Her soft face with her gentle eyes, the quiet strength that once held me during storms. But she'd died, I watched her fade away as her fingers cold in mine.
"Mother?" I whispered stepping forward.
The veiled woman raised her hand. "No closer child."
But I couldn't stop,
"Is it really her?"
The woman looked at the figure behind her. "What you see is memory," she said. "An echo not the flesh."
"But it's her face…"
"Because the Moon remembers," the woman said gently. "It holds pieces of those we've lost to show us what we must face."
I looked back at the woman in silver. "Who are you?"
She stepped forward and the silver light flickered like fire on water. "I am the Moon's last Seer, the one who saw you before you were born."
"You saw the prophecy."
"I lived it."
I felt cold all over me, "You said one daughter would destroy the world and the other would rule it."
She nodded slowly. "Yes but the truth has been broken, scattered over time and twisted by those who feared it."
I tightened my fists. "Then tell me everything don't hide any secrets."
The Seer's voice got quite. "You are the daughter of fire and silence born from betrayed blood, you were never meant to die Delphine."
My chest hurted badly, "Then why did I?"
"Because someone tried to erase your path."
I stepped closer heart racing. "Who?"
She turned toward the shadows behind her and Amalric emerged still wearing my mother's face smiling like it was hers.
"No," I whispered. "This is a trick."
But her voice was soft, mocking. "You always hate to share."
"Take it off !" I growled, but she didn't.
"You're not her," I snapped. "You never were."
"I don't need to be her," she replied. "I'm the one the Moon chose."
The Seer's voice cut between us. "Both of you carry the mark, you are twins bound by more than blood."
I turned sharply. "Twins?"
She nodded. "Not in the way the world understands, your spirits were born in the same moment one light, one shadow."
Amalric let out a soft laugh. "And I'm the light clearly."
"No," the Seer said. "You are both."
I stared at her, "How is that possible?"
"One was meant to carry the Moon's strength and the other her vengeance, but the choice was never written."
Amalric's eyes narrowed. "So this prophecy isn't about me?"
"It was about the one who chooses," the Seer said. "The one who steps forward despite the pain and betrayal."
My throat tightened. "Then I can still choose."
"Yes," she said. "But time is short."
Amalric scoffed. "Let her choose then, she always picks wrong. She chose trust and was betrayed, she chose love and was abandoned."
Her words hurt deeply inside me, I looked at the Seer. "And if I choose wrong again?"
She touched my cheek, her fingers cool as moonlight. "Then everything falls."
The vision broke, the mountain vanished.
The sky cracked apart and I was falling, spinning, crashing through wind and stars down into darkness. And then there was silence, I woke up in snow but the pit was gone and the Seer too.
Veran was kneeling beside me.
Del," he breathed. "You've been gone for three days."
I sat up fast my head spinning. "She showed me everything, the Seer and the prophecy too"
His face stiffened. "What did she say?"
"That the prophecy isn't about fate it's about choice."
He helped me up. " What will you choose?"
I looked at him, the man who betrayed me and the man who still stood by me.
"I don't know," I whispered. "But I know what's coming."
That night we made camped by the river bend. Veran set up the fire while I sat in quietly staring at the stars, i could still hear the Seer's voice in my head.
"One daughter will rise in flame, the other in shadow."
It would be me or Amalric, only one of us could walk away from this.
Veran joined me by the fire. "There's something you should know," he said.
I turned to him.
"Deucalion is planning something," he said. "A Blood Moon ritual, it hasn't been done in centuries and he's going to use Amalric to complete it."
"What does the ritual do?"
"It gives the chosen one the power of the First Alpha, it's an ancient strength enough to crush all the packs and change the world."
My mouth went dry. "And if she takes it?"
"She'll be unstoppable."
I stared into the fire. "Then we stop her first."
Veran looked at me carefully. "There's one more thing."
"What now?"
He hesitated. "To stop the ritual we need the mark of both sisters as the spell is tied to your bloodline, only one can claim it but both must be there."
I frowned. "That's why Deucalion wanted her."
He nodded. "But that's not all. If you're near during the ritual…"
"What?"
"You might be pulled into it too."
I stood. "Then let it pull me, I'll destroy it from the inside."
"You might not come back."
"I've died once already."
The wind grew stronger and I heard the faint call of a wolf in the distance.
Veran stood beside me. "So it begins."
I turned toward the howl my body shaking with energy.
My shift came faster this time,my bones snapping into place as my skin stretched and fur bursting through my flesh. But it didn't hurt.
It felt like I was becoming who I was always meant to be, silver fur with my eyes glowing like the moon. I was no longer the prey but the storm they feared.
Kael shifted beside me, two wolves side by side running through the dark towards Amalric.
But deep in the Crimson Maw's temple under the blood-soaked stone and burning candle, Amalric stood in a black circle of runes.
Deucalion stood behind her whispering in her ear.
"You are almost ready," he said. "The Moon has chosen."
She opened her eyes slowly and they were no longer red, they were glowing silver.