Selene’s POV
The dagger quivered in the stone.
Not from wind.
Not from magic.
From me.
Or what I was becoming.
I stood in the middle of the shattered Hall, breath coming fast, shoulders tense, and a thousand memories—mine, not mine, future and past—swirling in my blood like poison and prophecy.
The Mother wasn’t overtaking me.
She wasn’t breaking me.
She was blending.
Merging piece by piece with who I was, erasing the lines between vessel and void, voice and silence.
Kade didn’t move.
He watched me like a man staring at both his salvation and his executioner.
And I couldn’t even tell him which I was.
“She’s unstable,” Lira said, stepping forward, blade half-raised. “We can’t wait. We finish it now.”
Kade blocked her path. “Touch her and I’ll gut you.”
“She’s not Selene anym
