THE HALF-BLOOD LUNA

Chapter 9

I woke up with the strange feeling that something had changed again. Not in the room.Not in the castle. In me, I tried to recall what happened last night, but I couldn't really remember much.

The knock came earlier than usual. One knock.Not repeated.Just… certain.

When I opened my eyes, I already knew it was Eric. And I was right. The door opened before I could answer.

Eric stepped in and stopped almost immediately.

“You didn’t sleep,” he said.

I sat up slowly. “Is it becoming a habit for you to say that?”

“It’s becoming a habit for you to do it,” he replied. That would have been normal before. Almost playful. But today, his voice carried something different.

Less light.

More alert.

I noticed it.

“What?” I asked quietly.

Eric hesitated.

Then shook his head slightly. “Nothing. The steward wants you later.”

That was all.

But he didn’t leave immediately.

He lingered.

Like he was deciding whether to say something else.

Then…
 “I’ll be outside,” he added.

And left. I watched the door close.

Slowly. The bath felt the same. The breakfast looked the same. But I did not. I kept thinking about the hidden hallway. Not just the door.But the feeling behind it.

Like the castle had briefly exhaled when I stood there. Eric led me out as usual.

But this time, he didn’t talk much. The silence between us wasn’t comfortable anymore.

It was careful. I finally broke it.

“You’re acting strange today.”

Eric glanced at me. “Am I?”

“Yes.”

A pause.

Then he gave a short breath that wasn’t quite a laugh.

“I’m just paying attention,” he said.

“That sounds worse.”

“Probably it is.”

We turned a corner. And the air shifted. Again.

Not pressure.

Not present.

Memory.

I slowed before I saw it. Eric did not stop me this time. The corridor ahead was the same one.

The older wing.

Less used.

Quieter.

And at the end.The door.Still slightly ajar.

I stopped walking completely. Eric stopped beside me. This time, he didn’t speak first.

That was enough for me. I took one step forward. Then another. Eric did not follow.

But he did not stop me either.

The door creaked softly as I pushed it open wider.

The room was the same.

Still.

Dustless.

Old in a way that felt preserved rather than abandoned.

And on the far wall

The crescent symbol.

But now, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. Not the shape.

The marks around it.

Scratches.

Thin lines carved outward, like something had been erased repeatedly.

Not destroyed.

Hidden.

Her breath slowed.

“Eric,” I said quietly.

No answer. I turned slightly. He was still at the doorway.

Watching.But not stepping closer. I looked back at the wall.

Then stepped inside fully.

As I approached the symbol, something subtle changed. The air.Not warmer.Not colder.

Sharper.

I reached out slowly—

“Don’t.”

Eric’s voice cut through the room.

Firm now.

No softness.

No hesitation.

I froze. My hand hovered just above the stone. Silence stretched.

Then Eric stepped inside for the first time.

Slowly.

Carefully.

Like crossing a line he had avoided for a long time.

“You’re not supposed to interact with that,” he said.

I didn’t move. “You said it was forgotten.”

“It is,” he replied.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Eric exhaled through his nose.

For the first time since I met him, he didn’t look playful.

He didn’t look shy.

He looked… careful.

“Some things are forgotten,” he said slowly, “because remembering them causes problems.”

I turned slightly toward him.

“Like what?”

Eric hesitated.

Then:
 “Like people asking questions they shouldn’t survive answers to.”

Silence.

I lowered my hand slightly.

But I didn’t step away. Instead, I looked at the symbol again.

And this time, I noticed something impossible.

A faint warmth under the stone.

Not physical heat.

Something deeper.

Like a pulse.

I pulled her hand back instantly. Eric stepped forward quickly, faster than she had ever seen him move.

He grabbed her wrist gently but firmly.

“Don’t,” he said again.

Closer now.

Lower voice.

Urgent.

I stared at him.

“Why does it feel like it’s alive?”

Eric didn’t answer immediately.

Then he said quietly:

“Because it used to be.”

That sentence dropped into the room like a weight.

I went still.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Eric looked at the symbol for a long moment.

Then released my wrist slowly.

“It means,” he said, “that this part of the castle was sealed for a reason.”

My voice lowered.

“What reason?”

Eric shook his head slightly.

“I don’t know everything,” he said.

But his eyes said something else.

He knew more than he was allowed to say.

“What is going on here?” Olenna appeared

“The veiled one.” Eric bowed

“You are not supposed to be here,” she said

We left the room. Neither of us spoke immediately.

The corridor felt longer on the way back.

Heavier.

I finally broke the silence.

“If it’s dangerous, why is it still here?”

Eric glanced at me.

Then looked forward again.

“Because the castle doesn’t remove history,” he said. “It locks it away.”

I frowned. “That sounds the same.”

“It isn’t,” Eric said quietly.

A pause.

Then:
 “Locked things can still be opened.”

That stayed in the air longer than anything else he had said so far.

We turned into a wider corridor.

And I felt it immediately. Presence.

Kira.

But this time, she was waiting. Not casually.

Not by chance.

Standing exactly where our path would cross.

Eric slowed slightly beside me. Too late to turn back.

Kira looked up.

Only at me first.

Then Eric.

Then the space between them. A soft smile formed.

“I was wondering,” she said lightly, “how long it would take you to come back here.”

I didn’t answer.

Kira stepped forward once.

Then stopped.

Her gaze flicked briefly in the direction we came from.

The older wing.

