Luna Everleigh's POV
***
The darkness inside me screamed.
It clawed at my ribs, desperate to hold on.
But Rhydian's words were a spark in the void, something deep and real—and suddenly, I wasn't drowning.
I was breathing.
I was fighting.
I was Luna.
Seraphine's expression twisted into something dangerous. "No," she hissed. "You don't get to choose him."
She lifted a hand, and the abyss trembled. The shadows surged forward, thick as ink, wrapping around Rhydian like serpents.
He gasped, his body jerking as the darkness tightened.
Panic surged through me.
"No!"
I lunged forward—
And something inside me shifted.
Not in fear.
Not in anger.
But in understanding.
Morganna's power had never been about darkness.
It had been about grief.
A wound so deep, so vast, that it had consumed everything it touched.
And I understood it.
I felt it.
But I was not afraid of it.
The darkness inside me pulsed, but I didn't fight it this time.
I embraced it.
The abyss exploded with light.
The shadows unraveled like threads in the wind, and suddenly, I wasn't trapped anymore. I wasn't drowning.
I was rising.
Seraphine's eyes widened. "What—?"
I met her gaze, my heart steady, my power thrumming through my veins.
"You were right about one thing," I said, my voice calm. "This power is mine."
Seraphine's expression contorted with fury.
And then I moved.
***
To be continued...