The Sister in the Snow
1962 Words
The woman outside the library window was gone.
Luna got to the glass a second too late.
Snow blanketed the garden below, untouched except for a single set of footprints heading toward the northern woods.
Gabriel stepped up beside her.
His face had gone pale.
“You saw her.”
“Yeah.”
Luna lifted the reflected Book.
Selene’s silver portrait still sat across the page.
“She looked like me.”
Gabriel stared at the name.
His lips moved, but nothing came out.
“Dad?”
He gripped the edge of the table.
“Selene.”
“You know her.”
He shut his eyes.
“I knew a baby with that name.”
Luna’s chest tightened.
“What baby?”
Gabriel looked out toward the dark window.
“Your sister.”
The words landed softly.
But they still broke everything.
Luna stared at him.
“My what?”
Gabriel turned back.
Pain filled his gray eyes.
“You had a twin.”
The library door opened behind them.
Darius stood there in loose black trousers and an unbuttoned shirt, his hair messy from sleep.
His gaze moved from Luna’s shocked face to Gabriel.
“What happened?”
Luna could barely get it out.
“I have a sister.”
Darius went completely still.
Then he crossed the room and stopped beside her.
He didn’t ask if she was okay.
They both already knew she wasn’t.
His hand just found hers.
Gabriel looked down at the bracelet in Luna’s palm.
“There were two,” he said.
“Two bracelets?”
“Yeah.”
“One for each of you.”
Luna opened her fingers.
Always choose freely.
The words suddenly felt unfinished.
“Why don’t I remember her?”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“You were separated as infants.”
“By who?”
“I don’t know.”
Luna pulled her hand out of Darius’s.
Not because she wanted distance from him.
Because the anger needed somewhere to go.
“You don’t know?”
“I thought she died.”
“That answer is getting really popular in this family.”
Gabriel flinched.
Darius stayed quiet beside her.
Luna paced away from the window.
“My brother was alive.”
“Yes.”
“My father was alive.”
“Yes.”
“Now my twin sister was alive too?”
Gabriel lowered his head.
“Yes.”
“And everyone just forgot to mention her?”
“I didn’t forget.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because your mother doesn’t remember Selene.”
The anger stopped cold.
Luna stared at him.
“What?”
Gabriel looked toward the doorway.
“Amara believes she only gave birth to one daughter.”
Darius’s grip tightened on the back of a nearby chair.
“Her memories were altered.”
“Yes.”
“By Cassian?” Luna asked.
“I thought so.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“But Cassian never knew about Selene.”
The Book turned another page on its own.
A new line appeared.
ONE DAUGHTER CARRIED CHOICE.
Another followed.
ONE DAUGHTER CARRIED THE DOOR.
Luna looked at Darius.
“The door to what?”
He read it again.
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel did.
Or at least, he had a guess.
Luna saw it on his face.
“Tell me.”
He hesitated.
Darius’s voice went cold.
“Don’t make her ask twice.”
Gabriel looked at him.
Then back at Luna.
“When Amara was pregnant, something kept trying to get into her dreams.”
“What?”
“We never found out what it was.”
A cold pulse moved through Luna’s Varden bonds.
Far away, the guardians felt it too.
Darius picked up on her reaction through the bond.
“The Nameless?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Older.”
“That’s… annoyingly vague,” Darius muttered.
Gabriel almost smiled.
Then he got serious again.
“It wanted a body born without a fully anchored soul.”
Luna looked at Selene’s portrait.
“And because Solara’s soul split…”
“One child carried power,” Gabriel said. “The other was born with space inside her.”
Darius stepped closer to Luna.
“Space for what?”
Gabriel looked out at the dark garden.
“A passage.”
The Book slammed shut.
A knock hit the library door.
Three slow taps.
Everyone turned.
Darius moved Luna behind him.
She grabbed his arm.
“Stay with me.”
He looked down at her.
“Someone’s outside.”
“I noticed.”
Another three knocks.
Not at the door this time.
At the window.
A figure stood there.
Tall.
Still.
Wrapped in pale cloth.
No face under the hood.
Darius’s claws came out.
“How did she cross the boundary?”
Gabriel whispered, “She’s Vale.”
The figure’s gaze landed on him.
Something cracked in her expression.
“Father.”
Gabriel took a step toward the glass.
Luna grabbed him.
“Wait.”
He stopped.
It clearly hurt him to do it.
The figure looked at Luna next.
Her lips curved slightly.
“You were always suspicious.”
Luna’s breath caught.
The voice came through the glass like it didn’t need the window at all.
“You remember me?”
“No.”
Her smile faded a little.
“But I remember you.”
Darius stepped in front of the window.
“Use the door.”
She looked at him.
“You’re the Alpha.”
“Darius.”
“Kael’s echo.”
His body went rigid.
Luna’s golden mark flashed.
“His name is Darius.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
Then she nodded.
“Darius.”
No pushback.
No argument.
That somehow made it worse.
Luna stepped away from the window.
