Astro's body dissolved into ash and light.
But the feather's glow remained, pulsing where his mark had been. Keeping something of him tethered to existence.
I lunged forward without thinking. Without planning. Just pure desperate need to reach him before he disappeared completely.
The court Lunas moved to block me, but I didn't care. Manifested hope blazed in my palm, ready to burn through anything in my path.
Then reality itself grabbed me.
Not hands. Not weapons. Not physical restraint.
Chains.
They materialized from nothing, wrapping around my wrists, my ankles, my throat. Made of something that looked like solidified moonlight but felt cold as void.
Celestial chains. Divine binding. The physical manifestation of Luna's will made into restraint.
I was yanked backward mid-lunge, suspended in midair by chains that extended from everywhere and nowhere. Held like a puppet on strings I couldn't see the source of.
