Loving Luna

The Woman Wearing Her Soul

THE QUEEN DID NOT REINCARNATE ALONE.

The words glowed across the open Book.

No one inside the vehicle spoke.

The road kept rolling beneath them, curving through the northern forest like nothing had changed.

Luna stared at Solara’s name.

“That can’t be real,” she said.

Darius’s hand closed around hers.

“Apparently the Book disagrees.”

“The Book’s been messed with.”

“Yes.”

“It called me Solara’s reincarnation.”

“It said you carried her soul.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“No,” Cassian said from the vehicle behind them.

His voice came through the communication device on the dashboard.

Darius reached for it.

“What do you know?”

Static came first.

Then Cassian spoke.

“A soul can split.”

Luna went cold.

Ethan turned in his seat.

“You could’ve mentioned that earlier.”

“I didn’t believe Solara had done it.”

“What does it mean?” Luna asked.

Cassian stayed quiet long enough for Darius’s expression to harden.

“Answer her.”

“It means Solara may have split herself before she died.”

Luna looked down at the golden mark around her wrist.

“Into what?”

“Memory and power,” Cassian said. “Love and duty. Queen and woman.”

Ronan glanced back from the passenger seat.

“So which part is Luna?”

Cassian’s voice dropped.

“That’s the wrong question.”

Darius’s eyes narrowed.

“Try answering the right one.”

“The parts would’ve changed over time. Neither would stay exactly what Solara meant them to be.”

Luna closed the Book.

The sudden movement made everyone look at her.

“I’m not half a person.”

“No,” Darius said right away.

Cassian continued through the device.

“I didn’t say you were.”

“You said my soul might be split.”

“I said Solara split hers. You were born with one part, but you lived a full life. You built your own identity.”

“And the other woman?”

“We don’t know who she is.”

The Book reopened on its own.

Solara’s name stayed.

Under it, another line appeared.

CURRENT NAME UNKNOWN.

Darius looked toward the windshield.

“Can it find her?”

The map shifted.

Varden stayed at the center.

Gabriel’s name glowed inside the mountain.

Solara’s rested beside it.

Two living lights.

Close together.

Ethan stared.

“She’s with our father.”

Ronan folded his arms.

“Or she’s guarding him.”

“Maybe keeping him prisoner,” Darius said.

Luna felt his suspicion through the bond.

Not jealousy.

Not exactly.

Fear. Of someone else holding Solara’s connection to Kael.

A connection that might reach him.

Luna squeezed his hand.

He looked at her.

“What?”

“You’re worried.”

“Yes.”

“About my father?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

Darius didn’t answer.

Ethan glanced between them.

“I can hear the silence getting personal.”

Ronan looked out the window.

“I’m pretending I can’t.”

Darius gave both men a cold look.

Then faced Luna.

“If someone else carries Solara’s memories, she might recognize Kael in me.”

“You aren’t Kael.”

“I know.”

“That sounded less convincing than usual.”

His jaw tightened.

“I remember loving Solara.”

Luna’s chest tightened, but she waited.

“I don’t want those memories making choices for me.”

“They won’t.”

“You can’t know that.”

“No.”

She leaned closer.

“But I know you.”

His gray eyes held hers.

Luna touched the black mark on his wrist.

“You fought Lucian while he was inside you.”

“I hurt you.”

“And then you came back.”

“I told you to forget me.”

“And you chose to make me remember.”

The bond warmed under her fingers.

“You don’t belong to Kael’s memories,” she said. “Just like I don’t belong to Solara’s.”

Darius lifted her hand to his lips.

“You make certainty sound easy.”

“It isn’t.”

“No?”

“I’m terrified she’ll know things about me I don’t.”

His expression softened.

“There you are.”

Luna almost smiled.

“You stole my line.”

“I improved it.”

“You didn’t.”

Ethan turned toward the windshield.

“Can we go back to the mysterious woman before this gets unbearable?”

Darius released Luna’s hand just long enough to close the partition between the front and back seats.

Ethan stared through the glass.

“That was childish.”

“It was effective,” Darius said.

Luna laughed.

For a moment, the tension eased.

Then the Book started to bleed.

Black ink seeped between the pages and spilled across Luna’s lap.

Darius grabbed it before it touched her skin.

The cover burned in his hands.

The crown mark on his wrist flared black.

“Let go,” Luna said.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re literally smoking.”

Darius dropped the Book onto the seat.

Black veins climbed his palm, then faded.

The pages opened.

A message appeared.

DO NOT SPEAK THE QUEEN’S NAME INSIDE VARDEN.

Ronan lowered the partition.

“Why?”

The Book wrote again.

THE MOUNTAIN LISTENS.

Cassian’s voice came through the device.

“Stop the vehicles.”

Darius looked at it.

“Why?”

“Stop now.”

Ronan signaled the drivers.

The convoy pulled off the road beneath tall pine trees. Snow lay in thin, uneven patches.

Everyone stepped out.

Cold wind cut through Luna’s coat.

Darius immediately moved closer, blocking most of it with his body.

Cassian exited the second vehicle under guard.

He approached the Book but didn’t touch it.

“How far to Varden?” Darius asked.

“Two hours.”

“Then explain why we stopped.”

Cassian studied the warning.

“Varden wasn’t built just to hold bodies.”

“What else?” Ethan asked.

“Names.”

Luna looked at him.

Cassian pointed toward the mountains rising beyond the trees.

“The prison was made before the Book of Names. Its stones came from a place where identity has power.”

