Lorraine’s POV
I couldn’t breathe.
Not because there was no air, there was too much of it, pressing in on , heavy and suffocating, but because my chest refused to rise properly. My heart was pounding so violently it felt like it was trying to claw its way out of my ribs, each beat echoing inside my skull.
Everything I had just seen... learned.... rembered.....
It was too much.
I staggered backward, though there was nowhere to fall in this place. My thoughts collided, shattered, reford, only to break again. Images overlapped one another, fire and blood, silver chains, a bridge beneath the moon, a woman screaming as flas swallowed her whole, a man howling over her charred body....
And then him.
Always him.
Avelar.... Kieran.
My knees gave out, and I sank to the ground, clutching my head as if that might keep it from splitting open.
Maeryn.
That was my na.
That has always been my na.
I was Maeryn.
The first Hexborn.
The first Luna Queen.
The abomination. The miracle. The woman whose existence rewrote the laws of this world.
And even then, even in my very first lifeti, the one person who never left my side, the one who chose when the world burned, was Avelar.
Who was now....
"Kieran," I whispered, my voice breaking.
Kieran Valerius Hunter.
Reincarnated.
Returned.
Bound to across lifetis the way the moon is bound to the tides.
The realization hit like a blade straight through the heart.
Our love hadn’t started at Lunar Crest Academy.
It hadn’t begun with defiance or hatred or sparks of rage and longing.
It had begun centuries ago.
It had survived betrayal, war, ascension, madness, and fire.
It had survived death.
And now....
It had found its way back to .
A sound tore out of my chest, half sob, half laugh, as tears spilled down my face uncontrollably. I pressed my palms over my eyes, but it didn’t stop them. They ca anyway, hot and relentless, dripping off my chin and into nothingness.
My wolf stood before , luminous and calm, silver light tracing the edges of her form. She looked exactly the sa as she always did, and yet now I understood why she felt so ancient, so impossibly vast.
I lifted my head slowly, my vision blurred with tears.
"So... were you with her too?" I asked quietly. "With Maeryn?"
She nodded once.
"I am an extension of the Moon Goddess herself," she said. Her voice was steady, resonant, carrying the weight of eons. "Even then, I was with Maeryn."
My throat tightened painfully.
"And you ca back?" I whispered. "With ?"
"Yes," she said simply. "I have co back again to be with you."
Sothing inside my chest cracked open completely at that.
All this ti, every mont I had wanted to just die rather than fight, the push I always get from within to fight and survive even when I wanted to give up, it hadn’t been a coincidence.
It had been destiny.
She stepped closer, her eyes softening.
"I will leave you with one truth," she said. "A Hexborn is never ant to live too long, Maeryn."
My breath hitched.
"So find a way to beat the odds," she continued. "Survive this lifeti."
My heart lurched violently.
"Wait," I gasped, scrambling forward. "How do I do that?! How do I beat the odds?! How do I survive this lifeti?!"
But she was already fading.
Her form dissolved into moonlight, scattering like mist under the sun.
"No!!!" I scread.
Her presence vanished entirely.
And I was alone.
The abyss stretched endlessly around , black and empty, swallowing sound and aning alike. My scream echoed back at , warped and hollow, as if mocking my desperation.
No answers.
No guidance.
Only the weight of knowledge and the terror of what it ant.
Then the ground disappeared beneath my feet.
I was falling.
Falling endlessly, the void rushing past as panic seized my throat. I scread, the sound ripping out of raw and desperate....
And then....
I jerked awake.
I sucked in a sharp breath, my body lurching forward violently as reality slamd back into place.
The first thing I slled was old wood and dust.
The second was blood.
I blinked rapidly, my vision swimming as the world ca into focus.
Liandrin’s house.
The crooked, rusted, cursed place.
The atmosphere inside was thick, heated, charged with tension so sharp it felt like it might slice skin. Felix was stood nearby, his body braced awkwardly as he supported Varya, who lay unconscious against him. But her wounds, her terrible wounds, were already knitting together, flesh slowly healing beneath her torn cloth.
Alistair stood beside Kaelani, who looked furious and shaken in equal asure, her arms crossed tightly as she paced.
Liandrin stood to my right.
She looked... wrong.
Distorted.
There was blood at the corner of her lips, and more splattered darkly on the floor near her feet.
And to my left....
Him.
Kieran.
Avelar.
He was furious.
I could see it in the tension of his body, in the way his jaw was clenched so tightly it looked like it might shatter. His claws were extended and streaked with blood, his eyes dark with barely restrained violence.
But the mont our eyes t....
Everything changed.
His fury collapsed instantly into sothing raw and terrified.
He crossed the distance between us in two strides and dropped in front of , pulling into his arms with crushing force. His embrace was desperate, almost painful, as if he was afraid I would disappear if he loosened his grip even slightly.
"I thought I lost you," he breathed into my neck.
The fear in his voice shattered sothing inside .
And suddenly, the mory slamd into yet again.
Avelar screaming over my burned body.
His howl of agony echoing across centuries.
This could happen again.
If I failed.
If I didn’t find a way to survive being a Hexborn.
My arms wrapped around him instinctively, clutching at his clothes as tears poured down my face again. He held tighter, as if anchoring to the world, grounding in the present.
"Enough of this touchy reunion," Liandrin snapped. "It’s painful to watch."
Kieran stiffened but slowly released , his hands lingering as if reluctant to let go.
"Now that Lorraine is awake," Liandrin continued, "let’s get to business. You owe a kill."
Kieran exhaled heavily. "Fine," he said. "Let’s get this over with. Who do you want to kill?"
A wicked smile curved Liandrin’s lips.
"His na is Conan," she said. "Conan Valerius Hunter."
My brows furrowed. "Valerius Hunter?"
"He is your father’s elder brother," Liandrin said to Kieran. "And he is the Leader of the Crimson Hunt."
Kieran’s expression went utterly blank.
"The Leader is an evil man," he said evenly. "But I doubt that’s why you want him dead. So why?"
Liandrin’s face twitched, just for a second, as sothing dark and old surfaced in her eyes.
"Before he was the Leader of the Crimson Hunt," she said, her voice tight with rembered fury, "he was my husband."
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