The world around was black. Not darkness as in the absence of light—this was sothing deeper. A silence so dense it pressed against my skin. I was no longer standing in the palace, nor in the ruins of the torn altar.
I was in the Cradle.
The sacred ground where the gods went to find ourselves or to lose ourselves entirely.
My bare feet touched cold stone, smooth and endless. I stood in a void with no sky, no wind, no scent—only breath and mory.
Then ca the voice.
"You should never have lived."
It was mine.
I turned and saw myself, pale and bruised, hair tangled like it had been the day they dragged through the snow outside the temple gates. My younger self stared at with eyes too old for her face.
"You were ant to die the night they cast you out," she said. "But you didn’t. You clawed your way back. And now look what you’ve beco."
I opened my mouth to speak, but another version of stepped out of the dark.
This one was beautiful, dressed in the Moon Court silks, dripping power. Her voice was like silk wrapped around a dagger.
"You pretended to be their goddess. You let them kneel and call you divine. But you were never more than a frightened girl pretending not to be scared."
Another shadow erged—this one broken and trembling, kneeling in a pool of red.
"You let him die."
I froze.
That voice didn’t co from a version of .
It ca from Matthias.
He stood behind the bleeding version of myself, hands limp at his sides, eyes wide and accusing. The lover I failed. The warrior who died protecting before I ever knew how to protect myself.
"You promised you’d co back," he whispered. "But you never did."
I took a step back. My hands trembled. "This isn’t real."
"Isn’t it?" my reflection snarled. "Every death that followed you... every betrayal. They weren’t lies. They were the price. You asked to survive. You begged for power. And sothing ancient listened."
The ground cracked beneath my feet. Cold surged through my bones. I staggered, suddenly weightless, falling through nothing.
And then— fire.
Not burning fire, but golden light, searing through the blackness like veins in marble.
I landed in a forest. Silent. Snow-covered. The trees were dead. Still. And in front of stood the Moon Goddess.
No! what I had thought she looked like.
But her face shifted and cracked, showing glimpses of sothing older beneath. A being made of night sky and blood.
"You believed I gave you power," she said, voice layered with a thousand echoes.
I couldn’t breathe.
"I don’t understand."
Her eyes burned.
"You will."
The trees began to burn around . Faces scread in the flas. Wolves, lovers, friends. Kieran. Lucas. Even Lyra. All distorted and dying.
"What do I have to do to save them?" I shouted.
The world twisted. A stone altar rose from the forest floor, ancient and covered in glowing sigils.
On it lay a scroll. Old. Crumbling. Written in the first language.
I reached for it, and sothing inside scread.
To regain your power, you must sacrifice what anchors you to rcy.
And just beneath it:
The one thing you still love.
The forest altar burned brighter, golden flas licking the edges of the scroll. My fingers hovered over the ancient parchnt, heart pounding with the weight of the choice I knew I wasn’t ready to make.
"Athena."
The flas roared.
"ATHENA."
Suddenly, a hand grabbed my arm—real, solid—and yanked backward.
I gasped, lungs spasming as if I had been drowning. My back hit sothing soft.
Silk sheets. The scent of jasmine and ash.
I was in the palace again.
Kieran was crouched over , his hands gripping my shoulders, face white with panic.
"You stopped breathing."
My entire body convulsed. The fire was gone, but its imprint clung to , seared into the bone. My skin felt raw. My heart wouldn’t stop racing.
"I—I saw them. I saw all of them." My voice cracked. ". Matthias. The altar. The scroll. And sothing was there, Kieran."
Kieran?
The Cradle did not shift like the waking world. It bled between states—reality and mory, nightmare and truth—until everything blurred into one endless reckoning.
It was all an illusion again.
The ground beneath was silver stone, etched with ancient sigils that shimred faintly beneath each step I took. They weren’t just symbols. They pulsed—like veins—and with each heartbeat, they whispered. I could feel the weight of forgotten gods watching, judging, rembering.
My feet were bare. Every step burned—not from heat, but from mory.
Grief. Betrayal. Sha.
