Thessa's POV
"Don't let her in."
Erynd's voice cuts through my panic. He appears in the passage behind Maren's shadow, his silver eyes glowing with warning.
"She can't enter without your permission," he continues, speaking directly to me through the ice wall. "The sanctuary only opens to those who carry the goddess's essence. And only if you invite them."
"Sister, don't listen to him." Maren's voice drips with false sweetness. "He's kept you prisoner here. Filled your head with lies about me, about Cadeirin. I came to save you—"
"Save me?" I laugh but it sounds hysterical even to my own ears. "You orchestrated my rejection. You stole my mate. You put a curse on me when I was a baby!"
Silence. Long and heavy.
Then Maren laughs. Really laughs. The sound is nothing like her usual sweet giggle. This is cold. Ancient. Wrong.
"Oh good," she says. "You know. That makes this so much easier."
The shadow moves and suddenly Maren is visible through the translucent ice. She's smiling but her eyes—her eyes glow faintly gold. Not wolf gold. Something else. Something that makes my skin crawl.
"How long have you been searching for me?" I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.
"Three thousand years, give or take a few centuries." Maren examines her nails casually. "I've been reborn sixty-seven times. Always searching. Always hunting for the fragments of the Moon's essence. I've found and consumed forty-three small pieces over the millennia. But you, dear sister, carry the largest fragment. The one I need to finally complete my collection."
"You're insane."
"I'm ambitious." Her golden eyes lock onto mine. "Do you know what it's like to be so close to godhood you can taste it? To spend lifetime after lifetime gathering pieces, only to have the biggest prize hidden from you by a clever curse?"
"You placed the curse yourself," Erynd says coldly. "I can sense your magic signature all over it."
"Of course I did." Maren turns to glare at him. "I needed her hidden until I could figure out how to extract essence without causing an explosion. Cadeirin tried the violent approach three thousand years ago and look how that turned out—dead and scattered across multiple lifetimes."
"Cadeirin is working with you?" My stomach twists.
"Working with me? Please." Maren rolls her eyes. "He's a useful idiot who thinks he's in charge. He remembers fragments of his past life and believes he's destined to consume the Moon's power. But I've been collecting essence since before he was first born. He's just... a distraction."
"For what?"
Maren's smile turns predatory. "For you. While two hundred wolves surround this place looking for ways in, while Cadeirin focuses all his attention on the obvious entrances, I slipped away. Found the hidden passages. The secret ways." She presses her palm against the ice. "And now I'm right here. Right outside your little sanctuary. So close I can feel the goddess's power radiating from that pool you're soaking in."
I look down. I'm still in the healing pool, naked and vulnerable. I scramble out, grabbing the furs.
"You can't get in," I say, trying to sound confident. "Erynd said—"
"Erynd doesn't know everything." Maren's eyes glow brighter. "True, I can't enter without your permission. But there are other ways to breach a sanctuary. Ways that require sacrifice. Blood. Pain." She pulls out a knife. "Lucky for me, I'm very good at sacrifice."
"Don't!" Erynd moves to stop her but Maren is faster.
She slashes her own palm deep, blood pouring onto the ice floor. She begins chanting in a language I don't recognize—ancient and dark and wrong.
"No!" Erynd slams his fist against the sanctuary barrier but it throws him back. "Thessa, get out! Get to the main chamber—"
"I can't leave!" I gesture at the only exit—the passage where Maren stands. "She's blocking the way!"
The ice walls around the sanctuary begin to crack. Small fissures spreading like spider webs. Silver light leaks out from the cracks, fighting against Maren's dark magic.
"This is blood magic," Erynd shouts. "It corrupts divine barriers. She's forcing her way in—"
"Almost there," Maren sings, her voice cheerful despite the blood streaming from her hand. "Just a few more seconds, sister dear. Then we can have a proper family reunion."
I look around desperately. The pool. The walls. No weapons. No way out.
Wait.
I'm standing in the Moon Goddess's healing pool. In her personal sanctuary. Surrounded by her strongest essence.
If there was ever a place where my power would be at its peak, it's here.
I step back into the water.
"Thessa, what are you doing?" Erynd sounds panicked. "You need to run—"
"I'm done running." I sink deeper into the pool until the glowing water reaches my shoulders. "I've been running since the ceremony. Since the forest. Since I was born, apparently. I'm tired of it."
The cracks in the sanctuary walls spread faster. Maren's chanting grows louder.
I close my eyes and reach for the power inside me. Not desperately like before. Not in panic. I reach for it calmly, like Erynd taught me.
The goddess's essence responds immediately.
Silver light erupts from the pool, from the walls, from the very air itself. It pours into me in a flood so intense I should be screaming. But instead I feel... right. Like pieces of a puzzle finally clicking into place.
My eyes snap open and I know they're glowing pure silver.
"No!" Maren's chant breaks off. "You're not ready! The curse should have kept you weak for months longer—"
"The curse is broken." My voice sounds different. Stronger. Older. Like the goddess herself speaks through me. "And you're not welcome in my sanctuary."
