Luna of Two Lifetimes

Chapter 2

The torches weren't the source of the fire.

Boiling up from the dark rift in the stone circle, it emerged from the earth itself, absorbing the Blood Moon's silver light until everything blazed red. The ceremonial area, which had been alive with the sound of drums and holy chants just moments before, now descended into anarchy.

Wolves let out a scream. Panic swept over them like a wave, with some in human shape and others changing mid-run. It was everywhere: the hiss of skin breaking into fur, the piercing shatter of bones, the stench of terror.

And I spotted him through that heat and noise maelstrom.

Kaelen.

My friend.

My treachery.

He sliced through the hysteria with deadly grace, moving through the crowd like a predator, sure and exact. His ceremonial cloak broke in the wind, and his profile was etched in shadow and gold by the firelight. Like a hundred times before, my body wanted to run to him, but my heart and intellect knew better.

"Selene!" Over the roar of the mountain, his voice reached me.

The sound of my inner wolf growling was low and menacing. I didn't respond.

He took a few steps to get to me. His storm-gray eyes were harder than I remembered up close, with a desperate edge.

I stepped back and hissed, "Don't touch me."

He clenched his jaw. "You must leave this place.”

"You can't give me orders. I spat and c****d my head in the direction of the stranger with the silver hair who was hovering behind him. "Go to her." She remained composed and had a slight smile on her face, as if the mayhem were a performance for her own entertainment. "Kaelen, you made your decision."

His eyes become piercing. "She is not the issue. That's what it's about.

He gave the c***k a nod.

Out of it, something was climbing.

It wasn't a wolf. or any animal I had previously seen. Molten-gold eyes stared at me, and eight feet of sinew and shadow, skin moving like smoke over muscle. It moved as if it owned the ground it came into contact with. With every stride, the ground shook, claws digging into the rock as though it were sand.

"Move," Kaelen said, his voice now more somber.

"No." I sounded like a blade of ice.

"Selene, there's no turning back if it gets you."

I paused. Take a breath, please.

That was the only thing he needed to seize me.

His fingers were so firm they bruised my arm. I detested that my body recalled the nights by the fire, the hands locked in combat, and the touch of his palm supporting mine while the heat of his flesh seeped into mine.

"Give me a break!" I twisted violently, slashing his wrist with my claws. Where I cut him, black against the firelight, blood welled up.

He didn't recoil. "I'm not going to let it get to you."

Like the mountain's own dying cry, the fissure moaned. The thing drank in the smell of my blood and tilted its head, nostrils flaring.

Kaelen reached for the hilt beside him with his free hand.

My heart stopped when he pulled out the sword.

We owned it. The identical silver-edged black-forged steel that we had carried on our first patrol together. He once vowed never to use the same blade on me again.

"No, Kaelen."

I noticed a spark in his eyes, but his face remained the same. "That's the only option."

"You can't." My voice cracked. "You wouldn't

"I would." He spoke softly, almost softly. "I would rather hold your hand and send you to the ancestors than allow that to bind you."

It was a second-breaking betrayal. This was a knife that was slowly pulled through the wound if the rejection had been a clean tear.

My wolf roared forward. I changed, teeth bared, claws striking the stone, bones cracking.

He moved too quickly. He arced his blade at me. Silver kissed my flank as I twisted. The poison from the metal spread quickly as fire burst beneath my skin.

I made a rush for his throat to stop him, not to murder him. He cut my shoulder with a sidestep. The night was torn apart by my howl.

I saw the silver-haired woman's lips move through the haze of anguish. She wasn't merely observing. I couldn't hear the words she was mumbling above the boom, but each syllable made the air thicker.

Kaelen pushed on, unrelenting. With each blow, I was forced backward, my paws rubbing against the slippery stone while the heat from the c***k rose behind me.

"This is not necessary for you to do!" I growled.

"Yes, I do!" This time, his voice was raw around the edges and cracked.

Another wave of fire escaped from the c***k. The animal squatted, poised to charge. Kaelen's gaze wavered between it and me, and I could see the choice solidify in his mind.

The knife reached my throat.

We stopped. The only sound between us was our breathing.

"Please," I said in a whisper. I wasn't sure if I was pleading for the truth or for pity.

"I apologize, Selene." The softness had left his voice, and it was steady once more. "I would kill you if I loved you enough."

The steel then slid in.

Pain. This was molten, shattering every ties that had ever bound us together, not the jagged sting I had envisioned. My knees gave way. My blood poured hot and heavy over his hands.

Wolves screamed somewhere. The woman with the silver hair chuckled somewhere. The beast roared somewhere.

However, my focus shifted to Kaelen's face, getting close enough to see the tear running down his cheek and the gold specks in his eyes.

He freed the blade. My body sagged.

I felt cold on the stone. Blood quickly accumulated, soaking my fur and robe. The stars in the sky above smeared like wet paint, blurring.

I felt a strange, unnatural warmth flow through me.

My blood's heat wasn't the cause. It was more profound. older.

A gentle, old voice crept into my head.

"You cannot die here, little moon."

My lungs burned for whatever was filling me, not for air.

Kaelen staggered backwards. His eyes widened. "No, this isn't.”

The woman with silver hair grinned broadly and spoke in a smooth, steely voice. "It starts."

The light from the c***k became dazzlingly white. Weightless, my body rose off the earth. I saw the thing bow, but I was immobile and unable to breathe.

An

d I knew the truth in that last instant before the black engulfed me.

I wasn't going to die.

They were claiming me.