They rose with each etching I passed, as if the floor itself knew every sin I had committed. Every decision I hadn’t been brave enough to make. Every mont I had stayed silent, smiling, while my soul bled.
Then ca another voice.
Low. Familiar. Vile.
"No matter how far you run, it still rots inside you."
I froze. My heart stuttered in my chest. The voice wasn’t just familiar—it was mine.
I turned.
And there she was.
.
But not .
A twisted shadow in blood-soaked ceremonial robes, her skin blistered and scorched, half her face lted like candle wax. Her eyes were hollow, nothing but black pits filled with contempt. Her mouth curled into a smile that tasted like ash and regret.
"You think power was your curse?" she asked, voice like shattered glass. "It wasn’t."
My throat tightened, but I forced the question out. "Then what was?"
She took a step forward. The air around her shimred like a heat haze. "Hope."
I blinked.
"You hoped they’d love you," she said, mockingly. "You hoped he would co back. You hoped Kieran could save you. But all they did was take. Take. Take."
My lips parted. "I chose to stay. I chose to fight."
"No," she hissed, eyes flashing. "You chose to suffer. Because you thought pain was noble. You thought enduring made you strong. But all it made you was easy to control. Predictable. Weak."
I stepped back. Just one pace. My body wanted to flee, but I stood my ground.
"I’m not here to prove anything to you."
The floor beneath us cracked.
Images surged from the stone, rising like mist. Flickering, pulsing, twisting.
Cassius’s body crumpled in a pool of blood. Jesse, screaming my na as he bled into the snow. Lucas walking away with pain in his eyes and guilt on his tongue. My people howling beneath a silent moon. The Moonstone shattering in my hand like fragile glass.
"You let all of it happen," she whispered behind . "And now here you are, still begging for redemption."
"I’m not begging," I said, my voice a rasp, my hands trembling. "I’m earning it."
And then I walked forward.
She scread, the sound inhuman, and lunged toward .
We collided. A rush of pain tore through my chest as her claws raked across my mories. My mind split open, drowning in visions of what I had lost—what I had beco.
Every mont I had swallowed pain to be their symbol. Every lie I told myself just to keep breathing.
And still, I didn’t fall.
Still, I fought.
Then—
"Athena!"
A voice. His voice.
Real.
A hand pierced the storm and grabbed my wrist—strong, warm, alive.
Lucas.
He yanked out of the dark, and I collapsed against his chest, gasping. His heart thundered under my cheek. Blood dripped down the side of his face, his eyes wild with fury and fear.
"You weren’t supposed to go ahead without ," he said hoarsely.
Behind him, the shadow version of shattered like glass, her scream echoing into nothing. Light rushed into the room, and for the first ti, the silver floor looked... still.
A new door ford in the stone ahead. Amber light poured from it.
Lucas turned toward it. "We’re not done yet."
I nodded, my legs shaking, but I followed him.
The next chamber was circular, vast, tiless. A room built like a giant moon dial, the walls inscribed with celestial markings. Everything felt suspended—sound, breath, even thought.
But this was no illusion.
This was mory.
The mont we stepped in, I knew.
The light softened. A soft cry echoed in the distance.
My birth.
I saw the moonlight glinting off the cradle. My mother’s fingers, trembling as they reached for . And the circle of robed priests moving like shadows, chanting words I now recognized as binding spells.
"No," Lucas whispered beside . "What is this?"
"My origin," I said. "The mont it all began."
A glow appeared in the chamber—hovering over the moon dial. A scroll, bathed in golden fire.
I knew what it was.
The Final Seal.
The sa scroll Kieran had found in the archives, the one we hadn’t been able to open.
Now, it opened on its own.
One line. One truth.
To reclaim the divine, you must destroy what anchors your mortal heart.
Lucas read it aloud, his voice quiet but full of storm.
My mouth went dry. "You know what that ans."
His expression didn’t change. "It could an . Kieran. Your crown. Your heart. Anything that still ties you to this world."
I felt sothing splinter inside .
Terror.
"What if I destroy the wrong thing?"
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