Luna Everleigh's POV
***
Riven was the one who spoke first.
"The Moonlit Relic isn't just an artifact," he said, his voice unusually grim. "It's a seal."
I turned to him sharply. "A seal?"
Riven nodded, pacing the length of the room. "A long time ago, the Lunar Guardians weren't just warriors. They were weapons." His crimson eyes flickered with something unreadable. "The relic was created to control them—to bind their power."
A shiver ran through me.
"Whoever holds the relic," Riven continued, "holds the fate of every Lunar Guardian in their hands."
Rhydian's jaw clenched. "Then we can't let Morganna get to it."
"That's the plan." Damian's voice was flat. "The Silver Fang Society is already searching for it. If they get to it first…" He trailed off, but we all knew what he meant.
I swallowed hard. "Do you know where it is?"
Damian hesitated before shaking his head. "Not yet. But I know they're close."
For the first time since he arrived, I saw something flicker in his expression—guilt.
I wasn't sure if I could forgive him. But I also wasn't sure if I could afford to hate him.
Not when the real enemy was still out there.
A sudden wave of nausea rolled through me, and I staggered, gripping the edge of the table for balance.
"Luna?" Rhydian was beside me in an instant, his hands steadying me.
I tried to breathe through it, but my vision blurred, and for a moment, it felt like something inside me was shifting. Like my own body was no longer entirely my own.
It wasn't pain, exactly. It was power.
Raw, untamed, and terrifying.
Rhydian's hands tightened around mine. "What's happening?"
I opened my mouth to speak, but the words never came.
Because at that moment, the world around me seemed to pulse.
And I realized, with a growing sense of dread, that something inside me had begun to awaken.
Something that might not be entirely human anymore.
***
(To be continued…)