The Rejected Luna CH31 - CH35
1130 Words
*Chapter 31: The Blood Key*
The air tasted like metal.
*Mara * sat with her back against freezing stone. Silver chains burned her wrists. Below her, the floor was carved with spirals and old words in a language she didn’t know. But the stone knew her.[Kiara]
Because every time her blood dripped, the symbols lit up red.
Drip.
Flare.
Drip.
Flare.
“Stop that,” the shadow figure said. He was just a shape in a cloak. No face. “You’re waking it up faster.”
“I don’t know what you want from me,” *Mara * whispered. Her voice shook but she forced it steady. “I’m nobody.”[Kiara]
The figure laughed, dry like paper. “The palace remembers, child of Kiara. It remembers the queen who ran. It remembers the debt of blood.”
The iron doors crashed open.
*Damien* filled the doorway. Hair wet with sweat, chest heaving, sword in hand. His eyes scanned the room and landed on her. On the blood. On the chains. His jaw clenched.
“Let her go,” he said. Low. Deadly.
“It’s too late, Prince,” the figure said. “The key has turned.”
The symbols exploded with light. Black mist poured from the center circle, alive, hungry. It wrapped around *Mara *’s ankles and dragged.[Kiara]
She screamed.
Damien didn’t hesitate. He threw down the sword and dove, grabbing her shoulders, pulling her into his chest. The mist snapped and pulled them both down into darkness.
The last thing *Mara * saw was the figure smiling.[Kiara]
---
*Chapter 32: Beneath the Palace*
Ice water.
*Mara * came up choking. The canal was black and it stung every cut on her body.
“Damien?” Panic in her voice.
“Here.” His arm locked around her waist and dragged her to a stone ledge.[Kiara]
They crawled out, dripping. The chains were gone. Magic, or the fall broke them.
One by one, torches lit along the walls. The carvings made her breath catch. Generations of kings and queens. And in the center of every mural, a woman with *Mara *’s exact eyes and dark hair. Crowned.[Kiara]
Her wrist throbbed. Blood was soaking through her sleeve.
Damien saw it. Without a word he tore fabric from his own shirt and knelt in front of her. His hands were warm and careful as he wrapped her wound.
“You’re hurt,” he murmured.
“I’m fine,” she lied. Because if she said she wasn’t, she’d fall apart.
“What is this place?” she asked instead.
“The catacombs,” Damien said, not looking up. “Where the royal family buried its mistakes. Where they buried the truth about the curse. About House Kiara.”
Footsteps. Many.
From the tunnel, the old woman appeared. Same voice, now with a face. White eyes. Too calm.
“Welcome to the origin,” she said to *Mara *. “Welcome home, Princess.”[Kiara]
---
*Chapter 33: The Origin*
The chamber was huge. In the middle: a pedestal. On it, a black crystal, pulsing like a heart.
The walls were paintings.
Panel 1: A queen with *Mara *’s face. *Queen Alina Kiara*. Holding the crystal.
Panel 2: A king with Damien’s eyes beside her.
Panel 3: Both of them bleeding onto the crystal. The kingdom burning behind them.
Panel 4: Empty. Waiting.[Kiara]
*Mara *’s legs gave out. “That’s me.”[Kiara]
“That’s your great-grandmother,” the old woman said. “She was meant to die here 100 years ago. To feed the curse and keep Luna asleep. She ran instead. Hid in the human world. Changed her name. Had children. And now you’re back.”
“I’m not a princess,” *Mara * said. “I’m not Kiara.”[Kiara]
“You are the last of the bloodline,” the woman said. “Every 100 years, the curse wakes. It needs royal blood to sleep. Yours.”
Damien stepped in front of *Mara *. “Then take mine.”[Kiara]
“You are not pure enough,” the woman cackled. “We need her. The last Kiara.”
Damien pulled a dagger. His hand shook. “And I’m supposed to kill her. That’s my duty, right? Protect the kingdom.”
He looked at *Mara *. At the bandage on her wrist. At the fear she was hiding with anger.[Kiara]
The dagger hit the floor with a clang.
“No,” Damien said. “I won’t.”
Every torch went out. In the dark, the crystal glowed brighter.
---
*Chapter 34: The Deal*
A new voice. Not the woman’s. Older. From the walls themselves.
“A prince who chooses love over duty. How novel.”
The black crystal lifted and spun between them.
“If the girl does not die,” the voice said, “then you must take her place, Damien of House Varric. Royal blood for royal blood. One must remain here. Chained to the Heart. Forever. To keep the curse sleeping.”
*Mara * grabbed Damien’s arm. “No. There’s another way.”[Kiara]
“There isn’t,” he whispered. He laced his fingers through hers. “Unless we break it.”
He looked at the crystal. At her bleeding hand.
“What if we shatter it?” he said.
The old woman laughed until tears fell. “No one survives that. It will kill you both.”
Damien squeezed *Mara *’s hand. “Then we die together. Or we live free together.”[Kiara]
The crystal pulsed, like it was listening.
---
*Chapter 35: Shatter*
No countdown. No plan.
*Mara * pressed her bleeding palm to the crystal. It burned cold.
Damien put his hand over hers.[Kiara]
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
They pushed.
For one second: nothing.
Then the crystal screamed.
Light tore the room apart. White, gold, black. The floor shook. Chains snapped. The murals cracked.
*Mara * felt like her soul was being ripped out and stitched back in. She heard Damien screaming her name.[Kiara]
Then silence.
She woke on the throne room floor. Sunlight through stained glass. The symbols gone. Air normal.
“Damien?”
He was on his knees a few feet away. Head down.
Black veins were crawling up his neck, under his skin, toward his face.
The crystal lay in pieces.
“It didn’t die,” he said, voice wrecked. “It moved. Into me.”
*Mara * crawled to him. “No, no—”[Kiara]
He looked up and tried to smile. It hurt. “Run, *Mara *. Before I can’t control it.”[Kiara]
Horns blew outside. Guards. They thought the prince was dead. They thought the girl killed him.
The curse was awake.
And it had a new host.
- Writer
