Celeste's POV
I couldn't sleep.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw their faces. Twelve women. Twelve Moonlight Brides. And Lucian standing over each one, sword in hand, ending their lives.
For me.
To protect me.
I sat up in the massive bed Aria had brought me to, hugging my knees to my chest. The mark on my palm glowed softly in the darkness, pulsing like a heartbeat.
My heartbeat. And the Priestess's heartbeat. Both at once.
It felt wrong. Like wearing someone else's skin over my own.
"Can't sleep either?"
I screamed, falling off the bed in a tangle of blankets.
Lucian stood by the window. How long had he been there? How had I not noticed?
"You—" I scrambled to my feet, my heart racing. "You can't just appear in my bedroom!"
"It's not your bedroom," he said calmly. "It's the Bride's chamber. I've been coming here for twelve centuries. Old habit."
The casualness in his voice made my blood boil. "To check on the women you were planning to kill?"
His jaw tightened. "To make sure they were comfortable before they died. There's a difference."
"Is there?" I moved toward him, anger replacing fear. "You murdered them, Lucian. Twelve innocent women. How do you live with that?"
"I don't." His silver eyes met mine, and for the first time, I saw the full weight of his pain. "I haven't truly lived since the day you died a thousand years ago. I've just been... existing. Waiting. Killing. Hating myself for every necessary death."
"Necessary?" I laughed bitterly. "How was killing them necessary?"
"Because they were weak!" His voice rose, emotion cracking through his cold facade. "Every single bride the Moon chose was too weak to hold your soul. If I'd let them live, if I'd let the Priestess try to merge with them, both souls would have been destroyed. You would have been lost forever."
"So you just decided to play god?" I shouted back. "Decided who lived and died?"
"Yes!" He moved closer, and I could see fury in his eyes now. "I played god because the actual gods weren't doing their job! The Moon Goddess kept choosing wrong. Kept testing vessels that would fail. And every time one failed, I had to end it before—"
He stopped abruptly, turning away.
"Before what?" I demanded. "Finish your sentence."
"Before they suffered," he said quietly. "The failed mergers... they're not quick, Celeste. The Priestess's soul tries to take over, but the vessel can't hold it. The bride goes mad. Screaming for days, sometimes weeks, as her mind tears itself apart. So I gave them mercy. Quick. Painless. Before the madness could start."
I felt sick. "They all would have gone mad?"
"All twelve." Lucian turned back to face me. "I watched the first two suffer before I understood what was happening. By the third, I'd learned. I studied the signs. The moment I knew a merger would fail, I ended it. Cleanly."
"And me?" My voice shook. "How do you know I won't fail? How do you know I won't go mad?"
"Because you already merged successfully," he said. "You're still you. Still Celeste. With the Priestess's power, yes, but your mind is intact. Your personality unchanged. That's never happened before."
I looked at my glowing hand. He was right. I felt different—stronger, more aware—but I was still me. I still remembered my mother. My pain. My life.
"Why?" I asked. "Why was I different?"
Lucian moved closer until we were inches apart. "Because you're not just any reincarnation. You're her. The original. Your soul is the Priestess's soul, split and reborn over and over until it was strong enough to reunite." He reached out, hesitating, then gently took my marked hand. "The other brides were just... practice. Imperfect copies. But you're the real thing."
His touch was cold, but somehow comforting. I should have pulled away. Should have been disgusted by this man who'd killed twelve women.
But the Priestess's memories wouldn't let me. They showed me a different Lucian. Young. Laughing. Human. The man I'd loved before everything went wrong.
"I remember us," I whispered. "I remember how you made me laugh. How you'd sneak into the temple just to see me. How you promised you'd love me forever."
Pain flashed across his face. "Forever turned out to be much longer than either of us expected."
"You've been alone all this time," I realized. "Twelve hundred years. No one to love. No one who understood."
"I had a purpose," he said. "Protect the realm. Train the brides. And wait for you to come back." His thumb traced the mark on my palm. "I never let myself hope you'd actually return. Hope is dangerous when you're immortal."
"But I did return," I said softly. "I'm here now."
"Are you?" His eyes searched mine desperately. "Or is this just the Priestess wearing Celeste's face? How much of the girl from the library is left?"
The question struck deep because I'd been wondering the same thing.
"I don't know," I admitted. "Sometimes I feel completely like myself. Other times, I have thoughts that aren't mine. Knowledge I shouldn't have. It's like there are two people inside my head, but we're becoming one person."
"And which person is that?" Lucian asked. "Celeste or the Priestess?"
"Both. Neither. Something new." I pulled my hand away. "But whoever I am now, I need answers. Starting with why the Dark God wants me dead."
