The world was white. Then gold. Then memory.
Selene stumbled forward, the earth beneath her gone, replaced by glass that shimmered with every step. No sky, no scent, no sound—only light bending around her body, warping shadows that weren't hers.
"Mingi?" she called softly.
No answer.
A wind passed through her—not over her skin, but through her bones. It carried voices. Not from the living.
"She's returned... but she remembers the wrong path…"
"She forgets the price…"
"She forgets him."
Selene spun. Reflections shimmered in the distance—versions of herself, pale as moonlight and cloaked in regret. One wept. One bled. One turned her back and walked away. All of them were her.
Where am I? she thought.
The realm pulsed. Then it whispered.
> The Mirror Veil is not for the flesh. It is for the soul.
A shape flickered ahead. A figure.
Her heart surged.
Mingi.
But as she ran toward him, something changed. His stance was different—stronger, colder. His eyes weren't the warm, haunted brown she knew. They were silver. Piercing. Ancient.
He turned slowly, and when he spoke, his voice was layered—his and someone else's.
"You followed me here?" he asked.
"Mingi?" she whispered, stopping inches away.
"Step back," he said. "Dont come any closer to me."
Her breath caught.
"You're… changing."
He looked past her. "No. I'm becoming. And soon I'll have to choose what to become."
His voice dropped, sorrow laced behind the strength. "Run, Selene. Before I remember too much. Before I become someone who can't love you."
Far away, back in the physical world, the forest stood in it's stillness.
Alia knelt by the sigil. The crescent had burned out, its edges curled like ash. But what terrified her wasn't the flame's end.
It was the blood.
Cassian's.
And his body… gone.
"No tracks,where are you brother!?" she murmured.
Behind her, the rustle of movement. Two shadows stepped forward.
The Shadowwalkers.
Both wore black, faces masked in bone veils. One carried a twisted obsidian staff. The other held a satchel filled with sacred salt and silver thread.
"Selene's tether is weak," the first said. "We can sever it."
Alia rose, hand on her blade. "You were sent to watch. Not to attack."
"The Council changed its mind," the second said coolly. "She's too close to the Moonborn. Lucian fears what she'll choose when the Gate calls him."
Alia's eyes narrowed. "Lucian fears her because he knows she remembers what he made her forget."
Before the first Shadowwalker could react, Alia struck—steel against bone, light against dark.
But she wasn't fast enough.
The obsidian staff slammed into her ribs. She fell hard.
"We'll finish the ritual," the second muttered. "And she'll be lost forever."
The shadowwalkers were given the permission to kill Selene if they could. But if she survived every other plan they made will continue as it was meant to:the marriage and allegiance.
Lucian didn't have feelings for Selene but he didn't think it was necessary to kill her.
But his Beta and the elders thought otherwise .
Inside the Mirror Veil, the stars above Selene twisted, forming runes in a language only remembered in nightmares. Mingi turned from her, clutching his head. His breath came in ragged gasps.
"Something's inside me," he growled. "He's waking up. My uncle—he left something in me. A shard of the Gate. A key... or a curse."
Selene reached for him. Her hand barely brushed his, but it grounded him for a moment.
"You're stronger than this," she said. "I've seen you fight the shadows. I've felt your truth."
His silver gaze met hers.
"You don't know the truth. You don't know what the prophecy really says."
A new voice echoed across the realm. Cold. Familiar.
"But I do."
They turned.
The Seer stood among the mirrors, her eyes no longer blue—but black, swallowing all color. Her robes floated, untouched by gravity. And her smile was not kind.
"You should not have followed the flame," she told Selene. "The Gate chose you once. But you refused."
Selene stepped forward. "You disappeared."
"I was taken." Her smile vanished. "And I saw. The end. The blood. The choice."
"What choice?"
The Seer walked closer, pointing to Mingi.
"He lives, the world burns. He dies, the Gate remains sealed. But if both of you join… there is a third path."
Selene's heart pounded. "What path?"
But the Seer was already fading again.
"The path of rebellion…" then disappeared again before completing her sentence.
At the Council Hall, Lucian paced before the firepit. The elders murmured among themselves—some afraid, some already blaming Selene.
"She's a threat," one hissed. "She was always a threat."
"She loved the Moonborn," another said bitterly. "That's enough to condemn her."
Lucian slammed his staff against the stones.
"We do not act without proof," he said. "We observe. We prepare. But if the Gate opens—we strike."
An Elder with skin like tree bark leaned forward. "And if you're wrong?"
Lucian's jaw clenched. "Then the world burns. But I'd rather risk fire than live a lie."
In the shadows of the hall, someone watched him.
Roman Vane.
Lucian's Beta.
And the one who had sent the Seer into the Gate.
He smiled to himself.
Let the Moonborn rise, he thought. So I can bury him.
Back in the Mirror Veil, Mingi was trembling.
More visions assaulted him.
He stood on a battlefield. Selene at his side. The packs burned around them. Wolves howled—some in worship, some in terror.
Another vision.
He wore armor of starlight. Selene wept at his feet.
A third.
He lay dying—Selene above him, their hands intertwined in blood and stardust.
He sank to his knees.
"I don't know who I am," he gasped. "I don't know what I'm supposed to be."
Selene dropped beside him.
"You're not a god. You're not a curse."
"You're Mingi."
She leaned in, her forehead touching his.
"You're mine."
The veil pulsed.
The sigil answered.
But something was wrong.
Outside, the Shadowwalkers completed their ritual. The salt ring closed. The silver thread ignited. The earth cracked.
Inside the realm, Selene screamed.
"I'm being pulled!"
Mingi grabbed her.
"No!"
She clawed at his hand, but the light was already pulling her upward—tearing her away.
"Mingi, don't let go!"
He held her.
And then
Darkness.
Selene gasped as she slammed back into her body—flat on the forest floor, the sky above spinning.
She sat up, coughing, and saw Alia—bleeding but alive—curled near the ruined sigil. One of the Shadowwalkers was down. The other was gone.
"What—what happened?"
Alia groaned. "They tried to sever you… I stopped them… but…"
Her voice broke.
Selene turned.
The sigil was dead.
No more light.
No more flame.
No more tether.
"Mingi," she whispered.
Was he still inside?
Or was he lost?
Inside the trial re
alm, Mingi stood alone now. The stars had gone out. The mirrors cracked. The voice of the Gate whispered in his ear.
Now she's gone.
Choose, Moonborn. Choose what you will become.
He closed his eyes.
And took a step toward the Gate.