Chapter eighteen
698 Words
The Temple of Light wasn’t just a ruin.
It was alive.
As we stepped through its shattered archways, the air shimmered with power. Vines curled around broken columns. Moonlight filtered through the cracks in the dome, painting the floor with silver.
And in the center of it all, resting on an altar of obsidian, was the Moonstone.
It pulsed like a heartbeat—like mine.
Kael stepped beside me, his hand brushing mine. “This is it,” he murmured.
I nodded. “Then let’s end this.”
I reached for the Moonstone.
And the world fell away.
I wasn’t in the temple anymore.
I stood in a field of white fire. The stars above me bled silver, and wind howled through the void. In front of me stood a woman—tall, regal, and familiar.
“Amara,” I whispered.
She smiled faintly. “Daughter of my blood. You’ve come far.”
I swallowed. “There’s more to this, isn’t there?”
“Yes,” she said. “The Moonstone does not grant power. It awakens what was always there.”
She stepped forward. “But it demands something in return.”
I felt it then—the weight of fate pressing on my chest.
“What does it want?”
“Your bond,” she said softly. “Or his life.”
I staggered back. “What?”
“You cannot have both,” she said. “Not yet. The prophecy demands sacrifice. If you claim the full power of the Alpha Queen, your bond with Kael will be severed forever. If you keep the bond… Kael will not survive what comes next.”
Tears stung my eyes. “Why can’t I have both?”
“Because fate is cruel,” she said. “And the Council is watching.”
The fire around me grew brighter.
“Choose, Nyra. Your heart, or your kingdom.”
I screamed as the vision tore away from me—
—and I fell to the temple floor, the Moonstone clenched in my hand.
Kael caught me before I hit the ground. “What happened?”
I looked up at him, the ache in my chest almost unbearable.
“I saw her.”
“Your mother?”
I nodded slowly. “She said I have to choose.”
“Choose what?”
But I couldn’t say it.
Not yet.
That night, we camped beneath the stars. The Moonstone glowed softly in my satchel, but I couldn’t sleep. Kael lay beside me, his eyes open, staring at the sky.
“Talk to me,” he said.
“I don’t know how.”
“Try.”
So I did.
I told him everything.
About the choice. The price. The prophecy. The way the bond would be torn if I embraced the power. The way he would die if I didn’t.
He was quiet for a long time.
Then he sat up, turned to me, and whispered:
“Then let me die.”
My heart cracked. “Don’t say that.”
“I mean it.” He took my hand. “If saving you means my death, I’ll take it. A thousand times over.”
I shook my head. “I can’t lose you. Not now.”
He cupped my face, his voice rough. “You were never meant to have me. You were meant to save them. And I would rather be a memory in your story than the reason it ended early.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks.
“No,” I whispered. “There has to be another way.”
His lips brushed my forehead. “Then find it.”
The next morning, we returned to the fortress. News waited for us:
The Council was moving.
Not through the forests.
Through the mountains.
They’d broken the sacred barrier between realms. Creatures older than even the Hollowborn were marching under Council command. Deathbringers. Void wolves. War beasts stitched from bone and shadow.
And they’d be here in five days.
Kael turned to me, eyes burning.
“We don’t have time for maybes anymore.”
And I made my choice.
I held the Moonstone tight.
And whispered, “Then let it begin.”
- Writer
