LILY POV
The scream that tore from my throat as Luna’s mories vanished wasn’t human.
It ca from sowhere deeper than my breath, deeper than my heart. It was the sound of a soul being ripped in half. The basent walls shook with the force of it, cracks spreading across the concrete like spider webs.
"Luna!" I lunged toward her crumpled form, but the Void Walkers stepped between us, their empty eyes watching with new interest.
"Fascinating," the lead thing said. "Your emotional response is... unexpected."
I wanted to tear them apart. I wanted to destroy Elena for what she’d done. I wanted to bring Luna back from wherever her mind had gone. But as I reached for the dinsional energy that had been getting stronger inside , sothing strange happened.
Nothing ca.
The power that had been growing for weeks, the energy that made Elena so afraid of , just... stopped. Like soone had turned off a switch in my chest.
"What did you do?" I demanded, spinning to face Elena.
She wiped blood from her mouth, her void energy sparking around her fingers. "I took what was mine," she growled. "All those stolen mories, all that power Luna was ant to have. It flows through now."
"You’re lying." But even as I said it, I could feel the emptiness where my dinsional powers used to be. The steady humming under my skin was gone. The sense of being connected to various realities had vanished.
"Am I?" Elena’s laugh was sharp and cruel. "Try to link, little oga. Try to move between dinsions. You’ll find that particular gift has been... redirected."
I reached desperately for the power, stretching my awareness toward the space between worlds. Nothing. It was like trying to grab water with my bare hands.
"The transformation is reversing," one of the Void Walkers noted. "Without dinsional energy to fuel it, she returns to her original state."
"No!" Caleb stepped forward, his face twisted with worry. "There has to be another way."
"There is," Elena said pleasantly. "Give what I want, and I’ll return Luna’s mories. Refuse, and she stays an empty shell forever."
I looked down at Luna’s still form. Her chest rose and fell steady, but her eyes stared at nothing. When I touched her hand, there was no recognition, no reaction. She was breathing, but the person who had argued with , protected , and finally called sister was gone.
"What do you want?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.
"The Triple Moon Mark," Elena said instantly. "Transfer it to , and everyone gets what they need. I beco the Guardian, Luna gets her mories back, and you return to being a basic oga who can live quietly with her mate."
"You can’t transfer a mate mark," Aiden argued. "It’s impossible."
"Not impossible," Viktor corrected quietly. "Forbidden. And dangerous. The process would require..." He stopped, his face going pale.
"What?" Brock asked. "It would require what?"
"A willing sacrifice," Viktor finished. "Soone would have to give up their life force to break the original bond and create a new one."
Elena’s smile widened. "I’m sure soone here would be happy to help. After all, isn’t love about sacrifice?"
My heart clenched as I looked around the room. I could see it in their faces - Caleb, Aiden, Brock, even Prince Ash and Dmitri - they were all considering it. They would die to save Luna and give a normal life.
"No," I said strongly. "Nobody is sacrificing themselves for anything."
"Then Luna stays empty," Elena shrugged. "Your choice."
I knelt beside Luna again, taking her limp hand in both of mine. Her skin was warm, but it felt wrong sohow. Like holding a beautiful doll instead of a real person.
"Luna," I whispered. "I know you can’t hear , but I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t figure out who you really were sooner. I’m sorry we wasted so much ti as enemies when we should have been sisters."
For just a mont, I thought I felt her fingers twitch. Hope flared in my chest, but when I looked at her face, her eyes were still empty.
That’s when it happened.
As I sat there, holding my sister’s hand and feeling totally powerless for the first ti in weeks, sothing unexpected blood in my chest. It wasn’t the wild energy of dinsional power or the burning feeling of transformation. It was quieter, warr.
It was peace.
Not the kind of peace that cos from having no problems, but the deep, settled feeling of knowing exactly where you belong. Even with Elena threatening us, even with Luna’s mind stuck sowhere I couldn’t reach, even with my powers gone - sitting here, surrounded by people who cared about , I felt... right.
"Lily?" Caleb’s voice was soft, worried. He sat down beside , not touching, just being close. "How are you holding up?"
I looked at him - really looked. His hair was ssy from running his hands through it. His clothes were torn from the fight. There were dark bags under his eyes from worry. But when he looked at , there was nothing but love and acceptance in his face.
"I feel..." I started, then stopped, surprised by the words that wanted to co out. "I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be."
It was such an easy thing to say, but as the words left my mouth, sothing shifted inside . The empty space where my dinsional powers used to be wasn’t empty anymore. It was filled with sothing else. Sothing that felt more like than the cosmic energy ever had.
"Impossible," one of the Void Walkers breathed.
"What’s impossible?" I asked, but I was looking at Caleb, not the thing.
"You’re generating emotion," the Void Walker said, its voice filled with sothing that might have been wonder. "Pure, undiluted human feeling. We’ve never seen anything like it."
Elena’s confident face flickered for the first ti. "That’s not possible. Without dinsional energy, she’s just a normal oga."
"Look at her mark," Prince Ash said quietly.
I glanced down at my wrist. The Triple Moon Mark was shining, but not with the harsh silver light of before. This glow was soft, warm, like candles. And as I watched, amazed, the mark began to change.
The three intertwined moons were splitting, yes, but not the way they had during the Winter Moon ceremony. Instead of moving toward different people, they were reforming into sothing new. Sothing that looked less like moons and more like...
"Hearts," Caleb whispered. "They’re becoming hearts."
The lead Void Walker stepped closer, its empty eyes fixed on my changing mark. "This was not predicted in any tiline."
"What does it an?" I asked.
But before anyone could answer, Luna’s hand suddenly gripped mine with crushing force. Her empty eyes snapped to focus on my face, but when she spoke, it wasn’t her voice that ca out.
"The Emotion Walker awakens," she said in a voice like wind through ancient trees. "The balance changes again. What was lost shall be found, what was found shall be lost, and what should never have been shall finally co to pass."
Her grip tightened until I could feel my bones grinding together.
"The real enemy approaches," Luna’s voice continued, but the words seed to co from sowhere far away. "And she has been watching all along."
Then Luna’s eyes rolled back, and she fell again - but this ti, she wasn’t breathing.
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