Chapter 38

Chapter 38
POV: Darius

The forest was quiet.

Too quiet.

Not even a bird dared to sing.

Alice leaned against me, her body trembling. The glow in her eyes faded, but the power she had just used still lingered in the air. I could feel it in my bones thick, heavy, like a storm that hadn’t passed yet.

Kael limped closer, wincing with every step. “That wasn’t Selene,” he said, voice low. “That was something else.”

Alice didn’t respond. She was staring into the trees.

“Are you hurt?” I asked her, brushing the hair from her face.

She shook her head slowly. “No. But I felt something. Something is waking up.”

I followed her gaze.

The darkness between the trees wasn’t just shadow. It moved. Shifted. Like something alive was watching.

“I think we need to go,” I said, pulling her to her feet.

“No,” she whispered. “We need to know what that is.”

Kael looked at her like she was mad. “We barely survived Luca. Now you want to walk into whatever that is?”

She turned to him, calm but clear. “Luca was trying to use Selene’s power to control me. But what if Selene wasn’t the danger all along? What if she was trying to hold something back?”

Kael frowned. “You think the Sect was hiding something worse?”

“I think,” she said, “they weren’t the only ones with secrets.”

Just then, Luca groaned on the ground.

I stepped forward, ready to strike, but Alice held out her hand. “Wait.”

Luca opened his eyes. They were no longer glowing.

He looked at Alice scared this time.

“You broke the bond,” he said softly. “You weren’t supposed to be strong enough.”

“I didn’t do it alone,” she said. “And you lied to me.”

He laughed weakly. “We all did. The Inner Circle. Even your mother.”

Alice froze.

“What did you say?”

Luca’s smile faded. “You don’t remember, do you? The memories Selene showed you... they were real. But not completely.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

Luca looked up at me. “You don’t know who she is, do you?”

“She’s Alice,” I said.

“She’s more than that,” he said. “She’s blood-bound to Selene, yes. But she’s also the daughter of one of the founding members of the Sect.”

Silence.

Alice stared at him. “My mother died when I was a baby. In a fire.”

“That’s what they told you,” Luca said. “But it wasn’t a fire. It was a sealing ritual. One your mother led. She helped trap Selene, thinking it would save the world. But it cost her everything.”

Alice’s face went pale.

“She’s alive,” Luca added. “Hidden. The last Guardian of the Gate.”

Kael stepped forward, shaking his head. “No one’s seen a Gate Guardian in over two decades.”

“Because they were hunted,” Luca said. “By us.”

The truth hit like a stone to the chest.

Alice staggered. I caught her again.

“I have to find her,” she whispered.

“Even if it’s a trap?” Kael asked.

“Especially if it is,” she said. “I need answers. I need the truth.”

She looked at Luca.

“You’re going to help me find her.”

He laughed bitterly. “After what I’ve done?”

“You owe me,” she said. “And you owe Selene.”

He looked away, ashamed, then nodded once. “There’s only one place she could be. The Hollow Temple. North of the Black Hills.”

Kael cursed under his breath. “That place’s cursed.”

“No,” Luca said. “It’s protected. That’s why the Sect never got to her.”

I tightened my grip on my sword. “Then we leave now. Before whatever’s watching us decides to step out of the trees.”

Alice nodded. “Let’s go.”

\---

The journey to the Black Hills took three days.

We moved mostly at night, avoiding the main roads. Kael found an old map buried in the ruins of a Lunari safehouse, and Luca used it to guide us. We passed ghost towns, places abandoned after the Sect rose to power, and even came across a village where the people had all gone missing. Not a soul left. Just silence.

Alice grew quieter with each mile. I didn’t push her. She was thinking, remembering.

We reached the Hollow Temple just as the sun dipped below the hills.

It wasn’t a temple in the traditional sense. More like a stone fortress carved into the cliffside, hidden behind layers of moss and rock. Nature had almost swallowed it.

The front door was sealed with a symbol I didn’t recognize.

But Alice did.

She stepped forward, reached out and the stone shifted under her hand. A pulse of light ran through the door. And then it opened.

Inside, it was dark and cold.

Dust floated through the air like snow. The walls were covered in runes and carvings. Images of Selene. Of battles. Of a girl with violet eyes.

Alice.

“This place remembers you,” I said softly.

She nodded. “It remembers everything.”

We moved deeper, through twisting halls and dead ends, until we found a chamber lit by soft blue light. In the center sat a woman hooded, her hands resting on her knees.

She looked up as we entered.

And Alice froze.

“Mother?” she whispered.

The woman smiled. “You remember.”

Alice ran to her, dropping to her knees.

“I thought you died,” she cried.

“I had to disappear,” her mother said. “To keep you safe. To keep the world safe.”

Kael and I stood back, giving them space. Even Luca kept quiet.

Alice pulled away slowly. “I saw Selene. She’s inside me. But she wasn’t trying to control me. She was trying to help.”

Her mother nodded. “She was never the enemy. She tried to stop the darkness. But the Sect your father’s Sect wanted to use her power.”

“My father?” Alice said, stunned.

Her mother’s face darkened. “You were born of two legacies. One of power. One of duty. They tried to turn that into a weapon.”

Alice looked down. “And now… something else is waking.”

Her mother stood, walking to the back wall. She placed her hand on a carving.

It shifted.

A hidden door opened.

Behind it was a stone coffin.

“What is that?” Kael asked.

Her mother turned toward us. “Not what. Who.”

She stepped aside.

Inside the coffin lay a child.

Asleep.

Alive.

“She is the First Vessel,” her mother whispered. “The one Selene tried to save. The key to the true Gate.”

Alice stepped forward, eyes wide.

“She’s me.”

Her mother nodded. “A piece of you. A split soul. Selene saved her essence during the ritual. You were born incomplete.”

“But why?” I asked.

Her mother’s voice was low. “Because the true enemy wasn’t Selene. Or the Sect.”

Kael swallowed. “Then who?”

She looked at us.

And said one word.

“The Keeper.”

\---

Outside, the wind howled.

But this time, it wasn’t natural.

It was warning us.

The Keeper was awake.

And it was coming.

Not for power.

Not for revenge.

But for balance.

Because the world had cheated death too many times.

And now the price was due.