Lyra's POV
I'm falling through silver light with a stranger's arms around me, but all I can think about is Seraphina's smile.
That triumphant, cruel smile as she took my place. As she took everything.
The light suddenly releases me, and I hit solid ground hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. I gasp, scrambling backward on instinct, my hands scraping against cold stone.
"Careful." The Moon King's voice is closer than I expected.
I look up. We're standing in a massive chamber made entirely of silver stone that seems to glow from within. Windows—or what I think are windows—open onto a sky full of stars. Not the night sky I know. These stars are wrong. Too bright. Too close. Moving in patterns that make my head spin.
"Where am I?" My voice comes out broken. Weak.
"The Celestial Court. My palace." He watches me with those unsettling silver eyes. "Your new home."
"I didn't agree to this!" I push myself to my feet, even though my legs are shaking. "You can't just kidnap me and—"
"The prophecy doesn't require your agreement."
The casual way he says it makes something snap inside me. I've been pushed around, dismissed, and destroyed my entire life. I'm not doing it again. Not even for a king.
"I don't care about your prophecy!" The words burst out of me, loud and raw. "I just had my mate bond severed in front of hundreds of people. My wolf is gone. My stepsister took my place, and everyone just watched. So forgive me if I'm not excited about being claimed by another man who only wants me because of some ancient prediction!"
Silence stretches between us.
The Moon King's expression doesn't change, but something flickers in his eyes. "You think I want this? Want you?"
The words hit like a slap. Of course. Of course he doesn't want me. No one does. I'm just a tool. A prophecy. A means to an end.
"Then let me go," I whisper.
"I can't." He moves closer, and I see it now—beneath the cold mask, there's something else. Anger, maybe. Or grief. "We're bound together now. Whether either of us likes it, the celestial bond is in place. You felt it."
I did. That massive, overwhelming connection that snapped into place when he touched me. It's still there, thrumming under my skin, demanding acknowledgment.
But I don't want it. I don't want any of this.
"I'm going back." I turn toward where we came from, even though I have no idea how to get there. "I'm going back and—"
"And what?" His voice is sharp now. "Beg the Alpha who publicly rejected you to take you back? Grovel to the stepsister who's been plotting against you for months? Face the pack that just watched you be humiliated and did nothing?"
Each question is a knife between my ribs because he's right. What am I going back to? There's nothing left for me there.
My chest tightens. The empty space where my wolf used to be aches.
"She's really gone," I hear myself say. "My wolf. I can't feel her anymore."
"The rejection bond severed your connection to her." His tone softens slightly. "But she's not gone. She's dormant. Sleeping."
"How do you know?"
"Because if she were truly dead, you'd be dead too." He pauses. "And because I can feel her. Through our bond."
I look up at him sharply. "What?"
"The celestial bond connects us on every level—physical, emotional, spiritual. I can sense your wolf, even if you can't. She's still there, Lyra. Wounded and silent, but alive."
Something about the way he says my name—not dismissive, not cruel, just... stating a fact—makes my eyes burn with fresh tears. I won't cry in front of him. I won't.
"Why did you come for me?" I ask instead. "Why now? Why tonight?"
"The blood moon triggered the prophecy's awakening." He gestures at my arms, where the silver and gold marks are still faintly glowing. "When your mate rejected you, it broke the seal your mother placed on your power. The Moon Goddess sent me to claim what's rightfully mine before someone else did."
"I'm not a thing to be claimed!"
"No," he agrees quietly. "You're not. But you are the Moon-Born Queen. The last of the celestial bloodline. And every dark force in both realms will be hunting you the moment they learn you exist."
The weight of his words settles over me like ice.
"What do you mean, hunting me?"
"Your power—" He stops, choosing his words carefully. "The Moon-Born bloodline carries abilities that others would kill to possess. Your mother fled the celestial realm because there were those who wanted to use her. Now they'll come for you."
"Then send me somewhere safe. Hide me like my mother did. I don't need to be here, I don't need—"
"You need training." His tone is final. "The marks on your skin are just the beginning. Your true power is awakening, and if you don't learn to control it, it will destroy you. Or worse—it will be taken by someone who'll use it to destroy others."
I want to argue. Want to scream. Want to wake up from this nightmare.
But deep down, I know he's right. I can feel something stirring inside me—not my wolf, something else. Something that wasn't there before. It's like there's lightning in my veins, power I don't understand and can't control.
"What happens now?" I ask tiredly.
"Now you rest. Tomorrow, your training begins." He turns toward a doorway I hadn't noticed before. "Elder Moira will show you to your chambers."
An old woman steps through the doorway—blind white eyes, silver robes, moving with a grace that says she doesn't need sight to see. She smiles kindly at me.
"Come, child. You've had a difficult night."
That's the understatement of the century.
I follow her because I don't know what else to do. The Moon King watches us go, his silver eyes unreadable.
Elder Moira leads me through corridors that seem to shift and change, finally stopping at a door covered in symbols similar to the marks on my skin. When it opens, I see a bedroom more beautiful than anything I've ever imagined.
"Rest," she says gently. "Tomorrow will bring answers."
She leaves me alone, and I stumble to the massive bed, collapsing onto silk sheets that smell like moonlight and starlight and things I don't have names for.
The events of the night crash over me all at once.
Kael's rejection. The pain of the severed bond. Seraphina's triumphant smile as she took my place. The Moon King descending like a dark angel. The marks appearing on my skin. Being ripped from everything I've ever known and brought here.
I should cry. I should scream. I should do something.
But I'm too numb. Too empty. Too broken.
I close my eyes, trying to shut it all out.
That's when I feel it.
A flutter. Deep inside my chest, in the place where my wolf used to be.
So faint I almost miss it. But it's there—a tiny spark of consciousness. A whisper of presence.
Not gone. Sleeping.
The Moon King was right.
My wolf is still alive.
And as I drift off into exhausted sleep in this strange palace in a realm I don't understand, I don't realize that back in the mortal realm, three separate forces have just learned of my existence.
Kael, consumed by regret and obsession, is already planning how to get me back.
Seraphina, furious that I somehow became more important than her, is researching forbidden magic to rival my power.
And in the shadows, an ancient enemy watches through dark eyes and smiles.
The Moon-Born Queen has awakened.
And the hunt has begun.