Ronan frowned.

“That sounds unnecessarily dramatic.”

“It means the mountain can hear a true name and bind whoever carries it.”

Ethan’s expression sharpened.

“You said our father gave up his name.”

“He did.”

“Then how is Gabriel Vale written inside Varden?”

Cassian looked toward Amara’s name on the reflected Book.

“Love restored him to the record.”

“And now the mountain knows who he is,” Luna said.

“Yes.”

The hope she’d been holding turned into fear.

“Speaking his name could strengthen the prison.”

Cassian nodded.

“What about Solara?” Darius asked.

“If that name is spoken inside, the mountain may bind every soul tied to it.”

Luna looked at him.

“Me.”

“And the unknown woman.”

Darius stepped closer.

“Possibly me.”

“Because of Kael,” Cassian said.

Ethan paced away, hands on his hips.

“So we can’t use our father’s name, the Queen’s name, or maybe even Luna’s?”

Cassian looked at the Book.

“Luna is her own true name.”

Darius’s shoulders eased slightly.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Luna stared at Cassian.

“You erased my father’s name once.”

His damaged face stayed unreadable.

“Yes.”

“Can you do it again?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because a name restored by love can’t be removed by magic.”

The wind moved through them.

Luna looked toward the northern mountains.

Somewhere inside, her father waited.

And beside him stood a woman carrying another part of the soul that had shaped her life.

“What do we call him?” Ethan asked.

Cassian thought for a moment.

“The White Wolf.”

Ronan nodded.

“That’s what Gideon called him in his notes.”

“And the woman?” Luna asked.

No one answered.

Darius looked at her.

“The prisoner beside him.”

“That sounds cold.”

“We don’t know if she’s an ally.”

“She might not even know.”

Darius studied her face.

“You already feel responsible for her.”

“I feel connected.”

“That’s not the same.”

“No.”

Luna folded her arms against the cold.

“But someone split her soul before either of us could agree to it. She may have lived her whole life feeling incomplete and not even know why.”

Darius stepped in front of her.

“You’re thinking about saving her.”

“I’m thinking about meeting her.”

“In a prison built to trap names.”

“Yes.”

“While looking for your father.”

“Yes.”

“And avoiding Lucian.”

“Probably.”

His eyes narrowed.

“That’s a lot of dangerous goals.”

“You forgot surviving the mountain.”

“I included that under the prison.”

Cassian walked back toward his vehicle.

“We should move. The weather will get worse after sunset.”

Darius caught his arm.

“No more hidden information.”

Cassian looked at his hand.

Darius let go, but didn’t step back.

“You knew Varden could bind names.”

“Yes.”

“You waited until the Book warned us.”

“I hoped the prison had weakened.”

“You hoped?”

Cassian’s human eye hardened.

“I haven’t entered Varden in eighteen years.”

Ethan stepped closer.

“You’ve been there.”

Cassian looked at him.

“Yes.”

“With my father?”

“No.”

“Then why?”

The black veins on Cassian’s face pulsed.

He turned toward the mountain.

“Because Varden is where Lucian found me.”

Silence followed.

Cassian removed the glove from his marked hand.

The broken command symbol had started darkening again.

“I wasn’t born immortal,” he said.

Luna stared at him.

“You said you were the first immortal.”

“I was the first one made.”

“By Lucian?” Darius asked.

Cassian shook his head.

“By the woman imprisoned beside the White Wolf.”

The Book slammed shut.

A deep sound rolled through the mountains.

Not thunder.

A howl.

Long.

Female.

Full of grief.

Luna’s golden mark burned so hard she dropped to one knee.

Darius caught her.

“Luna.”

Images crashed through her mind.

A woman chained in a frozen chamber.

Golden eyes opening in the dark.

Hands pressed against a wall covered in names.

A man beside her.

White wolf.

Gray eyes.

Her father.

The woman turned like she could see Luna through the distance.

Her face wasn’t identical to Luna’s.

But it carried the same smile.

The same anger.

The same ancient sadness.

Her lips moved.

Luna heard the words in her mind.

Don’t come for us.

Then Gabriel appeared behind her.

He pressed one hand to the wall.

Blood covered his fingers.

His voice cut into the vision.

She’s lying.

The mountain shook again.

Darius held Luna tightly.

“What did you see?”

She looked up at him.

“My father.”

“Is he alive?”

“Yes.”

Relief flashed across Ethan’s face.

Luna swallowed.

“He wants us to come.”

“And the woman?” Darius asked.

Luna looked toward the white peaks.

“She wants us to stay away.”

Cassian’s face had gone pale.

“Then she knows what’s waking.”

“What is it?” Darius demanded.

A crack split the mountainside in the distance.

Black light poured out.

The ground trembled.

Cassian whispered.

“Varden isn’t just a prison.”

Another howl rolled through the valley.

This one came from hundreds of throats.

“It’s a pack.”

Dark shapes appeared along the snowy ridge.

Wolves larger than horses stood shoulder to shoulder, eyes glowing white.

The center wolf lowered its head toward Luna.

Then every creature bowed.

Not to a queen.

To something inside the mountain.

Cassian drew his sword.

“The prisoners have chosen an Alpha.”

Luna’s mark pulsed in answer.

The largest wolf lifted its head.

When it spoke, the voice was a woman’s.

“Come closer, Luna Vale.”

Darius pulled Luna behind him.

The wolf smiled.

“And I’ll show you which half of us was ever truly human.”