Chapter 34
1387 Words
Luna’s POV
I felt it before I summoned it.
That subtle tremor beneath my ribs, the ancient pull of blood and magic that only a fae mother knows, the kind that binds a queen to her children across realms and veils. I had ruled for decades, wielded power that bent forests and silenced storms, yet nothing unsettled me like the quiet awakening of a child’s magic.
Astrid.
I stood at the heart of the fae palace, bare feet pressed against living stone, moonlight spilling through the crystal arches. The kingdom breathed around me, trees whispering, wings fluttering, magic humming in recognition of my intent.
“This is not like the others,” I murmured.
Behind me, my children felt it too.
Eryndor, my firstborn, straightened sharply, his expression shifting from calm vigilance to alert concern. He had always been my sentinel, the one whose instincts mirrored mine most closely.
Aurelian who was Astrid’s twin, lifted his head as if struck by an unseen wave, golden eyes widening. His bond to her had always been deeper. Resonant. Dangerous, if ignored.
Ellowen pressed a hand to her chest, breath hitching. Faelan’s fingers curled reflexively, fae light flickering faintly along his skin.
“Mother,” Eryndor said carefully, “you feel it too.”
“Yes,” I answered. “And that alone frightens me.”
This sensing, this shared awareness, it was not unusual among us. Blood-bound fae could feel one another’s emotional surges, wounds, moments of transformation. But this? This was not emotion. This was power calling to power.
I closed my eyes and let my magic unfurl.
Not violently. Not recklessly.
I sent it the way only a queen and a mother could, a controlled, ancient wave of fae essence, woven with recognition rather than command. It traveled across realms, slipping through the spaces between worlds, searching for one signature alone.
Astrid’s.
The response was immediate.
Too immediate.
The air in the chamber rippled. The crystal pillars chimed softly, reacting not to my magic, but to hers answering back.
Ellowen gasped. “That’s… not just your power, Mother.”
Faelan swallowed. “It feels… alive. Like it’s pushing outward.”
Aurelian took a step forward, face pale. “She’s not just receiving it,” he whispered. “She’s amplifying it.”
My heart clenched.
I had four children whose fae power bloomed naturally, gracefully each awakening following the expected rhythms of blood and time. But Astrid… Astrid had been different from birth. A hybrid. Wolf and fae. Her magic had been locked, buried so deeply even I could not touch it directly.
Until now.
“This has never happened before,” Eryndor said quietly. “Not even with us.”
“No,” I agreed. “Because her power was dormant. Sealed. And something, someone has unlocked it.”
I did not need to say his name.
Aurelian felt it instantly. “Her mate,” he said.
“The bond changed her, she has finally met her mate, I thought it would take time, but she met him immediately after turning 18, I’ve waited for this day for years, I knew the only way to find her was through her powers, we have been searching for years but we were not able to sense her power which made us realize it was locked, but now, I can feel it, meeting her mate unlocked her powers.”
“Yes,” I said softly. “And bonds forged in truth do not weaken magic. They liberate it.”
Silence fell heavy between us.
What stirred in Astrid was not uncontrolled, but it was expanding, learning its own edges. And worse, this time, the sensing did not stop with us. The magic stretched farther than family should ever feel.
That was what made my breath still.
“This is the first time,” I said slowly, “that her power has reached beyond blood.”
Ellowen’s voice trembled. “Does that mean others could sense her?”
“Eventually,” I answered honestly. “If she does not learn to contain it.”
I drew my magic back in, severing the connection gently before it could escalate further. The palace exhaled with me, the living stone settling, the light dimming.
But the echo remained.
Astrid had crossed a threshold, one no fae queen could ignore.
“She will need guidance,” Aurelian said.
“She will need protection,” Eryndor added.
“And truth,” Aurelian finished. “About what she is becoming.”
I turned toward the moonlit horizon, my chest tight with pride and fear intertwined.
“Yes,” I said. “Because my daughter is no longer just awakening.”
She is becoming. We have to find her before anyone else.
And the world, fae, wolf, and beyond will soon feel what we felt tonight.
For the first time, and it will not be the last.
***
Aurelian crossed the veil at dusk, when the realms breathed closest together.
Silver light folded around him as fae magic carried his body between worlds, his pulse steady, his expression anything but. He had crossed realms countless times before, between courts, forests, hidden paths only royal blood could open, but never with his heart pulling this hard.
Astrid.
The moment their mother had sent out her power, Aurelian had felt it tear through him like a living thread. Not pain. Not fear. But Recognition. His twin bond answered before thought could stop it, resonating so sharply he’d staggered.
She was awake.
Not sleeping, but awake. Not emotionally stirred.
Power awake.
And that terrified him.
He emerged into the human-wolf borderlands first, the place where fae paths usually thinned. The air was wrong here, it was dense, layered, heavy with another magic that interfered with fae sensing. Wolf magic. Mate magic. His father was an Alpha, but he wasn’t a hybrid like Astrid and his elder brother, he had just Fae blood in him. Including his younger brother and sister.
Aurelian closed his eyes and reached for her the way only twins could, not through spell or crown, but through blood and soul.
Nothing.
His brow furrowed. That wasn’t possible.
He moved again, slipping deeper, following the echo he knew had been there hours ago. He didn't have a wolf, but his father had brought them to the pack most times so he was familiar with the surroundings. Forests shifted. and time bent slightly. He crossed into lands guarded by ancient wards, ones that scraped faintly against his skin.
Alpha territory.
The moment he stepped closer, the resistance intensified.
Something pushed back.
It was not hostile but firm. Protective. A presence layered over Astrid’s signature like interlocking shields. Wolf. Alpha. Mate.
Aurelian exhaled slowly. “So that’s how it is,” he murmured.
He tried again, pushing gently, carefully, never forcing. He sent no power outward, only presence. A whisper of who he was.
Twin. Blood. Family.
For half a heartbeat, he felt her.
A flicker.
Then—nothing.
The connection snapped shut like a door sealed from the inside.
Aurelian staggered back, breath sharp, not from pain but from shock.
He turned in a slow circle, senses flaring, but the truth settled heavy in his chest.
She wasn’t lost.
She was hidden.
Shielded by forces older than fae law: mate bonds, wolf hierarchy, awakened power folding inward to protect itself.
Astrid’s magic wasn’t just growing.
It was learning.
And instinctively, it had decided he, even as her twin was not meant to reach her yet.
“That’s new,” he whispered, equal parts awe and dread threading his voice.
The forest answered only with silence.
Aurelian clenched his fists, then relaxed them. He would not force his way through. That was not his role. Not yet.
But this confirmed what he feared.
Astrid was no longer standing with one foot in each world.
She was becoming something singular.
Something powerful enough to shut out even him.
He turned back toward the veil, heart heavy, mind racing.
“I’ll wait,” he vowed softly. “But not forever.”
As he crossed back into the fae realm, the echo of her power still rang faintly in his chest, alive, expanding, and no longer something the world could pretend not to notice.
And next time, he knew…
She would feel him coming.
- Writer
