Chapter 3
898 Words
Ariana's POV:
The night of the full moon arrived at last.
I sat before the mirror and pinned up my golden hair.
Eleanor draped an ivory robe over my shoulders. "Remember, Ariana. The white granite slab beneath the sacred-fire altar is the way out I left for you."
I smiled bleakly. "Thank you, Eleanor. Don't worry. My wolf soul still has enough strength left to help me finish this act."
I had always made it this far on my own, hadn't I? My obsession with Kyle had numbed all my pain. But it would never numb me again.
After dusk, Kyle came to my door. He took out a necklace and gave it to me.
The pendant was a wolf fang glowing with a dim blue light. It was ancient and sharp, as if it still carried the bloodlust of the battlefield.
"Ariana. I pulled this wolf fang from Bloodfang's staff when I challenged him." He looked down at me. His eyes held an entitled certainty, as if he were granting me a favor. "This is what a Luna deserves. After this blessing, I will formally mark you in front of all the wolves. Endure until tomorrow, all right? I want you to wear it at the marking ceremony."
I looked at the wolf fang in my palm. It was beautiful. Its cold blue glow reminded me of my own life in that moment, fragile, dying, and close to the end.
I didn't tell him this would be the last time we saw each other. The marking ceremony I had waited years for would never happen.
"All right," I said softly. I let him fasten the necklace around my neck.
Kyle seemed to relax. But the moment his fingertips touched my skin, he froze. My body temperature was terrifyingly low.
"Ariana, why are you so cold?" He frowned. The trace of gentleness in his eyes was instantly replaced by caution. "Something is wrong with your body. Do you feel unwell?"
He had finally noticed something was wrong. My breathing was as faint as a candle in the wind.
Just then, a guard rushed into the courtyard. "Alpha! Bad news! Lena has fainted. She said her chest hurts badly and she cannot breathe. The pack healer said it may be her old injury flaring up. Her condition is critical."
The concern on Kyle's face froze. It turned into near-feral panic. He flung my hand away. The force was so great that I stumbled back two steps. My back slammed hard into a cold wooden pillar.
He didn't even look at me. He turned and sprinted toward Lena's tent. His black cloak carved a cruel arc through the wind and snow before he vanished.
I leaned against the pillar and slowly slid to the ground.
Not long after, two burly guards walked in. They avoided my eyes and lifted me by the arms with mechanical movements. "Ariana, the moon has risen. The Alpha gave the order. We cannot wait. Please begin the blessing at once."
They half dragged and half carried me up the towering altar. At the center of the altar, the flames had already been lit.
Not far from the fire, Kyle was holding pale-faced Lena gently in his arms and patting her back. He glanced toward me, his eyes full of urgency.
His meaning was clear: start now, hurry, and don't delay Lena's rest.
I stood before the blazing fire and looked at Kyle.
He looked up at me too. Across the raging flames, his eyes were complicated for a single instant. There was guilt there, but it was drowned out by his worry for Lena and his impatience for the ritual to begin.
I smiled. It must have looked uglier than crying.
I closed my eyes. I stopped looking at him, and I stopped looking at this world. I began to chant the ancient song. It was a dirge offered to the Moon Goddess, and it was also the sentence I passed on myself.
Eleanor had used an effigy and pale blue fire to mimic the light of a burning wolf soul. I knew that in everyone's eyes, I was still that selfless and powerful moon-blessed priestess.
When the song reached its highest note, the altar fire roared into the sky. It was no longer orange-red. It was pure silver-white, bright enough to destroy everything. It didn't look like mortal fire. It looked like the Moon Goddess's wrath, and like the last of my resolve turned into revenge.
The instant the flames swallowed everything, I slipped away through the hidden passage Eleanor had left beneath the altar. Behind me, nothing remained: no bones, no soul, not even ash.
To Kyle, it looked as if I had died before his eyes, my body bursting apart after my wolf soul burned out.
At the same time, I severed the fated mate bond between us.
"Ariana!" A heart-rending roar shook all of Moonpeak. Loose stones tumbled from the altar.
Kyle rushed toward the fire like a madman, but the silver fire burned more than flesh. It burned the soul itself. The moment he came near, a great force threw him back.
He knelt on the scalding stone and could only watch as the figure that looked like me slowly turned to scorched earth inside the flames.
On the ground, only a bloodstained wolf-fang necklace remained.
End of Ariana's POV.
- Writer
