Selene's POV
"I don't understand why I can't go beyond the ridge," I said quietly, walking a step behind her, keeping my eyes on the cracked earth.
"You understand," Ravin replied, her voice sharp as ever. "You just don't like the truth."
"The truth is a cage," I muttered.
She stopped walking.
I nearly bumped into her back.
Then, slowly, she turned to face me. "The truth is what keeps your heart beating."
I looked past her, toward the shadow of the ridge, where the earth dropped into mist. The world I wasn't allowed to see. The world that pulled at me night after night in my dreams.
"My heart is barely beating," I whispered. "Every day feels like a half-death."
"That's because you fight what you are," she said coldly. "You crave what should've been burned out of you years ago."
I clenched my jaw. "You mean desire?"
Her silence was loud.
"You watch the others," I went on, "how they touch, how they laugh, how they take what they want. You don't stop them. But with me, it's always different."
"Because you are different," she snapped.
"And what if I don't want to be?"
Her eyes flared. "Then the world will burn again. Just like it did when Lunaria lost control."
"There it is," I laughed bitterly. "Lunaria. Always her. Always the warning."
"She was the Sacred-Born before you," Ravin said. "She let love in. It destroyed her."
"Maybe it made her feel alive," I said. "Maybe that's why they fear her story."
Ravin stepped forward. "You are not here to feel. You're here to contain."
"Maybe I don't want to contain it anymore."
A pause.
Then, colder: "That would be foolish."
I held her stare. "I keep dreaming of a man I've never met. I feel him like fire in my blood. And no matter how hard I try, I can't push him away."
Ravin's lips thinned. "Your dreams are dangerous."
"They're mine."
"Not when your womb holds the sigil. Not when the moon calls you hers. Your body stopped being yours the moment the mark appeared."
I looked down at my wrist. The Eclipse Sigil shimmered faintly beneath the light.
"I hate it," I whispered. "I hate being sacred."
"That hatred is still power," Ravin said coolly. "Good. Let it shape you."
We started walking again.
Around us, Witchborns moved through the Wastes… sharp-eyed women, laughing without warmth, beautiful and terrifying. Some kissed in corners. Others dueled with flames on their palms.
There were no men. No softness. No voices asking if you were okay.
Just strength. Cold, brutal strength.
"You never miss them?" I asked. "Men?"
"No," Ravin said. "They were a distraction. A weakness we outgrew."
"And if I never outgrow it?"
She didn't look at me.
"You will," she said. "Or you will burn like she did."
"I'm not going," I said, arms crossed, standing firm as she tied her braids with silver wire.
"You are," Ravin replied flatly, not even sparing me a glance.
My chest tightened. "It doesn't feel right this year."
"It never does," she said. "That's the point."
I stepped back. "I don't want them touching me. Chanting over me like I'm already dead."
She turned, her sharp gaze pinning me. "You're not being touched. You're being honored."
"It doesn't feel like honor," I whispered. "It feels like sacrifice."
Something flickered in her eyes but it vanished. "Put on the robe."
I stood frozen. "Why do I have to keep pretending this is sacred? Why do I have to lie with my body when everything inside me is screaming no?"
"You were born with the sigil," she said calmly, "Not exactly a choice. A calling, one that not everyone gets. You should be grateful"
Her hand lifted, two fingers drawn through the air and my robe appeared, hovering in front of me. The dark velvet shimmered with runes only witches could read.
I didn't move.
She dropped it at my feet. "You can walk in or be carried. Either way, the ritual begins at moonrise."
We stood beneath the blood moon, its light pooling like fire on the cracked altar stones.
Witchborns gathered in a circle, faces painted in ash and moonlight. They chanted some sort of Ancient rhythm.
I stood in the center with my heart pounding, rage swirling beneath my skin.
This wasn't mine. This wasn't me.
Ravin stepped forward, raising the ceremonial blade to draw the sigil from my wrist into the open air.
"The moon claims her daughter," she said, voice rising. "The eclipse lives through you. Let the veil thin."
But nothing happened.
No wind.
No light.
No rise of magic.
Just silence.
The chanting stopped. The air turned brittle.
Ravin's brows furrowed.
"Again," she said.
The witches began once more.
She raised the blade again.
Still… nothing.
I felt it in my bones, like a wall inside me had locked. Like my body had said no on my behalf.
Ravin stepped back, shaking, her face pale with disbelief.
"You rejected it," she hissed.
"I didn't mean to," I whispered.
"You can't reject it."
I looked at my wrist. The sigil burned but it didn't hurt. It was more like… awake.
Then Ravin's face changed. Her fury cooled into something darker.
Awe.
"No," she said slowly, voice barely a breath. "You didn't reject the ritual, Selene…"
She looked up at the blood moon.
"…Your power did."
Then back at me.
"Which means one thing, you're awakening…"
I'm awakening," I repeated softly, like tasting the words for the first time.
Ravin didn't speak. She just kept staring, as if waiting for me to combust in front of her.
But I didn't burn.
I stood taller.
"I felt it," I whispered. "When the ritual rejected me… it wasn't death. It was freedom. Something inside me chose for the first time."
She turned sharply. "You have no choice."
I took a step forward. "I do now."
Ravin's eyes flared.
"I can feel everything," I said, voice shaking. "The earth. The moon. The weight of every lie I've ever swallowed. It's like my soul stretched and now I can't go back."
She said nothing.
"I want to leave."
"No."
"I have to," I insisted. "If I stay here, I'll rot. You've always said the world isn't safe for me, but maybe… maybe I was made to face it."
"The world will break you," she snapped.
"Or maybe I'll find him," I said before I could stop myself.
Her expression twisted. "Him?"
I nodded, breathless now. "The man from my dreams. I know it sounds insane, but I feel him… like he's pulling me from the other side of the world. Maybe he's the reason I'm waking up."
"That is not love, Selene," she hissed. "It's your power unraveling. You're mistaking chaos for meaning."
"I don't care what it is," I said. "I just want to feel real."
Ravin stepped close, too close, her voice slicing through the space between us. "You think you're ready? You think awakening changes your fate?"
I didn't answer.
"You're still the Sacred-Born," she said. "Still bound to the moon's will. You don't get to rewrite destiny just because you finally felt the heat of it."
"I'm not trying to rewrite it," I said. "I just want to live it on my terms."
Her silence was terrifying.
Then she turned to face the Witchborns.
"Security will be tightened. No one is to speak with her unless ordered. She doesn't leave the temple. Not for the moon, not for a dream."
I froze.
"What?"
"New barriers," she said coldly. "Layers of them. Blood, bone, salt… anything… use every defense and barrier magic that you know. The borders are no longer just forbidden, they are invisible. Make sure Selene will never see them again."
"You're imprisoning me."
"I'm saving you."
"No," I breathed. "You're scared of me."
Her jaw clenched.
"You alw
ays were."
She didn't deny it.
"Go to your room, Selene."
I opened my mouth to refuse but suddenly I felt drowsy.
Shit… that damn sleep magic.
The last thing I saw before I slumped to the floor was Mother Riven walking away.