Aria's Point of View
Luna yanked her hand away from mine like I'd burned her.
"Wait—what did you just say?" Her glowing eyes went wide, and for the first time since I'd met her, she looked genuinely shocked.
I stepped back, confused. "I said my brother is dying. That's why I need the Moonstone—"
"No." Luna shook her head hard, her silver hair whipping around. "Before that. You said 'Silverheart bloom.' How do you know that name?"
My heart pounded. "The old woman in my village told me. She said it's another name for the Moonstone. She said it's the only thing that can cure—"
"It's not the Moonstone." Luna's voice cut through the air like a knife. "The Silverheart bloom is something completely different. Something much more dangerous."
The ground felt like it dropped out from under me. "What are you talking about? The Moonstone is supposed to save him!"
"The Moonstone can heal wounds and break curses," Luna said quickly. "But if your brother is dying from Shadowsickness, the Moonstone won't do anything. You need the Silverheart bloom."
Shadowsickness. That's what the village healer had called it when Eli collapsed three days ago. The black veins spreading up his arms. The way his skin turned cold even though he was burning with fever. The way he couldn't wake up no matter how hard Mom shook him.
"Then why didn't the old woman tell me that?" My voice cracked.
Luna's expression darkened. "Because most people don't know the Silverheart bloom exists. And the ones who do know better than to go looking for it."
"Why? Where is it?"
Luna was quiet for a long moment. When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper. "In the Heart of Shadows. The deepest, darkest part of the Shadowlands. Where the really bad things live."
A chill ran down my spine. "How bad?"
"The kind of bad that makes me look like a fairy godmother."
I swallowed hard. But then I thought about Eli. About the way he'd smiled at me the morning before he got sick, teasing me about my messy hair. About how he always saved me the last cookie. About how he was the only person who never made me feel like I was too weird or too different.
"I don't care how dangerous it is," I said firmly. "I'm going. With or without you."
Luna stared at me. Then, to my surprise, she laughed. Not a mean laugh—a real one, like she actually thought something was funny.
"You know what? I believe you." She crossed her arms. "You're either really brave or really stupid. I haven't decided which yet."
"Maybe both," I muttered.
Another laugh. Then Luna's face got serious again. "If I take you to the Silverheart bloom, you have to promise me something."
"What?"
"When we get back to your world—and I mean when, not if—you have to help me with something too."
My stomach twisted. "Help you with what?"
"I can't tell you yet." Luna's glowing eyes locked onto mine. "But I will tell you this: I've been trapped in the mirror for fifty years. Fifty years of watching the world go by without me. Fifty years of being alone. And now that I'm finally free, I'm not going back. Ever."
"So what do you want from me?"
"There's something in your world I need to find. Something that was taken from me a long time ago." Her voice got quieter. "Help me get it back, and I'll help you save your brother. Deal?"
I hesitated. This felt like a trap. Like one of those fairy tales where you make a deal and it comes back to bite you later.
But what choice did I have?
"Deal," I said.
Luna held out her hand. But as I reached forward, something strange happened. Her hand started to shimmer and shift, and suddenly it wasn't a hand anymore.
It was a paw. White and furry with sharp claws.
I gasped and stumbled backward.
Luna—except she wasn't Luna anymore—stood in front of me. She'd transformed into a massive white wolf with glowing blue eyes. The mirror hung around her neck on a silver chain.
"Surprise," the wolf said in Luna's voice.
My brain couldn't process what I was seeing. "You're—you're a—"
"A shapeshifter. Yeah." The wolf sat down, her tail swishing. "This is my real form. The girl you saw? That's just what I look like when I want to fit in with humans. Easier to talk to people when you don't have fangs."
I should have been terrified. I should have run. But all I could think was: That's actually kind of cool.
"So," Luna-the-wolf said, holding up her paw again. "Do we still have a deal? Fair warning: in the Shadowlands, a promise made paw-to-hand is unbreakable. If either of us backs out, bad things happen. Really bad things."
I looked at her paw. At those sharp claws. At those glowing eyes that seemed to see right through me.
Then I thought about Eli again. About how I'd promised Mom I'd save him. About how I wasn't going home without that cure.
I reached out and grasped Luna's paw. Her fur was soft but her grip was strong.
"Deal," I said.
The moment our hands—paw and hand—touched, a bright light exploded around us. I felt something hot burn into my palm, like someone had pressed a hot coin against my skin.
When the light faded, I looked down.
There was a mark on my hand. A silver crescent moon, glowing faintly.
Luna looked at her paw. She had the same mark.
"It's done," she said softly. Then she looked up at me, and something in her expression made my blood run cold. "I should probably mention one more thing about the Silverheart bloom."
"What?"
"To pick it, you have to give something up. Something important." Luna's eyes seemed to glow brighter. "And you don't get to choose what it takes."