CHAPTER SEVEN: ASHES AND ECHOES
1247 Words
Silence clung to the bookstore’s smoldering ruins. The heat of the battle still lingered, curling like smoke in the air. Broken shelves leaned against cracked walls, pages fluttered like dying birds, and ash settled softly around them like snow.
Ronan stood in the center of the chaos, holding Luna against his chest. Her small arms clutched his neck as if she’d known him all her life.
Elena hovered in the background, pale and still, arms wrapped tightly across her chest.
His golden eyes flicked at her. “You lied to me.”
Elena’s breath hitched. “I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you.”
Ronan gently loosened Luna’s arms, setting her down and brushing her curls from her face. “Go wait outside, sweetheart. Just for a minute, okay?”
Luna hesitated, glancing between them. “Don’t yell.”
“I won’t,” he said, though his jaw was clenched tight.
Once the door shut behind her, Ronan turned to Elena.
“You kept her from me for five years.”
Elena didn’t flinch. “And I’d do it again if it meant keeping her safe.”
He stalked closer, fury simmering at every step. “Safe from me?”
“No,” she said firmly. From everyone else. From the prophecy. From what happened to your pack? From the elders who still whisper about bloodlines and fated powers.”
Ronan threw up his hands. “So instead, you raised her with no protection. No training. No idea who she is.”
“She’s a child, Ronan!”
“She’s my child!”
His voice echoed through the ruined building. Books quivered. A piece of ceiling cracked.
Elena looked down. “I was afraid. Afraid of what would happen to her if they knew she was yours.”
“You think I would’ve let anything happen to her?”
“I didn’t know what you’d do. You pushed me away the moment I told you I couldn’t accept the bond. You walked away, Ronan. I just never came back.”
“And you let me think that was it? That I lost you, and that was the end?”
“I lost you too.”
Ronan raked a hand through his hair. “You took everything from me. A future. A family. Her.”
“I did what I thought was right,” she said softly. “And I’ll carry that guilt forever.”
The pain in his eyes shifted into something deeper—something hollow.
“I would have loved her,” he whispered. “Even if you didn’t love me.”
Elena’s lips trembled. “I never stopped loving you. But love was never enough to undo the surrounding curse.”
They stood in silence. The air buzzed with things unsaid.
Then—footsteps.
Ronan’s ears perked up, already at a defensive distance.
From around the broken corner of the children’s aisle, a man stepped into view. Tall, broad-shouldered, tousled chestnut hair, forest-green eyes that widened the moment they landed on Elena.
“Elena?”
Elena gasped. “Asher?!”
Ronan’s eyes narrowed as the man crossed the ruined store and gathered Elena into a tight, almost desperate embrace.
“I’ve been looking for you for years,” Asher murmured into her hair. “I thought you were dead.”
Elena pulled back, stunned. “How did you find me?”
Asher looked around the bookstore ruins, then at Ronan with suspicion.
“I didn’t,” he said. I followed a lead from someone in Black Hollow. One of the rogue scouts you left behind tried to sell your location to a witch. I intercepted the message.”
Ronan stepped forward, protective. “Who the hell are you?”
“Asher. "Elena’s best friend,” he said coolly, stepping between them slightly. “And clearly more informed than you.”
Ronan’s lip curled. “We’ll see about that.”
Elena touched Asher’s arm. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“I had to.” His voice softened. “Elena, there’s something you need to know. About Luna. About her birth.”
Ronan stiffened. “What are you talking about?”
Asher looked at him, then back to Elena.
“That night—the night you ran—the protection spell Ysara put over you and the baby? It was only meant to last five years.”
Elena froze. “What?”
Asher nodded grimly. She told me that if Luna made it past five without triggering the prophecy, it might break entirely. But if her powers awakened before then…”
“She’d become visible to every dark creature on the map,” Ronan finished, his voice grim.
“She already has,” Asher said. The Void Alpha knows. They’re moving in faster now.”
Elena’s breath left her. “I thought we had more time.”
“You never did,” Asher said softly. “I wanted to warn you sooner.” But you disappeared without a trace. I’ve been working from the inside. I’ve seen things—plans. They’re coming for her. And they won’t stop until she’s claimed… or destroyed.”
Ronan ran a hand over his mouth. “What do they want with her?”
Asher hesitated. “She’s not just Moonborn. There’s something more.”
“More?” Elena echoed.
“Her magic is laced with something ancient. Pre-Lunar. Not just wolf. Not just human. Old. Maybe even… celestial.”
Ronan paled. “Blood of a wolf and will of flame,” he muttered.
“The prophecy,” Elena breathed. “We always thought it was a metaphor. But it’s literal.”
Asher pulled out a small pouch from his jacket. Inside was a torn page, old and charred.
“This came from one of Ysara’s vaults. I stole it before she vanished. Read it.”
Ronan and Elena looked over the scroll. The words danced like flames across the page:
> Moonborn of fated ash and flame,
Child of a wolf, seed of a star,
Shall rise in chaos, call the name,
Of gods forgotten near and far.
Her howl shall break the heavens wide,
Her fall shall bring the dark tide.
Silence fell again.
“I don’t understand,” Elena said. “Why Luna?”
“She’s the bridge,” Asher said softly. Between worlds. Between species. Between times.”
Ronan looked at the door where Luna had gone. “And we’ve already run out of it.”
---
They regrouped in a cabin at the edge of town. Ronan took the attic. Asher stayed downstairs. Elena didn’t sleep.
Luna, for the first time in days, slept peacefully.
In the dead of night, Elena stepped outside. Ronan followed her a few minutes later.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently.
“No.”
He stood beside her in silence. Then he said, “I want to be in her life. Whatever happens. Whatever it costs.”
“I want that too,” she whispered. But the world we’re stepping into won’t let us stay parents. It wants warriors.”
“Then we fight like parents who know what’s at stake,” he said. “We fight for her future.”
Their eyes locked, the memory of old pain and new longing crackling between them.
And somewhere in the trees, a pair of red eyes watched from the dark.
What is actually about to happen to Luna? Will her full powers awaken?
Find out more in chapter 8!
- Writer
