She raises a hand, stopping me, and steps closer. For the first time, true concern flickers in her eyes.
‘Is this true?’
“Yes. You’re a god—can’t you look through my memories or something?”
‘I could.’She smiles, her features almost feline-like, and lifts her hand.‘But if you’re lying to me, it could make your fate worse.’
Her eyes narrow a fraction, enough to make my heart skip a beat.
“I’m not. He’s back. You have to look.” I say studying the white and gold details on her fingernails; they circle my headbefore curling inward, as though she’s drawing something out of me.
Images bloom in her palm. The colourless sun. The empty school. The Siphon. My friends.
“See? I’m not lying.”
She reaches further back, pulling up memories of the Mountain—memories that make me shudder. Her eyes flick to mine in a sideways glance, as if she senses my unease, and then her hand closes.
‘It seems you’ve been through a lot,’she says.
I nod, the motion stiff with pain.
She studies me for a long moment before retreating, returning to her throne. She sits, watching me still, her expression as unreadable as ever.
‘Are you just going to stand there,’she asks,‘or do you want to see your fate?’
I move toward her, hesitant. I still can’t tell if my words shifted anything inside her. Maybe she’s long stopped caring about Nyxos. Maybe she’s grown tired of existing in this empty, endless place.
I stop before the throne and nod.
Lunaris places her hand over my heart.
The energy erupts instantly—shocking through every nerve. My body lifts off the ground, suspended as power vibrates beneath my skin. My eyes roll back, my vision flooding with blinding colour. Then the force releases me, and I fall to my knees, water splashing around me as I gasp for breath.
I look down at my hands. My skin glows—a low, ethereal radiance humming around me. When I lift my gaze, Lunaris is smiling at me. Not mockingly. Not cruelly.
With adoration.
‘Your fate was decided long before you made your case, Asha Calloway,’she says. She extends a hand, and I take it. She draws me gently to my feet.
‘The gem sees only intention. And yours—’her smile deepens—‘yours are pure.’
“Wait, does this mean?” I say, stunned.
‘Go and save your world.’She says. “But just know the power within you remains protected. Just as its been given it can be taken away.’
Chapter Thirty-Six
The surge of power coursing through my veins feels alien after so long without my Gifts. But this—thisis nothing like I remember. It’s stronger. Denser. As if my blood has been replaced with lightning, too bright and violent to contain.
My arteries tighten and flare with each pulse, expanding and contracting in an electric rhythm that feels like it might tear me apart from the inside. I gasp, fingers curling into fists as my body struggles to remember how toholdthis much power.
Before I can find my balance, Lunaris is gone—vanished like a ripple swallowed by still water.
And in the very next breath, I’m back.
I stand before the rippling wall where it all began, the air humming softly around me, familiar and changed all at once. The realm feels… aware. Watching. Waiting.
I step through.
