They didn't speak much on the way back to the village.
Kael rode silently beside Lyra, his jaw clenched, his knuckles white on the reins. Lyra kept glancing over her shoulder, half expecting to see that strange boy—Riven—following them from the trees. But there was only the sound of hooves and the whispering woods.
By the time they reached the outskirts of Wrenfall, the sun had fully set, casting the village in soft lanternlight. The cobbled streets were quiet. A dog barked in the distance. No one knew the girl who had once been a princess was sleeping in the back room of the old stonemason's cottage. No one knew she still carried magic in her blood.
And no one knew she was being hunted.
Inside the cottage, Kael lit the fire while Lyra sank into the chair by the hearth. She pulled her cloak tighter, as if that could silence the tremor in her hands.
"He knew about the Moonfire," she said softly.
Kael didn't answer.
"Kael?"
He looked up from the flames, his expression unreadable. "We don't know who he was, or what he wants."
"He didn't try to hurt me."
"He didn't try to help you either."
Lyra looked down at her palms, remembering the flicker of light that sometimes danced there in her sleep. The Moonfire had been passed down through the women of her family, a rare and dangerous magic—one that could heal or destroy. Her mother had hidden it. Her father had feared it. And now she was the last.
"What if he's right?" she whispered. "What if there's more in me than I understand?"
Kael crossed the room, kneeling beside her. "Then we'll figure it out. Together."
She wanted to believe him. His voice was steady, the way it had always been. He had stayed when everyone else had left. When the soldiers burned the castle. When her father fell.
But she could still see Riven's eyes—haunted, knowing, familiar in a way that made her skin crawl and her heart ache.
"You're not safe," he'd said.
That night, she dreamed of fire and shadow.
Of a boy with moonlight on his skin, and a sword pressed to his chest.
Of a choice that would break someone's heart.