Lara stirred, eyes fluttering open. When she saw Thornak beside her, she smiled, weak but real.
"You came," she whispered.
"I should've been here when you woke," he murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "Council matters."
"It's alright." Her fingers grazed his. "What happens now… now that they know I'm Moonguard?"
Thornak's gaze held hers. "Ninzu is on her way. She'll guide you through it. You won't face any of this alone."
Lara nodded slowly. "I know. You're here."
He leaned in, close enough to hear her breath catch, then kissed her, soft and sure, a vow in silence.
When he pulled back, her eyes glistened.
"Always," he whispered. "I sent for your parents yesterday," Thornak said softly. "They'll arrive today."
Lara nodded, her voice calm but edged with quiet urgency. "Good. I need answers from them."
....
The fire in the hearth had burned low, casting restless shadows against the stone walls. Prince Aedric sat on the edge of the bed, tunic loosened, crown set aside. In his hands he held a carved riverstone. A memory from another life.
His gaze was distant, fixed on nothing, lost in the past.
He remembered the first time he saw her, by the river, sunlight dancing across the surface as she laughed with her friends. A lowly omega from a quiet werewolf clan east of the kingdom. She wasn't noble. She wasn't powerful. But she had eyes like dusk and a soul like firelight. And when she looked at him, he wasn't a prince. Just a man. He'd told her then that rank didn't matter. That the bond between them wasn't weakness, it was fate.
They met again. And again. Always by the water. Hidden smiles, soft touches, whispered promises. It had been the only time in his life he felt free.
But freedom didn't last long under a crown.
Maravelle had called him home. The betrothal talks were already underway, an alliance to fortify the northern borders. Lady Ariana, daughter of an alpha from the neighboring territories. Beautiful. Sharp. Strategic.
His heart had broken in silence the day he rejected his mate. She hadn't begged. She hadn't wept. She'd just looked at him, as if something inside her had shattered. He never saw her again.
It was the worst thing he had ever done.
But how could he disobey the woman who raised him? Maravelle, his mother's sister, had taken him in after her death. She was iron and poise and loyalty to the realm. She had loved him in her own fierce, unforgiving way. And he had obeyed her, thinking he was doing his duty.
Now, his wife lay disgraced. And his mate was a ghost he couldn't chase.
Aedric clenched the riverstone in his hand until his knuckles whitened.
He was no longer that boy by the water. But tonight, for the first time in years, he wished he was.
....
Later that day, Thornak sat quietly as Lara embraced her parents. Her arms wrapped tightly around them both, tears bright in her eyes.
"I'm so happy to see you," she whispered. "Liam will be overjoyed when he finds out you're here."
Her mother cupped her face, eyes shining. "We missed you, sweet girl. Every single day."
Lara stepped back, her voice gentler now but edged with something raw. "Then why didn't you ever tell me? About who I am. About my past."
Thornak said nothing, letting the weight of the question settle.
Her father's expression faltered. "Because we wanted you safe. And silence... was the only shield we had left." He took her hands in his, voice low and steady. "Your real parents, they trusted me to protect you."
Lara's breath caught.
"They loved you more than life itself," he went on. "And they sacrificed everything, everything Lara to make sure you would live. To give you a chance, far from the blood and fire that took them."
Her mother reached for her, voice trembling. "You were born under starlight, Lara. A royal child of the Moonguard. And the night the temple fell, we ran with you in our arms, fleeing not just death... but betrayal."
Her father glanced at her mother then back at Lara. "There's something that was left behind... for you." He said quietly.
Lara frowned. "Left behind?"
He nodded. "Before your mother sent you with us, she pressed something into my hands. A sealed scroll, wrapped in moon-thread. She said it was to be opened only when you awakened."
Thornak's eyes narrowed slightly. "Where is it now?"
Her father reached inside his coat and drew out a small, wrapped bundle. The cloth shimmered faintly, as though it had been touched by starlight. "We kept it hidden all these years. But now... the time has come."
Lara reached for it with trembling fingers. The air seemed to hum around her as she held it.
Her mother spoke again, her voice almost reverent. "Your mother believed you would find your way back. That when the dark returned, so would the light."
Lara looked up at Thornak and he placed his hand gently on her shoulder. She then gently unwrapped it. The parchment looked blank. Then suddenly heat surged through her palms.
Glowing script flared across the page in a strange, ancient language no one else could recognize.
Thornak leaned closer, eyes narrowing. "What is that?"
Lara didn't answer. Her lips moved on instinct, the words pouring from her like remembered breath. A language no living soul had taught her.
As the last word left her mouth, her eyes lit with moonfire. Her palms flared, fire dancing up her arms, not burning, but alive. Thornak's jaw clenched, eyes wide with awe as he witnessed the awakening of something both beautiful and frightening.
The scroll dissolved into fine ash, scattering in the air like snow.
A single word escaped her lips "Lyra'thae" carrying weight neither Thornak nor her parents understood. Outside, the torches flickered, shadows deepened, and a silver glow bathed the room as the moon seemed to shine brighter, as if answering the call.
Lara looked down at her hands.
"I can feel it," she whispered. "The power of the moonfire."
As the moonfire faded, Lara swayed on her feet, unsteady. Thornak caught her without hesitation, his arms strong around her as her body sagged against him.
She trembled, her breath shallow, her skin still faintly aglow. For a long moment, he simply held her, grounding her as the last traces of power ebbed away.
Her eyes opened slowly, the moonfire within them dimming but not gone. Thornak met her gaze, and in the silence that followed, he did not speak. He only looked at her, steadily, intently, as if seeing her for the first time.
The moonfire has awakened.
Far from the warmth of Thornak's hold, deep within a forgotten ruin where the air reeked of rot and ash, the sorcerer stirred.
His eyes snapped open.
The runes etched in blood across the stone walls flared briefly, pulsing with faint, silvery light.
He rose slowly from his seat, breath fogging in the cold air. One hand lifted, fingers twitching as if feeling a thread tugging at the edge of some vast, unseen web.
Moonfire.
Ancient. Pure. Unmistakable. It had awakened. A slow, wicked smile spread across his lips.
"So... the girl has found it."
He turned toward the shadows coiling at the edge of the chamber. His breath misted, though no cold touched the air. The flame in the brazier hissed, then died, snuffed out as if by unseen hands.
He moved to the altar, dragging a clawed finger across its surface. Blood welled up in the groove.
"Find her," he murmured, and the shadows obeyed.
Somewhere above, the moon's light trembled.