Obsessed By Moonlight

The awakening

Elena’s senses returned slowly, as if she were rising from the depths of a dark, endless ocean. For a moment, she was weightless, floating in nothingness. There was no sound, no light—only an overwhelming stillness, like the world had been paused.

Then, a voice shattered the silence.

“Elena… Elena, wake up!”

Elena’s eyes flew open, and she gasped, sucking in a ragged breath as though she had been drowning. Her heart thundered in her chest, and every muscle in her body felt like it had been torn apart and stitched back together.

“Elena!” Lucien’s face hovered above hers, his eyes wide with panic and relief. His hands gripped her shoulders, shaking her gently. “Are you okay?”

Elena blinked, disoriented. The cavern was gone. The Guardian was gone. They were lying on soft grass beneath a sky full of stars. A cool breeze rustled the leaves of the nearby trees, and the air smelled fresh and clean, like rain.

“What… happened?” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

“You did it,” Lucien said, his voice thick with emotion. “You stopped the Guardian. You saved us.”

Elena struggled to sit up, wincing as a sharp pain shot through her head. “I… I don’t remember.”

“You grabbed the Source,” Selene said, stepping into view. She looked shaken but unharmed, though her usual cold, composed expression was tinged with awe. “There was a massive surge of magic. You destroyed the Guardian—and the cavern collapsed. We barely made it out in time.”

Elena frowned, trying to piece together the fragments of her memory. She remembered the Guardian’s claws closing around the Source. She remembered the blinding light. And then… nothing.

“Where’s the Source now?” she asked, glancing around.

Lucien and Selene exchanged a look.

“Elena… the Source is inside you,” Selene said quietly.

Elena stared at her, her mind reeling. “What do you mean, inside me?”

“When you grabbed it, you absorbed its power,” Lucien explained. “It became part of you.”

Elena shook her head, panic rising in her chest. “No… that’s not possible.”

“It is,” Selene said. “The Source is ancient magic—older than anything in this world. It chose you, Elena. That’s why it didn’t destroy you.”

Elena’s hands trembled as she looked down at them. Her skin tingled with a strange, thrumming energy, and when she concentrated, she could feel the power pulsing beneath the surface—dark, immense, and alive.

“I don’t want this,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “I didn’t ask for this.”

“I know,” Lucien said gently, taking her hands in his. “But we’ll figure it out. Together.”

Elena looked into his eyes, and for a moment, the fear subsided. Lucien’s presence was steadying, like an anchor in the storm.

“What happens now?” Mia asked, her voice breaking the silence. She and Cassie stood a few feet away, their faces pale and drawn.

“Now, we go back,” Selene said. “Damien won’t stop until he has the Source—and now that it’s inside Elena, she’s his target.”

Elena’s heart sank. She had known, deep down, that their fight with Damien wasn’t over. If anything, it had just begun.

“We can’t run forever,” Elena said, her jaw tightening. “If Damien wants the Source, he’ll have to come for me. And when he does, we’ll be ready.”

Lucien’s eyes darkened, and a cold, dangerous smile curved his lips. “He won’t know what hit him.”

Selene nodded approvingly. “Good. Because with the power of the Source, you might be the only one who can stop him.”

Elena took a deep breath, trying to steady the whirlwind of emotions inside her. Fear, anger, determination—they all swirled together, fueling the dark power that now lived within her.

She wasn’t the same girl she had been when this all began. The Source had changed her. And while she didn’t fully understand what that meant yet, one thing was clear.

She wasn’t afraid anymore.

“Let’s go,” she said, rising to her feet. “It’s time to end this.”

Lucien stood beside her, his eyes filled with pride—and something darker, more dangerous. He wasn’t just her protector anymore. He was her equal, her partner in the fight to come.

As they set off into the night, Elena felt the power of the Source thrumming in her veins, and for the first time, she understood what Selene had meant.

She wasn’t just a girl anymore.

She was a force to be reckoned with.