bChapter /bb93 /b

With the little boy’s hand in mine, my other on Layah’s furb, /ba power surged between us. Bright blue light hummed through the air like a living heartbeat, pulsing outward with a deep, echoing thrum. It was not just magic. It was memory. Bloodline. Destiny. A resonance that didn’t just touch the world, it recognized it. imed it. The ground beneath us stilled. The storm paused mid–roar. Time… broke. Not violently, not like the tether had, but gently, like the quiet breath between lightning and thunder. The battlefield froze around us, locked in a single suspended frame. Noah’s ws were mid–swing, blood and spirit ash frozen in the air like shattered ss. Levi’s mouth was still open in a soundless howl, eyes wide, me licking the edges of his fur. Hawk’s fur was caught mid–beat, trailing silver through the stillness. All of it is silent. Like the world itself was watching. And thenb…/bThey came. One by one, the souls of the lost children stepped from the light. Dozens of themb, /bhundreds. Ghosts without horror. Spirits without torment. Their faces were bsoft /bwith peace, their eyes glowing the same bright blue as the light that surrounded bus/b. They said nothing. They didn’t need to. They reached for one another. Tiny fingers linked. Child to child, soul to soul, they formed a perfect circle around us. The magic red between them, brighter than a sunrise. They were tethering the Veil. Not as victimsb, /bbut bas /banchors. As protectorsb. /bbI /bgasped, tears spilling freely nowb, /bbecause bI /bcould feel them. Each one. Their stories. Their pain. Their stolen futures…And still, they stoodb, /bfor me. For this world. Layah pressed closer, her light ring with mine, fur shimmering with magic so ancient it hummed innguages bI /bcouldn’t speak. The boy squeezed my hand tighter.

“We don’t have long,” he said softly. “The magic is waiting. You are the one who must rebuild it.”

I stood slowly, breath shaking, magic cracking across my skin like lightning. The tether no longer screamed. It pulsed. Steady. Steady. iMine/ii. /iThe Veil was torn. Bleeding. So I closed my eyes and imagined it whole. Not a wall. A bridge. One that separated, yes, but also respected. One that allowed the right souls to passb, /band the wrong ones to be kept out. One that did not feed on pain or blood or power hoarded by tyrants, but one rooted in bnce. A Veil of truth. The circle of children glowed brighter, their joined hands lifting slowly into the airb, /ba ring of light surrounding me. I called to the dead. The ones Marcus had twisted, warped, and used. I called them backb, /band they came. One by one, the corrupted souls lifted from the battlefield like threads bof /bsmoke, drifting toward the circle. The children opened the Veil for themb, /bbjust /benough. They passed through, back to the underworld. Layah whimpered. The boy wept. I reached deeper, my magic unraveling and weaving at the same time, crafting new runes into the fabric of the realms. When I opened my eyes, bI /bcould see it, the new Veil rising before me like woven light and shadow. Threaded with soul, blood, and forgiveness. So beautiful it ached. A single breath passed. Then the world lurched back into motion. Time caught up like a scream, the wind returning in a thunderp, the battlefield roaring to life as if the pause had only been a breath..

The light that had bled from the heavens like open wounds stitched itself shut with threads of gold and silverb, /bconstetions shifting into new shapes. The Underworld at our bfeet /bshimmered, no longer boiling, but calm. Contained. Bnced and all across bthe /bfield… the twisted spirits were gone. Their howls had been reced with silence. Not hollow, not ominous. Peaceful. My friendsb, /bmy family, fell mid–strike or mid–spell, des cutting through smoke, ws scraping at nothing. Noah stumbled to a stop, panting, blood dripping from his hands. Xavier looked around in slow confusion, mouth half open in a roar that died on his lips. Flint and Talen turned in tight, protective circles, bracing for an enemy that no longer existed. Their confusion echoed across the field, hundreds of warriors frozen in disbelief. Because the battle they had justid down their lives for… was over. No victory cries. No final sh. Just stillness.

Marcus stood at the center of the chaos he had wrought. No spirits nked him. The blood that soaked his arms had no power anymore. It clung to him like guilt. He looked around in disbelief. And then Marcus began to shiftb, /btrying to retreat, trying to run, but he didn’t get far. A golden light descended like a cage of sunfire. He was caught mid–stride, suspended in the air bas /bif gravity itself had abandoned him. Light curled around his limbs, spun through his ribs, and held him thereb, /bnot harshly, but with quiet finality. He floated forward, slow, trembling, helpless, until he hovered bjust /bbefore me and thenb, /bgently, impossibly gently, the light lowered him to my feet.

Standing just behind him, radiant and otherworldly, she wore robes of white that shimmered like starlight over water, her hair long and loose, a dark waterfall streaked with moonlight. bHer /bcrown was simple but unmistakable: a circlet of pure gold shaped like a crescent moon, resting above

her brow.

???????? ? ?????

I knew. This was the Moon Goddess herself. Selene.

“My child,” she said, smiling softly bas /bif we were bthe /bonly two people in the world. Her voice wasn’t thunder. It wasn’t fire or fury. It was warmth. The kind of voice that made you feel like maybeb, /bjust maybe, you were safe. “You’ve certainly been working hardb,/bb” /bshe said with a faint smile.

Power still cracked beneath my skin, but hers… bhers /bmade mine feel like a ripple in ake beside the ocean. The boy at my side knelt instantly, head bowedb, /band Layah lowered herself into a crouch, her glowing form pressing against my leg in quiet reverence. Around us, the children’s souls had not disappeared; they watched, hands still linked, still holding together, their eyes reflecting moonlight. Selene stepped forward, past Marcus, who flinched from her presence like it burned. She didn’t even look at him. Her gaze was on me.

“You rewrote the Veil,” she said. “You did what none of us dared.”

I finally found my voiceb, /bhoarse and trembling, “It was broken. It was hurting everyone. I–I couldn’t let it keep bleeding.”

You chose harmony over power, Sacrifice over vengeance. And you gave the souls back their names.” Her head tilted slightly. “You rewrote the realms withpassion. That is true divinity.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks before bI /bcould stop them. “I didn’t do it alone.”