Fire.
Not heat. Not destruction. But light. Blinding. Consuming. Alive.
It swallowed me whole, yet I felt no pain. Only… awakening.
I wasn't standing anymore. I was suspended in a space that shimmered like moonlight on still water. There was no ground beneath my feet, no sky above. Just endless silver mist and a heartbeat—my heartbeat—echoing louder than thunder.
I looked down. My body… wasn't solid. I shimmered like starlight, my limbs glowing faintly with runes that weren't there before.
"What are you?" a voice asked—not spoken aloud, but within my mind.
I turned sharply.
She stood where the mist thickened. Tall, cloaked in pale robes, her hair a cascade of silver and shadow. Her eyes were mine—exactly mine—but older, wiser, and infinitely sadder.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
"I am what's left," she said, stepping forward. "Of the blood that bore you. Of the moon that shaped you. Of the Gate that binds what must not rise."
My mouth was dry. "Are you my mother?"
"No," she said gently. "But she carried my essence, as you now carry mine. We are one, Elara. Past and present. Flesh and myth. You are the last Moonveil."
The name vibrated in my bones.
"The Gate," I whispered. "Why did it call to me?"
"Because you are its key." Her voice thickened. "And the lock."
I clenched my fists. "I don't understand."
She looked up, and the mist around us shifted—revealing glimpses of the world beyond.
Kane, in his wolf form, howling over my unconscious body. Lyra screaming. Sentinels fighting to drag me back from the seal.
But worse—something emerged from the split in the earth.
A dark mist. Shifting. Hungry.
"That is the Hollow," she said. "What your enemies seek to unleash. A realm of the banished. Of the Unformed. If it escapes the Gate fully…"
"I saw it," I breathed. "When Malric touched the seal. He wasn't just opening it. He was feeding it."
She nodded. "Their magic corrupts the Veil. Every blow against the Sanctuary, every blood spell—they have been tearing the Gate open thread by thread. Until you touched it."
"Did I break it?"
"No," she said. "You woke it."
A cold sweat clung to my glowing skin.
"Then what happens now?"
"You must choose."
The mist shifted again—and two paths unfurled before me.
One was shadowed, steep, bleeding into nothingness. I sensed power there. Terrible, unyielding, without mercy.
The other path shimmered with moonlight—but it was narrow, treacherous, bound by sacrifice.
She looked at me. "You can embrace the Hollow. Become the Queen they crave. Their weapon. Or… seal the Gate once more. Bind it with your life-force. End this cycle."
I laughed, bitter. "So those are my choices? Power or death?"
"No," she said. "Power through death. Or life through balance."
That stopped me.
She approached, brushing my cheek with ethereal fingers. "You are not meant to die. But you will be remade. The wolf must become more than beast. The woman more than myth. Only then can you claim the third path."
I blinked. "There's a third path?"
She smiled. "There always is."
And then she vanished.
I gasped as my eyes flew open.
Kane was kneeling over me, covered in blood and dirt, his eyes wild with relief. "Elara!"
I choked, grabbing his arm. "The Gate—it's not sealed. But I can fix it."
He didn't hesitate. "What do you need?"
I looked around. The Hollow creatures were pulling back, snarling and shrieking as the light from the seal still lingered. But the crack beneath the earth had widened—leaking oily smoke.
I rose to my feet, trembling. "I need time. And I need to bleed."
"What?"
"My blood's the key," I said. "Moonveil blood. I can anchor the Gate, at least for now."
Kane growled low in his throat. "There has to be another way."
"There isn't." I stepped forward, drawing my dagger. "But I'll survive this. I have to."
With shaking hands, I sliced across my palm and dropped to my knees at the edge of the Gate.
The blood sizzled the moment it touched the ground.
The earth groaned.
I spoke words I didn't know—old, ancient things that burned my tongue.
And the Gate—responded.
It lit up, a silver blaze erupting from the cracks, sending the Hollow beasts into retreat. The air shook with power, the moon above turning from red… to gold.
And then silence.
Just silence.
Later, when the Sanctuary lay in battered quiet and the dead had been counted, I sat by the ruins of the Gate, my body aching, my hand still bandaged.
Kane sat beside me, not touching, but close.
"You scared the hell out of me," he said.
I smiled, weakly. "Join the club."
He glanced at the glowing lines still faintly marking my arms. "What did you see?"
"Too much," I whispered. "Not enough."
He was quiet, then asked, "Are you still you?"
I met his eyes. "Yes. But I'm not only me anymore."
And somewhere deep within, I felt it stir.
The blood. The power. The truth of what I was becoming.
Not just a wolf. Not just a key.
But a weapon. A shield.
A queen, maybe.
But not yet.