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Chapter 507
~Zara’s POV~
The bars stretched high into the sky, sharp like fangs, each one humming faintly with dark energy.
Beyond it, I saw nothing but shadow.
Shadow until a woman stepped out from behind the gate—a slender figure, no older than her mid-twenties. Her long, dark hair was pinned back tightly, and her eyes were flat and unreadable.
She didn’t say a word. She just turned and walked.
And again, I followed.
The path curved through more dead earth, flanked by gnarled roots and stone lanterns that flickered with blue flas.
The farther I walked, the heavier my chest beca. The ache started low and grew deeper, clawing at my ribs and pressing behind my eyes.
I felt sick, not physically but in my soul and then I saw it.
Another gate. It was smaller than the first but thicker, reinforced with dark stone and blackened silver lining its curves.
Painted across it in sared, chalky white letters—stark and cold—were the words:
SHADOW CLAVE
I stopped walking altogether as my breath hitched and my fingers trembled. That was the first ti my body truly obeyed as the fear and the adrenaline all at once... fittedinto one—into .
The very place and people who wanted dead wanted my powers for themselves and would go to any length to get it.
And now I was here.
Dragged by my own hands.
With no idea why or... if I would ever co back, go back to Snow, my mate.
Just the thought brought tears to my eyes.
I watched as they led past the second gate, the one with Shadow Clave scrawled across it like a warning carved into bone.
The tal hissed as it opened, and the air beyond it shifted. It was all cold, damp and tainted.
The mont I stepped across the threshold, I felt sothing crawl up my spine—sothing unseen, like a fog that wasn’t fog but heavy nonetheless.
I was walking into a world that had long forgotten light.
The landscape inside was bleak—ash-colored ground cracked in patches like dried skin.
A dark do stood at the far center of the compound, looming like a heart that no longer beat.
Its walls pulsed faintly like it was alive with enchantnts far older than anything I had ever studied.
And there, standing just outside the do’s massive iron entrance, arms crossed and smile as sharp as ever, was Vera.
I stopped in my tracks. My chest tightened. This wa sthe second ti my body had moved on its own accord much to my disappointnt.
But that was the least of my worries as the mories rushed back like a storm breaking through a dam.
Vera’s hand as she shot the magic power ant to destroy and Snow, who jumped in to save . Snow’s body went limp, pale. And , on my knees, cradling him as life slipped through his fingers.
I recalled how angry I was, killing her. The first and only ti I had ever truly wanted soone dead, other than Ivan, for his cheating and how he killed in my past life.
And yet here she was. The very sa Vera I had killed before and instructed that her body be buried, now stood before alive and smirking.
I should have made sure to check after Snow was brought back.
"Miss ?" she purred, tilting her head to the side like we were eting for afternoon tea.
I wanted to launch myself at her. To rip that twisted smile off her face and make her regret ever crawling out of whatever pit had spat her back into the world.
But I couldn’t.
My body remained frozen, still under the sa damn control. My hands wouldn’t lift. My jaw wouldn’t move. My power was still shackled, tucked sowhere deep beneath the surface—buried and locked away.
Vera took slow, confident steps toward . Her heels clicked sharply against the stone path, echoing through the clave’s dead silence.
"I have to admit," she said mockingly, "I didn’t think you’d actually make it here. Not like this."
Her eyes narrowed. "You were supposed to fight. Scream. Burn everything to the ground. But look at you... all quiet and obedient. Like a good little weapon. Although if it were up to , you’d be dead right now."
I wanted to scream truly, but her voice pressed into my mind like a cold needle.
"Is this killing you inside, Zara?" Her ntal whisper slid in smooth, dripping with venom. "To be here, in my world, powerless? After everything?"
I kept my expression blank, but inside I was thrashing. "You’ll never win. Not even now."
"Oh, but haven’t I already?" she crooned. "You’re here, alone. Snow’s probably tearing apart his estate, thinking you left him. But I know the truth. You didn’t want to leave. You wanted to stay. To love him. Be his Luna. Bear his heir."
Her tone sharpened.
"But instead, you wrote him a goodbye letter. You looked at him on the bed and walked away. Just like you made do once. And now, you’re the one who’s going to be used again. How’s that for irony?"
Rage blood in , wild and molten.
"You were a coward, Vera. You betrayed Snow, you killed him and betrayed yourself. You died for it."
"And yet," she hissed sweetly, "here I am. Alive. And you? You’re mine now."
I clenched my fists, even if only inside. I couldn’t move them outwardly, but within , I scread her na in fury.
"Is that so..? At the very least, unlike you, I carry his hei..."
Then, just as Vera reached , a cold, commanding voice rang out from the do’s dark entrance.
"That’s enough, Vera."
Vera paused, turning quickly, her posture shifting into sothing formal and tight. A woman erged from the shadowed threshold.
Her presence silenced everything.
She wasn’t tall, but she moved like she was. Her body wrapped in layers of black and silver silk, her face angular, sculpted with high cheekbones and dark, intelligent eyes that looked like they’d seen a hundred wars and started fifty of them herself.
Her hair was white—not grey, white, like moonlight caught in strands—and pinned into an intricate twist atop her head.
She carried herself like royalty. Vera stepped aside, lowering her head. "Mother."
My heart caught in my chest, already knowing who it was.
Luna Slaton. The Queen of Shadow Clave.
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