Lucian's expression darkened. "The Dark God doesn't want you dead. He wants you broken. Corrupted. Turned to his side."
"Why?"
"Because the Moon Priestess is the only being in existence who can permanently seal him away," Lucian said. "A thousand years ago, you almost succeeded. You were in the middle of the sealing ritual when his followers attacked. They killed you before you could finish."
The memory hit me like a physical blow. Dark magic. Betrayal. A knife in my back while I chanted the sealing words.
And Lucian's scream as I fell.
"You were there," I breathed. "You tried to save me."
"I failed." His voice was hollow. "I was human then. Weak. I couldn't stop them. I held you while you died, and I swore I'd become strong enough to protect you when you returned."
"So you became immortal."
"I became a monster," he corrected. "I've done terrible things in your name, Celeste. Killed not just the brides, but anyone who threatened your return. I've waged wars. Destroyed kingdoms. Shown no mercy to the Moon's enemies." He stepped back. "And now you're back, and I don't know if you can love the thing I've become."
The vulnerability in his voice broke something in me.
This wasn't the cold prince I'd first met. This was a man who'd suffered for a thousand years, who'd turned himself into a weapon to protect the woman he loved.
A weapon who'd killed twelve innocent people in my name.
"I don't know if I can either," I said honestly. "Part of me understands why you did it. The Priestess part. She knows sacrifice. Knows that sometimes terrible choices are necessary." I met his eyes. "But Celeste—the girl I was—she grew up powerless. Used. She knows what it's like to be seen as worthless. Those twelve brides... they were me. Weak. Powerless. Killed by someone who decided they weren't good enough."
Lucian flinched like I'd struck him. "I know."
"Do you?" I moved closer. "Do you know what it feels like to be told you're not enough? To be erased because someone decided you had no value?"
"Yes." His voice cracked. "Because for twelve centuries, I've felt exactly that. Not good enough to save you. Not valuable enough for you to remember me when you returned. Every bride I killed took another piece of my soul, and I let it happen because maybe—just maybe—the pain was what I deserved."
We stood there, two broken people staring at each other across a thousand years of pain.
"I can't forgive you yet," I said finally. "I can't just forget those twelve women."
"I'm not asking you to," Lucian replied. "I'm asking you to let me protect you. To train you. To help you finish what you started a millennium ago—seal the Dark God away before he destroys everything."
"And after?" I asked. "After the Dark God is sealed? What happens to us?"
Lucian's smile was sad. Resigned. "Then you'll be free to hate me. I'll have fulfilled my purpose. Kept you alive. Protected you. And you can walk away knowing you never have to see the monster I became."
He turned toward the window.
"Training starts at dawn. Get some sleep."
"Lucian."
He paused.
"For what it's worth," I said quietly, "the Priestess doesn't hate you. She understands. She forgives you."
"And Celeste?" he asked without looking back.
I thought about it. Really thought about it.
"Celeste is still deciding," I said honestly.
He nodded once and stepped toward the window. Then he simply fell backward out of it.
I rushed to look, but he was already gone. Disappeared into the night like he'd never been there.
I stood at the window, staring out at the three moons.
Somewhere out there, the Dark God was plotting. Seraphina was planning my death. And an army of shadows was preparing for war.
Inside this palace, a prince who'd loved me for a thousand years was drowning in guilt.
And inside me, two souls were learning to be one.
I had six months before... what? Before the merger was complete? Before I stopped being Celeste entirely?
I looked at my marked hand.
"What do I do?" I whispered to the Priestess part of me.
The answer came instantly, in my own voice but with ancient wisdom:
You survive. You train. You become strong enough to finish what we started. And then—
A sound from the hallway made me freeze.
Footsteps. But not normal ones. These were heavy. Dragging.
And they were coming toward my door.
I backed away from the window, power instinctively gathering in my hands.
The footsteps stopped outside my room.
Silence.
Then a voice whispered through the crack in the door. Female. Young. Terrified.
"Help me. Please. He's coming back to kill me again."
My blood froze.
"Who are you?" I called out.
The door creaked open slowly.
Standing in the doorway was a girl about my age. She wore a white dress stained with blood. Her throat had been cut—not recently, but the wound was still visible. Her eyes were empty. Dead.
"I'm Bride 12," she whispered. "And I need to warn you. He didn't tell you the whole truth. The brides don't just die, Celeste. We get trapped. We're still here. All twelve of us. And when the Dark God comes—"
She looked behind her, terror filling her dead eyes.
"—he's going to use our souls to destroy you."
Then she disappeared, leaving only a pool of blood on my floor.
And written in that blood were three words:
TRUST NO ONE