledges.
The ground beneath us was smooth and white. It glowed faintly, warm to the touch when my fingertips brushed the surface. Patterns writhed beneath the glassy floor as if something moved inside it.
Kai forced himself upright. “This place is wrong.”
“It is alive,” I whispered.
The pulse answered me with a slow throb.
He reached for his weapon. The grip trembled in his hand, but he held on. “Then we get out before it decides we belong here.”
I wanted to agree. I really did.
But the silver veins along my arms brightened, crawling toward my wrists like threads of light. My heartbeat synced with the Core’s rhythm. Every breath tasted like knowledge and danger.
The mountain wanted me.
And it was done pretending.
A soft glow appeared on the far side of the chamber. At first, I thought it was just another vein of light. But it spread upward, forming a shape. A silhouette. A woman.
Her presence filled the space the way sunrise fills a cold valley.
Long hair. Silver eyes. The tilt of her head. The calm curve of her lips.
The First Queen.
Not a memory. Not a reflection. Not a dream.
She was here.
Kai stepped between us instantly, planting himself in front of me with shaking legs. “Stay away from her.”
The First Queen smiled faintly. “Your loyalty is admirable, little Alpha.”
Kai snarled softly. “Try me.”
I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Kai. It is not a fight you can win right now.”
His muscles stayed tense under my touch, but he did not move aside.
The Queen’s voice softened. “Selene. You came at last.”
“I did not want to.”
“Yet you did.” She stepped forward, her feet leaving no prints on the glowing floor. “You came because you know what waits above. A heartbeat growing louder. A mountain that refuses to sleep. A world that expects you to silence it. You came because you cannot deny what you are.”
“I am not your heir,” I said, the words tasting like iron.
“You are not my heir,” she agreed. “You are my continuation.”
She raised her hand. The veins on my skin flared as if answering her call.
Kai swayed slightly beside me. Sweat beaded on his forehead. “Selene. Do not let her take you.”
The Queen’s eyes flicked to him. “He feels it too. Your pulse is tied to his. He is your anchor. He is the only reason you have not already cracked beneath the weight.”
“You do not get to use him,” I snapped.
Her expression did not change. “I do not need to. He is already part of the rhythm. That is the nature of anchors. They hold you even as they drown.”
Kai growled low and dangerously. “Keep talking. I dare you.”
The Queen ignored him. She extended her hand toward me again. “Come closer.”
“No.”
“Step forward.”
“No.”
She tilted her head. “Then I will pull.”
The floor beneath us split with a sudden crack. Silver light shot upward. I stumbled but Kai held me by the waist, teeth gritted against the pain in his side.
The Queen’s voice carried through the rising light. “Your blood carries the throne's memory. The Core awakens because you woke it. Every breath you take shapes it. Every beat you give strengthens it.”
“I did not ask for this.”
“No one ever asks. The world chooses what it needs.”
The Core pulsed again. Stronger. Louder. The entire chamber vibrated, dust raining from high above.
Kai tightened his grip around me. “Back away. Now.”
The Queen’s eyes softened as though she pitied him. “Dear Alpha. You hold the edge of a storm with bare hands. Do you not understand what you are fighting?”
He lifted his chin. “Her fate will not be decided by you. Not anymore.”
His defiance struck something deep within me. My heart twisted painfully. My veins burned. The light beneath the floor flickered as though reflecting the chaos inside me.
The Queen’s expression sharpened. “He weakens you. He holds you to a world that cannot contain what you are becoming.”
“Say another word,” Kai said quietly. “And I will show you weakness.”
The Queen’s gaze returned to me. “You cannot ascend while chained to him.”
“Then I will not ascend.”
“And if the mountain rises. If the world breaks open. If the Core asks for blood.”
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“What happens then?”
The floor split open between us. A fissure of blinding light roared upward. The Queen stepped back, dissolving into the glow like smoke.
Her final words echoed around the chamber.
“You will understand when the choice comes.”
The light snapped shut. The chamber went silent.
Kai sagged against me, breathing hard. I held him up, pressing my forehead to his shoulder.
He whispered, voice raw. “Tell me you are still here.”
“I am.”
“Tell me she did not get inside your head.”
“She did not.”
It was a lie.
A soft pulse answered beneath the floor.
The Core was awake.
And it wanted me next.