Selene’s POV
She stepped out behind me—clean, radiant, her smile calm as moonlight.
Not a scratch.
Not a tear in her cloak.
And the crowd saw her first.
Not me.
Not the one who bled to win.
They saw her.
And they believed.
“Luna,” someone whispered.
The word struck like a blade.
Not from betrayal.
From certainty.
Because to them, that word had already chosen a body.
And it wasn’t mine.
Lira was the first to break rank.
She didn’t kneel.
But she didn’t step forward either.
Her hand hovered at her side, fingers flexing like she couldn’t remember whether she’d once sworn loyalty to me.
Kade was worse.
He looked between us—his face pale, eyes dark with panic.
“Say something,” I rasped.
My voice was raw.
Hoarse from screaming in the Hall of Bones.
He opened his mouth.
C
