THE SIEGE AND THE SPELL
The battle exploded within seconds.
Morrigan raised her hands, and darkness rolled from her fingertips like smoke thick, choking, and sentient. The temple quaked as her army surged forward, teeth bared, claws gleaming in the flickering firelight.
Luna pushed Brin behind a pillar, then shifted mid step, her silver furred wolf form charging into the fray. Kael followed her lead, sword cutting swathes through the advancing horde. Rae's arrows flew from the upper balcony, each one dipped in wolfsbane. Nyla spun through attackers, fire dancing across her blade.
But they were outnumbered. Heavily.
Luna fought with everything she had claws raking, jaws snapping, light flaring from her core but every creature they struck down seemed to be replaced by two more.
From the throne, Asher writhed against his chains, trying to shift, to scream, to warn them.
"Morrigan!" Luna shouted, leaping into human form mid lunge. "You don't need to do this. You don't have to serve darkness to be powerful."
Morrigan laughed. "Child, you misunderstand. I am the darkness."
She lifted a hand.
Luna's body seized mid air. Gravity twisted, pressing her to the floor like an invisible weight.
"Your light is borrowed," Morrigan sneered, walking closer. "Mine is earned. I bled for this power. I killed for it. What did you do? Cry over a rejection?"
Kael threw a blade at her. It bounced off a dark shield.
"You're not the first Moonblood," Morrigan whispered, kneeling beside Luna. "But you will be the last."
Her hand descended toward Luna's chest.
Then a howl split the air.
Asher.
With a final roar, his chains shattered. His wolf burst free—larger than Luna remembered, cloaked in shadow and flame. He slammed into Morrigan, teeth sinking into her shoulder. She shrieked, flinging him back with a burst of magic.
Luna pushed herself up. "Asher, you're—?"
"I'm not leaving you again," he growled.
"Then let's finish this."
Luna called her wolf forth again. Light erupted from her skin. The Moonblood form the true version of her—began to emerge.
Her hair gleamed silver. Her eyes turned pure white. Her markings shimmered with runes.
She was no longer just a Luna.
She was a weapon.
She and Asher moved in perfect tandem, circling Morrigan. Nyla joined them, flames illuminating the shattered temple. Rae leapt down, driving a silver dagger through a shadow-walker's skull.
Brin began chanting a healing incantation, channeling strength to Luna.
Morrigan snarled. "I was promised dominion. I was promised your power!"
"You were promised lies," Luna said.
She raised her hands. Moonlight burst from her palms, forming a blinding beam that struck Morrigan square in the chest.
The dark sorceress screamed as light consumed her.
When the dust settled, she was gone.
Not dead.
Banished.
But not without leaving scars.
The temple cracked. Rubble fell. The air changed.
They had won the battle.
But Luna knew the war was just beginning.
She collapsed to her knees as her powers receded.
Asher caught her. "You saved us."
"No," she whispered. "We saved each other."
Brin helped heal their wounds as the group regrouped. Nyla checked for survivors. Rae retrieved her last arrows from the corpses.
Asher stayed at Luna's side.
"I never stopped feeling the bond," he said quietly. "Even after I rejected you."
She looked at him. "Then why?"
"They threatened your life. They told me if I claimed you, you'd be taken. Tortured. Used. I thought… if I severed the bond, I could protect you."
"You broke me."
"I know."
Luna stared into the dark sky above. "And yet… I still feel something. Not like before. Not innocent. But… deeper. Stronger."
He offered her his hand.
Not demanding. Not pleading.
An offering.
She took it.
Not as a Luna reclaiming her mate.
But as a warrior choosing her own path.
They rose together, silhouettes bathed in the broken moonlight.
Behind them, the others waited.
Ahead of them, the world trembled.
But for the first time, Luna wasn't afraid.
Because she wasn't alone.