Then back to me.

“Oh,” Kira said softly.

Not a question.

A realization.

I felt Eric shift slightly beside her.

Kira’s smile widened just a fraction.

“So you found it,” she said.

Silence.

My heart slowed. Eric didn’t speak.

Kira tilted her head slightly.

“How interesting,” she murmured.

Then she stepped aside.

Letting them pass. But as I walked forward

Kira spoke again.

Soft.

Almost kind.

“You should be careful what you wake up inside a sleeping castle.”

I stopped. Just for a second. I turned my head slightly.

But Kira was already walking away.

Not watching me anymore. As if she had already seen enough.

Later that night, the maids came in as usual. The bathwater was almost too warm.

I sank deeper into it anyway, letting the heat ease some of the stiffness from my muscles while the maids worked quietly around me. One washed my hair while another poured scented water over my shoulders.

For a while, nobody spoke.

But the question had been bothering me since yesterday.

“What was behind that sealed door?”

The room fell silent.

I looked up.

The maids exchanged nervous glances.

“You shouldn’t worry about it, my lady,” Sara said.

That only made me more curious.

“Then why does nobody want to talk about it?”

No one answered immediately.

Finally, Selene lowered her gaze.

“It was once the birth room of the late Luna.”

Lucien’s mother.

I frowned.

“What happened there?”

Selene hesitated.

“Before His Grace was born, Luna gave birth to another child.”

Something in her voice made my stomach tighten.

“The child was cursed.”

The words hung heavily in the air.

I sat a little straighter.

“Cursed how?”

“No one knows the full truth anymore,” Vexa whispered. “Only stories remain.”

Selene continued.

“They say strange things happened wherever the child went. Servants vanished. Animals were found dead. People heard voices when no one was there.”

A chill crept down my spine.

“What happened to the child?”

“The High Priestess, the veiled one, Olenna, was called to the castle.”

They seemed uncomfortable even saying it.

“She performed rituals,” Sara said quietly. “Prayers. Sacrifices. Ancient rites that lasted several nights.”

I swallowed.

“And then?”

“The child vanished.”

The answer came so softly I almost missed it.

Nobody spoke for several moments.

“Vanished?” I repeated. Vexa nodded.

“Some believed it was destroyed. Others believed it was sealed away. No one truly knows.”

My thoughts immediately drifted to the locked room.

The scratching sounds.

The feeling that someone or something had been watching me.

“If it vanished,” I asked slowly, “why seal the room?”

The maids exchanged another glance.

None of them answered.

And somehow that frightened me more than the story itself.

That night, sleep refused to come.

Rain battered the windows while thunder rolled across the mountains beyond the castle.

I lay awake, staring at the dark canopy above my bed. That night, sleep came easier than I expected.

The last thing I remembered was the sound of rain against the windows.

Then darkness.

Then warmth.

I was no longer in my chamber.

I stood beneath a sky painted gold. Not the pale gold of sunrise.

The rich gold of the world bathed in endless summer. A garden stretched before me. White flowers climbed stone walls.

Fountains sparkled beneath the sunlight.

And laughter echoed through the air.

My laughter.

I knew it before I even heard it.

The sound tugged at something deep inside me.

Something forgotten. I followed it. The garden opened into a courtyard.

Children ran across the grass.

Servants hurried along stone paths.

Banners fluttered from high towers. The sight should have felt unfamiliar.

Instead, it felt like home.

A strange ache settled in my chest. As though I had been gone for far too long. My gaze drifted upward. The banners caught the wind.

I couldn’t quite make out the symbol embroidered on them.

Only the shape of the silver thread gleaming in the sun.

Then I noticed someone watching me. An elderly woman sat beside a fountain.

Her silver hair spilled over one shoulder.

Her face was blurred, as though hidden behind a veil.

Yet somehow I knew she was smiling.

“Come here, little star.”

The words slipped through me like a memory.

I froze.

The woman opened her arms.

For one impossible moment, I wanted to run to her.

I wanted to bury my face against her shoulder and ask why everything hurt.

Why I felt so lost.

I felt like I had forgotten something important.

But before I could move

The dream shifted. The sunlight vanished. The garden darkened. The fountains stopped flowing.

A cold wind swept through the courtyard.

The woman stood abruptly.

For the first time, fear entered her voice.

“Nyra.”

My heart stumbled.

She had called me that before, in the dream. Strange certainty that lingered around her.

“Listen to me carefully.”

The air trembled.

The towers around us began to crack.

Stone crumbled from the walls. Far away, bells started ringing.

Loud.

Urgent.

A warning.

The woman reached toward me. I tried to reach back.

But darkness rushed between us.

“You—”

Her voice broke apart.

The world shook.

“Need to know the truth, let me in—”

A deafening roar swallowed the rest.

The courtyard collapsed.

The sky split open.

And for a single terrifying second, I saw something falling from the heavens.

Not a star.Not a meteor.

A crown.

Silver and shining.

Plunging toward the earth.

Then I woke up.

My breath caught in my throat.

The room was dark.

Silent.

The dream is already slipping away. Except for one thing. The woman had called me a little star.

I knew that.

I knew it with absolute certainty.

I noticed something lying on my pillow beside me. A single white flower.

Freshly picked.

Still covered in dew.

The same flower that had grown in the garden from my dream.

And my chamber door had never opened………………

What is all this about? Who do I turn to, how do I let her in? Was she the one from last night who turned my lock?