Elara was gone.
Ripped from the world by silver chains forged in moonlight and memory, her body vanished in a flash of blinding light that scorched the air and silenced the battlefield. One moment she had been between them—Kaelen's hand in her left, Aiden's in her right—and in the next, she had ceased to exist.
The wind stilled.
The snow no longer fell.
Even Lunarkor knelt, lowering its fiery head as though mourning the lost.
Aiden stood frozen, his arm extended into empty air, fingers trembling. His wolf howled in agony inside him.
Kaelen fell to his knees, shaking, his voice hoarse with fury. "You said I would get a choice, Selene! You said I could bring her back!"
Selene hovered above the battlefield, her celestial presence dimmed, as though even she had not expected this.
"She chose neither," the goddess said quietly. "So the Oath has chosen for her."
Elara drifted.
Weightless. Silent. Nowhere.
All around her, the world was a swirl of grey mist and stardust. Her body was whole, but... translucent. She reached out, and her fingers passed through what seemed like a wall of shifting fog.
Where am I?
A voice answered from the mist. Her own voice—but older. Wiser.
"You are between the Veils. Where time forgets. Where souls wait to be judged."
Then came another voice—male. Familiar. Ancient.
"You broke the Oath."
"No," she whispered. "I didn't choose. I couldn't."
"And in doing so, you chose uncertainty. The Veils cannot hold what is not anchored."
Suddenly, Elara stood in a mirror of herself—a field of white flowers blooming beneath a sunless sky. In the distance stood two wolves. One silver. One black. Both watching her.
The silver one—Aiden's wolf—paced in worry.
The black one—Kaelen's—sat still, eyes glowing like embers.
A figure emerged between them. Neither wolf nor god.
But her.
A third Elara, cloaked in both light and shadow.
"You are fractured," the doppelgänger said. "And your time is ending."
"What must I do?" Elara asked.
"Decide."
"Decide what?"
"Who you are."
Back in the mortal realm, the rift had collapsed into a glowing scar, sealing over with runes. The sky was silent. The Vale now stood as grave and monument.
Aiden stared at the place where Elara had vanished, grief radiating from him like heat.
"She's not dead," Kaelen said, standing beside him.
"You don't know that," Aiden growled.
"I feel her," Kaelen said. "She's in between."
Aiden turned. "So you're the expert on the afterlife now?"
Kaelen snarled, but before violence could erupt, Lunarkor rose and spoke.
"There is one path. A Ritual. Forbidden even to the gods."
"What ritual?" Kaelen demanded.
Lunarkor's eyes dimmed.
"The Moon Severance. You must go into the Veil and bring her back. But only one may walk that path."
"Then I'll go," Kaelen said immediately.
Aiden stepped forward. "Over my dead body."
"That may be the price," Lunarkor said. "For if both enter... both die."
Selene appeared again, her glow muted. "This is not a game," she said to both alphas. "To enter the Veil is to face your soul. To see the truth. Most are not strong enough to return."
Aiden clenched his fists. "If there's even a chance to save her, I'll take it."
Kaelen narrowed his eyes. "You don't know what's inside. I do. Her soul will recognize me."
"She's my mate now," Aiden snapped.
"She was mine first."
Selene raised her hand. "Enough."
Then she looked at them both and whispered:
"Only she can choose who follows her into the Veil. We must summon the Mark."
The next night, under the Blood Moon, the Pack of Blackmoon gathered in the Temple of the Hollowed.
A great circle was carved into the stone floor, filled with ash and tears of moonlight. At its center, Elara's oracle crystal pulsed with faint energy.
The ritual began.
Selene chanted in Old Moon Tongue.
Lunarkor howled once—a sound that cracked open the boundary between realms.
And the crystal glowed.
Then exploded in light.
A symbol formed in the ash: a crescent entwined with a name.
One name.
Aiden stepped forward, hope surging in his chest.
But the name was not his.
KAELEN.
Gasps spread through the temple.
Aiden's heart fractured.
"No," he whispered.
Selene turned to Kaelen. "The Veil calls for you."
Kaelen looked at the name. At the mark that confirmed a truth too long buried.
"She remembers," he whispered.
Aiden staggered backward. Suri caught him.
"She didn't choose me," he said. "Even after everything..."
Kaelen stepped into the circle.
The ash surged upward, forming a portal of silver fire.
And Kaelen was gone.
Inside the Veil, Elara faced her two selves.
One cloaked in innocence and light. The other shrouded in shadow and regret.
"I don't want to be split anymore," she said.
"Then accept what you are," they replied in unison. "You are both love and loss. Both truth and betrayal."
Suddenly, a ripple passed through the realm.
Someone had entered.
Kaelen.
He emerged through the fog, shirt torn, eyes wild, as though he'd fought through a thousand ghosts.
"Elara!" he cried.
She turned.
Recognition flared.
And then confusion.
"You? How—?"
"I came for you," he said. "You called me."
"I didn't."
He stepped closer. "The mark did. You chose me."
Her hands trembled. "I didn't mean to."
"But you did."
She looked at her mirrored selves. They stared back—silent.
"Now you must finish what was broken," they said.
"Or remain here... forever."