Chapter 29 - The Moon Goddess
1183 Words
*Elara – pov*
Darkness wrapped around me softly. Not frightening. I felt weightless. Strange.
For a moment I thought perhaps I had died.
Then I realized I could still feel.
Cold grass beneath my fingertips.
Wind against my skin.
The distant pull of grief and panic somewhere far away.
Riaden.
The thought drifted through me instinctively.
Alive.
I felt him alive.
Relief spread through me before confusion followed immediately after.
Where was I?
Slowly, the darkness around me began to change.
Silver mist curled at my feet while moonlight appeared overhead impossibly bright against an endless midnight sky.
The air smelled like rain and wildflowers.
Familiar.
I stood alone in a vast field beneath a full moon larger than any moon should be.
“Adira?” I called in my mind.
And I wasn’t alone for long.
A low rumbling growl rolled softly behind me.
I turned slowly.
Adira stepped from the mist. She was magnificent. Terrifyingly massive but gorgeous.
Her snow-white coat shimmered beneath the moonlight with that same faint blue sheen I had seen before losing consciousness. Ice-blue eyes rimmed in black fixed on me with startling intelligence.
My breath caught.
“You’re real.”
Adira snorted softly and lowered herself gracefully onto the silver grass before me.
Of course I’m real.
Her voice no longer sounded distant inside my mind.
Now it surrounded me completely.
I stepped closer slowly.
“You’re beautiful.”
Adira’s tail flicked once.
Of course.
Despite everything, I laughed. A soft startled laugh that cracked through the fear crushing my chest.
Then memories and emotion hit me violently.
Raiden collapsing.
Lucien.
The storm.
The agony of changing.
My knees nearly gave out.
“Raiden—”
Alive.
Relief nearly made me cry but Adira’s expression remained serious.
You healed him. He is fearful that he his losing you.
Guilt twisted through me instantly.
“I didn’t know what was happening.”
None of us did.
I looked around the endless moonlit field.
“Where are we?”
“Adira’s birth realm.”
The unfamiliar feminine voice drifted across the mist like music.
Power rolled through the air instantly.
I turned sharply and saw her.
A woman stood several feet away dressed in flowing silver-white fabric that moved like water around her body. Her dark hair spilled freely down her back while glowing pale eyes watched me knowingly.
Beautiful didn’t begin to describe her. Neither did terrifying.
Devine.
The moonlight itself seemed drawn toward her.
Adira immediately lowered her head beside me.
My pulse quickened.
“Moon Goddess,” I whispered without understanding how I knew.
The Moon Goddess smiled softly.
“You know me because your soul remembers me.”
Emotion clogged unexpectedly in my throat.
Everything about her felt familiar somehow.
Safe.
Ancient sadness flickered briefly across her expression while she approached us slowly.
“You have your mother’s heart,” she said quietly.
The words nearly shattered me.
“You knew her?”
Selene’s eyes softened.
“I loved her.”
Tears burned instantly behind my eyes.
The goddess reached out gently and brushed cool fingers against my cheek.
“She fought very hard for you, little wolf.”
My voice trembled.
“She died because of me.”
“No.”
The word echoed with startling force across the field.
“She died protecting the hope that you embody, little wolf.”
Silence settled heavily around us.
Adira moved closer against my side.
I swallowed hard.
“What exactly am I?”
Selene studied me carefully for several long seconds.
Then finally answered.
“You are the child of the prophecy.”
The world seemed to still.
“What prophecy?”
The goddess turned slightly, moonlight illuminating her face almost painfully bright now.
“For years the supernatural world has been divided and ruled by fear, bloodshed and pride.”
Images flickered suddenly around us.
Wolves fighting.
Witches burning.
Vampires drenched in blood.
War.
“The balance was broken long ago.”
The visions shifted again.
A white wolf.
A woman with green eyes.
A baby wrapped in silver cloth.
“You were born beneath a silver moon,” Selene continued softly. “A child carrying both wolf and witch. A pureblood hybrid”
My chest tightened painfully.
“The last child of the royal bloodline.”
Adira lifted her head proudly.
Queen.
“No,” I whispered immediately. “No. I’m a veterinarian. I am human, I’m not—”
“You are exactly what you were born to be.”
Panic clawed suddenly through me.
“This is insane.”
Selene’s gaze sharpened slightly.
“Truth does not become madness simply because it frightens you.”
I looked away breathing hard because part of me already knew.
The visions.
The power.
Adira.
Raiden.
Everything inside me had been changing long before I admitted it aloud.
“I can’t do this.”
Adira nudged her massive head against my shoulder.
Yes we can.
“No,” I whispered shakily. “People will die because of me.”
Selene’s expression grew unbearably sad.
“People will die regardless.”
Silence.
Wind moved softly through the silver grass around us.
Then the goddess spoke again.
“Lucien feared your father because he united supernatural beings through strength and loyalty.”
Images shifted again around us.
A stark white wolf standing beside a red-haired witch queen.
Powerful.
Beloved.
“Your mother frightened him because she could see the future.”
The vision darkened suddenly.
Blood.
Fire.
Betrayal.
“And you,” Selene said quietly, “terrify him because you are both.”
Cold spread slowly through me.
“Lucien tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“He killed my parents.”
Selene said nothing but silence answered loudly enough. Rage flickered suddenly beneath my skin.
Adira growled softly beside me.
We will avenge our parents.
The goddess stepped closer again.
“You awakened tonight because your soul chose love over fear.”
Raiden’s face flashed instantly through my mind.
Broken beneath Lucien’s foot.
Pain exploded through my chest all over again.
“I thought he was dying.”
“And you broke every chain binding your true nature to save him.”
I closed my eyes briefly.
“I was terrified.”
Selene smiled faintly.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, little wolf.”
I opened my eyes slowly.
“What happens now?”
The goddess’s expression became serious once more.
“You will not wake until you truly accept who you are.”
My stomach tightened.
“And if I don’t?”
“Then your body will remain sleeping between worlds.”
Fear spiked sharply.
Raiden.
My parents.
Rosewood.
Adira stepped fully beside me now.
We choose.
I looked up at the enormous moon overhead.
At the endless silver mist surrounding us.
At the goddess waiting patiently before me.
Then finally whispered the truth I had been fighting since arriving at Rosewood.
“I’m afraid.”
Selene’s eyes softened.
“I know.”
The goddess touched my forehead gently.
“But destiny does not wait for fear to pass.”
- Writer