A few moments later, footsteps echoed down the hall.
The library door opened.
She stood there without a weapon.
Snow melted off her dark coat.
Darius didn’t lower his claws.
She noticed.
“I’m not here to fight.”
“That’s what everyone says right before they do,” he replied.
She opened her coat.
No weapons.
No marks.
Just the bracelet.
And a black symbol over her heart.
It looked like an open doorway.
Luna stared.
“The Book called you the door.”
Her gray eyes flicked to the reflected Book.
“I was hoping it forgot me.”
“It said you were lost.”
“I wasn’t lost.”
She looked at Gabriel.
“I was hidden.”
Gabriel walked forward slowly.
She didn’t move.
He stopped a few feet away.
“You were six weeks old.”
“I know.”
“I buried an empty cradle.”
“I know.”
His face broke.
“I’m sorry.”
Her expression hardened.
“No.”
That single word stopped him.
“You don’t get to apologize before you understand what happened.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Fair.”
That seemed to surprise her.
Luna noticed it.
She’d seen that same reaction before—people actually accepting correction instead of fighting it.
She turned slightly toward Luna.
“You look different than I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“More gold.”
Luna crossed her arms.
“You look more annoying than I expected.”
Darius’s mouth twitched.
She noticed.
“So you do laugh.”
“Rarely,” Luna said.
“I meant him.”
Darius went blank again.
She smiled.
The resemblance hit harder.
Luna hated how familiar it felt.
“What do you want?” she asked.
Her humor faded.
“To keep Kael alive.”
Darius moved instantly.
He crossed the room and stopped right in front of her.
“How do you know about him?”
“The crown called me when it chose him.”
“You’re connected to the crown?”
“No.”
She touched the symbol on her chest.
“I’m connected to what the crown was built to seal.”
The Varden bonds around Luna’s arm went cold.
Darius felt it too.
His hand found hers immediately.
She watched them.
“You already opened one prison.”
“We freed people,” Luna said.
“And made what’s underneath stronger.”
Gabriel frowned.
“The Nameless are still sealed.”
“I’m not talking about them.”
She walked to the Book.
She hovered her hand over it without touching.
The pages flipped open.
Kael’s name appeared.
The black fragment pulsed under the ink.
A second name formed beside it.
SELENE VALE.
A black line connected them.
Darius’s voice dropped.
“What is that?”
“When the crown entered Kael, it started using him as an anchor.”
“For control?”
“For a body.”
Luna’s stomach dropped.
“Whose body?”
Her doorway mark opened like an eye.
Darkness moved behind it.
A voice whispered from somewhere it shouldn’t exist.
Mine.
Every candle in the library went out.
Darius pulled Luna against him.
Gabriel stepped back.
She stayed near the Book, but pain tightened her face.
The mark on her chest spread.
Black lines crawled up her throat.
“Selene,” Luna said.
“Don’t come closer.”
“That sounded like a request.”
“It was.”
Luna stopped.
She pressed a hand over the mark.
“I’ve been holding this door shut my whole life.”
Gabriel stared.
“Alone?”
“Not exactly.”
She looked toward the shadowed corner of the room.
A figure stood there.
Tall.
Still.
Wrapped in pale cloth.
No face under the hood.
Darius growled.
The figure bowed slightly toward her.
She didn’t look at it when she spoke.
“The people who took me thought I could keep it contained.”
“Who took you?” Gabriel asked.
Her eyes went back to him.
“The Vale elders.”
Gabriel went pale.
“Our family?”
“They knew one twin had to be the lock.”
Luna’s anger sharpened.
“And they chose her.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Her gaze locked on Luna.
“They chose you.”
Silence swallowed the room.
She continued.
“Our mother changed the bracelets before they arrived.”
Luna looked down at the silver band in her hand.
“Why?”
“Because she knew which daughter they were coming for.”
Her voice softened.
“She saved you.”
“And gave them you.”
“No.”
She looked at Gabriel.
“Someone else did that.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“Who?”
The faceless figure in the corner raised a hand.
Cassian’s voice came from under the hood.
“I did.”
Darius turned sharply.
But the real Cassian entered through the library door at the same time.
He froze when he saw the figure using his voice.
“That’s not me.”
The false Cassian reached out.
The doorway mark on her chest tore open.
Wind exploded through the library.
Books ripped off shelves.
The Book slammed into the wall.
Luna grabbed her hand before the darkness could take her.
The connection hit instantly.
A childhood in stone rooms.
Strangers calling her a vessel.
Years of something behind a door whispering her name.
And one constant promise:
When your sister wakes up, she’ll take your place.
She ripped her hand away.
“That’s why I came.”
Her gray eyes were full of fear.
Not for herself.
For Luna.
“The thing inside me doesn’t want Kael.”
The manor shook.
A scream echoed from the medical wing.
Kael.
She looked toward it.
“It wants Darius.”
The black mark on Darius’s wrist flared.
The false Cassian smiled under the empty hood.
She whispered the truth.
“And it’s been using me to find him.”
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