The Moon Keep was cloaked in silence, but beneath its still surface, preparations stirred like a rising tide.
Selene stood over the old war map in the Queen's strategy hall, her hand hovering above a small, unmarked location in the east—deep in the Verdant Wilds. A place long forgotten, swallowed by thorns and time.
"We tracked the symbols Nira drew," Kael explained, unfurling a new scroll across the table. "They match those found in a ruined temple buried beneath the Wilds. A cult site, abandoned centuries ago after the First Eclipse War."
Saria leaned over the parchment. "Are you saying they've returned to it?"
Kael nodded. "It's likely a central nest. Maybe even where they've hidden the other relics."
Selene's fingers tightened around the map's edge.
"Then that's where we go. Quiet. Precise. And final."
Before dawn, Selene and the Lunar Guard prepared to leave.
Jace adjusted the straps on his gear, eyes scanning the forest beyond the walls. "The Verdant Wilds are untamed. We'll be walking into a place where even light gets lost."
"Good," Selene replied. "Let the shadows think they have the advantage."
Thorne and Lyra rode ahead, scouting the path.
Mira held a moonstone pendant between her fingers, her breath slow. "The land doesn't want us there. I can feel it. Something ancient sleeps beneath those trees."
Selene's gaze sharpened. "Then we wake it carefully."
By noon, the forest devoured them.
The Wilds were nothing like the woods near Ironclaw. The trees here were impossibly tall, their roots like walls, their canopies blotting out the sky. No birds. No wind. Only the soft crunch of boots and whispers between leaves.
At one point, Bram muttered, "This place ain't right. The trees… they're watching us."
Lyra moved beside him. "They are."
They found the first sign just past a stone arch choked with moss—a circle of bones arranged in a crescent moon. Fresh. Human.
"They're close," Jace said grimly.
Selene knelt beside the bones. "No blood. No scent. This wasn't a kill."
"It was a ritual," Mira whispered.
By dusk, they found the temple.
Or what was left of it.
Half-buried in vines and ancient roots, the stone structure jutted out of the earth like a broken crown. Faded symbols of both the moon and the void had been etched into its face—twisting, corrupted, fused.
A single entrance yawned beneath a crumbling archway.
Selene stepped forward, drawing Moonfire.
"No torches," she said. "They'll see the flame. Mira, you lead. Feel for traps."
Inside, the temple reeked of decay and rot—but there was something else beneath it. A vibration in the bones. A hum just beyond hearing.
They moved through winding halls carved from stone, past murals so old even the paint had begun to decay.
Until they reached the central chamber.
It was a dome, large and ancient, its walls covered in black moss and moonstone dust. At the center stood a stone altar, cracked but still pulsing faintly with light.
Jace moved to stand beside Selene. "What is this place?"
Mira reached for the altar, placing her hand gently on its surface.
Her eyes went white.
Then she spoke, but it was not her voice.
It was something older.
"When the moon splits, and the beast of black becomes many,
the Queen of Night shall rise from ruin,
not to rule, but to choose.
Choose flame… or choose fang.
One saves the blood.
One saves the soul."
The light vanished.
Mira gasped, collapsing to her knees.
Selene caught her. "What did you see?"
Mira's voice trembled. "Two paths. One of war. One of surrender. And… your face. But split. Half light. Half shadow."
Before they could process the meaning, the floor beneath them shook.
From the outer halls, voices rose—chanting in low, guttural tones.
"They know we're here," Thorne hissed.
Bram drew his twin blades. "Then let's not disappoint them."
A wave of cloaked cultists surged into the chamber, eyes glowing with violet fire. At their center stood a figure wrapped in void silk—his face hidden, his hands crackling with stolen power.
"Leave the Queen," he hissed. "The Vessel will want her whole."
Selene stepped forward.
"You can tell the Vessel," she growled, "that I'm not waiting to be claimed."
Moonfire erupted into silver flame.
And the chamber became a battlefield.
The fight was chaos—steel against shadow, light against void. Lyra vanished and reappeared in flashes, striking from behind. Bram slammed two cultists into the wall with raw force. Jace fought at Selene's side, their blades moving like one.
But it was Selene who drew all eyes.
Every time her blade cut through a cultist, silver sparks burst. Every time void fire came near, her presence pushed it back.
The Queen was fury and flame.
And when the last cultist fell, Selene stood above the void priest.
She yanked the hood away.
It was one of the Moon Keep's own advisors—Lord Vellis of Dawnridge.
Jace stepped back in disbelief. "He sat beside us. He broke bread at your table."
Selene's expression was stone.
"He'll speak," she said. "Before I silence him for good."
As they returned to the surface, the temple began to shake—roots collapsing, the altar pulsing violently.
The moonstone at the altar's heart exploded in light—
And behind Selene, a ghostly wolf made of stars and fire appeared… just for a breath.
Only Mira saw it fully.
And she whispered, "She's not just the Queen."
"She's the Chosen."