I raise one hand and the cracks in the walls seal themselves instantly. More than seal—they reinforce, glowing with power that makes Maren stumble backward.
"That's impossible," she breathes. "You've only been awake for days. It took me decades to learn that level of control—"
"You stole your power in fragments," I say, walking out of the pool. The water clings to me, forming into clothes made of liquid silver light. "Pieced it together from scraps. I was born with it. Born to carry it. There's a difference."
Erynd stares at me with something like awe in his silver eyes.
Maren's expression shifts from shock to rage. "Fine. If I can't get in, I'll bring this whole place down on top of you. See how well you survive buried under a mountain of ice."
She raises her bloody hand and the entire ruins shake. Not from her magic—from something outside.
Cadeirin's voice echoes through the chambers: "If you won't come out, we're coming in. I've got fifty wolves digging through your barrier. It's holding for now, but dawn is still two hours away. How long do you think it can last?"
Maren smiles triumphantly. "I may not be able to enter your sanctuary, but I don't need to. I just need to keep you trapped here until Cadeirin breaks through. Then he'll get you first, try to consume your essence, fail spectacularly, and die. Again. And in the chaos of his death throes, when divine power explodes outward looking for a new host..." Her eyes gleam. "I'll be right here. Ready. Prepared. And I'll finally have everything."
"You're using Cadeirin as a suicide weapon," Erynd says with disgust.
"I'm using an idiot as a tool. That's what idiots are for." Maren backs away from the sanctuary entrance. "Enjoy your last hours of life, sister. I promise to use your power well. Maybe I'll even keep your memories. Think of all the fun I could have knowing exactly how you felt watching everything you loved get taken away."
She disappears into the shadows.
The ruins shake again, harder. Ice crystals rain from the ceiling. Cadeirin's wolves are digging faster.
I look at Erynd through the barrier. "How long until they break through?"
His expression is grim. "At this rate? Less than an hour."
"And if Cadeirin gets to me before dawn—"
"The power explosion will destroy everyone within a mile. Including the ruins. Including any chance of stopping Maren from collecting the scattered essence." He slams his fist against the wall in frustration. "Three thousand years. I've guarded this place for three thousand years and now I'm going to watch it happen again. Watch the Moon die again."
"No." I walk to the barrier, pressing my glowing hand against it. "You said I'm connected to this place. That the ruins respond to me."
"Yes, but—"
"Then I'm not staying in here hiding while you fight alone." I focus on the barrier, willing it to open. "Let me out."
"Thessa, the sanctuary is the safest—"
"I don't want safe!" My voice echoes with power. "I want to fight. I want to face them. All of them. And I want to do it with you."
Erynd goes very still. "With me?"
"You've been protecting the Moon's memory for three thousand years. Waiting for her essence to return." I meet his silver eyes with my glowing ones. "Well, I'm here. She's here. Inside me. And we're not running anymore. So are you going to help me fight, or do I face an army alone?"
For a long moment, Erynd just stares at me.
Then slowly, impossibly, he smiles. A real smile that transforms his cold face into something almost beautiful.
"I've waited three thousand years to hear those words." He reaches out and presses his hand against the barrier where mine rests. "Open the sanctuary, Moon Daughter. Let's remind these wolves why they should fear the divine."
I will the barrier to open.
It does.
Erynd steps through into the sanctuary—the first person in three millennia to enter this sacred space.
The moment he crosses the threshold, silver light wraps around him like living ribbons. He gasps, dropping to one knee.
"What's happening?" I rush to him.
"The sanctuary is... it's bonding with me." He looks up at me with wide eyes. "Recognizing me as your chosen guardian. I can feel it—the goddess's blessing, strengthening me, changing me—"
His eyes flare brighter silver than before. Power radiates from him in waves.
When he stands, he's different. Still Erynd, but more. Like he's finally become what he was always meant to be.
"Thank you," he says quietly.
"For what?"
"For choosing me." His hand touches my cheek gently. "For trusting me. For—"
The ruins shake violently. A massive crack splits the outer chamber's ice wall.
Cadeirin's laugh echoes through the passages. "Found it! The weak point! Keep digging!"
Erynd and I lock eyes.
"Ready?" he asks.
I summon the silver light to my hands. "Ready."
Together, we walk out of the sanctuary to face an army.
But as we step into the main chamber, we freeze.
Because standing in the center of the room, surrounded by broken ice and unconscious wolves, is someone we didn't expect.
A woman with long black hair and eyes that glow with divine power. She wears robes made of starlight and shadow.
When she speaks, her voice makes the entire ruins resonate.
"Hello, daughter. Hello, guardian." She smiles, and it's the goddess's smile. The Moon herself, somehow returned in flesh. "Did you really think Maren was the only ancient soul searching for my essence? I've been hiding in this vessel for twenty years, waiting. Watching. And now..."
She raises her hands and reality itself seems to ripple.
"Now it's time for the Moon to rise again. But first, we need to discuss which one of you gets to keep existing."