CHAPTER 98: THE RISE OF THE MOON GODDESS

Athena’s POV

I stood at the heart of the ruin (where the former King and Kieran had fought) , surrounded by ash, broken stone, and the bones of a kingdom that had nearly slipped from my grasp. The air still pulsed with the echo of old magic,.fractured, bruised, but not dead.

Not yet.

Not while I still breathed.

The Moon Temple loomed behind me, its once-pristine walls scorched and cracked. The throne where the Binded King now sat in eternal chains pulsed faintly, his life force siphoned to fuel the protective wards I had woven into the marrow of the realm. A fitting prison. A fitting warning.

But a broken temple would not hold a kingdom.

It was time to rebuild.

I lifted my hand, calling the silver fire to me. Moonlight coiled around my wrist like a living serpent, humming with ancient power. I turned to the wolves gathered before me—the survivors, the loyal, the wounded, and the uncertain. All eyes rested on me, waiting to see what I would become now that Johan was gone.

No more waiting. No more hesitation.

"We are making plans to begin rebuilding the kingdom," I said, my voice steady, amplified by the thrum of divine power beneath my skin.

"The palace walls will rise again. Stronger. Sharper. Let the stone remember us."

My wolves exchanged glances, their ears perked, as they absorbed the weight of my words. They watched in admiration as this was the first time most of them were seeing my goddess power.

I stepped forward, moonlight trailing in my wake.

"Send runners to the scattered clans. Every family, every lone wolf hiding beyond the fractured borders. Tell them to return, that it’s safe and we will need help with building the Kingdom."

Kieran stood beside me, a silent pillar of strength at my side.

"The clans who abandoned us," I continued, my voice sharpening like a blade drawn fresh from the forge, "will be given more one chance to pick their sides, either with us or against us."

I needed everyone to be unified for what was coming.

"And if they don’t respond?" Kieran asked.

"If they are picking neither sides, they have to evacuate the kingdom."

The wolves growled low, a rumble of agreement sweeping through the gathered soldiers. I could feel the pulse of it—the awakening. They had lost faith in me once. I would not let them doubt again.

I turned toward Lucas, who had remained silent, watching me as I addressed the crowd.

"Send envoys to the ancient courts. The Fae. The Starborn. The Obsidian Witches of the Eastern Vale. The magical races that once served beneath the silver banner. We will need them."

His brow creased, but he didn’t question me. He simply said, "It’s been centuries since they have communicated with this Realm."

"They will remember me," I said, and the silver flames dancing at my fingertips answered in kind. "And if they don’t, I will make them remember."

The wind tugged at my hair, whispering old songs of blood and moonlight. It tasted of war. Of something greater than a rebellion. The storm wasn’t coming. I was the storm.

I climbed the fractured steps of the palace’s grand dais. My throne, my true seat of power, lay in pieces, but I did not need it to rise.

I turned to the gathered wolves. To Lucas. To Kieran. To the soldiers, the messengers, the healers, the survivors, and the ghosts who would haunt these halls long after we were gone.

"I am not merely your queen," I said, and the sky itself seemed to tighten around me. "I am your goddess."

The declaration crackled through the air like lightning splitting stone.

"For too long, I wore my divinity like a forgotten cloak, hiding from what I was born to be. No more."

I lifted my hand, and silver fire erupted from my palm, arching high, spiraling toward the clouds. The full moon blazed brighter, its glow a mirror to the power now burning through my bones.

"I am Athena, Daughter of the Celestial Flame, Keeper of the Silver Hunt. Your Moon Goddess."

The wolves fell to their knees, heads bowed, their submission a tide rolling across the courtyard.

Some trembled. Some wept. Some shifted and some howled, long, aching sounds that bled into the night sky like ancient prayers.

They knew me now.

And they would follow me.

Lucas stared up at me, his breath caught in his throat. There was a storm in his eyes, fear, desire, awe, but no doubt.

Kieran knelt, fist pressed to his chest, his voice a low oath. "Moon guide us. Goddess lead us."

The other wolves echoed the vow, the words rising in steady chorus until the ruined palace walls trembled with the weight of their allegiance.

This was mine now.

The realm. The war. The wolves. The ancient magics.

And I would bind it all beneath the silver banner.

"Prepare yourselves," I ordered, voice steady. "When the moon waxes full again, we march to summon the ancient courts. The Starborn must be found. The Obsidian Witches must be bound to our cause. The clans will assemble or leave."

The air tightened with purpose.

"Caelum moves even now," I said, pacing the edge of the dais, silver fire dripping from my fingertips like liquid moonlight. "He stirs in the godly realms, and his shadow stretches toward us."

I turned my gaze to the horizon, where the faint pulse of distant magic thrummed like a heartbeat beneath the earth.

"We will not cower beneath his storm. We will become it."

The gathered wolves roared their agreement, their howls splitting the sky, shaking the stones, filling the cracks of our broken world with new purpose.

I descended the dais, my cloak billowing behind me like a banner of war.

Lucas approached, his voice quiet but certain. "You’ve changed."

"No," I said, my gaze fixed on the fractured stars above us. "I’ve finally remembered who I am."

His hand brushed against mine. A tentative question. A silent offering.

I let him hold it. For now.

But I would not soften.

Not again.

"Ready the envoys," I whispered, already feeling the ancient magic stir across the threads of the realm. "The old powers will either stand with us, or be swept aside."

Lucas nodded, but there was a shadow behind his steady gaze.

He knew, as I did, that calling the ancient races would not come without a cost.

But I would pay it.

I would pay any price.

Because I was the Moon Goddess.